Last Updated on October 17, 2021 by Mathew Diekhake

Extensions are a large part of what makes a web browser’s world go around. In fact, extensions are generally a large part of what makes development these days on most platforms go around.

Gone are the days when you were expected to add code to get development on the Web to function. But with browsers, you have no choice but to use extensions anyway because you wouldn’t be able to get access to change the code any other way.

Simply put, browser extensions are what allow you to add features to your browser, and if you’re still not using any, now as is good a time as any to try a few out. But if you’re a Firefox user, before you rush to the Firefox add-ons page, you might want to wait until tomorrow, because many users are currently reporting their browser extensions have gone walkabout.

The Firefox team have admitted fault, by announcing they’ve released a hotfix for the problems that have apparently not discriminated to any part of the world. Firefox users from all over the globe have been complaining about missing Firefox extensions. While they still might not all have them back, the good news is that the hotfix is being applied in the background, and those affected should notice the extensions back soon, without the need for them to be downloaded again. Though, if yours aren’t back soon, you may wish to head over to Mozilla and download the ones you can’t see yet, because the hotfix may already be in place.

Some quotes on the problems some users are facing, as well as responses from the Firefox team:

Some Firefox users started to notice that installed browser extensions were all disabled in the web browser suddenly. Extensions would display “could not be verified for use in Firefox and has been disabled” messages in the add-ons manager of the browser. Firefox would display “One or more installed add-ons cannot be verified and have been disabled” at the top as a notification next to that.

Affected extensions include LastPass, Ghostery, Download Manager (S3), Dark Mode, Honey, uBlock Origin, Greasemonkey, NoScript, and others.

Update: Mozilla started to roll out a fix for Release, Beta, and Nightly versions of Firefox. The fix uses Mozilla Studies, and you need to make sure that this is enabled to get it. Mozilla notes that you may disable Studies again after the fix is applied and add-ons have been re-enabled. You need to make sure that “Allow Firefox to install and run studies” is checked on about references#privacy.

Update 3 (5/4, 7:30 AM ET): The team has announced a hotfix is rolling out now. It’s applied in the background, so you shouldn’t have to do anything to receive it. However, to make sure you get it right away, you can follow these instructions:

In order to be able to provide this fix on short notice, we are using the Studies system. You can check if you have studies enabled by going to Firefox Preferences -> Privacy & Security -> Allow Firefox to install and run studies.

You can disable studies again after your add-ons have been re-enabled.

We rolled out a hotfix that re-enables affected add-ons. The fix will be automatically applied in the background within the next few hours.
For more details, please check out the update at https://t.co/G5ypnckjdM— Mozilla Add-ons (@mozamo) May 4, 2019

So sorry for the issue we’re having with add-ons right now!

We’re working hard to fix it and will keep you updated.

— Firefox ? (@firefox) May 4, 2019

No ETA for the fix yet; we’re waiting on test results before making decision.

— Mozilla Add-ons (@mozamo) May 4, 2019

While the second most used web browser in the world, Firefox is still an open source browser. Problems like this can happen, and it’s hard to be too upset about them when they do.

For immediate relief from missing Firefox extensions, you can try using the temporary workaround posted to Reddit: As of 12:00 am UTC, nearly all Firefox extensions are disabled. It’s not just you. No need for a new thread. The ‘trick’ doesn’t work.