I have been using Firefox for a long time in Ubuntu, I downloaded some add-ons but it made firefox extremely slow, even if I remove them nothing will change.
I tried to remove Firefox also, but re-installing it will somehow recover the same Firefox I had- it seems it write some info somewhere that even if you remove Firefox, it will keep them.
Moreover, I am not able to use see any flash videos or website with Firefox(chrome works fine).. Honestly I tampered with plug-in settings in Firefox that this happened. But right now I can't do anything to overwrite the setting…
My question is how I can remove Firefox in a way to remove any previous traces and re-install a new version like for the first time?
Best Answer
Delete Firefox and all it's data:
I think this can be done in six easy steps, please edit my answer - or tell me to - if it's not complete:
run
sudo apt-get purge firefox
Delete
.mozilla/firefox/
in your home directory, should it still be thereDelete
.macromedia/
and.adobe
in your home directory, these can contain "Flash Cookies" stored by the browser. The same is true, if applicable, for Silverlight (Moonlight) and other plugins, they can allow websites to store data on your computer.Delete
/etc/firefox/
, this is where your preferences and user-profiles are storedDelete
/usr/lib/firefox/
should it still be thereDelete
/usr/lib/firefox-addons/
should it still be thereMind the periods in front of file- and directory names: They indicate a hidden directory. You can tell your File Browser to show them by pressing Ctrl+H.
The 4th and 5th step must be done with superuser privileges. To start a the File Browser as a superuser, press Alt+F2 and enter
gksu nautilus
.Finally, restart your computer to get rid of all temporary files. This should remove all traces of firefox ever being there.
Important: