Add-on support in new Firefox for Android

Add-ons Add-on Support
#157

As you predicted, no answer followed.

For quite a while I used the f-droid-store to install a Version 68 of “Fennec F-Droid”, which you can access by enabling the archive and then scrolling way way down. This has kept me sane albeit vulnerable to security issues.

Now I’ve moved to Kiwi Browser (chromium based) which supports Chrome-Store-Addons. It is faster than the old FF but also getting way too few security updates.

The mobile-browser market has gone down the drain since Mozilla destroyed add-on-support.

2 Likes
#158

100%. I’m using the Iceraven Firefox fork, but I wish the updates were more frequent and that I could trust it’s up to scratch security-wise.

I still can’t understand why Mozilla did this.

1 Like
#159

Things are about to change with the new Safari 15 supporting WebExtensions in the upcoming release:


Maybe it will put more pressure on Mozilla to bring back the support :crossed_fingers:.
And who knows how many other browsers will follow…
#160

I can develop and distribute my web extensions for Firefox and Chrome (desktop) for free. To port that to Safari will cost me $99/year for a developer licence. (Free licences are not available for individuals.)

1 Like
#161

Kiwi Browser has just been updated, a lot of things rewritten, it seems the project is very much alive and it offers all plug-ins the chrome store has to offer. I’ve just about left Mozilla behind on Android.

3 Likes
#162

In the last update
The browser does not accept downloading anything I want from the Internet( download failure)
I also can’t use AAD-ONS ON mozilla firefox
The next message appears (Download failed. Please check your connection.)

#163

It’s been over a year since the release of Fenix and still no progress. This situation sucks.

2 Likes
#164

Are addons even working?

I went through the entire ritual described here:

I created a collection called ‘addonsforandroid’. I added an extension to the collection. I enabled the secret “custom addon collection” link in android settings.

Now, when i look at the settings on android i see my ‘addonsforandroid’ under ‘Custom add-on collection’

But when I click on it, I get a pop-up menu that asks for my user number and the name of the collection (both already filled in correctly) and have the options ‘cancel’ and ‘ok’.

Cancel does nothing. Ok quits the browser app. When I restart it, I am exactly where I was when before the browser quit: no add-ons. I can then repeat the process and click the ‘custom addon collection’ link in settings. And then I’m back to the ‘cancel/ok’ menu again. Repeat endlessly.

It looks like other people are having the same problem. Has this been abandoned? What should I be expecting to happen after following all your instructions?

#165

oh and just to be clear: i am doing all this in the latest Firefox Nightly on Android 11

#166

I hope you get some help from Mozilla on this. For what it’s worth, I found it easier to just switch to IceRaven.

1 Like
#167

It looks like you’ve set it up OK. If I click my collection I get that pop-up dialogue; I think that will set up a different collection.

But go to Setting, Advanced, Add-ons. Do you see the addon in your collection?

The whole process is non-obvious.

#169

I checked settings->advanced->addons but that says “no addons here” and momentarily flashes “Failed to query Add-ons!”, and it does not contain either my Collection or the one add-on I added to the collection (Grease Monkey).

I can log in to my AMO account on my android nightly firefox browser and see the collection and see the addon in the collection. But it does not show up in settings

#170

Do you have spaces in your collection name? It doesn’t work if you do.

And ISTR you need to add any allowed addons you want - e.g. uBlock Origin - to Fx before you specify your collection - or add them to your collection afterwards.

1 Like
#171

OK! I added a “recommended” add-on (ublock origin) to the collection and now both grease monkey and ublock origin appear under the 3-dots->add ons menu.

So what worked for me is:

  1. create a collection
  2. add at least both one recommended and one non-recommended addon.
  3. check settings->advanced->add-ons to find both add-ons ready to be installed.

this is weird and probably a bug, but it works.
Thanks!

#172

It’s fair to say that the UI is rather basic!
When I first did it I had already added ublock origin when I created my collection with four of my own addons. Those appeared in settings->advanced->add-ons so I could then add them.
The second time, I set up my collection, found I couldn’t then add ublock, so added it (and Stylus) to my collection.
fwiw: After experiencing a couple of very crashy nightlies I now update it from playstore once a month just before it moves into beta.

#173

This. A million times this.

#174

Yeah I have tried this multiple times. I just can’t get any add-ons to show up in the add-ons sections. Just keep getting ‘failed to query add-ons’

Edit: I deleted my aom account where I made the collection. Re-made it and that somehow fixed it.

#175

I check in on this every once in a while, and it appears the situation has not improved. I’m pretty disappointed by the decision-making on this issue.

To Firefox leadership: why can’t we just have a checkbox that says “enable all add-ons even if they might be broken”?

4 Likes
#176

Another approach that might work is to have a middle tier between the highly-curated recommended extensions and the wild west.

What I’m imagining is a list curated by a larger group of volunteers rather than core team members who likely have better things to do. This collection wouldn’t be shown by default, but the checkbox to enable it would be prominently featured at the bottom of the list of recommended addons.

Criteria for inclusion would be more lax. Of course malicious or user-hostile behavior would be grounds for rejection, but otherwise addons that attempt to be compatible with Fenix and don’t have obvious severe issues would be approved. To mitigate the risk of abuse, perhaps this should require two or three volunteers to approve the extension.

I still think there should be a checkbox to allow the installation of anything on AMO and any XPI from the filesystem, but that should be more buried with more dire warning labels on it.

I suppose by making this proposal I’m volunteering to help with such a group.

1 Like
#177

This topic was started 2 years ago and there is still no progress.

@caitlin (or anyone else): does anyone have more information on this topic or maybe a roadmap? Right now it’s a pretty crappy status: no information and no progress on this topic.

1 Like