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I tried two different profiles, one for Nightly and another for Stable. None worked. UPDATE: I can log in using private browsing... holy shit, what is going on

I tried two different profiles, one for Nightly and another for Stable. None worked. UPDATE: I can log in using private browsing... holy shit, what is going on!

cornedor 5y ago
Do you have any add-ons that are installed on both Firefox and Nightly, but that are not enabled in private browsing?
commoner 5y ago
Can you log in to HN on a separate Firefox container? https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/containers https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/containers Containers do not share cookies, local storage, caches, or other persisted data.
- soapdog 5y ago
  I tried that, it didn't work. I love containers, and it was one of my attempts to solve it. I forgot to include that one in the post, I've tried so many things...
  - commoner 5y ago
    At this point, I'd create a new profile and try again. I know that you've already tried both Stable and Nightly, but there is a possibility that both of their profiles have been corrupted by some external factor. If the issue is not at the container level, then it's probably at the profile level. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-...
    - millzlane 5y ago
      Sounds like a corrupt profile in FF. I was coming to look for a comment that mentioned this.
      - soapdog 5y ago
        It does. But damn, two corrupt profiles? One on each Firefox? What is the chance of that?! Anyway, my last attempt will be to create a new profile. I was avoiding that because it feels like quitting. It feels like destroying everything and replanting the soil hoping for a better outcome even though you have no idea what happened before.
        floatingatoll 5y ago
        It's just a debugging step. Don't delete your existing profile. If you confirm that it's fine in a stock profile, then you can use various methods to see what's different and find the bug (eg. “what non-default settings overrides are set in my profile”).
basisword 5y ago
Private browsing mode is always my first test for these weird issues. Usually it then boils down to an extension, cookies or cache. It sounds like you only cleared ycombinator related cookies. Maybe it’s worth clearing everything?
- jedberg 5y ago
  OP tried two different profiles on two different versions of Firefox, so it's unlikely to be cookie or cache related.
- soapdog 5y ago
  I also deleted cache and disabled add-ons, still not working. The successful login with private browsing makes me hopeful though. Maybe I'll find a solution :-)
ricardobayes 5y ago
Try FF 95.x? FF 96 broke a lot of stuff.
powersnail 5y ago
Have you tried using a different profile? My FF profile was corrupted once and a lot of sites stopped working mysteriously. Clearing cache didn’t help either. It has to be a new profile.
doix 5y ago
Make an entirely new profile, I bet it will work. I'm guessing both the existing profiles have something set that is breaking login. No idea what it can be, unless you explicitly blocked cookies from the domain. Not something that you can do accidentally though.
- alx__ 5y ago
  Yeah I've been down this frustrating route before. Somehow your profile has gotten corrupt. You'll probably never know why. Has happened to me for Chrome and Firefox. Creating a new profile works. Or if you're feeling paranoid, remove any trace of it from the system and do a fresh install.
  - millzlane 5y ago
    I stopped trying to figure it out when it happened. First step I take is "refresh firefox" https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-add-ons-and-settings https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-a... If problem persists, new profile. If problem continues, reinstall FF.
  - silon42 5y ago
    We used to call this "dataloss", "corruption".
staktrace 5y ago
Try looking at about:support to see if there are any third-party modules (antivirus etc. loaded). That has been a cause of problems like this in the past. More likely on Windows and I saw you're running macOS, but worth a shot.
- commoner 5y ago
  It's worth a try, though Firefox has discontinued support for NPAPI plugins since version 52 (March 2017)⋮ https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/npapi-plugins https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/npapi-plugins The only plugins in the Plugins section of about:addons should be the OpenH264 plugin and the Widevine plugin (only if DRM is enabled). Both can be disabled there.

I tried two different profiles, one for Nightly and another for Stable. None worked. UPDATE: I can log in using private browsing... holy shit, what is going on!

cornedor 5y ago

Do you have any add-ons that are installed on both Firefox and Nightly, but that are not enabled in private browsing?

commoner 5y ago

Can you log in to HN on a separate Firefox container? https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/containers https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/containers Containers do not share cookies, local storage, caches, or other persisted data.

soapdog 5y ago
I tried that, it didn't work. I love containers, and it was one of my attempts to solve it. I forgot to include that one in the post, I've tried so many things...
- commoner 5y ago
  At this point, I'd create a new profile and try again. I know that you've already tried both Stable and Nightly, but there is a possibility that both of their profiles have been corrupted by some external factor. If the issue is not at the container level, then it's probably at the profile level. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-...
  - millzlane 5y ago
    Sounds like a corrupt profile in FF. I was coming to look for a comment that mentioned this.
    - soapdog 5y ago
      It does. But damn, two corrupt profiles? One on each Firefox? What is the chance of that?! Anyway, my last attempt will be to create a new profile. I was avoiding that because it feels like quitting. It feels like destroying everything and replanting the soil hoping for a better outcome even though you have no idea what happened before.
      - floatingatoll 5y ago
        It's just a debugging step. Don't delete your existing profile. If you confirm that it's fine in a stock profile, then you can use various methods to see what's different and find the bug (eg. “what non-default settings overrides are set in my profile”).

basisword 5y ago

Private browsing mode is always my first test for these weird issues. Usually it then boils down to an extension, cookies or cache. It sounds like you only cleared ycombinator related cookies. Maybe it’s worth clearing everything?

jedberg 5y ago
OP tried two different profiles on two different versions of Firefox, so it's unlikely to be cookie or cache related.
soapdog 5y ago
I also deleted cache and disabled add-ons, still not working. The successful login with private browsing makes me hopeful though. Maybe I'll find a solution :-)

ricardobayes 5y ago

Try FF 95.x? FF 96 broke a lot of stuff.

powersnail 5y ago

Have you tried using a different profile? My FF profile was corrupted once and a lot of sites stopped working mysteriously. Clearing cache didn’t help either. It has to be a new profile.

doix 5y ago

Make an entirely new profile, I bet it will work. I'm guessing both the existing profiles have something set that is breaking login. No idea what it can be, unless you explicitly blocked cookies from the domain. Not something that you can do accidentally though.

alx__ 5y ago
Yeah I've been down this frustrating route before. Somehow your profile has gotten corrupt. You'll probably never know why. Has happened to me for Chrome and Firefox. Creating a new profile works. Or if you're feeling paranoid, remove any trace of it from the system and do a fresh install.
- millzlane 5y ago
  I stopped trying to figure it out when it happened. First step I take is "refresh firefox" https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-add-ons-and-settings https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-a... If problem persists, new profile. If problem continues, reinstall FF.
- silon42 5y ago
  We used to call this "dataloss", "corruption".

staktrace 5y ago

Try looking at about:support to see if there are any third-party modules (antivirus etc. loaded). That has been a cause of problems like this in the past. More likely on Windows and I saw you're running macOS, but worth a shot.

commoner 5y ago
It's worth a try, though Firefox has discontinued support for NPAPI plugins since version 52 (March 2017)⋮ https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/npapi-plugins https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/npapi-plugins The only plugins in the Plugins section of about:addons should be the OpenH264 plugin and the Widevine plugin (only if DRM is enabled). Both can be disabled there.