Public Facebook page log in required

ceekay · ‎03-12-2010

I apparently got a little carried away using CCleaner yesterday. Today any public Facebook page I go to wants me to log in. I use Firefox as my browser on my Windows 7 laptop. I Googled the topic and one suggestion was to open Firefox in safe mode and see what happens. I get prompted for login in there too. The same public sites open fine if I use IE instead of Firefox. Any suggestions about what I might have accidently deleted? Maybe an add on or extension? I do not have a Facebook account (gasp!) but access public sites frequently (like for local businesses and such). Worst case I will just use IE but it would be nice to know what I messed up in Firefox.

Moonchilde · ‎05-23-2010

The easiest thing might be to just delete Firefox and then reinstall it with your usual add-ons. Shouldn't take long and would be much simpler than trying to figure out what's missing.

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ceekay · ‎03-12-2010

I did do a browser refresh (that was one of the Firefox trouble shooting options), not a full uninstall/reinstall. I will have to give that some thought. Not sure if bookmarks will transfer over if you do a full uninstall?

ChynnaBlue · ‎05-22-2012

@ceekay wrote:
I did do a browser refresh (that was one of the Firefox trouble shooting options), not a full uninstall/reinstall. I will have to give that some thought. Not sure if bookmarks will transfer over if you do a full uninstall?

Browsers have a way to Export your Favorites and then Import them for a new install, be in on a different computer or the same one. I know how to do it for IE and Chrome, but not FireFox, but I'm sure you can do a Google search and find out easily enough. I would also recommend the fresh install.

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dooBdoo · ‎06-27-2010

@ceekay, This happens periodically with Facebook, it's nothing new. You can do internet searches and find reports of it going back a few years. It seems to crop up now and then when they fiddle with their software... so it will happen for a while, and then stop, and then happen again.

Since the recent reports of it, I started experimenting with it. What happens is that some cookies/cache/data from other sites cause this to happen. You don't need to reinstall the browser... all you need to do is be sure to delete all cookies/cache/website data and then go back to the Facebook public page and you'll be able to view it.

At least, I can report it works every time I've done so on my Mac (using Firefox v. 44.0.2 or Chrome v. 48.0.2564.116), iPad 3 and iPhone 5, all have current operating systems. In some cases, just clicking the "escape" key will allow you to view the page, but not every device has one of those.

hth!

Few things reveal your intellect and your generosity of spirit—the parallel powers of your heart and mind—better than how you give feedback.~Maria Popova

ceekay · ‎03-12-2010

Well thanks @dooBdoo!! I backed up my bookmarks but had not gone any further on reinstalling Firefox. I had tried many things today but the ESCAPE key was not one of them. And hitting it when being prompted to Login took me to each public page I have tried. I know the login prompt happens on my vintage Nook tablet (no escape key there) but had not had it happen on my laptop.

So, thank you every one for your suggestions. I am ready for next time and glad to get back to the public pages I use. Our local police department has a really nice one.