If an extension or theme cannot be uninstalled through the use of the Firefox Add-ons window (see Uninstalling Add-ons), the following steps may be tried.

Table Of Contents

• Uninstall from safe mode
• Uninstall using Windows Add/Remove Programs
• Uninstalling manually
• Globally installed extensions

Uninstall from safe mode

If you cannot access the Add-ons window or the uninstall button is grayed out, you may need to uninstall from 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).
   Firefox 3, Mac OS:

   Hold down the Option key, as you start Firefox.
   Firefox 2, Mac OS:

   Go to the Utilities directory (in the Applications folder) and open Terminal, then run:

   /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -safe-mode

   Go to your Terminal and run:

   /path/to/firefox/firefox -safe-mode

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 Vista) and then entering the following in the text field:
   

   firefox -safe-mode

With Firefox in safe mode, you may find that you are able now to uninstall certain add-ons following the steps in uninstalling add-ons.

Uninstalling manually

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

1. Open the Firefox profiles folder.
   • For more information, see profile folder.
2. If the Profiles folder contains multiple folders, open the folder for the active 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 (e.g. Notepad) 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. To remove a globally installed extension follow these steps:

1. Go to your Firefox installation folder.
2. Go to the extensions folder inside the installation folder.
3. Follow the steps above to locate the appropriate folder to delete.

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