Firebug says "No Javascript on this page", even though JavaScript does exist on the page

Question

Why does Firebug say there is No Javascript on this page when there are clearly loads of JavaScript on the page. I even reloaded the page several time to make sure but it still show the same message.

It never used to do that before, but all of a sudden it misbehaves.

Is it because of some configuration issues or because of something else?

Sometimes if there is a script error on the page the entire script compilation could fail and Firebug doesn't see the script. — AllTooSir, Jun 13 '13 at 11:57
I've just restarted Firefox and I'm getting this on ever site I visit. I was in the middle of working on something too! — Dan Stevens, Nov 18 '16 at 17:00
Damn!. My Ubuntu machine had version 49.0.2. Now without thinking I have just let it update to 50.0 as part of general housekeeping with 'Software Updater'. I can confirm that Firefox 50.0 and Firebug 2.0.18 doesn't work in Windows Vista and Ubuntu 16.04LTS — NickT, Nov 19 '16 at 11:19
At the moment you can find v49.0.2 here: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/49.0.2/ — But those new buttons though.., Dec 20 '16 at 01:38

score 125 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 20 '16 at 12:17

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As of Firefox version 50, it seems that Firebug will no longer work as Mozilla are migrating to Firefox Devtools. The tab Tools/Web Developer has a 'debugger' option. See this page for a discussion on the migration. Read all the posts dated 19 November for further information.

It seems to me that the option gives less functionality but Firebug per se is never going to be fixed for Firefox 50 and beyond

answered Nov 20 '16 at 12:17

NickT

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Thanks for updating us here, much appreciated. – David Newcomb Nov 22 '16 at 22:12
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This should be the answer now, Firebug is dead. – Steve Hibbert Nov 23 '16 at 15:59
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Lifesaver! This was a real pain; I was wasting lots of time trying to figure this out, until I read your post. Ths should be the TOP answer! – raiz media Nov 24 '16 at 07:40
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RIP Firebug :-( – freefaller Nov 24 '16 at 18:20
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:( :( :( :( :( :( – McHat Nov 25 '16 at 16:53
New Firefox devtools have Firebug theme which is much better than default one. – zoonman Nov 27 '16 at 06:34
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That's it I'm quitting the web :D – TheTrueTDF Nov 30 '16 at 08:52
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Have briefly tried DevTools. Thinks that UI & feature set of DevTools is quite non-competitive with Firebug (e.g. for DevTools, javascript files list display like "...924821a54aacceb1870d07.js" VS Firebug's fullpath selection combobox; Cannot find "break on mutate"). User-friendly Firebug & Tab Groups are the main reasons I like using Firefox. Seeing they are becoming less User-friendly & good-looking than before, Mozilla will surely lost some real fans according to their decisions. – Johnny Wong Dec 06 '16 at 04:43
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Is there a version of Firefox Dev Tools for standard firefox? I'm not about to use 2 firefoxes one for our website and one for writing. Why the F they would do this, I hear the masses... They're yelling Chrome! – Kevin Parker Dec 17 '16 at 04:53
To be mention is that Firebug didn't disappear, it has just been merged with DevTools and now it's shipped as part of it under the name Firebug.next (or firebug 3). – PhoneixS Feb 03 '17 at 09:52
Well that is a real shame. Discovered this mess after having been focused on IE11 debugging, and retested in Firefox for the first time in a while and 'what the'. If the Firefox internal debugger wasn't so clunky (change some about:config stuff, restart, just to enable; then mouse over variables are SOOOO slow to show values, and highlighting of breakpoints, breakpoints lists whats that about) I could get used to it, but the tool built in is a bit janky. No good feature lives unpunished by its overlords forever I guess. – Minok Jun 13 '18 at 23:35

score 53 · Answer 2 · edited May 09 '17 at 02:53

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EDIT 2017 April

This answer is now outdated and I'm not even testing it anymore because I'm no longer using Firebug (a shame, I loved it years ago in a time it was The tool of trade for web developing).

EDIT 2014 November

The original answer is now more than a year outdated due to firebug evolution. Thanks to @AmadeusDrZaius to keep it on tracks

Answer for outdated firebug versions For anyone still with this problem after updating Firebug. Just click Clear Activation List option inside the Firebug menu.

For those who can't find it, note that "Clear Activation List" shows up in the dropdown from the Firebug icon in the toolbar, but not the Tools > Web Developer > Firebug menu.

Firebug dropdown: Clear Activation List

I guess due to the bug previous hitting your working page it stays listed as "no activate FB for this site please".

edited May 09 '17 at 02:53

Paul Richter

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answered Nov 21 '13 at 11:43

jean

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That option isn't in the Firebug menu, and isn't mentioned in that link https://getfirebug.com/wiki/index.php/Firebug_Menu anymore either. – East of Nowhere Oct 29 '14 at 19:04
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This answer is outdated – Liam Nov 03 '14 at 16:01
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For those who can't find it, note that "Clear Activation List" shows up in the [dropdown from the Firebug icon in the toolbar](http://i.imgur.com/mylDGxq.png), but not the Tools > Web Developer > Firebug menu. – Chris Middleton Nov 08 '14 at 22:32
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There no longer seems to be a "Clear Activation List" option in the Firebug menu (I'm on version 2.0.6). However the plugin still seems to find itself in the same broken situation sometimes. (I've looked in the menu from both the toolbar and from the Firebug panel; it's not present in either location.) – Pointy Nov 21 '14 at 22:16
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I'm using FF 30.1.1 Firebug 2.0.6. The *"Clear Activation List"* option is the last option from the dropdown on the Firebug icon from the **Firefox bar** (not the firebug bar) – jean Nov 24 '14 at 10:23
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I have inserted a screenshot showing the button, which should be used. – stollr Dec 02 '14 at 12:03
Thanks @naitsirch for the screenshot, strange thing only that option is not in german. I don't put one because my FF is not in english – jean Dec 02 '14 at 13:08
Sorry for confusion @jean. Originally that option was in German, too ("Aktivitätsliste leeren"), but I have manipulated the screenshot, because most of the users here understand English but less people understand German ;-) – stollr Dec 04 '14 at 13:24
never had this before today, but suddenly it came. could it be connected to the fact that I let firefox update itself to version 50 shortly before? Tried this solution, also un-installed and re-installed firebug. No luck. Really don't want to have to reset the whole firefox – Adam Nov 16 '16 at 15:23
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I used the "Clear Activation List" option. But still have the same error. – Gi1ber7 Dec 14 '16 at 18:55

score 43 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 16 '16 at 11:32

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I encountered No Javascript on this page after upgrading Firefox to ver 50.0, with Firebug ver 2.0.18. I tried refreshing Firefox, even completely uninstall Firefox and installed again. Nothing works for me.

A couple of hours later, I downgraded Firefox to 49.0.2, and voila, it works right away. I downloaded the old version here.

answered Nov 16 '16 at 11:32

kiatng

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Wow you're a lifesaver. Struggled for a couple of hours trying to learn the FireFox Developer Tools a knockoff of the Chrome debugger. Has some nice features, but did not like the fact I could not use FirePHP and also I noticed I could not get directly to eventListeners when I used querySelector. Used your link to get the old version back and like you said "voila" – Claus Nov 16 '16 at 19:13
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Yeah, I tried the alternatives developer tools in Chrome, MS Edge, IE, Firefox Developer Edition, but didn't like any of them. After installing the older version, don't forget to disable the auto-update by opening the _Menu_, select _Options_, click _Advanced_ and then click the _Updates_ tab. – kiatng Nov 17 '16 at 00:55
Well done @kiatng - On my Windows Firefox 50 - no scripts work. On my Ubuntu 49.0.2 Firefox all is well. I hope they fix it for version 500 soon. – NickT Nov 17 '16 at 11:49
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According to https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2016/02/04/update-on-2016-firefox-release-schedule/ Firefox 50.0.1 will be released on 2016-12-13, so it's a bit of a wait to see if they fix it. – CJ Dennis Nov 23 '16 at 23:24
The 49.0.2 installer dies silently on my machine unless I select "Run as Administrator" from the context menu of resource explorer. – Pino May 09 '17 at 14:37

score 13 · Answer 4 · answered May 28 '14 at 06:42

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I tried everything on this list and nothing worked for me except resetting Firefox like so:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/reset-firefox-easily-fix-problems

answered May 28 '14 at 06:42

Tod Thomson

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+1 cause this helped! side note: after resetting all my add-ons where gone – caramba Nov 19 '14 at 13:06
And losing and then reinstalling the firebug add-on may have helped! Who knows what version I used to have? A new version of FF was just installed in my case. – Steve Cohen Aug 12 '15 at 17:50
This worked for me. It simply deletes everything form the browser. So I had to again install firebug plugin. – Sanchit Khera Mar 16 '17 at 05:51

score 9 · Answer 5 · edited Jul 27 '15 at 05:56

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I realize there are already 10 answers to this question, but in my case none of them helped. I'm running Firefox version 39.0 and Firebug version 2.0.11. The only fix is to completely restart Firefox (i.e. not just the tab or instance with the problem).

Perhaps it's due to Firefox's over-usage of memory, or maybe there's a bug in Firebug. I can't speak to that, but what I do know is it didn't work. I killed Firefox, opened the exact same page again with no changes made and now it works. This has happened to me numerous times and a complete restart always fixes it, but that's the only thing that does.

edited Jul 27 '15 at 05:56

Sebastian Zartner

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answered Jul 24 '15 at 20:44

Mageician

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For me reopening the page in a new tab is enough, I can see the javascript again for a while. – csauvanet Aug 06 '15 at 14:48
@csauvanet +1 for your tip; opening a new tab was enough for me as well. – Chris Middleton Aug 10 '15 at 19:28

Sebastian Zartner · Answer 6 · 2017-02-18T23:04:46.317

Since Firefox 49.0 and Firebug 2.0.18 the Script panel is broken. This is due to some internal Firefox API changes. And because Firebug is officially discontinued, this unfortunately won't get fixed anymore.

There was also a bug in Firebug 2.0.11 (and below) in combination with Firefox 39.0 causing this problem. This bug is filed as issue 7918.
It happens when the Script panel is enabled and you close Firebug and reopen it.

You can see two related error messages logged to the Browser Console (can be opened via Ctrl+Shift+J or Firebug menu > Developer > Browser Console):

error occurred while processing 'attach: TypeError: docShell is null Stack: getChildDocShells@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/toolkit/loader.js -> resource://gre/modules/devtools/server/actors/webbrowser.js:53:7 ...

and

onPacket threw an exception: Error: Server did not specify an actor, dropping packet: {"error":"unknownError","message":"error occurred while processing 'attach: TypeError: docShell is null\nStack: getChildDocShells@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/toolkit/loader.js -> resource://gre/modules/devtools/server/actors/webbrowser.js:53:7 ...

Solution:

The only solution until this bug is fixed is to restart Firefox completely.

score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 20 '13 at 15:44

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Similar things have happened to me because I forgot to add the closing tag.

DON'T do this:

<script src="some.url" type="text/javascript">

or

<script src="some.url" type="text/javascript"/>

DO this instead:

<script src="some.url" type="text/javascript"></script>

answered Sep 20 '13 at 15:44

user2799817

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Outdated answer. – Lucky Mar 24 '17 at 07:33

score 3 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 14 '13 at 21:25

The same problem just happened to me. I thought that it was a problem in my scripts, but I checked google.com and the problem persisted. My problem was that I had updated my version of FF and kept the old version of FireBug. When I updated FireBug and everything was solved.

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Dec 20 '16 at 13:45

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From firefox 49, the fire bug will be built in and it is called fire-bug next. So the fire bug add on won't work properly and no issues will be solved. So you can use firefox inspector. See here for details information

answered Dec 20 '16 at 13:45

Krushna

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score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Jun 01 '15 at 14:40

If the problem only shows up on a single page, check that your script folder is referenced from current folder (".") or that's reachable from the server root ("/").

<script src="./scripts/pagescripts.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

may not be the same as

<script src="/scripts/pagescripts.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 27 '13 at 13:07

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As mentioned, sometimes there's a Javascript syntax error that invalidates the whole script. But I have also had this, and simply opening up the page in a new tab or window and refreshing firebug (disable, enable) gets the javascript to show up again.

answered Jul 27 '13 at 13:07

James John McGuire 'Jahmic'

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This works for me. That is, both the new tab technique and de-/reactivating. It seems pretty random when the problem appears, and to me it happens every now and then on domains for which I never activated Firebug. That case is somewhat complicated with redirection and authentication, but the external site does some kind of test and telling med that I do not have JS active, so I must press a button to proceed. Just thought I'd share my observations. – norwebian Mar 26 '14 at 10:04

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Aug 27 '13 at 22:32

One time this caught me out was when I published one of my sites and I was checking it out. No Javascript was working, there were no errors in the console and firebug showed no scripts.

It turned out that in that instance, I'd forgotten to allow the site in NoScript - so there really were no scripts being loaded.

Not sure if that's the problem you're facing but it's worth being aware of.

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Jul 15 '14 at 23:24

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I also got this error when attempting to use Ajax to a different server than the one serving up the page. JavaScript only allows Ajax access to the server that served up the page.

answered Jul 15 '14 at 23:24

Kent

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score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Aug 07 '15 at 13:49

This problem is STILL happening (Aug 2015) with Firefox 39.0.3 and Firebug 2.0.11

For people saying the code is wrong or missing end tags etc. all I did to get all the javascript to reappear in tab was to shut down Firefox and restart it. I didn't change anything. Also that "Clear Activation List" option didn't work (no idea what that means)

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Aug 12 '15 at 17:52

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I upvoted @Tom_Thomson's answer above, but I am wondering if simply removing and then reinstalling the Firebug add-on might not have accomplished the same thing without losing all the other stuff like bookmarks.

answered Aug 12 '15 at 17:52

Steve Cohen

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Actually, @Tom_Thomson's answer sits below now :-) – Steve Cohen Aug 12 '15 at 17:53

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Aug 08 '16 at 18:21

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FWIW this problem is still happening in August 2016. I'm using Firebug 2.0.17 with Firefox Dev Edition 50.0a2.

As a workaround, I'm able to use the Developer Tools, though they are not as robust as Firebug (when it's working).

answered Aug 08 '16 at 18:21

Mike K

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I'm afraid the problem is here to stay. Firebug doesn't seem to work right with Firefox 50 and is likely never to be fixed. – jahu Nov 30 '16 at 14:48

score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Dec 07 '16 at 01:09

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Well Firefox native Inspector is good... I know that you will miss some things, but in general we can survive with it. The good news is... less one addon, FF will be faster :)

answered Dec 07 '16 at 01:09

Sergio Abreu

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Not enough.. There is no event inspection on DOM element - main reason why I don't use build-in inspector. – l00k Jan 23 '17 at 09:54

Firebug says "No Javascript on this page", even though JavaScript does exist on the page

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