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.

Avatar for Username

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

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

After disabling developer tools annoying tab keeps opening.

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by jcs916

jcs916
jcs916
more options

I'm using Ubuntu 18.04. Developer tools kept popping up so I went into about:config & set everything to false. Now an equally annoying tab keeps opening up asking to enable them. I don't just get this hitting F12. Just like before I disabled, this keeps popping up for seemingly no reason. Guess I'm accidentally doing something with the mouse. I don't have a clue how to use developer tools. Wish I could just wipe it out completely.

I'm using Ubuntu 18.04. Developer tools kept popping up so I went into about:config & set everything to false. Now an equally annoying tab keeps opening up asking to enable them. I don't just get this hitting F12. Just like before I disabled, this keeps popping up for seemingly no reason. Guess I'm accidentally doing something with the mouse. I don't have a clue how to use developer tools. Wish I could just wipe it out completely.
Attached screenshots

Chosen solution

@cor-el Thank you. That works. Even pressing F12 does nothing. I had not noticed the .disabled option. I just went though as a few dozen devtools options quickly & figured I would cripple it by setting everything to false. I have a suggestion. For those average users that just want to get rid of something they have no use for, maybe you could just put an easy option in Edit > Settings. There are a lot of users with even less skills than me.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (4)

Paul
Paul
  • Top 25 Contributor
  • Moderator
more options

Hi

I would strongly recommend against making changes in about:config as it can make the situation worse.

Do you have any add-ons installed in Firefox?

jcs916
jcs916 Question owner
more options

@Seburo Normally I would be very cautious in about:config, but entirely disabling developer tools took away something I will never use. I haven't done any harm. I just traded the aggravation of that box constantly popping up for it bugging me with that tab. An increase with how often seems to be after replacing my favorite mouse. The wheel is stiff & the shape of it is causing me to keep right clicking & hitting menu items unintentionally. I don't need the tools. Why would I need any devtools setting true if I don't have any idea what anything I see in that box is? Please just tell me how to stop that tab asking me to enable the tools.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

If you want to disable the developer tools then use:

  • about:config => devtools.policy.disabled = true
jcs916
jcs916 Question owner
more options

Chosen Solution

@cor-el Thank you. That works. Even pressing F12 does nothing. I had not noticed the .disabled option. I just went though as a few dozen devtools options quickly & figured I would cripple it by setting everything to false. I have a suggestion. For those average users that just want to get rid of something they have no use for, maybe you could just put an easy option in Edit > Settings. There are a lot of users with even less skills than me.