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Firefox made another update in the last few days, WHY?

  • 24 replies
  • 42 have this problem
  • 8 views
  • Last reply by Efreak101

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Firefox released the infamous 3.6.14 bug - er - I mean "update", which hosed the playback of Youtube videos for many of us.

But wait - HOPE! A new update kicked in, today! 3.6.15!

SURELY this must be here to fix the problems caused by 3.6.14! Mozilla to the rescue!

But, alas, it was not to be. 3.6.15 didn't fix the Youtube glitch. From what I am reading, it didn't solve the problem for anyone.

So, WHY put out an update, so soon, if not to correct one of the biggest problems the previous update CAUSED?

This makes no sense to me.

So it looks like we're still suffering through this Youtube problem which 3.6.14 caused.

Firefox released the infamous 3.6.14 bug - er - I mean "update", which hosed the playback of Youtube videos for many of us. But wait - HOPE! A new update kicked in, today! 3.6.15! SURELY this must be here to fix the problems caused by 3.6.14! Mozilla to the rescue! But, alas, it was not to be. 3.6.15 didn't fix the Youtube glitch. From what I am reading, it didn't solve the problem for anyone. So, WHY put out an update, so soon, if not to correct one of the biggest problems the previous update CAUSED? This makes no sense to me. So it looks like we're still suffering through this Youtube problem which 3.6.14 caused.

Modified by RonQ

All Replies (20)

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I think the 3.6.15 update fixed the java issue, not the flash one. The youtube issue is not entirely caused by Firefox, it's caused by the latest flash update and Firefox. Also, Firefox 4 RC is coming out very soon (probably early next week) That is what I'm using right now and I am having no problems whatsoever with flash.

Modified by Efreak101

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Yet it doesn't fill me with a lot of hope or optimism to try 4 RC if Firefox can't coordinate enough to get 3.6.x straightened out, especially when they had a similar problem a couple years before.

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I can see your point... I stopped using the 3.6.x product line 3 months ago.

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I hate to say this, but until this new Firefox browser update is fixed, I'm reverting back to Safari (I tested the YouTube site with Safari, Opera, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer web browers, and the latest version of Flash Player works excellent on these browsers, so I have no problems with watching the videos on these browsers at all, although Internet Explorer is still too slow).

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go back to 3.6.12 it works fine. you can google and find a free download for this. and in options turn off automatic updates so that you don't get prompted to download later versions

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I do, however, wish FireFox would not come out with updates that cause more problems than they fix.

I don't understand why their testing process is so bad.

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Sadly, now that Firefox made a bunch of problems for people, there are no further updates to fix their bugs, days later.

I wish they would fix what they mess up.

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@RonQ The next big update is Firefox 4, which will come out in a week or two. I already have the Release Canidate, and it works fine on all accounts. Maybe you can try it and see if it works for you. link here: http://www-trunk.stage.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/RC/

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i have 3.6.15 installed and have no problems playing videos on youtube or any other site for that matter. check to see if all your plugins are up to date: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/plugincheck/

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Efreak, OK, it's good that v4 will be released in a couple weeks, but does that mean that it's OK to create a major problem for thousands of users, because of one of their recent updates, and simply NOT fix it?

It might have been different if this was an existing problem that they waited to fix until v4, but in this case, they created this problem with 3.6.14 and failed to repair it in 3.6.15. Now we're left with some very annoying non-solutions, like disabling hardware acceleration.

This doesn't give me much faith for wanting to jump to v4.0 in a couple weeks, if they caused NEW problems in a tertiary update, and can't solve them!

Jake, YES, everything is updated. Updating everything is what killed my youtube. Goody gumdrops for you if you aren't having problems but note how many HUNDREDS of people clicked "I have this problem too" on similar threads (one has around 500) and that's only the ones who actually came here and clicked. We can bet thousands of people are having this problem.

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@RonQ Gotta set something staight. The 3.6.15 update wasn't supposed to fix the flash problem, it just fixed the known Java problem that .14 introduced. Obviously mozilla didn't think the flash problem was widespread enough to make an update for it. Many users (including myself) don't have the problem you're mentioning. That means the problem is probably hardware specific or maybe OS specific? (many users had XP when the problem occured) (BTW, Have you found a work around to fix the actual problem yet?:)

Modified by Efreak101

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Efreak, this is what is frustrating. So even when HUNDREDS of people on these boards are agreeing "I have this problem too" (which is surely only a small fraction of those actually facing the problem), mozilla finds it "not widespread enough to fix"?

WTF?

It's nice that many users don't have this problem. But many ARE. And it's a problem that Firefox had a couple years ago until it was fixed. There are hundreds of posts on various places like ask and yahoo answers all asking "why did my Youtube videos quit working under Firefox"? So obviously it's not limited to just some isolated hardware platform. It's a major problem.

OS specific; I don't know. I'd have to see how many of these people are on Vista or 7. I'm on XP, myself (I purged my system of that awful Vista and will put 7 on my new system but this XP laptop will remain in service for some time to come).

If Mozilla can't be bothered to fix a problem an update caused with quite a large number of their users, then maybe they've gotten too arrogant for their own good. I don't know. I hope that's not REALLY their approach.

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Oh, and about your last question, NO, I haven't found a workaround which is acceptable, yet.

Disabling hardware acceleration is a silly, unacceptable solution (which some people keep suggesting) and blocking cookies won't let us sign in.

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Hi ya RonQ! Seen your name on LOTS of theses pages...

And BTW, EFreak, As of my current count, about 1/3 of the way down page 11 of "Most Requested," I have found 3419 "I have this problem, too!"s

I have this problem, too. The cookie workaround 'worked' for me, but I don't HAVE to log in, and I also did the ABP trick, AFTER I screwed up & DELETED ALL MY COOKIES. (at least MozBackup works!) I have been loyal to Firefox for nearly a decade now, 'cuz, we know IE sucks, but I'm with RonQ on being hesitant to jump onto V4...I've read the threads on THAT, and if it's 'ready' in a couple of weeks, I think I may have to pass. IMHO, better to deal with the devil you know...

I'm just sayin'. But it breaks my heart. I've LOVED Fx & Tbird...

And yes, I'm on XP--but I'll be danged if I'm gonna go back through 11 pages & see how many of THEM are...

Modified by GaiaSmith

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@RonQ Here are some options to fix the problem:

  1. You can revert back to the previous versions of both Flash and Firefox that worked. Here's the link to Firefox 3.6.13: http://www.filehippo.com/download_firefox/8900/ And here's the link to Flash Player 10.2.152.26: http://www.filehippo.com/download_flashplayer_firefox/9252/
  2. You can install the Firefox 4 RC.

I hope those fixes work for you. About the update, I agree with you that the people at mozilla should have at least tested the update better before releasing it to the general public. Maybe they were focused on Firefox 4 so much that they didn't bother to spend enough time on the 3.6.14 update? I don't know how they missed encountering the problem...

Modified by Efreak101

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I don't think the problem is with Firefox 3.6.15 or 3.6.14, I think that Flash 10.2 r152 is causing these problems, or maybe the problem is related to hardware acceleration in Flash settings on some older PC's.

I have had no problems with the previous version of Flash 10.1 r102, using either Firefox 3.6.14 (for 2 days) or with 3.6.15 for the last 9 days on WinXP (or on 4.0b12 or 4.0RC). And I never had a Flash problem with the nightly Namoroka 3.6.14pre development builds (where the Firefox updates & patches are tested) using the older Flash 10.1 r102.
Archived versions of Flash are available from Adobe - here:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/142/tn_14266.html

IMO, Mozilla made a mistake by "forcing" users to update Flash after either update by displaying that "scare" page about updating Flash the the "first-run page" after the Firefox update is installed.

I never do a plugin update on Mozilla's say-so, I wait until the new version of a Plugin program has been out for a few weeks to see what other users may have problems with and then update or not (as with this latest Flash version). I don't mind testing Firefox pre-release versions and maybe having an occasional problem, but I am damn well not going to be Adobe's "guinea-pig" and "test" their crap, too.

Modified by the-edmeister

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Mr. Ed, I do believe you are on to something that it's actually a flash problem, which FF tripped into when it suggested the update. I did try what you and Ef suggested, went back to the previous flash, and things are working semi-smoothly, but certainly not the same problem.

If it's a "hardware acceleration" problem, then it's how flash is dealing with it and not so much the fact of acceleration itself; I'm not about to kill my acceleration to accommodate a bug.

What I couldn't find was a way to actually REPORT a bug to adobe. There was some kind of program you have to sign into, and I don't trust it yet.

No longer will I update the plugins on Mozilla's say-so!

And regarding gaia's comment, yes, it's a shame, because I've tried to really love FF, but it's annoying to be slapped with these bugs, even if these bugs go back to flash.

Now, how are we going to know when it's safe to update flash again, I wonder?

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@RonQ I'm curious, what version of flash did you revert to? I'm still trying to figure out what flash version started the problem.

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Efreak, I reverted to 10.1.r53 flash, after using the uninstaller to pull it out completely, first.

It was one of these links. it would be interesting to find out which is the first one which caused this but I won't have time to check many for a while.

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@RonQ I think it's safe to say any flash release older than 2 weeks has no problems.

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