Temporary fix for Instagram's photo viewer in Firefox

Martin Brinkmann
Aug 26, 2013
Updated • Aug 26, 2013
Firefox
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Earlier today I highlighted that you can fix the video playback on Vine if you are using the Firefox web browser. Playback is broken in the browser and until there is an official fix, it is necessary to make a couple of changes to the browser's configuration or grab the video file directly from Vine's source code.

Ghacks reader David replied in the thread about a similar issue that he experienced on Instagram. The photo viewer on the website does not work properly in Firefox. Everything appears normal at first when you open a user's page on the Ingragram website in the Firefox web browser.

You can click on a photo, but instead of displaying it in an overlay photo viewer on the same page, it opens it in a new tab in Firefox instead.

While that is bad enough, it also renders all future clicks on the user's page useless. When you go back, by closing the new tab or simply switching tabs without closing the new one, you will notice that clicks on photo thumbnails on the page do not display the photos in the photo viewer anymore.

The only option that you have is to reload the page, click on another photo, and repeat the process until you have viewed all that you wanted to view on the page.

That's not practicable. According to information on a Mozilla Support thread, it is caused by a script error on the Instagram website. The issue has been reported to Instagram and Mozilla, but nothing has been done about it since it was first reported on August, 11th.

Instagram photo viewer fix

It is possible to fix the issue temporarily, but it is not ideal either. I have discovered two options that work in Firefox.

After you have clicked on a photo on Instagram you are taken to a new tab page. Simply click on the username here to reload the user's page on Instagram. You can then select a new photo and it will be displayed in the new tab again. Repeat that process until you have viewed all user photos you are interested in.

The process is improved this way but far from ideal. Still, better than having to go back manually to reload the page.

The second option may work better. Install the userscript Mouseover Popup Image Viewer in Firefox. You can now view a larger version of each image on a user's Instagram page without having to click at all.

instagram firefox photo viewer fix

This works surprisingly well, and while you will miss out on the comments posted, it is enough to view all photos on Instagram in rapid succession.

Note: You do need the Greasemonkey extension before you can install the userscript in the Firefox web browser.

It is likely that the issue will get resolved in the near future though.

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Comments

  1. Anon said on September 18, 2013 at 6:00 am
    Reply

    The other thing I’d suggest is just Googling the Username and Iphoneogram. You will be able to see all of their pics that are in their Instagram account, and you can enlarge these without issue.

  2. Anon said on September 18, 2013 at 5:59 am
    Reply

    Thanks, I just posted in your Firefox 24 thread, that I was having the same problem since updating to Firefox 24. This is useful, though I hope they fix this problem soon.

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