Uninstalling add-ons

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The New Extension Manager

Extension Manager in Firefox 0.9+ and Thunderbird 0.7+ is capable of uninstalling extensions. It is available as Tools -> Extensions menu item.

If you can't uninstall an extension with the new EM, it means that:

  • The extension in question is "locked" (the uninstall button/menu item is disabled). An example of such extension is DOM Inspector. You'll have to unlock it before uninstalling.
  • The extension was not packaged for the new EM (it has a red "generic" icon or not listed in the EM at all). You'll have to uninstall it manually or using an extension uninstaller (see the sections below). The general recommendation is: create a new profile for Firefox 0.9 / Thunderbird 0.7 and only install repackaged extensions in it.
  • Or you've got bitten by a bug in the Extension Manager ("This item will be uninstalled after you restart Firefox" forever) and/or the extension in question was poorly packaged. Do not use uninstaller extensions in this case. Either start a new profile or try uninstalling manually (see section below).

Uninstalling manually

It's a good idea to make backups of the files/directories before deleting/changing anything to be able to restore the status quo in case anything goes wrong.

First, determine if the extension is installed in profile or in an appllication directory. For Firefox 0.9+/Thunderbird 0.7+ the default is profile installation.

Removing profile-installed extensions

You'll need to know the internal "short name" of the extension you're uninstalling. You can find it by searching for the full name in the chrome.rdf file (see below). "New EM" in the steps below refers to Mozilla Firefox 0.9 and above and Mozilla Thunderbird 0.7 and above.

  1. Exit Mozilla/Firefox/Thunderbird (make sure it is not listed in Task Manager[win])
  2. Browse to your Profile Folder.
  3. New EM: remove the Profile Folder\extensions\{extension-GUID} directory. You can find the GUID by looking in extensions.rdf file or by searching for [shortname].jar file in your Extensions directory.
    Mozilla: remove the Profile Folder\chrome\[shortname].jar file.
  4. Edit the Profile Folder\chrome\chrome.rdf file. Remove all entries referencing the extension being removed. The list of possible entries:
    • <RDF:li RDF:resource="urn:mozilla:package:[shortname]"/>
    • <RDF:li RDF:resource="urn:mozilla:locale:[locale]:[shortname]"/>
    • <RDF:li RDF:resource="urn:mozilla:skin:[skin]:[shortname]"/>
    • <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mozilla:["locale"/"skin"]:[locale/skin]:[shortname]"
                       c:baseURL="[path]">
        <c:package RDF:resource="urn:mozilla:package:[shortname]"/>
      </RDF:Description>
    • <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mozilla:package:[shortname]"
                       c:baseURL="[path]"
                       [a lot more info]>
        <c:selectedLocale RDF:resource="urn:mozilla:locale:[locale]:[shortname]"/>
        <c:selectedSkin RDF:resource="urn:mozilla:skin:[skin]:[shortname]"/>
      </RDF:Description>
  5. Edit files in Profile Folder\chrome\overlayinfo. Find those that contain [shortname] inside them and remove entries, that look like this:
    <RDF:li>chrome://[shortname]/[path/to/file]</RDF:li>
  6. New EM only. Edit Profile Folder\extensions\extensions.rdf. Remove the entry that looks like this:
    <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mozilla:extension:{[GUID]}"
                     em:name="QuickNote"
                     [more info]>
      [more info]
      <em:targetApplication RDF:resource="rdf:[junk]"/>
    </RDF:Description>
  7. New EM only? Edit components.ini and defaults.ini (TODO)
  8. compreg.dat and xul.mfl? (TODO)
  9. Optionally, remove extension-related prefs from prefs.js
  10. Also you might want to edit localstore.rdf, but it is unnecessary. Usually, UI options (windows position/size etc) are stored there.
  11. Some extensions create extra files on your hard drive. For example, Menu Editor stores its data in menuedit.rdf file in your profile, and TBE uses tabextensions.js. You might want to remove those too.

Removing a globally-installed extension

This section is outdated

  1. Exit Mozilla Firefox.
  2. Browse to the "chrome" directory of your Mozilla Firefox application directory.
  3. Delete "chrome.rdf" and the "overlayinfo" directory (they will regenerated on next Firefox startup).
  4. Delete [extensionname].jar (or the [extensionname] directory, if it has one).
  5. Remove every line with a reference to [extensionname] from "installed-chrome.txt". Usually there are two: one to the content and one to the locale.
  6. A few extensions might use additional files. TBE, for examplem has a "tabextensions.js" in "[/path/to/firefox]/defaults/pref/" to store its defaults in. Search through your application dir for such files and delete them.
  7. Restart Mozilla Firefox.


Uninstaller Extensions

These extensions are useful for Firefox (pre-0.9), Thunderbird (pre-0.7) and Mozilla Suite users.

Do not use these extensions if you get the "This item will be uninstalled after you restart Firefox" message (after uninstalling and restarting Firefox) in extension manager! Start a new profile or follow the steps in "Uninstalling manually" section instead.