Using Firefox 26: Since PBS altered site, receive "An error has occurred ... please check if Private Browsing is OFF" continuously - Private Browsing is OFF.
Have used Firefox many years to view videos at video.pbs.org. Cannot tell which came first: Upgrade to Firefox 26 or PBS making changes to their website but I can no longer view any video at URL: video.pbs.org. As soon as that page comes up, Message dialog window with this text is displayed: "A [sic] error has occurred. For the best experience with this website, please check if Private Browsing is OFF."
If "OK" in dialog is hit, window disappears but reappears in a few seconds. Hitting "OK" on four or five repeats of this message screen results in the message box reappearing but with a checkbox line added with the text, "Prevent this page from creating additional dialogs." Selecting the checkbox makes no difference in the behavior. Dialog box continue to reappear even though a video can be selected and will begin playing until the dialog box pops up. At that time, playback is suspended but resumes after "OK" in hit. Dialog reappears approximately ever 4 seconds.
I have checked the Privacy Options and in about:config that private browsing is not started automatically and is not the default mode or auto started.
I am retired, do not have cable and live in an area where reception of a PBS TV station is problematic so viewing PBS video is my primary TV entertainment option.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Chosen solution
Thanks to each of you that responded. It certainly demonstrates the power of open software and crowd sourced knowledge.
jscher2000's suggestion was right on the money. The dom.storage.enabled preference was bolded and set to "false."
Changing it to "true" and reloading video.pbs.org eliminated the error message.
Again, thanks very much.
Read this answer in context 👍 1All Replies (6)
Hello, Can you please check if you are seeing this issue if you disabled these two addons you have. You can always re-enable them after performing the test.
- Cookie Cutter
- NoScript
This is to see if these addons are intervening in the full functioning of PBS' videos.
Thank you
Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, behavior is the same with Cookie Cutter and NoScript disabled.
For gnitella: Follow up detail.
I have made no changes to my add-ons or preferences for at least six months. I have only upgraded Firefox as new releases came out. PBS video was operational until recently. It's certainly possible that the version 26.0 upgrade has a negative interaction with the new PBS web-site. I can download and install an earlier Firefox version if you think that would be helpful.
Thank you.
When I search in the site's scripts* for this error, it seems to be related to whether the site can use local DOM storage. This is enabled by default in Firefox, but because it is considered cookie-like in nature, blocking cookies on the site will prevent use. So please check the following:
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.
(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste storage and pause while the list is filtered
(3) If the dom.storage.enabled preference is bolded and "user set" to false, double-click it to return its value to true.
Reload the PBS video site and try again. Fixed?
What is your cookie policy? If you have Firefox set to ask you every time whether a site can set cookies or not, I am reminded of an issue that arose in older versions of Firefox (I haven't checked recently).
If you allowed cookies in that dialog, it created exceptions for the full host name (e.g., video.pbs.org) but not the base domain name (e.g., pbs.org). Meanwhile, Firefox was checking whether a site could use DOM storage based on the cookie permissions for the base domain name. So the workaround was to manually create an exception for the base domain name yourself in the Exceptions dialog. You would do that here:
oranage Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Options > Privacy
With "Use custom settings for history" selected, look for the Exceptions button to the right of "Accept cookies from sites"
Not sure whether that is relevant to you. Old threads for reference:
- Certain websites do not work properly in normal browsing mode but work in private browsing perfectly.
- facebook post area when clicked gives https://www.facebook.com/ajax/metacomposer/attachment/status/status.php?targetid=695296250&xhpc=composerTourStart
* It is in one of the scripts from the cloudfront.net CDN.
You can also check the Web Console (Firefox/Tools > Web Developer;Ctrl+Shift+K) for error about using localStorage.
Chosen Solution
Thanks to each of you that responded. It certainly demonstrates the power of open software and crowd sourced knowledge.
jscher2000's suggestion was right on the money. The dom.storage.enabled preference was bolded and set to "false."
Changing it to "true" and reloading video.pbs.org eliminated the error message.
Again, thanks very much.