Firefox for Android supports extensions: here are some to get you started
Extensions are one of the reasons why Firefox is a great web browser. Mozilla took the whole concept of improving the browser with third party programs to a new level and improved it ever since. Like its bigger desktop cousin, the Android version of Firefox supports add-ons that you can install right in the browser to extend its functionality. It shares some with the desktop version but the extension listings are not identical.
While you may find your favorite extensions available, some may not be. The excellent NoScript extension is for instance not available in the Android Add-ons store. That does not mean that you cannot install great add-ons from the store in the browser, quite the contrary.
To get you started, I collected a couple that I find really useful. If you prefer to do your own digging, head over to the Android Add-ons store over at Mozilla.
Firefox for Android add-ons
Phony provides you with a menu that you can use to easily switch the user agent of your Firefox browser to switch between mobile and desktop versions of websites. To use, press the menu button and select Phony from the context menu that opens up. This opens an onscreen menu that lets you select one of the available user agents (desktop firefox, Android phone or tablet, or iPhone).
Network Preferences Add-on adds a graphical user interface to the Firefox browser that you can make use of to configure proxy settings. The browser itself does not offer that, and while you can make modifications using the about:config page, it is not really something that is very comfortable, especially if you have to make modifications to the settings regularly.
YouTube Embed2Link. This is useful for devices that do not support Adobe Flash (anymore) and for users who prefer to watch YouTube videos in the default application. It basically opens embedded YouTube videos in the default app so that they can be viewed.
CleanQuit adds a quit button to Firefox that you can use to exit the browser. In addition, it will clear temporary data and other session related data that you specify. This can include the browser cache, form data, cookies or your browsing history.
LastPass Password Manager brings password syncing and all that good stuff to the mobile Firefox browser. If you are using LastPass, or want to use a password manager on mobile Firefox, then this is your best bet as other services are not yet available for the browser.
Closing Words
The selection of add-ons for Firefox for Android is rather small, 109 at the time of writing, but that may change over time. It is still a feature that sets Firefox apart and if played right, could become a game changer. I'd switch to Firefox in a heartbeat if NoScript would make an appearance. What about you? Have any favorite add-ons that are missing in the list above? Which add-on would you like to see ported to the mobile browser version?
Advertisement
thanks you saved my 1000 tabs :)
Fantastic! Thank you! This worked like a charm. Had exactly the same issue in Firefox on a PC and this fixed it.
Thank you for sharing this! Like you, I’d noticed that disabling/re-enabling the extension would work for that browser session, but I hadn’t tried anything yet to force a fix. I’m SO glad it was this easy!
I sure hope the OneTab team issues an official fix ASAP, though. Now that it’s been a few days, they’re starting to get bad reviews, which is unfortunate.
Yes! I also tried the workaround. I also reported this bug to OneTab team on the first day I faced this issue.
Thanks, Ashwin for the fix!
I was nearing desperation when I found your direction. It worked.
Thank you so much.
Hi, OneTab developer here. Sorry for this – it’s not clear why this bug is suddenly happening for some people, but we’re urgently investigating this with the Mozilla/Firefox team and will be providing a fix very shortly.
Thank you so much for sharing this fix! You saved my tabs. The only note/point I would like to add is for Step 2.
Perhaps put a note stating they should copy Step 3 and forward of your tutorial to Word. Once we close Firefox, we lose visibility to your tutorial. For me, I know I would not be able to remember the .bkp.
Again, thank you!
Easy temporary fix: To make OneTab work again, type “about:addons” in your Firefox address bar. Then find OneTab in the list of extensions, and click the blue toggle button twice. This will disable and then re-enable OneTab, and cause it to work again.
We’re working with Mozilla for a permanent fix. Sorry for the inconvenience, this is a very strange issue that is only affecting the Firefox version of OneTab.
I have found by disabling and then re-enable in the add on menu I get my tab back. Short term fix. Will try yours.
Thank you. I thought I had lost a month of digging. I’ll be a little more attentive about exporting the urls from the extension list now. It’s a great tool but Firefox doesn’t always play nice with its extensions.
Good news – I’ve been working with Mozilla all morning to resolve this. Mozilla have confirmed it was due to a bug in Firefox (related to extension permissions downgrades).
To fix OneTab, just go to “about:addons” in your Firefox address bar, click the ‘cog’ icon in the top right, and click ‘Check for updates’. This will upgrade you to OneTab v1.39, which fixes the issue.
Darn, I tried everything here and I still can’t get my tabs back. I even did a full system restore to a point last week hoping that my saved tabs would be in the old .xpi file, but no luck.
I’m pretty disappointed :(
Probably I should’ve been more patient, but now I don’t know how to feel about this. I lost about 900 tabs in the recovery process (I reinstalled OneTab), which, incredible as it sounds, weren’t all just a messy dump I’m never going back to, but actually important stuff (yeah, I have a peculiar workflow).
Trying to suppress the anger and reflecting on what happened, it seems I should blame myself for not having a backup. But surely I couldn’t back it up manually every time I save a tab, it would defy all purpose of having this addon in the first place. A couple of years ago data was stored at “~/.mozilla/firefox/%PROFILE%/jetpack/[email protected]/simple-storage”, and you could back it up with simple crontab. This is no longer the case, this folder is just empty. And since OneTab is closed-source black box, I couldn’t have done anything else as well.
So the only reasonable lesson to be learned is that I actually must stop relying on OneTab, since sooner or later it will let me down again. Fuck it.
I just disable and re-enable. No tabs lost!
I switched from OneTab to Tab Stash (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab-stash/) months ago and haven’t looked back. I had never experienced any data loss with OneTab, although I was a bit concerned by some reports of data loss I read about. My main issue was with OneTabs performance, it’s a hog. I had been looking for a replacement and testing out a ton of addons for a couple of months when I finally discovered Tab Stash, and am damn glad I did. I really can’t recommend it strongly enough…
Thanks, bsdaddict. Never tried it, looks nice, but I’m a bit concerned by small number of stashed tabs on these screenshots, not sure if it’d be usable when stashing a lot of tabs. How many tabs do you usually have stashed?
Tab Stash is is a great alternative to One Tab, y’all… I made the switch months ago and am very happy with it.
>DO THIS FIRST: Before trying the following fix, I recommend disabling OneTab and re-enabling it from the about:addons page, to access and regain your tabs.
Worked for me! Many, many thanks!
I know it’s late but ist there an option for chrome on android tablets aswell? My wife hates it that the search bar and Tab list will just come Up again when she Scrolls up