13 ms·

Firefox Multi-Account Containers

542 points by rahuldottech 7y ago

brian_herman__ 7y ago
This has been released a long time ago. The documentation is from 2018. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/containers https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/containers
skykooler 7y ago
Is there any way to run this on mobile Firefox? I've loved this on desktop and installed firefox on my Android tablet but this addon shows as "not available".
- jethro_tell 7y ago
  I don't think so, I am set up on mobile to use a password safe for account login, then I delete all cookies and state on log out. So when the browser opens, there's usually nothing in it, and then the signing for the site I want to go to is auto filled making login pretty simple, then I quit on close. That's the best I've been able to do so far.
  - groovybits 7y ago
    It sounds like your workflow could be replaced with Firefox Focus: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/focus https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/focus Available for Android and iOS.
    - skykooler 7y ago
      Focus is great, but it doesn't handle the use case of having multiple accounts for a site that you don't have to sign in each time to use. Otherwise it's basically a fancy "private browsing" window.
dddddaviddddd 7y ago
For privacy, I use first-party isolation. The effect is that all domains get their own container. In day-to-day use I haven't seen any sites that don't work with it enabled. https://www.ctrl.blog/entry/firefox-fpi.html https://www.ctrl.blog/entry/firefox-fpi.html
- k__ 7y ago
  I found it quite confusing. Some sites wouldn't be opened in the right container, probably because of some domain shenanigans. Also, it didn't work on mobile.
  - dddddaviddddd 7y ago
    Are you referring to the multi-container extension? With first-party isolation there's no visual indication of containers. It seems to work on mobile for me (FF Android 68.4.1).
- DavideNL 7y ago
  One step further: 'Temporary Containers', it trashes the container when you close the tab: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-containers/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-con... Specified sites can still be opened in specific containers, and not be trashed.
  - jackinloadup 7y ago
    I use Temporary Containers all day. Love this addon. This is fantastic not only for privacy/security for everyday use but also great for testing sites while doing development. It becomes really easy to be logged into all the different types of users in a website at the same time and see the interaction.
    - romaaeterna 7y ago
      Agreed. I have mine in automatic mode. My default browsing experience is that most pages have never seen my computer before (at least as far as cookies go), and don't get to set anything that will stick around, unless I manually add them to a named container.
hosh 7y ago
I use this less for privacy and more for being able to keep all the different account signins straight. I wish there were support in the bookmark where I can define which bookmark targets which container.
- floatingatoll 7y ago
  (3 months ago) https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/323#issuecomment-546400346 https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/3... > With #1537, our next release starts to address container-bookmark integration & UX. As @MichaelTunnell points out, it does not solve ALL of the container-bookmark UX requests in this issue, or in #854 #1142 and #1443. > Container-bookmark UX is a big project, and some of the solutions will require changes in Firefox itself. Any changes here could introduce tricky bugs both in technical integration and in UX flows.
  - hosh 7y ago
    Yup. I am waiting for that to happen. In the meantime, I have been using a hacky work-around that more or less does the core thing that I want: quickly open up a specific bookmark in a specific container. (Actually adding it into the bookmarks and syncing across devices is a pain, but not as painful as not being able to open up bookmarks into specific containers).
    - floatingatoll 7y ago
      Are you using the addon on AMO for “Open Bookmark In Container”?
- Thasc 7y ago
  Same here. I have a work GitHub account, and a personal GitHub account, and am signed into each in a different container. Saves constant logging out and in, or using different browsers for each.
lukewrites 7y ago
What are your favorite ways of setting up containers? At home I have the following containers, each with separate cookies: Banking - all finance related stuff facebook twitter amazon - Amazon + AWS + Zappos Google - google, gmail, maps
- jethro_tell 7y ago
  I have a container for each of my prod AWS Accounts. I do a lot of infra work, so being able to compare different accounts, and have them all signed in at once is nice.
- CarelessExpert 7y ago
  I have containers for: Banking, Google (and the few places where I use Google as my SSO provider), Work, and then a general "I'm Signed In" container. I also use the Temporary Containers extension for added privacy, though it's... still pretty rough around the edges, particularly when dealing with sites that use SSO (since kicking out to an OAuth provider causes a new temporary container to be opened, which then messes up the auth flow).
  - lukewrites 7y ago
    Hadn't heard of Temporary Containers before, I'll have to check it out.
- tomashubelbauer 7y ago
  I have a container per domain of sites that I visit regularly. Right now I'm at about 40 containera.
- mikece 7y ago
  Or if you're a consultant working on mobile apps for different clients, having separate containers for each client allows you to be in all of the client's Google Play Console at the same time in one browser. (Or in multiple accounts/logins of Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, Outlook, etc...)
msoloviev 7y ago
I made a fork of this that gives you some additional control over how links are treated - specifically, you can set it up different rules for what container to open a page in depending on what container it was opened from: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/containers-with-transitions/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/containers-wi... The rationale is that you rarely want pages that you open from random Facebook posts or Reddit submissions, or pages that you arrive at by following more links from those, to have access to your Facebook or Reddit login information.
- Krasnol 7y ago
  Perfect! This is the functionality I've been looking for. I already had a container addon for Amazon and Facebook for this which should be unnecessary and with your fork it is. Thank you.
- akerro 7y ago
  Ymm this should be included in the official version. Tried making merge request?
- golf1052 7y ago
  This seems really similar to the Facebook container (made by Mozilla, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-container/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-cont...) and the Google container (a fork of the previous, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-container/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-contai...) The annoying thing about your extension is that the end-user would need to know about and update the domains they want to keep isolated. It would be great if all these extensions/features were built into the original extension and there were updating isolation lists similar to the uBlock Origin lists (EasyList, Peter Lowe's list, etc.).
- skrowl 7y ago
  Conex (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/conex/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/conex/) has an option that allows the user to select container for incoming links
babak_ap 7y ago
Pair it with "containerise" (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/containerise/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/containerise/ ). With containerise, you can easily edit a text file (host, container name) to create/edit/backup multiple containers.
- nickthemagicman 7y ago
  This is great!
- jaylittle 7y ago
  I was hoping somebody would share the news about this addon and I'm glad that I wasn't disappointed!
- captn3m0 7y ago
  Does it sync this across multiple machines? Can I export/import this list?
  - babak_ap 7y ago
    Unfortunately, it doesn't sync. You can copy the text anywhere (e.g. email to yourself!) and use it elsewhere; it's still a much better UX compared to the built-in functionality.
no_protocol 7y ago
I can forgive the somewhat limited user interface for setting these up that is in the stock add-on, but the lack of automatic syncing of rules to all computers with the same Firefox account is really frustrating to deal with. Putting in the effort to get them all set up nicely and then having them either blown away (I think this happened once...) or needing to get that over to another computer has made me limit my use to fewer containers than I probably would otherwise use.
- alyandon 7y ago
  That particular bug (having my container setup get blown away) has happened to me several times along with other bugs like not properly restoring tabs in the designated container when you restart FF to apply an update. Bugs like that would be forgivable if they'd at least provide a way to export/import setups.
- t0mk 7y ago
  There's a plugin for exporting the rules https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/containers-sync/?src=collection https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/containers-sy...
- briffle 7y ago
  There is a plugin that will sync the actual containers, but it doesn't sync your rules you setup to always open site X in your personal container, etc. Without that, its useless to me. There is a bugzilla [0] for it, and 3 years ago, it was said they were going to look more into it, and nothing really since.. Its frustrating. [0] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1288858 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1288858
  - groovecoder 7y ago
    M-A-C dev here ... We're actually pretty deep into the work of adding sync to M-A-C. https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/pull/1611 https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/pull/161... Predictably, synchronizing data is complicated, so it's taking a while and we're trying to do it in a way that doesn't destroy any existing data. So we'll be doing some heavy internal testing on it before we release it. But it's definitely coming.
m-p-3 7y ago
I wish that containers would be transferable in Firefox Sync accross systems.
dang 7y ago
A big thread from 2017: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15256603 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15256603
dmachop 7y ago
This was long time ago. It does compartmentalize the browsing info but the history is still accessible with other containers. For example, a Shopping container should have its own history. (https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/47 https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/4...)
- rozab 7y ago
  If I wanted to completely separate things like this I would use multiple different profiles. The advantage of the extension is that your history, settings, etc remains constant across the containers.
  - anonymousab 7y ago
    Profiles are unfortunately much more cumbersome to use than in Chrome. The UX that container tabs have - being able to use them in the same Windows as other tabs, with accessible open-in options from the tab bar and from various context menus; creating new containers as easily as specifying a name and no more - is the UX that I wish Firefox had for their profiles.
wslh 7y ago
Nostalgic mode: I created a Firefox extension 11 years ago enabling users to have cookie containers by a tab (even when the Firefox API didn't enable this, it was basically a hack). Submitted the extension to the Firefox extend contest but not even a mention there. You can check an old video [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pfg-kJ4nAw&fmt=18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pfg-kJ4nAw&fmt=18
mikece 7y ago
Easily one of the most useful extensions I've ever used in any browser. My only annoyance with it is that One Tab -- www.one-tab.com -- doesn't remember in which container to re-open saved tabs. I really wish this feature would be implemented in Safari, Edge, and Chrome.
sebazzz 7y ago
Firefox Multi-Account contains are awesome for software development and testing! At my work we usually work at tools which have three roles: user, reviewer, administrator so I generally have three containers for these user accounts. This means I can be logged in with all the accounts I need for testing in the same web browser without resorting to private mode (which does not remember cookies between sessions anyway). In addition, I use the temporary container add-on[0] which also uses containers, but throws them away after being used (like reference counting). These two tools have seriously improved my ability to both develop and test applications without the hassle of logging out and logging in all the time or needing any tricks when needing multiple clean browsing sessions. [0]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-containers/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-con...
- ssklash 7y ago
  Thanks for this tip. It will come in super useful during web app penetration tests, being able to have sessions with multiple users open at the same time.
- greggyb 7y ago
  I have to agree with you on temporary containers. I spend most of my time in temporary containers. I trade the annoyance of having cookie popups literally every time I visit a page for not actually having to worry about the impact of those cookies. I have it configured such that middle-click opens links in new containers, and left-click opens in the current container.
  - NoMoreBro 7y ago
    For annoying cookies popups you can try this https://addons.mozilla.org/it/firefox/addon/i-dont-care-about-cookies/ https://addons.mozilla.org/it/firefox/addon/i-dont-care-abou...
    - Red_Leaves_Flyy 7y ago
      Or just use ublocks existing filters that catch these...
acdha 7y ago
This a really useful extension for working with multiple cloud service accounts (e.g. AWS assumes a global session, GCP theoretically supports multiple logins but it's in the usual Google NOQA zone where many things break) but there's a really important limitation to know about: the container configuration isn't synchronized with your account. This means that if anything reset your Firefox profile (like that bug they had last year) or if you use multiple computers, you'll be spending a lot of time duplicating the configuration: See https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/339 https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/3...
srathi 7y ago
Almost useless as it doesn't sync the settings and containers as part of Firefox sync. Setting these up on all the devices is a pain!
- j0hnM1st 7y ago
  well, Since I care about them so much that I am now taking backup of the Profile and shipping them across machines ...
groovybits 7y ago
I love this feature... on one machine at a time. Without a built-in sync feature, I continue to use the simplest form of cookie management: Private Windows. I know there's been some discussion on sync: https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/339 https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/3.... As of Dec 2019, it looks like some traction will be coming to syncing just Containers and Site Assignments (which I believe would perfectly suffice most basic needs). If anyone really wanted to keep an eye on sync, I'm guessing these features will be committed to their syncserver, when available: https://github.com/mozilla-services/syncserver https://github.com/mozilla-services/syncserver.
- jtdev 7y ago
  Same here, love this feature and use it daily! Hoping for a sync capability in the near future.
baggy_trough 7y ago
These are pretty good, but the Chrome implementation is better. Specific complaints: - can't tie a bookmark to a container. - too many clicks to open a new tab in a container (in Chrome the whole window stays tied to the container, not just the tab) - bookmarks and history aren't container-scoped.
- baggy_trough 7y ago
  Also, it's annoying and a bit scary (for bugs) that this is an extension rather than being built into the browser.
  - jdlshore 7y ago
    It is built into the browser. The extension is just the UI to access it.
    - baggy_trough 7y ago
      I have to install an extension to use it. With Chrome, I do not.
  - dralley 7y ago
    It's an extension written by Mozilla that is using APIs built into the browser. The extension is just a bit of UI to make the feature accessible.
    - baggy_trough 7y ago
      I understand that, but why is it done that way? It's extra work to install it, and the fact that it's an extension probably means that it's not tested as well as normal browser UI. I really hate using extensions because I like to keep my software plain vanilla as possible to avoid strange bugs.
      - dralley 7y ago
        Because it's not the sort of feature that 90% of Firefox users would care much about. If you aren't aware of what it is and managed to accidentally activate it, you'd probably get really confused why you had to keep logging back into facebook.
deleted 7y ago
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ffcontti 7y ago
An alternative is to use firejail. If you want temp profiles you can write a script that: - copies a good initial profile to /dev/shm - launches Firefox in firejail with —private that points to the dir - delete the dir If you want the containers to stick around you can avoid /dev/shm and keep the dirs around instead.
CivBase 7y ago
I really really want support for multiple browser profiles in Firefox. Multi-Account Containers are cool, but they don't allow me to change my bookmarks or browser extensions. This is the only thing left Chrome has over Firefox that I honestly care about. The profile manager (about:profiles) comes so close, but it's just not as elegant as Chrome. Starting Firefox with the profile manager also causes issues when the OS tries to open another Firefox instance. They have a Firefox sync profile badge now. Just give me the option in that menu to open a new Firefox instance with another profile. And when the OS tries to open a webpage, just use the default profile - or even whatever profile I opened a page with last.
- Someone1234 7y ago
  Every time this comes up, everyone always dismisses it by just pointing to about:profile or the launch flags, but in my opinion those are weak excuses. Chrome made profiles a first class citizen and they're an absolute pleasure to use. I literally use them every day. Firefox having a bunch of buried half baked UI isn't really an answer to that. I believe Firefox is a better browser overall. Only this (profiles), the terrible bookmark/history experience (wtf is that?), and the developer bar are the remaining weaknesses.
  - lovebigmacs 7y ago
    The entire Library, Bookmarks/History/the archaic Downloads popup, all just makes me immensely sad. Meanwhile I keep seeing more badges (Pocket, Screenshots, Lockwise, etc) crap popping up in the browser UX... To add on to what you're pointing out -- they even cloned Chrome's "profile-icon-in-the-bar" model, but didn't actually give you the ability to switch profiles with it! Instead more places to shove more links that I forgot about - Firefox Monitor and Firefox Send.
    - anonymousab 7y ago
      The history and bookmark management also has some unfortunate performance issues. I'm fairly certain there's a memory leak or something as well, as deleting several thousand entries at once (say, via 'forget this site' menu options) effectively breaks the browser until restart even when it has finished the operation. A comment in the bugzilla for this issue[1] seems to suggest that they'd like to rewrite History at the very least. So it's on the priority list somewhere. [1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.com/show_bug.cgi?id=734643 https://bugzilla.mozilla.com/show_bug.cgi?id=734643
jokoon 7y ago
I have been using this for a while now, it's pretty good, but I always had trouble separating Gmail and Google search. It's necessary to add accounts.google.com and mail.google.com I think I can't isolate Google search to ours own container. I'm also using strict setting and cookies are cleared when Firefox is closed, and Gmail and accounts domain are white listed. The UI of this addon could be a little better.
- usr1106 7y ago
  Do you want to be logged in while using Google search? I don't. So I have 2 Google containers (work + private) where I am logged in for Gmail, Drive etc. But search, maps, etc. I do in a 3rd container. Yeah, you cannot blindly follow all links, but that doesn't bother me too much.
  - jokoon 7y ago
    I don't want to be logged in when searching.
jcoffland 7y ago
Nice. Now my wife and I can both stay logged in to our email. I've wanted this feature for 15 years. Now, bring multi row tabs back and FF will be awesome again.
- JaRail 7y ago
  Have you considered just creating multiple windows/mac accounts? Since you can switch without having to log off, it's really convenient. I understand partners sharing accounts and such but it's really just a better workflow/experience IMHO.
- BuckRogers 7y ago
  Another option is setting Firefox to open the profile manager[0]. That's what I've always done when I don't want to use multiple accounts on the machine itself. [0]https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles?redirectlocale=en-US&redirectslug=profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-...
lovebigmacs 7y ago
I would happily donate a thousand dollars towards seeing MAC integrated as a first-rate feature. As-is, I have a massive love-hate relationship with it. 1. I'm horrified using Chrome these days. Browsing to a random site and having my Google account avatar pop up and offer to log me in is really unacceptable. So I fundamentally love what MAC provides. (Though some of this is also Firefox's aggressive cookie options.) 2. It's ridiculously buggy. "Reopen in Container Tab" often reloads in the exact same container. Trust me, I've checked the various bits of configuration that control defaulting certain domains to certain containers, there are just times that it does the wrong thing. 3. The config is hard to backup? I gave up last time I tried. It's a lot of work to get all of the domains setup to open in certain containers, establish the naming/coloring conventions so that it's not a mental burden.... and then have to lose it when I'm inevitably told that somehow Linux performance will be magically better if I make a new profile. Example usages: multiple "personas". I have a Google Suite account and domain for certain things. I don't have issues switching between Google accounts because to Google, I'm only ever logged into one at a time. Dev/Test purposes.
skrowl 7y ago
Firefox Multi-Account Containers are impossible to go back from once you get used to them. Add in Conex (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/conex/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/conex/) and you have really great tab group switching WITH containerization / "firewall" between containers. You can't get anywhere near this with Chrome as far as I'm aware.
- molszanski 7y ago
  Chrome Profiles. Sadly, way better IMO
  - zhynn 7y ago
    I like profiles, use them all day long, but I wish there was a container-like way to isolate sub-profile tabs. Similar to the "facebook container" or being able to have multiple aws account sub-containers in my "work" profile. It's something I wish I could do.
  - _nedR 7y ago
    Far inferior IMO. Containers are incredibly lightweight compared to opening a separate profile. I would say Firefox profiles are more cumbersome to use than chromes..
- ponsfrilus 7y ago
  I do like https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/simple-tab-groups/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/simple-tab-gr... which have similar features.
Dig1t 7y ago
I love Firefox Multi-Account containers! My only complaint (and really this is my biggest gripe with Firefox in general) is that there is no support for syncing containers using your Firefox account. This means every time I set up a new computer I have to reconfigure my containers and for each computer I have to re-associate all the sites I have sandbox with their own containers. This is such a huge pain. Other than that, I love it.
- f00_ 7y ago
  yes, can't believe it doesn't support syncing
- wiether 7y ago
  It's also a great issue for me since I have to reconfigure everything. I don't know how the Firefox account works but the fact that FMAC is an extension and not natively included in Firefox may be explaining why it's not synced ?
deleted 7y ago
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sleavey 7y ago
Does it work with Firefox Sync yet? That's the only thing stopping me from using containers - I've got multiple machines I would need to sync containers between. Last time I checked (admittedly a few years ago) it didn't and it seemed unlikely to be added any time soon.
zimaalsu 7y ago
I'd prefer using https://gologinapp.com/ https://gologinapp.com/ or another antidetect browser. It's much more comfortable
nvahalik 7y ago
I love MACs. A couple of caveats, though: * If you disable Multi-Account Containers at ANY TIME, all of your configuration will be gone. So, don't ever disable it. Or just be prepared. * They don't sync with Firefox Sync. * I use Alfred and in some of my workflows, when I have URLs that are designed to always open in a particular container, FF just won't open the URL. /shrug * Always opening URLs depends on the URL. This works great for apps which give you account-specific URLs (e.g. Harvest, Jira, other services...) but doesn't work at all for stuff like Gmail or Drive. I wish there was a way to get FF to ask you how you want to open a URL like that.
rudolph9 7y ago
This is awesome!
maciekmm 7y ago
Shameless plug. If You want a sidebar with tabs grouped by containers, I developed an addon for it: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/container-tabs-sidebar/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/container-tab...
j0hnM1st 7y ago
The biggest drawback with Multi-Account containers is that they don't sync with the Firefox Sync. I have an elaborate and carefully crafted set of containers. I even have one for TheGuradian where I am allowing ads but the moment a new machine is added to the workflow all is lost.
rcarmo 7y ago
I love this and use it daily but am sad that they don’t sync between machines (and the discussion over at https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/339 https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/3... is a bit disenhartening)
- roca 7y ago
  Why disheartening? There's a comment from a Mozilla developer in December saying they're planning to work on it.
  - rcarmo 7y ago
    It's been open since 2017, and it took many waves of commenting before they took action. For a privacy-oriented browser, that's a bit late.
princevegeta89 7y ago
This is the answer to nasty crawlers and trackers that are planted away by pretty much all sites like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter etc. etc. The simplicity of these Containers really amazes me.
molszanski 7y ago
While nice, sadly, Chrome Profiles are a way better implementation. Chrome profiles is the only reason why I am using chrome as a daily driver.
flurdy 7y ago
I recently started using the multi-account container addon. And I love it. Just before I also started using Mozilla's Facebook container[1] and it works as intended as well. I know supercookies and other fingerprinting means I am probably being tracked still, but at least I am minimising it without going full time incognito. Previously I was using Profiles to separate personal, work and clients, and though about:profiles help switching quicker it was still messy, and confusing which profile a link would open in etc. Now I can separate Facebook, Google products and Amazon into their own containers. I can keep various client browsing separate from my personal, I can keep more suspect websites in its own container, finance, infrastructure etc. Love it. * [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/facebook-container/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/facebook-cont...
thiagomgd 7y ago
I though they had discontinued it. Are they back at it?
mattlondon 7y ago
I have been using this on desktop for sometime now and really like it. I recently changed to using Firefox on Android and it seems some extensions like this one are not compatible which is a real shame. I wish that this was compatible with Firefox mobile
davnicwil 7y ago
A fantastic feature, but has a really frustrating UX issue still not fixed which is that you can't auto open a 'homepage' site for a new container tab, so say for example you have a container for one specific site, you have to open a new container tab and then open that site using a bookmark or similar. What you can do is have a certain site auto open in a specific container, that way you can just go to the site from a bookmark, link, the address bar etc and it is just one step, but this breaks when you have more than one account on the same site and want a container for each. If anyone does know a workaround for this, or knows if there's a fix coming, would be really interested to hear!
perfectstorm 7y ago
I use this and for the most part it works just fine. The other day I ran into a problem where it got into this loop and I ended up making Chrome as my default browser just to get around this issue. The issue is when you've an app that needs Google authentication and it opens the browser. To be more specific, I was trying to log in on Postman using the web authentication option. It opened my default browser (Firefox) just fine but it opened my other container (Work) which is not associated with my Google login. When i asked it to re-open the page in the other container (Personal), it lost all the redirect information and wouldn't let me continue back to Postman. I swear I had this same issue with another app but can't recall its name. I suppose i could workaround this issue by having my personal container handle all the postman links but it seems like too many steps to get one thing.
rsync 7y ago
Are these useful yet ? I am very excited about this feature and have tried to incorporate it into my workflow but find it very difficult. I want to open a window (not tab) as a particular profile, and then all subsequent tabs in that window are of that same profile. This would seem to be the basic, beginning use-case from which all other use-cases would follow. I don't know why it doesn't exist ...
- baggy_trough 7y ago
  Yes, that would be much better. That's the way Chrome personas work.
  - _nedR 7y ago
    Firefox's equivalent of personas is profiles...
    - baggy_trough 7y ago
      What is the user interface like for Firefox profiles?
      - _nedR 7y ago
        You can judge for yourself by typing 'firefox -P -no-remote'. Right there, having to use the terminal , has already made it more clunkier than Chromium's solution. Admittedly, Firefox profiles are clunkier to launch & manage - like a hidden feature that has rebuffed all my attempts to streamline their management, as if by design. This can be remedied by use of desktop shortcuts (You can create separate shortcuts for different profiles) but then you have to also deal with the idiosyncrasies of your Desktop Environment (Gnome in my case :/) . Once its launched its pretty much like running to separate firefox instances in your system with separate bookmarks, histories, settings, addons - like in Chrome. So it is a lot more heavier than containers as a result. Which is why i think the 2 functionalities shouldn't me unified like people in the comments seem to be asking. Similar to Threads vs processes. We need both.
dev_urandom 7y ago
Qubes. It's the only way to be sure.
anthony_barker 7y ago
This plus destroy all cookies and accounts on shutdown... and for the international set Language switch! Any want to automatically regenerate fingerprinting randomness? Sites please enable 2FA and not require Captchas!
znpy 7y ago
I still think that firefox profiles are better.
njacobs5074 7y ago
I agree, this feature is awesome for development. One of the logging platforms we use (PaperTrail) uses a single cookie for connecting to their platform. This in turn, makes it a complete pain if I want to view logs for a dev/staging instance because it logs me out of our live logs. Multi-Account Containers completely fixed this for me.

542 points by rahuldottech 7y ago

This has been released a long time ago. The documentation is from 2018. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/containers https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/containers

skykooler 7y ago

Is there any way to run this on mobile Firefox? I've loved this on desktop and installed firefox on my Android tablet but this addon shows as "not available".

jethro_tell 7y ago
I don't think so, I am set up on mobile to use a password safe for account login, then I delete all cookies and state on log out. So when the browser opens, there's usually nothing in it, and then the signing for the site I want to go to is auto filled making login pretty simple, then I quit on close. That's the best I've been able to do so far.
- groovybits 7y ago
  It sounds like your workflow could be replaced with Firefox Focus: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/focus https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/focus Available for Android and iOS.
  - skykooler 7y ago
    Focus is great, but it doesn't handle the use case of having multiple accounts for a site that you don't have to sign in each time to use. Otherwise it's basically a fancy "private browsing" window.

dddddaviddddd 7y ago

For privacy, I use first-party isolation. The effect is that all domains get their own container. In day-to-day use I haven't seen any sites that don't work with it enabled. https://www.ctrl.blog/entry/firefox-fpi.html https://www.ctrl.blog/entry/firefox-fpi.html

k__ 7y ago
I found it quite confusing. Some sites wouldn't be opened in the right container, probably because of some domain shenanigans. Also, it didn't work on mobile.
- dddddaviddddd 7y ago
  Are you referring to the multi-container extension? With first-party isolation there's no visual indication of containers. It seems to work on mobile for me (FF Android 68.4.1).
DavideNL 7y ago
One step further: 'Temporary Containers', it trashes the container when you close the tab: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-containers/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-con... Specified sites can still be opened in specific containers, and not be trashed.
- jackinloadup 7y ago
  I use Temporary Containers all day. Love this addon. This is fantastic not only for privacy/security for everyday use but also great for testing sites while doing development. It becomes really easy to be logged into all the different types of users in a website at the same time and see the interaction.
  - romaaeterna 7y ago
    Agreed. I have mine in automatic mode. My default browsing experience is that most pages have never seen my computer before (at least as far as cookies go), and don't get to set anything that will stick around, unless I manually add them to a named container.

hosh 7y ago

I use this less for privacy and more for being able to keep all the different account signins straight. I wish there were support in the bookmark where I can define which bookmark targets which container.

floatingatoll 7y ago
(3 months ago) https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/323#issuecomment-546400346 https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/3... > With #1537, our next release starts to address container-bookmark integration & UX. As @MichaelTunnell points out, it does not solve ALL of the container-bookmark UX requests in this issue, or in #854 #1142 and #1443. > Container-bookmark UX is a big project, and some of the solutions will require changes in Firefox itself. Any changes here could introduce tricky bugs both in technical integration and in UX flows.
- hosh 7y ago
  Yup. I am waiting for that to happen. In the meantime, I have been using a hacky work-around that more or less does the core thing that I want: quickly open up a specific bookmark in a specific container. (Actually adding it into the bookmarks and syncing across devices is a pain, but not as painful as not being able to open up bookmarks into specific containers).
  - floatingatoll 7y ago
    Are you using the addon on AMO for “Open Bookmark In Container”?
Thasc 7y ago
Same here. I have a work GitHub account, and a personal GitHub account, and am signed into each in a different container. Saves constant logging out and in, or using different browsers for each.

lukewrites 7y ago

What are your favorite ways of setting up containers? At home I have the following containers, each with separate cookies: Banking - all finance related stuff facebook twitter amazon - Amazon + AWS + Zappos Google - google, gmail, maps

jethro_tell 7y ago
I have a container for each of my prod AWS Accounts. I do a lot of infra work, so being able to compare different accounts, and have them all signed in at once is nice.
CarelessExpert 7y ago
I have containers for: Banking, Google (and the few places where I use Google as my SSO provider), Work, and then a general "I'm Signed In" container. I also use the Temporary Containers extension for added privacy, though it's... still pretty rough around the edges, particularly when dealing with sites that use SSO (since kicking out to an OAuth provider causes a new temporary container to be opened, which then messes up the auth flow).
- lukewrites 7y ago
  Hadn't heard of Temporary Containers before, I'll have to check it out.
tomashubelbauer 7y ago
I have a container per domain of sites that I visit regularly. Right now I'm at about 40 containera.
mikece 7y ago
Or if you're a consultant working on mobile apps for different clients, having separate containers for each client allows you to be in all of the client's Google Play Console at the same time in one browser. (Or in multiple accounts/logins of Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, Outlook, etc...)

msoloviev 7y ago

I made a fork of this that gives you some additional control over how links are treated - specifically, you can set it up different rules for what container to open a page in depending on what container it was opened from: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/containers-with-transitions/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/containers-wi... The rationale is that you rarely want pages that you open from random Facebook posts or Reddit submissions, or pages that you arrive at by following more links from those, to have access to your Facebook or Reddit login information.

Krasnol 7y ago
Perfect! This is the functionality I've been looking for. I already had a container addon for Amazon and Facebook for this which should be unnecessary and with your fork it is. Thank you.
akerro 7y ago
Ymm this should be included in the official version. Tried making merge request?
golf1052 7y ago
This seems really similar to the Facebook container (made by Mozilla, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-container/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-cont...) and the Google container (a fork of the previous, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-container/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-contai...) The annoying thing about your extension is that the end-user would need to know about and update the domains they want to keep isolated. It would be great if all these extensions/features were built into the original extension and there were updating isolation lists similar to the uBlock Origin lists (EasyList, Peter Lowe's list, etc.).
skrowl 7y ago
Conex (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/conex/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/conex/) has an option that allows the user to select container for incoming links

babak_ap 7y ago

Pair it with "containerise" (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/containerise/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/containerise/ ). With containerise, you can easily edit a text file (host, container name) to create/edit/backup multiple containers.

nickthemagicman 7y ago
This is great!
jaylittle 7y ago
I was hoping somebody would share the news about this addon and I'm glad that I wasn't disappointed!
captn3m0 7y ago
Does it sync this across multiple machines? Can I export/import this list?
- babak_ap 7y ago
  Unfortunately, it doesn't sync. You can copy the text anywhere (e.g. email to yourself!) and use it elsewhere; it's still a much better UX compared to the built-in functionality.

no_protocol 7y ago

I can forgive the somewhat limited user interface for setting these up that is in the stock add-on, but the lack of automatic syncing of rules to all computers with the same Firefox account is really frustrating to deal with. Putting in the effort to get them all set up nicely and then having them either blown away (I think this happened once...) or needing to get that over to another computer has made me limit my use to fewer containers than I probably would otherwise use.

alyandon 7y ago
That particular bug (having my container setup get blown away) has happened to me several times along with other bugs like not properly restoring tabs in the designated container when you restart FF to apply an update. Bugs like that would be forgivable if they'd at least provide a way to export/import setups.
t0mk 7y ago
There's a plugin for exporting the rules https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/containers-sync/?src=collection https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/containers-sy...
briffle 7y ago
There is a plugin that will sync the actual containers, but it doesn't sync your rules you setup to always open site X in your personal container, etc. Without that, its useless to me. There is a bugzilla [0] for it, and 3 years ago, it was said they were going to look more into it, and nothing really since.. Its frustrating. [0] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1288858 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1288858
- groovecoder 7y ago
  M-A-C dev here ... We're actually pretty deep into the work of adding sync to M-A-C. https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/pull/1611 https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/pull/161... Predictably, synchronizing data is complicated, so it's taking a while and we're trying to do it in a way that doesn't destroy any existing data. So we'll be doing some heavy internal testing on it before we release it. But it's definitely coming.

m-p-3 7y ago

I wish that containers would be transferable in Firefox Sync accross systems.

dang 7y ago

A big thread from 2017: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15256603 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15256603

dmachop 7y ago

This was long time ago. It does compartmentalize the browsing info but the history is still accessible with other containers. For example, a Shopping container should have its own history. (https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/47 https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/4...)

rozab 7y ago
If I wanted to completely separate things like this I would use multiple different profiles. The advantage of the extension is that your history, settings, etc remains constant across the containers.
- anonymousab 7y ago
  Profiles are unfortunately much more cumbersome to use than in Chrome. The UX that container tabs have - being able to use them in the same Windows as other tabs, with accessible open-in options from the tab bar and from various context menus; creating new containers as easily as specifying a name and no more - is the UX that I wish Firefox had for their profiles.

wslh 7y ago

Nostalgic mode: I created a Firefox extension 11 years ago enabling users to have cookie containers by a tab (even when the Firefox API didn't enable this, it was basically a hack). Submitted the extension to the Firefox extend contest but not even a mention there. You can check an old video [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pfg-kJ4nAw&fmt=18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pfg-kJ4nAw&fmt=18

mikece 7y ago

Easily one of the most useful extensions I've ever used in any browser. My only annoyance with it is that One Tab -- www.one-tab.com -- doesn't remember in which container to re-open saved tabs. I really wish this feature would be implemented in Safari, Edge, and Chrome.

sebazzz 7y ago

Firefox Multi-Account contains are awesome for software development and testing! At my work we usually work at tools which have three roles: user, reviewer, administrator so I generally have three containers for these user accounts. This means I can be logged in with all the accounts I need for testing in the same web browser without resorting to private mode (which does not remember cookies between sessions anyway). In addition, I use the temporary container add-on[0] which also uses containers, but throws them away after being used (like reference counting). These two tools have seriously improved my ability to both develop and test applications without the hassle of logging out and logging in all the time or needing any tricks when needing multiple clean browsing sessions. [0]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-containers/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-con...

ssklash 7y ago
Thanks for this tip. It will come in super useful during web app penetration tests, being able to have sessions with multiple users open at the same time.
greggyb 7y ago
I have to agree with you on temporary containers. I spend most of my time in temporary containers. I trade the annoyance of having cookie popups literally every time I visit a page for not actually having to worry about the impact of those cookies. I have it configured such that middle-click opens links in new containers, and left-click opens in the current container.
- NoMoreBro 7y ago
  For annoying cookies popups you can try this https://addons.mozilla.org/it/firefox/addon/i-dont-care-about-cookies/ https://addons.mozilla.org/it/firefox/addon/i-dont-care-abou...
  - Red_Leaves_Flyy 7y ago
    Or just use ublocks existing filters that catch these...

acdha 7y ago

This a really useful extension for working with multiple cloud service accounts (e.g. AWS assumes a global session, GCP theoretically supports multiple logins but it's in the usual Google NOQA zone where many things break) but there's a really important limitation to know about: the container configuration isn't synchronized with your account. This means that if anything reset your Firefox profile (like that bug they had last year) or if you use multiple computers, you'll be spending a lot of time duplicating the configuration: See https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/339 https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/3...

srathi 7y ago

Almost useless as it doesn't sync the settings and containers as part of Firefox sync. Setting these up on all the devices is a pain!

j0hnM1st 7y ago
well, Since I care about them so much that I am now taking backup of the Profile and shipping them across machines ...

groovybits 7y ago

I love this feature... on one machine at a time. Without a built-in sync feature, I continue to use the simplest form of cookie management: Private Windows. I know there's been some discussion on sync: https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/339 https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/3.... As of Dec 2019, it looks like some traction will be coming to syncing just Containers and Site Assignments (which I believe would perfectly suffice most basic needs). If anyone really wanted to keep an eye on sync, I'm guessing these features will be committed to their syncserver, when available: https://github.com/mozilla-services/syncserver https://github.com/mozilla-services/syncserver.

jtdev 7y ago
Same here, love this feature and use it daily! Hoping for a sync capability in the near future.

baggy_trough 7y ago

These are pretty good, but the Chrome implementation is better. Specific complaints: - can't tie a bookmark to a container. - too many clicks to open a new tab in a container (in Chrome the whole window stays tied to the container, not just the tab) - bookmarks and history aren't container-scoped.

baggy_trough 7y ago
Also, it's annoying and a bit scary (for bugs) that this is an extension rather than being built into the browser.
- jdlshore 7y ago
  It is built into the browser. The extension is just the UI to access it.
  - baggy_trough 7y ago
    I have to install an extension to use it. With Chrome, I do not.
- dralley 7y ago
  It's an extension written by Mozilla that is using APIs built into the browser. The extension is just a bit of UI to make the feature accessible.
  - baggy_trough 7y ago
    I understand that, but why is it done that way? It's extra work to install it, and the fact that it's an extension probably means that it's not tested as well as normal browser UI. I really hate using extensions because I like to keep my software plain vanilla as possible to avoid strange bugs.
    - dralley 7y ago
      Because it's not the sort of feature that 90% of Firefox users would care much about. If you aren't aware of what it is and managed to accidentally activate it, you'd probably get really confused why you had to keep logging back into facebook.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

ffcontti 7y ago

An alternative is to use firejail. If you want temp profiles you can write a script that: - copies a good initial profile to /dev/shm - launches Firefox in firejail with —private that points to the dir - delete the dir If you want the containers to stick around you can avoid /dev/shm and keep the dirs around instead.

CivBase 7y ago

I really really want support for multiple browser profiles in Firefox. Multi-Account Containers are cool, but they don't allow me to change my bookmarks or browser extensions. This is the only thing left Chrome has over Firefox that I honestly care about. The profile manager (about:profiles) comes so close, but it's just not as elegant as Chrome. Starting Firefox with the profile manager also causes issues when the OS tries to open another Firefox instance. They have a Firefox sync profile badge now. Just give me the option in that menu to open a new Firefox instance with another profile. And when the OS tries to open a webpage, just use the default profile - or even whatever profile I opened a page with last.

Someone1234 7y ago
Every time this comes up, everyone always dismisses it by just pointing to about:profile or the launch flags, but in my opinion those are weak excuses. Chrome made profiles a first class citizen and they're an absolute pleasure to use. I literally use them every day. Firefox having a bunch of buried half baked UI isn't really an answer to that. I believe Firefox is a better browser overall. Only this (profiles), the terrible bookmark/history experience (wtf is that?), and the developer bar are the remaining weaknesses.
- lovebigmacs 7y ago
  The entire Library, Bookmarks/History/the archaic Downloads popup, all just makes me immensely sad. Meanwhile I keep seeing more badges (Pocket, Screenshots, Lockwise, etc) crap popping up in the browser UX... To add on to what you're pointing out -- they even cloned Chrome's "profile-icon-in-the-bar" model, but didn't actually give you the ability to switch profiles with it! Instead more places to shove more links that I forgot about - Firefox Monitor and Firefox Send.
  - anonymousab 7y ago
    The history and bookmark management also has some unfortunate performance issues. I'm fairly certain there's a memory leak or something as well, as deleting several thousand entries at once (say, via 'forget this site' menu options) effectively breaks the browser until restart even when it has finished the operation. A comment in the bugzilla for this issue[1] seems to suggest that they'd like to rewrite History at the very least. So it's on the priority list somewhere. [1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.com/show_bug.cgi?id=734643 https://bugzilla.mozilla.com/show_bug.cgi?id=734643

jokoon 7y ago

I have been using this for a while now, it's pretty good, but I always had trouble separating Gmail and Google search. It's necessary to add accounts.google.com and mail.google.com I think I can't isolate Google search to ours own container. I'm also using strict setting and cookies are cleared when Firefox is closed, and Gmail and accounts domain are white listed. The UI of this addon could be a little better.

usr1106 7y ago
Do you want to be logged in while using Google search? I don't. So I have 2 Google containers (work + private) where I am logged in for Gmail, Drive etc. But search, maps, etc. I do in a 3rd container. Yeah, you cannot blindly follow all links, but that doesn't bother me too much.
- jokoon 7y ago
  I don't want to be logged in when searching.

jcoffland 7y ago

Nice. Now my wife and I can both stay logged in to our email. I've wanted this feature for 15 years. Now, bring multi row tabs back and FF will be awesome again.

JaRail 7y ago
Have you considered just creating multiple windows/mac accounts? Since you can switch without having to log off, it's really convenient. I understand partners sharing accounts and such but it's really just a better workflow/experience IMHO.
BuckRogers 7y ago
Another option is setting Firefox to open the profile manager[0]. That's what I've always done when I don't want to use multiple accounts on the machine itself. [0]https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles?redirectlocale=en-US&redirectslug=profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-...

lovebigmacs 7y ago

I would happily donate a thousand dollars towards seeing MAC integrated as a first-rate feature. As-is, I have a massive love-hate relationship with it. 1. I'm horrified using Chrome these days. Browsing to a random site and having my Google account avatar pop up and offer to log me in is really unacceptable. So I fundamentally love what MAC provides. (Though some of this is also Firefox's aggressive cookie options.) 2. It's ridiculously buggy. "Reopen in Container Tab" often reloads in the exact same container. Trust me, I've checked the various bits of configuration that control defaulting certain domains to certain containers, there are just times that it does the wrong thing. 3. The config is hard to backup? I gave up last time I tried. It's a lot of work to get all of the domains setup to open in certain containers, establish the naming/coloring conventions so that it's not a mental burden.... and then have to lose it when I'm inevitably told that somehow Linux performance will be magically better if I make a new profile. Example usages: multiple "personas". I have a Google Suite account and domain for certain things. I don't have issues switching between Google accounts because to Google, I'm only ever logged into one at a time. Dev/Test purposes.

skrowl 7y ago

Firefox Multi-Account Containers are impossible to go back from once you get used to them. Add in Conex (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/conex/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/conex/) and you have really great tab group switching WITH containerization / "firewall" between containers. You can't get anywhere near this with Chrome as far as I'm aware.

molszanski 7y ago
Chrome Profiles. Sadly, way better IMO
- zhynn 7y ago
  I like profiles, use them all day long, but I wish there was a container-like way to isolate sub-profile tabs. Similar to the "facebook container" or being able to have multiple aws account sub-containers in my "work" profile. It's something I wish I could do.
- _nedR 7y ago
  Far inferior IMO. Containers are incredibly lightweight compared to opening a separate profile. I would say Firefox profiles are more cumbersome to use than chromes..
ponsfrilus 7y ago
I do like https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/simple-tab-groups/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/simple-tab-gr... which have similar features.

Dig1t 7y ago

I love Firefox Multi-Account containers! My only complaint (and really this is my biggest gripe with Firefox in general) is that there is no support for syncing containers using your Firefox account. This means every time I set up a new computer I have to reconfigure my containers and for each computer I have to re-associate all the sites I have sandbox with their own containers. This is such a huge pain. Other than that, I love it.

f00_ 7y ago
yes, can't believe it doesn't support syncing
wiether 7y ago
It's also a great issue for me since I have to reconfigure everything. I don't know how the Firefox account works but the fact that FMAC is an extension and not natively included in Firefox may be explaining why it's not synced ?

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

sleavey 7y ago

Does it work with Firefox Sync yet? That's the only thing stopping me from using containers - I've got multiple machines I would need to sync containers between. Last time I checked (admittedly a few years ago) it didn't and it seemed unlikely to be added any time soon.

zimaalsu 7y ago

I'd prefer using https://gologinapp.com/ https://gologinapp.com/ or another antidetect browser. It's much more comfortable

nvahalik 7y ago

I love MACs. A couple of caveats, though: * If you disable Multi-Account Containers at ANY TIME, all of your configuration will be gone. So, don't ever disable it. Or just be prepared. * They don't sync with Firefox Sync. * I use Alfred and in some of my workflows, when I have URLs that are designed to always open in a particular container, FF just won't open the URL. /shrug * Always opening URLs depends on the URL. This works great for apps which give you account-specific URLs (e.g. Harvest, Jira, other services...) but doesn't work at all for stuff like Gmail or Drive. I wish there was a way to get FF to ask you how you want to open a URL like that.

rudolph9 7y ago

This is awesome!

maciekmm 7y ago

Shameless plug. If You want a sidebar with tabs grouped by containers, I developed an addon for it: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/container-tabs-sidebar/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/container-tab...

j0hnM1st 7y ago

The biggest drawback with Multi-Account containers is that they don't sync with the Firefox Sync. I have an elaborate and carefully crafted set of containers. I even have one for TheGuradian where I am allowing ads but the moment a new machine is added to the workflow all is lost.

rcarmo 7y ago

I love this and use it daily but am sad that they don’t sync between machines (and the discussion over at https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/339 https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/issues/3... is a bit disenhartening)

roca 7y ago
Why disheartening? There's a comment from a Mozilla developer in December saying they're planning to work on it.
- rcarmo 7y ago
  It's been open since 2017, and it took many waves of commenting before they took action. For a privacy-oriented browser, that's a bit late.

princevegeta89 7y ago

This is the answer to nasty crawlers and trackers that are planted away by pretty much all sites like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter etc. etc. The simplicity of these Containers really amazes me.

molszanski 7y ago

While nice, sadly, Chrome Profiles are a way better implementation. Chrome profiles is the only reason why I am using chrome as a daily driver.

flurdy 7y ago

I recently started using the multi-account container addon. And I love it. Just before I also started using Mozilla's Facebook container[1] and it works as intended as well. I know supercookies and other fingerprinting means I am probably being tracked still, but at least I am minimising it without going full time incognito. Previously I was using Profiles to separate personal, work and clients, and though about:profiles help switching quicker it was still messy, and confusing which profile a link would open in etc. Now I can separate Facebook, Google products and Amazon into their own containers. I can keep various client browsing separate from my personal, I can keep more suspect websites in its own container, finance, infrastructure etc. Love it. * [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/facebook-container/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/facebook-cont...

thiagomgd 7y ago

I though they had discontinued it. Are they back at it?

mattlondon 7y ago

I have been using this on desktop for sometime now and really like it. I recently changed to using Firefox on Android and it seems some extensions like this one are not compatible which is a real shame. I wish that this was compatible with Firefox mobile

davnicwil 7y ago

A fantastic feature, but has a really frustrating UX issue still not fixed which is that you can't auto open a 'homepage' site for a new container tab, so say for example you have a container for one specific site, you have to open a new container tab and then open that site using a bookmark or similar. What you can do is have a certain site auto open in a specific container, that way you can just go to the site from a bookmark, link, the address bar etc and it is just one step, but this breaks when you have more than one account on the same site and want a container for each. If anyone does know a workaround for this, or knows if there's a fix coming, would be really interested to hear!

perfectstorm 7y ago

I use this and for the most part it works just fine. The other day I ran into a problem where it got into this loop and I ended up making Chrome as my default browser just to get around this issue. The issue is when you've an app that needs Google authentication and it opens the browser. To be more specific, I was trying to log in on Postman using the web authentication option. It opened my default browser (Firefox) just fine but it opened my other container (Work) which is not associated with my Google login. When i asked it to re-open the page in the other container (Personal), it lost all the redirect information and wouldn't let me continue back to Postman. I swear I had this same issue with another app but can't recall its name. I suppose i could workaround this issue by having my personal container handle all the postman links but it seems like too many steps to get one thing.

rsync 7y ago

Are these useful yet ? I am very excited about this feature and have tried to incorporate it into my workflow but find it very difficult. I want to open a window (not tab) as a particular profile, and then all subsequent tabs in that window are of that same profile. This would seem to be the basic, beginning use-case from which all other use-cases would follow. I don't know why it doesn't exist ...

baggy_trough 7y ago
Yes, that would be much better. That's the way Chrome personas work.
- _nedR 7y ago
  Firefox's equivalent of personas is profiles...
  - baggy_trough 7y ago
    What is the user interface like for Firefox profiles?
    - _nedR 7y ago
      You can judge for yourself by typing 'firefox -P -no-remote'. Right there, having to use the terminal , has already made it more clunkier than Chromium's solution. Admittedly, Firefox profiles are clunkier to launch & manage - like a hidden feature that has rebuffed all my attempts to streamline their management, as if by design. This can be remedied by use of desktop shortcuts (You can create separate shortcuts for different profiles) but then you have to also deal with the idiosyncrasies of your Desktop Environment (Gnome in my case :/) . Once its launched its pretty much like running to separate firefox instances in your system with separate bookmarks, histories, settings, addons - like in Chrome. So it is a lot more heavier than containers as a result. Which is why i think the 2 functionalities shouldn't me unified like people in the comments seem to be asking. Similar to Threads vs processes. We need both.

dev_urandom 7y ago

Qubes. It's the only way to be sure.

anthony_barker 7y ago

This plus destroy all cookies and accounts on shutdown... and for the international set Language switch! Any want to automatically regenerate fingerprinting randomness? Sites please enable 2FA and not require Captchas!

znpy 7y ago

I still think that firefox profiles are better.

njacobs5074 7y ago

I agree, this feature is awesome for development. One of the logging platforms we use (PaperTrail) uses a single cookie for connecting to their platform. This in turn, makes it a complete pain if I want to view logs for a dev/staging instance because it logs me out of our live logs. Multi-Account Containers completely fixed this for me.