Upgrading to Beta 109 replaced my handy overflow menu with a worse "Extensions" button

[Zalathar]

After upgrading to Beta 109, I noticed that my nice clean overflow << menu had disappeared, and been forcibly replaced with an ugly puzzle piece.

As far as I can tell, it's doing roughly the same thing as the overflow menu, but looks worse, can't be customized, and is harder to use? I don't even have the option of making things like they were before, because the puzzle piece can't be moved into the overflow menu.

This sort of thing is why upgrading Firefox always makes me nervous.

[uws]

You can go to about:config and set extensions.unifiedExtensions.enabled to false to revert back to the overlay menu.

[0ecd3e]

Unfortunately this only removes all extension menu/button functionality along with the new button instead of restoring extension menu items to the old overlay menu.

[jscher2000]

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@0ecd3e wrote:

Unfortunately this only removes all extension menu/button functionality along with the new button instead of restoring extension menu items to the old overlay menu.

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Hmm, it should roll back to how it worked in Firefox 108, but you do have to restart Firefox to see the full effect of changing the preference.

This is a temporary preference that I expect to be removed eventually, but I don't know the time frame for that.

[drandre]

After I performed the about:config; extensions.unifiedExtensions.enabled (set to false); closing FF; and then reopening FF, the puzzle piece disappeared.

I do have an Add-ons and Themes option in the Application Menu.

You can also navigate to about:addons to access the extensions or use CONTROL+SHIFT+A.

[ninryu]

Thank you, you're a lifesaver.

[surfboardelly]

This doesn't work in Firefox 110.0 any longer, god knows what the developers in Mozilla doing ...

[jscher2000]

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@Zalathar wrote:

After upgrading to Beta 109, I noticed that my nice clean overflow << menu had disappeared, and been forcibly replaced with an ugly puzzle piece.

As far as I can tell, it's doing roughly the same thing as the overflow menu, but looks worse, can't be customized, and is harder to use?

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There is a thread on the "Ideas" side of the site about customizing the drop-down. This presupposes the inevitability of having the button, but it's not too late to suggest improvements.

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/unified-add-ons-ui-improvements/idi-p/20964

[NovaFox]

The new puzzle piece toolbar button is annoying because it cannot be hidden or moved.  Please allow us to use the Customize Toolbar feature to remove/relocate it like any other toolbar button.

[jscher2000]

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@NovaFox wrote:

Please allow us to use the Customize Toolbar feature to remove/relocate it like any other toolbar button.

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Here is the "Ideas" thread to discuss and vote on that:

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/please-let-us-move-the-new-extensions-button-into-the-overflow/...

[DavidBE]

This is dreadful. Awhile back I was playing with and maybe thinking of moving to Microsoft Edge, but then they followed Google Chrome and replaced the overflow area for the tools bar where the user chose which extension buttons were there, 6 to a line, and could re-order them at will, to an extension button that dropped down a list of all extensions - even ones without a click action - one to a line in alphabetical order not able to be changed. With 30+ extensions and only room for about 10 on the toolbar without making the URL box too small to be usable, some with funny names I don't remember, I found this appalling, taking loads of scrolling - never needed with the previous 6 per line overflow panel - and hunting to find the extension button I wanted. Edge had gone, for me, from the best UI for 30+ extension usability to unusable. Thank goodness I've still got Firefox, I thought. They're not chromium based, so they won't be following this UI idiocy like Microsoft have presumably been forced to do by Google's control of Chromium.

AND NOW MOZILLA HAVE DONE IT TOO.

This is utterly appalling, and makes Firefox for me as unusable for general browsing with 30+ extensions able to be accessed easily and quickly as Edge and Chrome.

The only saving grace at the moment is that it has kept the extensions I previously had in the toolbar overflow menu at the top and in my previously chosen order, not alphabetical, in the extensions dropdown menu, with the ones I have installed but disabled  alphabetical but below. So that's OK for now, but means that if I need to add another extension, or to re-order the current ones due to a changing pattern of need, I'm screwed.

As I've been saying many times to the Microsoft Edge devs since their change to an extensions button, but with zero engagement from them on the issue (whereas they've been quite receptive on others), this would be worse than previously but just usable for me if the user could re-order the extensions in the list. But without that this is a deal-breaker for me, and the first time it changes them to alphabetical order or I need some other re-ordering I will immediately drop Firefox on my laptop (and therefore from my android phone too. I'm going to be researching other browser alternatives.

How could you devs think this is a good idea? It is really bad for people with lots of extensions. I understand we're a small minority whose needs Microsoft and Google think are OK to ignore, but I really expected better from Mozilla.

(Hm. It IS showing my other extensions in the previous order, not alphabetical. So it must have a record of the list order somewhere. In preferences? Some other file? That means it should be editable, either with an extension to do it or bv text editor. Where is it?)

[jscher2000]

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@DavidBE wrote:

The only saving grace at the moment is that it has kept the extensions I previously had in the toolbar overflow menu at the top and in my previously chosen order, not alphabetical, in the extensions dropdown menu, with the ones I have installed but disabled alphabetical but below. So that's OK for now, but means that if I need to add another extension, or to re-order the current ones due to a changing pattern of need, I'm screwed.

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Yes, currently, it's very annoying how you have to dive into nerd-dom to rearrange the list: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/10fep20/reorder_the_extensions_menu/

I don't know whether easier reorganization is covered in the Ideas thread about how to improve the drop-down, but if you have a few moments, I suggest checking it, voting for it, adding new suggestions if needed, or if it's better handled as a separate Idea, starting a new one and providing a link back here for others to vote on: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/unified-add-ons-ui-improvements/idi-p/20964

[valenti]

OK Mozilla, you wanted to add a button for all extensions (not needed by most users, but nevertheless you wanted to do it). OK.

WHY ON EARTH did you messed it up with overflow menu???

Please explain to me why did you have to disable the ability to put some pined add-ons (NOT ALL OF THEM) to the overflow menu! I have to understand if there is any reason to your decisions, or did you really think that the Unified Extensions button could be a good substitute of the overflow menu, with the total of add-ons by mandatorily present and without ANY customization options...

Do you test your decisions? Or do you use only up to 5-6 add-ons? 🤔🤔🤔

[Angstromm]

Agreed!

As you can see in the attached image of my old Overflow Menu, I had it customized with many buttons/extensions I often accessed throughout each day.

With the advent of FF ver. 109, this functional flexibility has been completely lost. Now, there's no way to choose what buttons and to sort them in the Overflow Menu. In my view, an egregious loss of convenience and efficiency.

Please, bring back the full functionality of the previous Overflow Menu!!!