This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Why are Addons enabled in private browsing ??

  • 6 cavab
  • 2 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by vomdez

more options

Kind of ridiculous this is allowed, when FF claim they are oh-so-much into privacy and such, Chrome by default had all addons disabled which makes so much sense, I really wanted to like the new FF Quantum but have to trudge back because of this. Also being unable to right-click on an addon and choose 'Options' or disable or uninstall makes using FF a pain.

Kind of ridiculous this is allowed, when FF claim they are oh-so-much into privacy and such, Chrome by default had all addons disabled which makes so much sense, I really wanted to like the new FF Quantum but have to trudge back because of this. Also being unable to right-click on an addon and choose 'Options' or disable or uninstall makes using FF a pain.

All Replies (6)

more options

Hi. Users usually complaints that addons are disabled in the private mode. Most of them is actually disabled. I think that depends of the permissions being granted.

more options

You can start Firefox in Safe Mode to disable all extensions.

more options

cor-el said

You can start Firefox in Safe Mode to disable all extensions.

right, thanks - I knew this, but does Safe mode also mean Incognito ?

more options

No, you still need to open a Private Browsing mode window if you want to use incognito mode. Note that PB mode only means that no session data is stored in the profile folder and that Tracking Protection is active if you haven't disabled this. It doesn't have other effects and there is normally no need to disable extensions.

more options

Firefox has to fix this. I do not want my Grammarly and Some adblocker reading what I am typing and where I am going by being enabled by default in private mode. Firefox should disable all addons by default in Private mode and give an option to the user to enable what is needed just like Chrome does. There are no two ways about this I feel and no use giving work arounds.

more options

This is a very delinquent feature of FF and they definitely need to have this addressed. Surprised that so many users dont care about it. I want only Lastpass to be enabled in private mode and nothing else, like uMatrix or Ghostery. Whats the point of enabling them all in private mode ?? Some leader of something needs to get their head checked. I am back to Chrome.