Cannot uninstall an add-on

Actions
Show content customized for:

If an extension or theme cannot be uninstalled through the use of the Firefox Add-ons window (see Uninstalling add-ons), try the following:

Table Of Contents

Uninstall from Safe Mode

If you cannot access the Add-ons window or if the Uninstall button is grayed out for a certain add-on, you may need to uninstall it from Firefox's Safe Mode.

  1. Close down Firefox completely: At the top of the Firefox window, click the File menu, and select the Exit menu item.Close down Firefox completely: On the menu bar, click the Firefox menu, and select the Quit Firefox menu item.Close down Firefox completely: At the top of the Firefox window, click the File menu, and select the Quit menu item.
  2. In Windows, click Start, open the All Programs list, and navigate to the Mozilla Firefox folder. In the Mozilla Firefox folder, select Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode).Hold down the Option key, as you start Firefox.Go to your Terminal and run: 
    firefox -safe-mode
    You may need to specify the Firefox installation path (e.g. /usr/lib/firefox-3.5).
  3. Firefox should start up with a Firefox Safe Mode dialog.
    Note: You can also start Firefox in Safe Mode by clicking Start, selecting Run (or use the Start Search box in Windows 7 and Vista) and then entering the following in the text field:
    "%PROGRAMFILES%\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -safe-mode
  4. In the Safe Mode dialog, click Continue in Safe Mode.

Once Firefox has started in Safe Mode, try uninstalling the add-on again and then restarting Firefox.

Windows:

Uninstall using Windows Add/Remove Programs

Some extensions are installed by other programs. You may be able to uninstall the extension from the Windows Control Panel:

Uninstalling manually

If you are unable to uninstall even in safe mode, the following steps can be taken to uninstall an extension manually:

  1. From the menu at the top of the Firefox windowbar, select FileFirefox and then select the ExitQuit FirefoxQuit menu item.
  2. Go to your Firefox profile folder - see How to find your profile.
  3. Open the extensions folder inside your profile folder.
  4. Each folder here corresponds to an extension. Often the names of the folders are obscured. For each folder:
    • Use a text editor (like NotepadGedit or KateTextEdit) to open the install.rdf file inside it.
    • Using your text editor's Find tool, search for the following text: 

em:name

    • If the name on that line corresponds to an extension you wish to remove, delete the whole folder.

Globally installed extensions

In rare cases, extensions are installed globally, into the Firefox installation folder. To remove a globally installed extension follow these steps:

  1. From the menu at the top of the Firefox windowbar, select FileFirefox and then select the ExitQuit FirefoxQuit menu item.
  2. Go to your Firefox installation folder.
  3. Go to the extensions folder inside the installation folder.
  4. Follow the steps above to locate the appropriate folder to delete.
Windows:

Extensions installed by other software

Sometimes installing or updating other software will add an extension which cannot be removed from within the Firefox Add-ons window because its Uninstall button is not functional.

The software that added the Firefox extension may include an option to remove it. You should visit the support site of the software provider for more information. As an alternative, simply disable the extension in the Firefox Add-ons window if you no longer wish to use it. To disable the extension, select it, then click on its Disable button. The extension will be disabled after you restart Firefox.

Windows:

Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant

If you have programs that use Microsoft .NET Framework components, a Microsoft update may have installed an extension called Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant.

To remove this extension, follow the instructions in Microsoft's article How to remove the .NET Framework Assistant for Firefox.

Windows:

Java Quick Starter

If you have Java software from Sun installed, you may see the Java Quick Starter extension in your list of extensions. This extension has its Uninstall button disabled.

To remove this extension, follow the instructions to disable the Java Quick Starter in Sun's Java Quick Starter article. You may need to close Firefox while executing those instructions.

When you restart Firefox, the Java Quick Starter extension will be removed.




Based on information from Uninstalling add-ons (mozillaZine KB)


Did this article solve a problem you had with Firefox?

Was this article easy to understand?



Page last modified on Tuesday 17 of November, 2009 23:56:34 PST.
Contributors to this page: Chris_Ilias , michro , underpass , Bo , AliceWyman and Cww .
- This is a support/troubleshooting article -