How to update flagfox
I keep receiving a message to say Flagfox is gradually going out-of-date. HOWEVER, no information is offered about how to update Flagfox. Please, do not allow Firefox to go the same way as successive versions of Windows: i.e. each subsequent version becomes less and less intuitive and less and less user friendly. I am already more than irritated by the fact that 'you' keep changing access routes to functions such as private browsing and bookmarking all tabs. There are never helpful tips when these changes occur - users have to search for solutions. Telling folks their Flagfox add-on is out of date without showing a button to click to go straight to the update is so ridiculous, I just cannot imagine why the author thought this makes sense.
Chosen solution
It looks as though Flagfox is updated approximately monthly (versions page). Firefox is supposed to check for extension updates on a schedule similar to program update checks. That might be disabled on your Firefox. ??
You can check manually for extension updates using:
orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons > "gear" icon > Check for Updates
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Chosen Solution
It looks as though Flagfox is updated approximately monthly (versions page). Firefox is supposed to check for extension updates on a schedule similar to program update checks. That might be disabled on your Firefox. ??
You can check manually for extension updates using:
orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons > "gear" icon > Check for Updates
Thanks for your help. I checked tools -> add-ons and the add-ons manager page has an option: "Available Updates". Clicking this option led to the Flagfox update. For the benefit of the folks designing Firefox - I suggest this is not intuitive. Intuitive would be to add an update button to the message that an add-on is out-of-date.
To get to the update options one has to follow the path: Tools -> options -> advanced -> update. Who is the silly person who thinks update options are an advanced setting. This is a basic setting for any software. Since I started using Firefox two years ago, I have selected: "Check for updates but let me choose...". This option does NOT give me a choice to update Flagfox, it only tells me an update is required. With all versions of Windows after XP, Microsoft has amply demonstrated how easily one can wreck a good piece of software through loss of intuitive access. Please pay more attention to this issue in Firefox. Open Office is easy to use. Office 2010 is a nightmare of confusing, illogical access routes to simple functions. Changing keyboard shortcuts from earlier versions for no good reason seems to be a deliberate attempt to make life hard for users. I repeat my appeal: Please put more effort into making Firefox menus and routines intuitive and do NOT make changes unless they improve intuitive access.
The message about Flagfox probably was from Flagfox itself. By default, Firefox will just update your extensions on its own given the chance. Switching from automatic application updating to notification might have stopped the extension updating. I haven't researched it in detail.
I have used Firefox for eight years and didn't even realize I had Flagfox until I got this message: Really!?! Thanks for your insight.
FLAGFOX VERSION: 4.2.x (2013-5)
ERROR MESSAGE: Fatal Flagfox startup error!
EXCEPTION THROWN: TypeError: IPDBmetadata.size is undefined
STACK TRACE: loadIPDBfile@resource://flagfox/ipdb.jsm:103 ipdb.init@resource://flagfox/ipdb.jsm:26 startup@resource://flagfox/flagfox.jsm:64 Flagfox.init@resource://flagfox/flagfox.jsm:139 Flagfox_loadForThisWindow@chrome://flagfox/content/overlay.xul:16
BROWSER: Mozilla Firefox 22.0 (Gecko 22.0 / 20130618035212) OS: Windows NT 6.1; WOW64 (WINNT x86-msvc windows) LOCALE: en-us content / en-us UI / en-us OS
Hi Alexisink, I assume you plan to uninstall it, but if not, there is an update available (June 2015 15, 2013)....
Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
Not sure I want to wait quite that long. I will uninstall. Thanks.
Hi Alexisink, sorry, worst typo ever. June 15, 2013.
No problem. Ironically, I went to check the addons updates and I had it set for automatic, BUT I got the same error message. It's only annoying because it comes on every time I log on. I'll just remove it for now. Thanks for your help.
Hi, Flagfox developer here. First off, we've got a support forum set up where I or Richard tries to answer people's questions as soon as we can. If you just post here, I'm probably not going to see it for a long time. Please use the Flagfox support forum for Flagfox support: http://flagfox.net/forum
The general response to both issues here are that Firefox does addon updating itself, not each addon. In fact I got permission from a Mozilla Add-ons site editor to include the notice when Flagfox is getting out of date, but they don't really want me updating things outside of the normal Firefox addon update handling. All addons are set to automatically update by default. If you turned addon updating off at some point, it will stay off forever. I would recommend you keep it on for most addons but I am required to respect your setting, even if you forgot about it or it was set by accident.
To the error message: Reinstall Flagfox
I've been getting a few reports of that error, and it's basically a symptom of a corrupt Firefox profile, specifically a corrupted Flagfox installation. Again, Firefox is supposed to handle all of this stuff, but a few people are somehow getting Flagfox installations with files from two different versions mangled together in a broken way. Not sure why this is happening, but I suspect it's caused by either malware or a poorly written system cleaner or "security software" these users have installed. Just reinstalling Flagfox fixes it for everyone that's reported it and tried to do so thus far. In fact, reinstalling any addon you have that is broken might be a good idea.
If anyone here has any future questions of any kind about Flagfox, feel free to post on the Flagfox Forum and I will try to answer them as soon as I can.
In some future Flagfox version I will see if I can rewrite a few bits to work around whatever is breaking in the Firefox profile (again, as this is not the first time Firefox profile corruption has shown up like this). Single unextracted archive installation looks like a good idea, however I will have to drop support for old versions of Firefox to implement this work around.