It sometimes happens that one of your favorite add-ons gets an update that you are not happy about. A new add-on version can for instance break functionality, introduce changes that you do not want or decrease the browser’s stability or security. If you do not want to uninstall the affected add-on, you could consider installing an older version of it to overcome the issue that you are experiencing.
Firefox users have three options to downgrade add-ons in the browser. It is not necessary to uninstall the new add-on version before installing the old one. Keep in mind though that older versions may be incompatible with your version of the browser.
Installing old Firefox Add-on versions
You have several options at your disposal to install an older version of an add-on. The first option is presented on the add-on’s page over at Mozilla. Lets take Video DownloadHelper as an example. Load the page in Firefox and scroll all the way down until you reach Version Information near the bottom of the screen. Click on the link to expand the selection. Locate See complete version history there and click on it.
This opens a new page where the majority of previous add-on releases are listed. Make sure you read the “be careful” section at the top to understand the risks.
You can install an older version of the add-on by moving the mouse cursor over a version and clicking on the Add to Firefox button to start the installation.
Release notes are usually offered for every version listed on the version history page. Just install the add-on and restart the browser afterwards to complete the process. The add-ons manager should now display the installed version and not the latest one.
Alternatives
You can alternatively connect to the public Mozilla ftp server to download a previous add-on version. You do however need the unique add-on ID which is not displayed publicly anymore (Mozilla switched from displaying the unique ID in the url to descriptive names instead). If you do know the ID, you can download it from the ftp server as well.
A third alternative comes sometimes in the form of the add-on homepage on the Internet (not on Mozilla). Developers sometimes offer download links to old add-on versions on their websites. It is however usually a lot easier to use the official Mozilla Firefox site for that.
Disable Updates
You are not done yet. If you would stop right here Firefox would try to install the latest add-on version automatically. Open about:add-ons in the Firefox address bar and click on the More link next to the extension that you have just downgraded.
Locate Automatic Updates there and switch it from Default to Off. This disables automatic updates for the selected add-on. See How To Turn Off Automatic Updates For Individual Firefox Add-Ons for an in depths guide.
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Unfortunately I have had to do this more and more with Firefox new versions.
And Firefox used to have the unique ID as part of the URL for the
Add-on which in their infinite wisdom decided to remove.
Very Useful indeed.
I have only one add-ons which I downgraded.
Downgrading is often a temporary solution if you encounter a issue after an add-on has been upgraded.
So far it is more than a year since I downgraded. Although I had to go into add-on’s folder to manually change its version. This way I am not asked to update add-on each time new version is released.
Firefox 9.0 Final released, is now 30% faster thanks to TypeInference.
http://www.mozilla.org/products/download.html?product=firefox-9.0&os=win&lang=en-US
One more options is to setup a regular add-on backup with FEBE, so when you encounter an issue, you can downgrade add-on(s) or even re-setup browser quickly.
I had to do downgrading because of add-ons unwanted changes quite a number of times, also had to reinstall all add-ons one or two times because of Firefox issue.
So, FEBE is a must for me.