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Did Firefox 5 drop the ability to display RSS feeds?

  • 12 replies
  • 215 have this problem
  • 36 views
  • Last reply by beek

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With previous versions of firefox, i could load an rss feed and it would display in the main window, nicely parsed and styled. this functionality seems to have disappeared in firefox 5. load an RSS feed such as http://feeds.nytimes.com/nyt/rss/HomePage and you get an opportunity to create a live bookmark, but the rss/xml is not displayed in the main window. "live bookmarks" still work, but i'd like to see the firefox display the RSS natively without an RSS-reader plugin. Has this feature been intentionally dropped, or is this a bug? or am i missing something?

With previous versions of firefox, i could load an rss feed and it would display in the main window, nicely parsed and styled. this functionality seems to have disappeared in firefox 5. load an RSS feed such as http://feeds.nytimes.com/nyt/rss/HomePage and you get an opportunity to create a live bookmark, but the rss/xml is not displayed in the main window. "live bookmarks" still work, but i'd like to see the firefox display the RSS natively without an RSS-reader plugin. Has this feature been intentionally dropped, or is this a bug? or am i missing something?

All Replies (12)

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The button was not used by most people so Mozilla moved it off the location bar.

  • You can use it from within the Bookmarks Menu
  • You can restore the button to a toolbar through customize
View ("Alt+V") > Toolbars > Customize > drag icon to a toolbar

See item #9 for a some additional information and other items for additional customization changes.

You can make Firefox 5.0 look like Firefox 3.6.18, see numbered items 1-10 in the following topic Fix Firefox 4.0 toolbar user interface, problems (Make Firefox 4.0 look like 3.6)

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Thanks for your reply, but i wasn't asking about the RSS icon. I was asking about the display of RSS-XML in the main window of FF5. in past versions, FF would convert the RSS (presumably using a stylesheet and converting XML to html) and display the entire feed right in the main window. i'm wondering if that functionality was intentionally discarded in FF5.

Modified by jj_firefox

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That should still be working.

Did you check the Web Feed setting (Preview in Firefox) in Tools > Options > Applications ?

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thanks for this! i do have that setting chosen, but that option does have a question mark next to it (see image below). i also use NoScript rather aggressively. is it possible it is interfering with this functionality?

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Oddly, this morning this functionality returned! perhaps user-error, but i can't figure what i did! the only change in my version of FF5 is that installed and then removed the add-on "Feedly." now FF is displaying RSS as it used to, but it is also offering me the opportunity to subscribe to the feed with feedly -- even though i do NOT have it installed (i double-checked!). odd, eh? but i'm happy for now...

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If you want to restore feed settings then you can reset the related feed prefs on the about:config page.

To open the about:config page, type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website.
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access that page.

  • Use the Filter bar at to top of the about:config page to locate a preference more easily.
  • Preferences that have been modified show as bold(user set).
  • Preferences can be reset to the default or changed via the right-click context menu.
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1. I checked off "Always use Live Bookmarks to subscribe to feeds," the first time I subscribed to an RSS feed. Could that be why I don't get a standard web feed page? If so, how can I reverse this?

2. My RSS feeds are all set as pull-down menus in the Bookmarks Toolbar. (I guess that's what's meant by "Live Bookmarks.") Where would I go, or what would I click on, to open a full web feed page, if I do in fact have that functionality?

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You can change the Web Feed settings via Tools > Options > Applications

If you are on Windows or Linux and the Menu bar is hidden the press F10 or tap the Alt key to bring up the "Menu Bar" temporarily or click the Firefox button and click Options.

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Thanks.

Following your earlier suggestion in this string, I already did that. My Web Feed is set to "Preview in Firefox," but (as an earlier commenter also noted) the latter is preceded by a question mark.

Any further thoughts would be welcome.

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Try to reset the feed prefs on the about:config page via the right-click context menu to their default values.

To open the about:config page, type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website.
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access that page.

  • Use the Filter bar at to top of the about:config page to locate a preference more easily.
  • Preferences that have been modified show as bold(user set).
  • Preferences can be reset to the default or changed via the right-click context menu.
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I reset "browser.feeds.handler" to default. Are there any other relevant preferences I should reset? (I don't see a global reset, but I'd be reluctant to to that.)

Assuming I manage to restore/launch the full feed page functionality, where do I go, and what do I click on, to open such pages? In a word, how does it work?

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Why doesn't the RSS feed button I placed on my navigation toolbar light up when a website has a feed to subscribe to?

And why can't I access the summary feed page instead of only individual feeds?

I'm using FF 6.0.1

Thanks!