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Cannot remove Adblock Plus extension

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Hi,

I cannot find the way to remove the Adblock Plus extension for the life of me. It says "Can't be removed". I re-started in Safe-Mode, and it still cannot be removed. I did Firefox's "fresh re-install" thing, which is supposed to remove all extensions, and it's still there. Should I report the extension? Help.

Thanks

Hi, I cannot find the way to remove the Adblock Plus extension for the life of me. It says "Can't be removed". I re-started in Safe-Mode, and it still cannot be removed. I did Firefox's "fresh re-install" thing, which is supposed to remove all extensions, and it's still there. Should I report the extension? Help. Thanks

Chosen solution

I had already read that page and tried following its advice without success, but tried it again after posting and succeeded. First I had trouble locating the right directory where the XPI files were, then the XPI file didn't have an obvious name, and I couldn't delete it without sudo command. Not being sure what it was, I passed and tried the next thing. But then I remembered I could open the XPI file like a ZIP file and see what it was inside. I would have deleted the post if I could have. Thanks for answering

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All Replies (10)

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Hello iluataj,

Would you please go over this article (all of it) and see if maybe there is something there that you haven't tried yet (you can of course skip the part about Windows) :

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/cannot-remove-add-on-extension-or-theme

I just thought of something (as I use ABP myself)   -   have you tried the   "Remove"   button here :

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adblock-plus

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Chosen Solution

I had already read that page and tried following its advice without success, but tried it again after posting and succeeded. First I had trouble locating the right directory where the XPI files were, then the XPI file didn't have an obvious name, and I couldn't delete it without sudo command. Not being sure what it was, I passed and tried the next thing. But then I remembered I could open the XPI file like a ZIP file and see what it was inside. I would have deleted the post if I could have. Thanks for answering

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I have been fighting the same battle. About a week or 2 ago, FF started blocking sites that I had placed on my exception list years ago. The sites are still on my exception (aka white) list. I cannot remove FF Adblock...no matter what I do.

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Sher said

I have been fighting the same battle. About a week or 2 ago, FF started blocking sites that I had placed on my exception list years ago. The sites are still on my exception (aka white) list. I cannot remove FF Adblock...no matter what I do.

Hello Sher,

Would you be so kind as to start a new thread using this link :

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/new/desktop

This thread has been marked as solved and chances of other contributors seeing your post are slim .....

(edit : typo)

Modified by McCoy

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The add-on has installed itself back again, somehow. It doesn't allow you to report on it. It doesn't follow any of Mozilla's guidelines. I really don't know why they allow it in the add-on repository.

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Extensions that do not have a "Remove" button are installed globally and are not under control of the Firefox extension manager.

You can find the install location of a specific extension in the extensions.json file in the profile folder.
You can open the extensions.json file in a Firefox tab and search the file for this extension.
The path field lists its install location.

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By the way, if you type or paste about:policies in the address bar and press Enter/Return, does the page mention any active policies?

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On Linux I wouldn't expect active policies for extensions although a Firefox version from the repositories might have some restrictions or is preconfigured differently than Firefox from the Mozilla server.

You can check the owner and read/write permissions for files and folders (extensions folder) in the profile folder, see the about:support page for more info.

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jscher2000 said</p>

By the way, if you type or paste about:policies in the address bar and press Enter/Return, does the page mention any active policies?

There is nothing there. I guess I just don't understand the whole system yet.

When I said this add-on doesn't follow Mozilla's guidelines I meant that -they unable the "Remove" button. -the "Report" button is not unabled but it doesn't work, and when you use it gives an error and doesn't send the report. -they don't respect Firefox's "fresh re-start" thing, which is supposed to remove all add-ons. If you do that, the addon-on is still there after the re-start. -if you figure out how to remove the add-on manually by deleting the XPI file, you even need to use root access in the terminal to erase the file. -somehow the add-on was installed back a few days ago and I realized it today when some websites started complaining about the ad-blocker. I know this sounds super-weird, but I certainly didn't install it myself, and nobody else uses this computer. And of course, it's the kind of add-on that has access to everything you do with the browser.

I just don't understand why Mozilla/Firefox allows an add-on which behaves that way, which I find quite suspect, and at the very least, very rude to its users, in their repository. I mean, they have the whole "Recommended by Firefox" thing, as if they cared about providing secure add-ons. So why allow questionable add-ons at all?

Well, I removed it manually again. We'll see what happens.

Thanks to all who answered.

Modified by user2688969

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iluataj said

Well, I removed it manually again.

What folder was it in?

Is it possible you have some other software that earns its author affiliate payouts from installing Adblock Plus? (Assuming it is the real Adblock Plus and not a modified version that does who knows what.)

Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer