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how to activate lightbeam

  • 34 replies
  • 130 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by Ogulcan985

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I downloaded and installed the Lightbeam add-on but how do you use or activate it?

I downloaded and installed the Lightbeam add-on but how do you use or activate it?

Chosen solution

Actually I too had this problem, until I figured out that the way to "open" Lightbeam is by displaying the menu bar (Press Alt key), and you will find it under the Tools Menu -> Show Lightbeam. See pic below.

Hope this helps

Thanks, Ravi

Read this answer in context 👍 52

All Replies (14)

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I've had the problem of Lightbeam not starting up fora couple of days but noticed someone mentioned that AdBlock might stop it.

I just disabled AdBlock and Lightbeam is up and running, but the downside is that I have all sorts of garbage on the web pages. Yep, I know they help to pay for the sites but . . . . . .

Hope it works for others. Bon nuit.

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Well, that didn't last long. After I posted my triumphal success I went back to my advert congested websites, actually checked out a couple of ads - just to see - surfed for a while and read the papers, then checked Lightbeam and nothing, zilch, rien, nuffink.

This is where I abandon Lightbeam as an imagined dream and get back to AdBlock.

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I don't have AdBlock. I do have NoScript and I did disable that and it made no difference. I then disabled every single add on I had and it still didn't work.

I downloaded LightBeam from the Mozilla site not the manual install from GitHub. I have Firefox version 22. That shouldn't matter.

It will tell me at the top how many sites and secondary connections I've made but there is no visualization. Nothing clickable works. It is pretty clear the javascript does not install correctly.

I tried this on two computers with the same results. I realize most people are not having this problem. But until it is fixed or someone can tell me what to do, I'm not even trying it again. It's pretty cool but in the end, it's just a kind of fun not terribly useful program. I prefer blocking cookies and script and not being tracked. I'm not into disabling that so I can see how much we are tracked. I would like to see it work right once though. I want the triangles and circles just because they look cool and it would be interesting.

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I'm not sure what the conditions for success are, but after looking at this for a few moments, I think I'll bury my head back under the sand for a while.

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Lightbeam sucks 100% CPU for me all the time, where Collusion used only 20% to 45% when the tab was showing.

The largest difference between the two that I have noticed is that Lightbeam displays accumulated data, where Collusion displays realtime data. I haven't played with Lightbeam enough to figure out how to be able to view the realtime data without the accumulated data showing, too. (short of clearing that data)

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@Karen53 I have exactly the same issue. I'm using Firefox 25 but no data collection or display. Have you got a helpful answer?

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@Feyroce,

No I haven't gotten a response. It seems to be working for the majority of users so I guess it's not a priority when it doesn't for some. The only thing I can suggest that I haven't done nor intend to do is go to the GitHub page and download it from there and do a manual install. If you do, let me know if that worked. Thanks.

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@Karen53

I've just read something in another forum. Type about:support in the address bar, click "Reset Firefox...", reinstall Lightbeam and ... it is now working fine on my side !

-)
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That worked like a charm. The reset removed all my addons. Once I installed them again, it stopped working. So the issue is with an add on. I would suspect No Script. At least I got to see how it works and it is pretty cool. Hopefully, the programmers will make it compatible with other add ons.

Edit: I was wrong. I have Firefox set up to prompt me for cookies. That was the issue. The minute I reset it to default of allowing all cookies, Lightbeam started working.

Modified by Karen53

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Eventually I managed to get to the Lightbeam Page, thanks to the advice here.

But it then just "sat" there doing nothing!

I pressed every button I could find, I visited lots of sites, but it showed nothing EXCEPT to tell me that I hadn't visited any Sites!

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Hello everybody, is 'Lightbeam' a tool that works without problems or is it a garbage-tool?? Thx for a serious feedback.

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I've tried to down load app, but it says It can't open or write to a file, which file?

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Greetings everyone;

I was having the same problem (graphs not showing up and none of the buttons appearing to work, although it was telling me statistics at the top of the Lightbeam page) until I figured out that Lightbeam needs to set cookies to display its graphs. Therefore, after opening lightbeam in a new tab I copied the address from the address bar and went into Options/Preferences then Privacy then Exceptions (in the cookies area) then pasted the address that I copied and clicked Allow. The graphs and everything else show up correctly now.

The problem was because I had my settings set to ask me how long to store cookies rather than keeping them until they expire or until I close FireFox.

Now the graphs are showing up correctly.

Shadallark

Modified by Shadallark

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Dude thank you very very much.I waste my 25 minutes just for this.Thank you again

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