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

dropdown cookie dialog box hijacks the active window

  • 3 replies
  • 5 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Paskiausią atsakymą parašė finitarry

more options

After 23 software updates it's clear that the meaningless checkbox to "use this preference for all cookies from this site" will never be made functional, so I'm pleading with the developers to at least make it possible to close the page when you get stuck in an endless cookie loop. Today images.nationalgeographic tried to set over 100 cookies before I gave up, but once you reach your breaking point, the only way to close the page is to quit FF. Same for when the dropdown box freezes up, which it often does. You can put the page in the background, but you can't close or collapse the window until you quit FF so it's still in the way cluttering up the screen.

I've also run into the problem of new requests pulling up the dropdown just as I go to click Deny, so I click the banner ad behind it instead, and end up in a whole new nightmare of loops and popups that pop-up blocker is powerless to stop. Or I'll close the window just as a new request comes in, and then Window in the menu bar says I have an outstanding cookie confirmation request, but I have no window to close or interact with. Again, application quit is the only way to get rid of it.

So please, just make it possible to close the main window hosting the dropdown (or put a close button on the dropdown if it's going to behave like the active window?) without quitting the application altogether. I'm no programmer, but is that really impossible?

Intel Mac running 10.6.8, FF 23

After 23 software updates it's clear that the meaningless checkbox to "use this preference for all cookies from this site" will never be made functional, so I'm pleading with the developers to at least make it possible to close the page when you get stuck in an endless cookie loop. Today images.nationalgeographic tried to set over 100 cookies before I gave up, but once you reach your breaking point, the only way to close the page is to quit FF. Same for when the dropdown box freezes up, which it often does. You can put the page in the background, but you can't close or collapse the window until you quit FF so it's still in the way cluttering up the screen. I've also run into the problem of new requests pulling up the dropdown just as I go to click Deny, so I click the banner ad behind it instead, and end up in a whole new nightmare of loops and popups that pop-up blocker is powerless to stop. Or I'll close the window just as a new request comes in, and then Window in the menu bar says I have an outstanding cookie confirmation request, but I have no window to close or interact with. Again, application quit is the only way to get rid of it. So please, just make it possible to close the main window hosting the dropdown (or put a close button on the dropdown if it's going to behave like the active window?) without quitting the application altogether. I'm no programmer, but is that really impossible? Intel Mac running 10.6.8, FF 23

All Replies (3)

more options

Not sure what you are seeing. A screenshot may help.

Quite possibly it could be a Firefox extension, rather than Firefox itself generating this. Please paste the list of your extensions into your next post. Obtain that from Help -> Troubleshooting.

more options

Sounds that the cookie setting is set to "ask me every time".

It is probably better to use an extension to manage cookies.

more options

If you set Firefox to allow all cookies and to prompt you for each one, that will drive you crazy very quickly. Instead, set Firefox to default to blocking cookies and make exceptions to allow only those that you need. If you need to keep cookies to log in to some sites, just use "Allow" for those. With sites that insist that they need cookies but you do not want them to persist, limit them to session cookies only. The rest of the cookies will be blocked. You can use an extension like Cookie Monster or CS Lite to make it easy to switch the cookie setting quickly for an individual site.