Recovering lost plug-ins after updating to Firefox 48 (Linux): Here's how

[swedishskoda]

Updated FF yesterday only to find that most of my plug-ins seemed to have disappeared although they all remained in their usual directory /usr/lib64/Mozilla/plugins/

 

Solution: create a new /plugins/ directory in /home/<user>/.mozilla/ and copy your plugins to the new directory.

 

Caveat: It seems as most browser sooner or later will stop accepting NPAPI plugins. If there are some third-party plugins you really need it's probbly a good idea to keep an old version of your favourite browser installed somewhere and use that when necessary.

[GentleGiant]

Any idea if this is deliberate or a glitch/bug??

 

I know Mozilla have been cracking down on 3rd party add-ons, but disabling all of them sounds a bit odd.

[swedishskoda]

Any idea if this is deliberate or a glitch/bug??

 

I know Mozilla have been cracking down on 3rd party add-ons, but disabling all of them sounds a bit odd.

 

No idea. All I know is that three plugins were no longer listed on the Add-ons > Plugins page, namely Adobe Flash, Java and DjView (all in their latest versions). A fourth plugin (Citrix) was still listed. After copying them to a new library as per above, they are all listed and working (so not disabled, unless I've found some unintended workaround).

 

And yes, I know that both Flash and Java are dubious pieces of software, but you still find the odd webpage that won't work without them.

[GentleGiant]

No idea. All I know is that three plugins were no longer listed on the Add-ons > Plugins page, namely Adobe Flash, Java and DjView (all in their latest versions). A fourth plugin (Citrix) was still listed. After copying them to a new library as per above, they are all listed and working (so not disabled, unless I've found some unintended workaround).

 

And yes, I know that both Flash and Java are dubious pieces of software, but you still find the odd webpage that won't work without them.

 

Sadly, there are LOADS of websites that dont work properly without one of the other - including this one; the problem being all the 3rd party resources they use that rely on either Flash, Silverlight, Java or some other active script of dubious value. I have even complained to my BANK for using cross-site scripting on its self banking pages, a KNOWN way of injecting malware into trusted HTTPS sites.