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Adsense and Affiliate Window ads not showing in FF 48.0

  • 20 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 18 views
  • Last reply by SueMarchant

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Adsense ads and banner ads from affiliate windows are not displaying on my website http://www.essentially-england.com The adsense ads just show empty space, the affiliate banners a little empty square where the creative should be. It works fine in Edge.

Using FF48.0 / Windows 10

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks you.

Adsense ads and banner ads from affiliate windows are not displaying on my website http://www.essentially-england.com The adsense ads just show empty space, the affiliate banners a little empty square where the creative should be. It works fine in Edge. Using FF48.0 / Windows 10 Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks you.

Chosen solution

Hiya all, looks like partially good news here!

Kaspersky Tech Support sent me a download link to Kaspersky Internet Security - I am using Total Security. After download and install - and before I activated the license key - everything worked like a peach on FF and Edge. In Chrome, I had to disable the Kaspersky anti-banner and allow some "data collection" from my own site until I saw everything that should be on the page.

Then I activated the license key and Kaspersky upgraded / changed itself to Total Security. Once it had done this, the problem was back, exactly as before: no Adsense displays and all banners displaying broken image link tags.

As instructed, I then disabled all the protection components in Kaspersky (and the FF extension). I was supposed to turn them on one by one to see where the trouble was. Didn't even get that far, since the problem was there even with everything turned off.

So I cleared FF history, shut everything down and rebooted the laptop. Just in case.

When it came back, everything worked more or less. And that didn't change while I turned all the components back on. I shut FF down between turning on each component and checking the results.

Every now and then it gets it into his head not to display the ads, but at least it leaves the spaces where the ads go and doesn't throw all the page components all over the place. I can work with that. It could even be that Adsense doesn't have inventory all the time, though that used to be a very rare occurrence.

So.... not sure if that was any help to anyone. But unless we fall over again, we seem to have pinpointed Kaspersky as the culprit of sorts. Maybe my installation of Total Security had a corrupt file or something.

Many thanks for all your patience. If you need more info, please yell. Sue

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All Replies (20)

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I see adverts with Firefox if I disable ad blocking. Possibly not all of them for instance no banner across the top.

Maybe adsense does not work well with Fx48. Maybe it fails if some of its flash tracking is blocked. Probably something to take up with google/adsense The Firefox changes I am thinking may affect this is talked about in this blog

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Thanks for the quick reply! I don't have any AdBlock installed that I'm aware of. Not sure about the Flash, since the banner ads that aren't showing seem to be using Javascript.

But it's an interesting thought - even though it doesn't sound I can actually fix it. If I can't see what webpages look like when I'm building them, then I can't work.

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What about posting a testcase ? Build and post a trial webpage with no content other than a single banner that should then work in alternative browsers but not Firefox. That should be simple enough for us to compare and tell you why it is not working in Firefox. You may even discover the reason yourself in trying to set that up.

If webpages are built to standards then ideally they would render the same in all browsers. You could try running your sites through a validator e.g.

You would probably be better posting elsewhere if you need advice on web development issues. If they are specific to Firefox it may be worth giving it a try over at mozillazine:

If you do post over there please let us have the link as it will be interesting to follow what happens.

If the change is apparently specific to Firefox 48 then look at the Release notes including the Developers release notes

(I have not tried looking at your site in alternative browsers or alternative Firefox Versions, not sure if your post means your site differs in Fx47 & Fx48 ? )

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It's not a web development issue. The site displays fine on Edge, on my table, phone and even on my very old test laptop. It just doesn't display in FF.

The banner issue is new and on just testing again, seems to be dead in FF and flaky in Chrome.

The Adsense display fine in Edge and Chrome.

this is the page: http://www.essentially-england.com/testcase.html

many thanks S

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Hi Sue, You may not consider it a web development issue but if we do not know what the code is that is involved you are unlikely to get any answer.

Even if it is actually a Firefox bug then the first thing needed to file a bug is some sort of reduced test case that demonstrates the bug that needs fixing. Otherwise a suitable bug report may not be filed, and the issue may not be investigated. Of course if it is a bug it will affect others and someone will probably report it.

A bug may report may already exist but its a needle in a haystack until we have more specific information. The fact that you see a similar issue in Chrome may be a reasonable indicator that at least one of the issues is not a Firefox bug.

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I posted you a testcase page as you suggested. Can you see the issue I'm having?

That would help me narrow down where the issue is, since here it's very much restricted to FF and I'm wondering if there's a setting I should be changing or something.

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If you are using a private window to view the site, check for the Tracking Protection "shield" icon to the left of the URL in the address bar. More info in this article: What happened to Tracking Protection?.

Assuming you rule that out, could you test in Firefox's Safe Mode? In Safe Mode, Firefox temporarily deactivates extensions, hardware acceleration, and some other advanced features to help you assess whether these are causing the problem.

If Firefox is not running: Hold down the Shift key when starting Firefox.

If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
  • Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

and OK the restart.

Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).

Any improvement?

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Not working in a private window. I double-checked and about:config has

privacy.trackingprotection.enabled - false privacy.trackingprotection.obmode.enabled - false

Started in safe mode. No change to the site. Neither adsense nor the javascript based ads are displaying

thanks for looking into this! s

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Oohps! Sorry Sue, I seem to have missed the link despite staring at it. Can you confirm I am seeing the page as intended, screenshot of part of page from Firefox attached. (The thumbnail expands when clicked.)

It does not look quite the same in IE. It is IE that is missing the ad block.

Presumably you see things differently again on your Firefox.

Modified by John99

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It's beginning to look like the problem is with the local Firefox rather than with Firefox generally. Thinking process of elimination.

I suppose you have tried the basic troubleshooting steps of clearing cache (try shortcut Cache+F5 to override the cache ) and cookies for your site,

but then again you have tried in Private Browsing already and Firefox's safemode. Did you try Private Browsing & Safe mode both together rather than just separately ?

Did you try keying in the URL directly, and not relying on any bookmark or shortcut. Have you any security related software that could be interfering. I see you have Kaspersky software listed and noscript.

Looks like you will need to wait for more ideas from jscher2000, but he's on the other side of the pond and wont be around for a while yet. I could suggest trying a clean install or malware checking but maybe there is something more likely I haven't thought of.

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Sorry, crazy morning! I'm so hoping it's something local, because that means it's something I've done and hopefully something I can fix. Both your screenshots are exactly what should be there.

Mine is attached... as bare as you can see

So that's positive. My husband tried it on his work computer, which is Windows 7 and he can see what you see. So it can't really be a FF issue.

I suppose my next avenues of attack are Windows 10 and Kaspersky. I don't really have anything else. I only installed noscript to see whether it would fix the problem, or highlight what it was. I've since taken it off again.

Thanks a lot for all your help. I'll yell if I find out what it was, just in case someone else gets this.

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g,t I do b,f not see a screenshot. Try using the Windows snipping tool and so use a dot.png or .jpeg file the sort of compressed images commonly used on the internet. This forum doesn't like large bitmap images.g

Sorry I see screenshot. I am trying to reply on a phone. Will look again later

Modified by John99

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Did you sort out the problem?

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HIya,

no luck so far. Actually, it's getting worse. When I'm on FF, I now don't see images embedded from Pinterest or Instagram, while they display fine in Edge or Chrome. And not just on my site. I've really screwed something up big time. If I uninstall FF completely and start from scratch again, is there a way to keep my bookmarks and saved logins without re-importing what I've screwed up?

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Hiya Sue, The issue is probably most likely within the profile rather than the program files so it is probably best to look in to and try to fix that first. Reinstalling rarely fixes problems.

Before even doing that also do a quick test with Firefox's safe mode

If that happens to work post back without going any further with these instructions.


There is a heavily promoted Refresh but I do NOT recommend that

Instead back up your profile & maybe independently the bookmarks - just to be doubly super safe - then create a new additional profile using about:profiles or the profile manager. It is relatively straightforward to migrate profile files later, and a doddle to restore bookmarks - just remember it will overwrite any existing bookmarks, so you lose any bookmarks made since the bookmark backup. See

The documentation has not caught up with the new about:profiles method that replaces the profile manager and runs within Firefox instead of needing you to use a run command. Creating a new additonal profile can now be done easily from about:profiles Just key in to the adressbar about:profiles press the keyboard Enter, then left click the button [Create a New Profile] to create a new profile. I strongly recommend you do NOT try using the Remove or Rename options in about:profiles or in the profile manager. Also just accept the location suggested for the new profile.

It is best to migrate anything back in stages. Before moving anything back just run a quick test with the new profile. Have any known problems been cured ? Next the first thing you will need will to migrate will be the bookmarks and the pefered method for that is by overwriting the file places.sqlite with a copy of the file from your profile backup. That needs to be done with Firefox closed, once reopened you should have all your Bookmarks and History - note History is used behind the scenes for searches. Probably you will have logins stored and will want to move that pair of files next but again restart Firefox to make sure you have the History and Bookmarks and that problems are not now reoccurring. This is the help article on migrating data

You may choose which profile to use when using about:profiles or the profile manager. The original profile remains available and you have the option to run Firefox with that. Handy for comparison, or if there is something you have not migrated.

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Thank you - I will give this a try tonight. I've started FF in safe mode with all the plugins disabled and the problem was still there, so I'll create a new profile next. Many thanks.

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Hiya, brand new profile with absolutely nothing in it - no plugins, no extensions - and the problem is still there!

Done some more reading and have logged another helpdesk request with Kaspersky - since their documentation says that the only browser they don't support is MS Edge on Win10 and that happens to be the one browser I have where everything works.

I'm sure there must be others out there who use Win10 with Firefox and Kaspersky, so hopefully someone's seen the same problem. I'll report back as soon as I hear from them.

Depending on what they've got to say, I might try uninstalling Kaspersky anyway to see whether that sorts the issues out.

Modified by SueMarchant

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Kaspersky has a component named Anti-Banner. What if you disable just that feature?

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I'd already turned that off, since adding Adsense and my other affiliate platform to the allowed URLs hadn't worked either. Nothing from the Kaspersky guys as yet...

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Chosen Solution

Hiya all, looks like partially good news here!

Kaspersky Tech Support sent me a download link to Kaspersky Internet Security - I am using Total Security. After download and install - and before I activated the license key - everything worked like a peach on FF and Edge. In Chrome, I had to disable the Kaspersky anti-banner and allow some "data collection" from my own site until I saw everything that should be on the page.

Then I activated the license key and Kaspersky upgraded / changed itself to Total Security. Once it had done this, the problem was back, exactly as before: no Adsense displays and all banners displaying broken image link tags.

As instructed, I then disabled all the protection components in Kaspersky (and the FF extension). I was supposed to turn them on one by one to see where the trouble was. Didn't even get that far, since the problem was there even with everything turned off.

So I cleared FF history, shut everything down and rebooted the laptop. Just in case.

When it came back, everything worked more or less. And that didn't change while I turned all the components back on. I shut FF down between turning on each component and checking the results.

Every now and then it gets it into his head not to display the ads, but at least it leaves the spaces where the ads go and doesn't throw all the page components all over the place. I can work with that. It could even be that Adsense doesn't have inventory all the time, though that used to be a very rare occurrence.

So.... not sure if that was any help to anyone. But unless we fall over again, we seem to have pinpointed Kaspersky as the culprit of sorts. Maybe my installation of Total Security had a corrupt file or something.

Many thanks for all your patience. If you need more info, please yell. Sue