Member Avatar for Thinka

Hello all,

I've been using Firefox for over a year now I think, ages anyway, and ever since I've never really been able to view motion-media on it (i.e. videos on YouTube, adverts and banners, websites with a flash intro, etc). So if I go to YT for instance, I get a big blue 'Q' come up where the video should be. Now I know this Q stands for QuickTime, and I know that this problem should be solvable by downloading plugins, but I have done this and it doesn't seem to work. And yes I have QuickTime, iTunes, Macromedia Shockwave Player, Adobe Flash Player all on my computer but still no joy.

Sometime last year I was able to watch videos on it for a little period, I think I might have re-installed it (Firefox that is). However this stopped, possibly after I updated my QuickTime/iTunes to the next version (any suggestions as to whythis might have happened??). Since then I just haven't bothered trying to get it to work, but it still nags at me, because I know a few other Firefox users & they don't have this problem.

Now I should say, I can watch videos on IE, and that is one of the only reasons I still have it on my computer. It's kind of annoying, but I do switch to IE when Firefox won't let me view a website's content properly, and it works fine.

Any ideas? Is it just an uninstall, re-install job, or something a lil more complex?

Oh yea (sorry this turned out to be so long!), I'm using XP Pro SP2, system is pretty brilliant apart from this nagging issue. All ideas are appreciated. Thanks

  • 4 Contributors
  • 7 Replies
  • 231 Views
  • 1 Year Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by Thinka

Dani AI

Generated

A quick diagnostic note that builds on what , and suggested and on ’s follow-up: the blue “Q” means the page is trying to use a QuickTime browser plugin (or Firefox is handing the embed to the wrong plugin). Uninstalling QuickTime will work (as found), but a few safer checks let you find the real cause without removing software.

Check which plugins Firefox actually sees and what MIME types they handle. In the location bar try:

about:plugins

and:

about:addons

about:plugins shows each plugin’s “File:” and “Path:” so you can see whether QuickTime or Flash is being used for that object; use the Add‑ons Manager to temporarily set plugins to “Never Activate” while testing. (support.mozilla.org)

Rule out extensions and a corrupted plugin registry. Start Firefox in Troubleshoot (Safe) Mode:

firefox -safe-mode

If video works in Troubleshoot Mode, an extension or theme is involved. To force Firefox to re-scan plugins, open:

about:support

use “Open Folder” to reach your profile, quit Firefox, rename or delete pluginreg.dat, then restart and re-check about:plugins. To test with a clean profile use:

firefox -ProfileManager

These steps isolate whether the problem is the plugin, the profile, or an add‑on. (support.mozilla.org)

If QuickTime is the culprit and you need a less-destructive fix than full uninstall, manually remove/disable the QuickTime plugin file shown in about:plugins (renaming it prevents Firefox from loading it). Be careful: removing QuickTime can affect iTunes or other apps that rely on its libraries. Also note that modern Firefox releases dropped support for most NPAPI plugins (Firefox 52 in March 2017) and Flash reached end-of-life in 2020 — so behavior and available fixes differ widely on newer browsers. (support.mozilla.org)

If the problem is still unclear after these checks, the most useful follow-up information is: the exact page URL, the plugin list shown at about:plugins, and whether video plays in a fresh profile or in Troubleshoot Mode.

Recommended Answers

All 7 Replies

Member Avatar for MidiMagic

Quick time got too greedy again. It grabbed a file type it can't play. I won't even let it on my system because it is so grabby.

Open Quick Time and set it so it does not make itself the default player.

Go into Windows Explorer and select Tools/Folder Options/File Types.

Then scroll down through the file types, looking for the types the Quick Time icon is on. Reset them to the players you want to play them.

You may have to do this again the next time Quick Time upgrades itself.

Member Avatar for Thinka

Thanks for the reply Magic. I understand what you said, but I think the only issue is how do I know what I don't want QuickTime to try to open? I mean I would have thot that it only associated itself with filetypes that it can actually open?? Cos I'm seeing stuff like SDP files, of which I have no idea about what else can open it...
Also, and this is sort of related, is there a way, and if so how, can I find out the type of files that quicktime tries to open but fails to?

Hope u can help?

Member Avatar for linux

What they're trying to say is this:

Open the QuickTime Preferences diaglog and turn the feature that makes QuickTime the default player off.
Now, go into Windows Explorer (start>run>explorer) and hit tools>folder options>file types and change the QuickTime settings to their defaults. You can also just do this from inside of QuickTime.

Member Avatar for Thinka

Hey thanks linux. I did what u guys said but I still can't watch videos on Firefox. Now I feel thick cos I'm thinking I must be doing something wrong, and I don't like feeling thick, so i want to remove QuickTime from my computer completely. That should be ok right, I mean according to MidiMagic you don't need it for Firefox do ya?

Member Avatar for Thinka

YAAAAY IT WORKS! Phew OK, that's my first bad experience with Apple Inc. And the 2nd of its products that I'm really not a fan of. The first is the iPod :-p
Still wanna get a Mac Book Pro tho...

Anyways thanks guys, appreciate your time & help (Y)

Member Avatar for tranqfixer

a friend of mine had the same problem and couldnt get it to work and this will work for

any plug ins that have been succesfully installed on a machine, you can locate the

plugins at c:/windows/downloadedinstallations/mozilla/firefox/plugins find the one you

want and copy it. double click on it and after it installs you will be asked to restart

firefox and voila, problem solved. hope this helps.

Member Avatar for Thinka

Mate this is an old problem, and it was solved back then but I neglected to mark it solved. I will do so now though :-).

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.