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

Can't uninstall old plugins

  • 7 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 22 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

more options

Despite the fact that I uninstalled Firefox as completely as I could, and reinstalled it, when I open the add-ons manager, not only are all the plugins below already installed, I also have the following: Widevine, Google Talk, Flip4Mac, Silverlight and a few others. When I follow the instructions to find the extension files in Finder, the folders are all empty. How can I get rid of all these old plugins that don't seem to exist anywhere on my computer but show up even after I uninstall and re-install Firefox?

Despite the fact that I uninstalled Firefox as completely as I could, and reinstalled it, when I open the add-ons manager, not only are all the plugins below already installed, I also have the following: Widevine, Google Talk, Flip4Mac, Silverlight and a few others. When I follow the instructions to find the extension files in Finder, the folders are all empty. How can I get rid of all these old plugins that don't seem to exist anywhere on my computer but show up even after I uninstall and re-install Firefox?

All Replies (7)

more options

You can find the installation path of all plugins on the about:plugins page. You can open the about:plugins page via the location/address bar.

See also "Manually uninstalling a plugin":

more options

Extensions are options you install into Firefox, They can be removed at will. Plugins are from programs that Firefox finds already on your system.

An extension without a Remove button is really a plugin. The only way to remove a plugin is to remove its program from your system. However, you can disable extensions and plugins if you want.

more options

Thanks for your responses. I had already viewed the help topics you posted above, so I searched my system for every file related to the plugins I could find and removed them all. However, when I reinstall Firefox, the plugins are still there. This is why I'm so confused. Any other suggestions?

more options

List the plugins in question.

more options

Try to delete the pluginreg.dat file in the Firefox Profile Folder and maybe addons.sqlite as well to reset the plugin registry databases.

See Re-initializing the plugins database:

You can use this button to go to the current Firefox profile folder:

more options

Thanks for your help! After searching through some more hidden files, I was able to locate the extensions in question and delete them.

more options

Is everything okay now?