Can’t Sign Out Of Google

Google recently changed the header on many of their pages, from more or less static links leading to often used features, the account, settings and sign out to a menu like interface that opens up when the user clicks on it. The menu should pop up on a left click, but this has not happened in the past weeks on my PC. A click on the tools icon in the upper right corner does nothing at all.

The sign out is not working when I use the Firefox web browser. It is working fine when I switch to Google Chrome or another web browser. Nothing happens when I click on the account username or the settings icon once I’m signed into Google. The screenshot below shows how the sign out menu should look like.

I first thought it had something to do with the NoScript add-on that blocks scripts from running. Disabling it completely had no positive effect on the issue at hand: I still could not access either of the links. As a side note, the More link in the header is not working as well in my version of Firefox.

Clearing the cookies and temporary Internet files logged me out of Google, but I noticed that the Settings button was still unresponsive. The Sign In link that was displayed loaded the standard Google sign in form.

I then decided to disable all add-ons to see if this had an effect on the unresponsive links, which it did not. I can still sign out on pages that do not utilize the new header menu, like this page but I cannot get the menu to work.

I’m not sure if this is a bug in Firefox 4, or if it is something else. I’d be interested in your ideas on what it can be, to see if it resolves the issue. For now, I can’t use Google the way I did less than a month ago.

What it is not:

The most likely explanation is either a Firefox 4 bug or a configuration setting in the installed version of Firefox on my computer.

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Author: Martin Brinkmann, Tuesday March 22, 2011 -
Tags:Google, google sign-in

Responses so far:

1. Paul(us) says:

   March 22, 2011 at 12:56 am

   Hoi Martin, I just sign in (with main brand new Mozilla FireFox 4 final) and out (thru lastpass) in main google account and everything is going fine.

   Reply
   • Martin Brinkmann says:

     March 22, 2011 at 1:02 am

     Thanks Paulus, that leaves my Firefox version as the culprit.

     Reply
2. Locutus says:

   March 22, 2011 at 1:33 am

   Try creating a new profile.

   Reply
   • Martin Brinkmann says:

     March 22, 2011 at 1:39 am

     I do not think it is linked to the Google profile, as Google does not know on sign in that it is me, and the settings menu does nothing no matter if I’m logged in or not.

     Reply
3. Robert Palmar says:

   March 22, 2011 at 3:14 am

   (Perhaps Locutus meant a new Firefox profile?)

   Martin, are you using Gmail Notifier?
   It creates a Google.com SID cookie in Firefox
   which looks like Google’s cookie to Google and
   it is not disabled/altered when you sign out of Google.

   Reply
   • Martin Brinkmann says:

     March 22, 2011 at 10:14 am

     Robert, no I’m not using that add-on, besides I tried to disable all add-ons and it did not have an effect. Yes, a new profile is what I will likely have to do.

     Reply
     • Robert Palmar says:

       March 22, 2011 at 4:48 pm

       Actually I meant the Gmail Notifier program
       which is not an add-on and not Google’s version either.
       But it looks like you are not using that anyway so that can’t be it.

       I’ll be looking to see how you solve this.
       Maybe it is a Firefox 4 bug as you suspect
       but what it interacts with is a mystery just now.
4. skidoo says:

   March 22, 2011 at 2:35 pm

   Martin…
   I’ve experienced the same Gmail with FF 3.6.15 behavior recently.
   In my case it seems to be a script, gapis (?), anyways…after allowing
   it (NoScript) the drop down menu will appear.
   It usually happens after composing an email from a :mailto link.

   Reply
   • sombody smart says:

     March 23, 2011 at 10:35 am

     disable ad block that will solve your problem

     Reply
     • Martin Brinkmann says:

       March 23, 2011 at 10:57 am

       no it did not.
5. D says:

   March 24, 2011 at 5:02 am

   Martin, I have experienced the same issue. Clicking on the name in the upper right has no apparent effect. Firefox 4.0

   Reply
   • D says:

     March 24, 2011 at 5:05 am

     Email deletion has also been buggy

     Reply
   • Martin Brinkmann says:

     March 24, 2011 at 10:41 am

     Well I resolved the issue with a clean Firefox profile, everything else fell short.

     Reply
6. David says:

   August 4, 2011 at 4:51 am

   Hey guys,

   I figured out how to fix the problem (or at least my version of it)! I hadn’t been able to sign out of Google for weeks, tried restarting, clearing cookies, my cache; everything I could think of. Nothing worked. I’m not sure which of the following things worked, but do all of them (or one at a time to narrow things down and figure out exactly which it is):

   1) Go to this link: http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?answer=41078
   2) Follow Google’s steps to signing into your account settings
   3) Change your password
   4) Make sure you turn off “linked accounts” if you have it on <—I Think this is what did it for me, because I think my log-out issue began occurring around the same time that I turned it on.
   5) Save your settings
   6) Log out and BE FREEEE.

   Let me know if this works for you guys.

   Reply
7. Chaffers says:

   December 17, 2011 at 4:37 am

   I can’t sign out of Google anymore either…. I’m using Chrome.

   Reply