Problems with ad blocker plus

Everything about using Adblock Plus on Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird and SeaMonkey
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Adblock Plus Fan
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Post by Adblock Plus Fan »

Newbie wrote:Maybe there are some problems with this extension in FF3 beta, but I think the rule (above) is still matching too often.
That rule was designed on purpose to match often. This is not adblock plus's fault.
Newbie wrote:I still see blockage due to this rule, which has a LOT of hits, so I don't want to disable it
It's a regexp rule, meaning it's likely to be slowing down your computer more than necessary.

It's probably from filtersetG so it's useless to edit it anyway. You should ask in his forum, he's not active here. http://www.pierceive.com/forum/index.php

You don't need filtersetG's rules if you have Easylist, which I personally think is better.
Newbie wrote:So I had to open it via the menu. Then, the "Edit" rule (Enter) doesn't work in FF3. It brings up the main AdBlock Options dialog, and the problem rule is not shown/selected/highlighted.
http://adblockplus.org/images/72.png
You can access the blockable items list this way.
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rick752
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Post by rick752 »

WOW :shock:

That is a pretty long regexp. Where did you get THAT from? Looks like if you disabled that one it would take out half your blocking ability. Is that from Filterset.G?

Regexps are not recommended in ABP. They don't process well in ABP's architecture, are confusing to the average user, and problems cannot be located and adjusted very easy at all (as you can see).

'Simple' filter rules are much better (like in most subscriptions recommended here):
http://adblockplus.org/en/subscriptions
Newbie

Post by Newbie »

The plot thickens...

OK, that super-long rule is not part of "EasyList (USA)". But how did I get it?

I think it's related to FF3 beta recommending the extension. I was in Tools | AddOns, and it recommended AdBlock Plus. So I installed from the recommendation tab in FF3. After installing, I was prompted to select 1 of ~6 filtersets. There were 6 radio buttons, the first one was "EasyList (USA)", which I selected.

I just uninstalled and re-installed, and now AdBlock is installed with no rules at all -- perhaps this is the normal case.

This all makes me think that the recommendation from FF3 somehow installed AdBlock plus with some default rules. The install URL was this:
https://addons.mozilla.org/downloads/fi ... +sm+fl.xpi
and not
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

Does this make any sense?
Newbie

Post by Newbie »

FYI: before uninstalling, I noticed that super-long regexp rule under "Advertisement filters". Below that was "EasyList (USA)". So I'm not sure what the "Advertisement filters" section means -- but for a while, I didn't even think "EasyList" was installed since it was so far down below.

Anyway, after uninstalling and re-installing, the "Advertisement filters" section is now gone, and all is working well.
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rick752
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Post by rick752 »

"Advertisement filters" are either yours .. or were imported from the old Adblock (not plus) if you had that installed before.

Outside of that, anything under 'Advertisement filters' are not part of ABP or any subscription.

Glad you got it cleaned up. :)
Newbie

Post by Newbie »

Yes, I had been using AdBlock for a while before installing AdBlock Plus.

I wish AdBlockPlus had asked me before importing my buggy AdBlock rules. Seems risky. It prompted me to choose a new filterset, so it's odd that it also imported my old one.

Anyway, thanks for helping me troubleshoot. I learned a lot.
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rick752
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Post by rick752 »

Wladimir thought it would be best to do that at the time as subscriptions didn't exist then.
He decided that it wouldn't be fair not to import people's existing filters into Adblock Plus if they were simply 'upgrading' from the old Adblock.

Maybe this method needs to be looked at again.
Wladimir Palant

Post by Wladimir Palant »

Usually, if the user added filters he will also want to keep them when upgrading. Biggest problem should be Filterset.G, when it is used with Adblock there is no way to distinguish filters from Filterset.G from user's own filters. Maybe Adblock Plus should just check for Filterset.G and offer to uninstall it as well as not import the filters in that situation.
Newbie

Post by Newbie »

Could the user be prompted?

When I installed AdBlock Plus from the Firefox 3 recommendation area, I received a friendly prompt that let me choose my filters. (I chose EasyList USA.) That prompt could also give the option to import AdBlock rules, perhaps with a caution message.

When I re-installed AdBlock Plus from the Add-On website, I was NOT prompted to choose a filterset.

The prompting was a much better user experience, to me.

(Again, thanks for all your help! ABP is now working great with Filterset.G gone.)
Shawn

serious issues with my favorite add on

Post by Shawn »

Just a few days ago I started having problems with Firefox hanging up (or even crashing) LITERALLY every 5 minutes. After much stress and research I was able to figure out that it was Adblock Plus that was causing this problem. I had to completely uninstall Firefox (i am running the latest FF 2.0.0.13), delete ALL profiles from the Local and Roaming folders, reinstall, replace all my live bookmarks (what a pain) and now it seems to be working fine. I absolutely LOVE Adblock Plus and the thought of getting on without it is pretty depressing. What can I do to fix this? I really love this add on and I would love to put it back on my machine, but the ads it blocks are less of a nuisance than my browser crashing every five minutes. Help?
Shawn
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Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2008 5:33 am

Post by Shawn »

The previous post was by me. I am now a registered member and am anxiously awaiting a fix to this issue.
Thanks in advance for any help/advice!
IceDogg
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Post by IceDogg »

Could you explain how you figured out that Adblock Plus was the problem. I'm not jumping to the defense of Adblock Plus here, it would be a help to know what steps you took to determine that it was Adblock Plus.

Because you said after you removed Adblock Plus you uninstalled Firefox and all profiles and restarted from scratch. At that point if something else in your profile (another extension/add-on or a setting) was causing the issue it would have been removed too. So, that's not a good way to determine that Adblock Plus was the cause.. that's why I ask.

Again, I'm not trying to say 'oh no way Adblock Plus could cause this' I'm just looking for clarification on how you was 'able to figure out that it was Adblock Plus'. Please don't take it the wrong way.

Something else to consider. You could backup your profile then install Adblock Plus and see if it still works. If it starts acting up again, you could then restore the backup and that would make it like you never installed Adblock Plus. Restoring is pretty easy to do and I think there is directions there in the link about making backups I just gave you. Let me know if you need more links on doing a restore.
Shawn
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Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2008 5:33 am

Post by Shawn »

No problem, I'll try to explain a little more fully. I originally did a completely new reinstall of Firefox as illustrated above, and after making sure it was working fine, reinstalled Adblock Plus because it is my favorite extension. The problem started happening again. This has happened on both my work machine and at home. Here at home I have an Acer laptop running Vista, and at work I use a Dell desktop running Windows XP. Last night I did the completely fresh reinstall all over again, and only added Adblock Plus and the problem was still there. But after reading some info on the "Problematic Extensions" page here:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problematic_extensions
I began to get suspicious of ol' faithful Adblock Plus and decided to do the reinstall One More Time and NOT install Adblock Plus. No more issues. When I get to work today I will go through the same reinstall procedure that I did with my home comp last night, and I will post my results here.

Also, any time I have tried to back up my profile I using the directions above I am stopped short at the "run" command, my computer telling me the file I'm looking for doesn't exist. I keep a list of my Live Bookmarks handy and just re-add them when I have to go through this reinstall process.

I also saw a thread about "firefox crashing every five minutes" at the Mozilla Official Forums (beta) where other people were having similar issues, and one poster said after they removed Adblock Plus the problem went away. Due to a heavy-duty spam attack the other day, that thread has been deleted.

I'll post again when I have more info.
Shawn
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Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2008 5:33 am

Confirmed

Post by Shawn »

I just went through the same Total Clean Reinstall process here at work and Firefox works just fine, without Adblock Plus :(
IceDogg
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Joined: Fri Jun 09, 2006 11:22 pm

Post by IceDogg »

Ok, thanks for explaining Shawn. Have you tried the development builds? That's what I use on the nightlys and they (development builds) are stable from what I can tell. Worth a try, if you haven't already tried it.
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