Passwords in Firefox extensions not "active" on browser startup 

envirossf · 2017-09-18T05:01:16.000Z

I have installed an Avast Passwords add-on to my Firefox extensions list several months ago. (I am using a Windows 10 laptop with Avast free antivirus installed. Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome are my main browsers) The add-on had been working fine up until last week. I would open Firefox and the little gold key icon would appear, working great on all my logons for email, banking and credit cards, etc. Last week, when I opened Firefox, the gold key was black. I clicked on it and it said the extension was not active. This had never happened before so I opened the extensions page in Firefox, and it showed the extension as active, with only the disable or delete options available. I then opened the Avast interface, went to the passwords page and clicked on settings. It showed that passwords were installed on both Firefox and Chrome. I clicked on the install button for Firefox anyway and it took me to another page for Firefox activation where I clicked on it and it opened the Firefox browser again, where the gold key was again visible I tried logging on to the same websites as before, and this time everything worked as it always had. I then logged out of Firefox and closed the browser. When I opened Firefox again, the key was black again. I do not want to go through this hassle every time I use Firefox. Does anyone know what has happened? I really like Firefox, and prefer it as a browser, but since this happened, I’ve started using Chrome, because passwords are working fine on it. Any ideas, fixes, links etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for the help!

MartinKvetko · 2017-09-18T05:53:16.000Z

Could you please check what is your privacy settings in FF preferences? Do you have don’t remember history option turned on?
If so then setting it to remember history will keep your extension activated. We are working on fix for this issue, once it is possible to turn on this privacy mode I will update this post.

Shortcut for the preferences section (put this to address bar of your firefox):
about:preferences#privacy

envirossf · 2017-09-18T06:42:26.000Z

Thanks for the reply Martin! I have my Firefox browser settings to clear history (along with cookies, active logons, etc.) when I close the browser. This has never affected my extensions in the past (including Avast passwords), and it still does not affect any other extensions. However, I just tried your suggestion and it had no effect. I closed the browser, re-opened it and the key had turned black again, saying it was not active. I will probably wait until Avast has the problem fixed before I start using Firefox again.

MartinKvetko · 2017-09-18T08:18:32.000Z

We are aware of that issue, but we are still not sure what is the root cause as more users started complaining about this it may happen that there was some recent change in firefox which is causing an issue on our side. As you mentioned others extensions are not affected it must some problem in our extension. I will raise priority on this and hope we get this fixed soon. Will let you know once I get some feedback from developers.

Thanks for the report.

system · 2017-09-23T19:27:52.000Z

Yes, had all passwords moved and now they do not work. BS! A warning that the option is not working atm would be PROFESSIONAL courtesy. I just paid for this and now I get wasted time when I needed to get some things done before work. Dammit people, come on for cry’in out loud.

MartinKvetko · 2017-09-24T21:48:05.000Z

We have found a problem and working on fix. I hope we will release it during next week.

envirossf · 2017-10-03T17:18:22.000Z

Hi Martin,
Is there any progress on the " fix" for the subject problem yet? I’d like to go back to using Firefox if I can. Thanks!

MartinKvetko · 2017-10-06T05:36:32.000Z

Yes we have released the fix already (last week). Make sure you have latest version of the extension and please activate it again.
Making sure add-on is up to date:

in Firefox go to about:addons
Pick Avast Passwords
On details page expand dropdown from cog wheel in top right area
And choose Check for Updates option

Activate extension:
You can either do it from popup we show once you start Firefox and we detect that extension doesn’t communicate with us
Or you can go to Avast->Settings->Passwords and hit install in browser integration section.

envirossf · 2017-10-06T19:38:32.000Z

Thank you Martin! I re-initiated the process for the passwords add-on in Firefox and it appears to be working fine again. I’m very happy to be able to use Firefox once again!!

Announcements