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installed Firefox update now certain softwear doesnt work right

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  • Last reply by James

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I installed new Firefox update now Download Helper doesn't work right also my homepage will not stay set as I set it. I have three computers in my household and I have updated Firefox on two of them and both have problems. I still have version 35.0.1 on my main computer and I do not plan to update until Firefox works right with these problems and any other I might encounter. The reason I'm still running version 35.0.1 is when I updated 35.0.1 to next update, Download Helper would not work. I contacted support and was told that Firefox ver. 36 was not compatible with Download Helper and that the problem would soon be fixed. I have the latest ver. of Download Helper and it still doesn't work right with Firefox. I had to reinstall Firefox ver 35.0.1 to get things working again, so I will stay with ver. 35.0.1 until the problem is fixed although I am constantly hounded to update to ver. 39. I realize that there might be some security issues but in order to keep my software working and keep my home page(Yahoo.com) I will stay with ver 35.0.1 until I am assured that all problems are fixed. I thought an update was supposed to make things better not worse, but this has not been the case since ver 35.0.1.


edited email address from public and spambots.

I installed new Firefox update now Download Helper doesn't work right also my homepage will not stay set as I set it. I have three computers in my household and I have updated Firefox on two of them and both have problems. I still have version 35.0.1 on my main computer and I do not plan to update until Firefox works right with these problems and any other I might encounter. The reason I'm still running version 35.0.1 is when I updated 35.0.1 to next update, Download Helper would not work. I contacted support and was told that Firefox ver. 36 was not compatible with Download Helper and that the problem would soon be fixed. I have the latest ver. of Download Helper and it still doesn't work right with Firefox. I had to reinstall Firefox ver 35.0.1 to get things working again, so I will stay with ver. 35.0.1 until the problem is fixed although I am constantly hounded to update to ver. 39. I realize that there might be some security issues but in order to keep my software working and keep my home page(Yahoo.com) I will stay with ver 35.0.1 until I am assured that all problems are fixed. I thought an update was supposed to make things better not worse, but this has not been the case since ver 35.0.1. edited email address from public and spambots.

Modified by James

All Replies (4)

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Your Download Helper extension is many, many versions old. All issues with the downloading change in Firefox 36 were addressed months ago. Perhaps you disabled automatic updating in your Firefox? That affects your extensions, too.

To manually check for extension updates, you can use this method:

Open the Add-ons page using either:

  • Ctrl+Shift+a
  • "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Extensions. Then on the right side, above the list, look for the "gear" button and choose Check for Updates. This may add a new "Updates available" item at the bottom of the left column, or it may annotate each of the extensions that has an available update, or both.

In some cases, you need to install the new Firefox first and THEN check for extension updates, because the update is not backwards compatible and won't show up for older versions of Firefox. This varies.

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Firefox should retain your home page when you update. Avoid clicking any buttons that refer to speeding up Firefox by restoring default settings.

I noticed your Question Details > More System Details lists a user.js file.

Firefox uses the settings in that optional file at startup to override your saved preferences from the previous session. Unless you created that file yourself, it may contain settings from an add-on or external software. You can check and remove the file using the steps in this article: How to fix preferences that won't save.

Note: By default, Windows hides the .js extension on files. To work with files as accurately as possible, I suggest showing all file extensions. This Microsoft support article has the steps: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wi.../show-hide-file-name-extensions.


If Firefox still cannot remember your preferred home page, could you describe when it switches, and anything else that seems helpful? For example:

  • Every time you exit out of Firefox and start it up again
  • Every time you shut down Windows and start it up again
  • Other consistent interval (e.g., weekly)
  • Randomly
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Hmm, since the home page problem occurs on other systems for which we don't know the system details, could you indicate what page takes it place? That sometimes indicates a particular malware problem.

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https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/versions/

The DownloadHelper 4.9.24.1 you have was released September 5, 2014 by the author.

There have been several updates to this extension by the author since.

It is not the Firefox browser that supports the many Extensions out there in a Firefox version but the other way.