Browser extension won't open in Firefox
For a few weeks now, 1Password will occasionally refuse to open. Clicking on the icon in my toolbar does nothing. It seems to happen when I launch Firefox, and I thought the only way to fix it was to restart Firefox. However, one time the extension updated and that fixed the problem. And today I woke my computer (laptop, so it stays on for days at a time) from sleep and I couldn't open the extension, but I believe I was able to open it yesterday. So for some reason it stopped working while Firefox was still open.
I checked the console of the extension by going to Debug Add-ons (about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox) and there were no error messages related to this. Only some old ones from the extension not being able to connect (my WiFi connection is unstable).
I remember checking the version of the extension once when this happened, and it was 2.1.0. I can't find the change log for the extension anymore, so I'm afraid I can't be more specific than that.
My Firefox version is 92.0.1 if that's of any relevance.
1Password Version: 7.8.820
Extension Version: 2.1.2
OS Version: Windows 10 Home 21H1 Build 19043.1237
Comments
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Hey @roastchicken ,
Are you able to right-click the extension's icon in Firefox's toolbar? If so, select "Settings", then turn off the "Integrate with 1Password app" option there.
Test and see if things work properly when this setting remains off.If it works well, then somewhere along the way the connection between the desktop app and your browser gets stuck and causes the extension to not function, in which case we'll need you to send us the following via email to support+x@1password.com:
- The extension's log: https://support.1password.com/cs/extension-console-log/
- A diagnostics report: https://support.1password.com/diagnostics/
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So I restarted Firefox in order to update to 93.0, and the extension still won't open.
@ag_yaron right clicking on the icon only shows the default Firefox context menu items (see screenshot), so I am not able to go to "Settings".
(I've censored my other extensions, hence why the icon is strangely floating in the middle)I've gone ahead and sent my extension's log and a diagnostics report to the support email.
Assuming this problem persists and I'm not able to open the extension again, what further troubleshooting steps do you suggest? Reinstalling the browser extension?
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Thanks @roastchicken , we'll look into it as soon as we reach your email in the queue.
For now, there are a few things you can try:
- Reinstall the extension.
- Try opening a new user profile in Firefox and install only 1Password in it, see if it works there.
- Change Firefox's privacy settings to "Standard" and allow Firefox to retain history/cache.
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A delayed update, I haven't been using my laptop for a few weeks now so this hasn't been a priority. Per the suggestion of a Customer Support team member, I allowed the extension to Run in Private Windows and this seems to have fixed the issue.
Ideally, I wouldn't have to do that (not allowing it in private windows was a conscious choice). Not because I worry about the 1Password extension having access to my private browsing sessions, but because I worry about fingerprinting. I'm not sure if it's possible for sites to detect the extension using JavaScript, so perhaps my worry is unfounded.
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Hey @roastchicken ,
Thanks for the update.When Firefox is set to always run in private browsing it completely prevents our extension from being able to write files into Firefox's local storage, which is a requirement in order for the extension to be able to establish your 1Password account and your database in the browser.
That does not mean that you cannot use private browsing windows, it just means that you should turn off the "Always use private browsing" option. You can still open and use private browsing windows manually, which will allow you to enjoy both worlds - you can enjoy a more private and secure browsing session, while still having 1Password operational in your browser :)
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My previous comment was about allowing the 1Password extension to "Run in Private Windows". This is completely (AFAIK; I'm not familiar with the internals of Firefox) separate from the global (affecting the entire browser, not per-extension) "History" setting. As I'm sure you're aware, one determines whether or not an extension can run in private browsing windows and the other (specifically the "Always use private browsing mode" checkbox which is equivalent to "Never remember history") forces the entire browser to constantly be in private browsing mode (or at least something equivalent).
Here are screenshots of the two settings, as they display on my desktop computer:
Run in Private Windows
History/Always use private browsing mode
As you can see, I do not have "Always use private browsing mode" enabled (and never have). My "History" settings are the same between my computers.
My previous statement, slightly reformulated: I would like to be able to use the 1Password extension (in normal browser windows) without allowing it to "Run in Private Windows". I can't imagine the "Run in Private Windows" permission is required to access
localStorage, but I may very well be wrong.0 -
You're right, there is a noted difference between "Always use private browsing mode" vs. "Allow in Private Windows". Always using private browsing mode will effectively block anything from being written to the browser cache. "Private Windows" will still allow the extension to establish the secure IDBDatabase connection (which is cached in the browser), without saving your browsing history for that session. We've had some feedback on this from other users as well. I'd be happy to add your voice to the discussion with our development team to see if we can work on an improved privacy-minded approach with our friends at Mozilla.
In the meantime, if you change History settings to "Firefox will Remember History", does it change the responsiveness of 1Password in your browser? If not, can you try installing 1Password in a new Firefox profile and let us know if it works as expected there?
ref: dev/core/core#10783
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I changed my Firefox settings to Remember history some time ago (a few weeks; after your last post in this discussion).
I haven't noticed any improvement from this, with the extension still being completely unresponsive most of the time. I upgraded to the 1Password 8 Beta on my desktop computer, where everything worked fine. Today I got fed up with 1Password not working in my browser, so I went to install the 1Password 8 Beta only to be pleasantly surprised that it's now released. So now I'll wait and see if my (beta) extension works fine with my (release) 1Password 8 App. If not, I'll try matching the beta extension with the beta channel of 1Password 8.
And I plan to eventually return my History setting in Firefox to what it was before, because I do not want Firefox to remember forms and search history. Hopefully that is smooth sailing as well.
Thanks for the troubleshooting assistance, hopefully 1Password 8 has fixed this.
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Note, the requirement to have Firefox "Remember History" will still be in place, ev with the move to 1Password 8. 1Password for your browser requires very specific permissions to be able to store data in your browser cache. We are still working with our friends at Mozilla to see if there is a better way to handle this.
If having Firefox remember your history is problematic, you can always give 1Password permission to run in Private Windows. Using Firefox in Private Browsing mode will, by default, not remember your history. Hopefully this is an acceptable workaround in the interim.
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