Would have waited on the update (had I known)

[Pallid Planetoid]

The v32 update took out an important (to me) add-on (as incompatible) - that being "Tab Counter 1.05".

The v32 update also took out my two top choices (only two) of themes (as incompatible) - that being my top theme choice of "Dark Moon 2.7.0" (I'll attempt to look into getting in contact with the developer of this theme). Edit: I'm now using the "Black Moon" (compatible) theme that serves my needs well.

Suggestion - could this be implemented for future updates?: Create a "Pre-Check" option that would amount to adding a function that will provide users with what will likely become incompatible as a result of an update that can be run prior to doing an update. This way users can decide whether they would prefer to wait on an update to hopefully get critical (to them) add-ons or themes worked out.

As a result of the v32 update - my theme is now the default theme (not something I'd want to stay with) (Edit: due to now using the "Black Moon" theme) and as a result of the update Pale Moon is now the only browser I use that doe not have a desirable Tab Counter (extension) that works for me.

While (it goes without saying) the time and effort to continue to improve on Pale Moon is so very much appreciated of course! -- I have essentially lost two important components of what makes Pale Moon my (favorite) go to browser (as a result of the v32 update) Edit: only the Tab Counter extension remains as an issue (Theme not an issue now, as a result of using the "Black Moon" theme that is compatible).

Here's another concept - if the previously mentioned function to "pre-check" compatibility of extensions/themes is not practical (or desirable) considering that this (while some apps do provide this option) is not something any browsers that I know of have implemented....

.... how about the possibility of adding a function that would provide users with an easily applied process to "revert to previous version" function (this would be a powerful "tool" that would set Pale Moon apart from its competitors)?

[karlkracher]

my top theme choice of "Dark Moon 2.7.0

Me too. I did the edit described here and it's working again.

[Keiji]

@Pallid Planetoid, that was a rather difficult post to read!

Here's a TL;DR of what I understood from your post, in case it benefits any other reader here:
- some extensions stopped working after you updated PM, therefore:
- you want PM to have a feature to check extension compatibility _before_ installing an update
- you want PM to have a feature to undo an update, after updating

I see people posting about this kind of thing after pretty much every PM update, and it's not surprising.

I think both these features are good ideas, though I would doubt they will be implemented at least any time soon, firstly because it would take development time away from other things (like the constant arms race to maintain web compatibility), and secondly, in the case of "undo an update", because doing that without also reverting to a backup profile can break things, I imagine it would be quite an involved task to give PM the ability to automatically store a backup profile and then offer to revert not just the installation but also the profile.

Personally, my solution (or rather workaround) is I simply have automatic updates disabled, and I install updates manually, after waiting a few days to see a) if there's a follow-up update that fixes some important issue in the initial update, as that sometimes happens, and b) if there's some fallout over the update evident from people's posts on the forum (like this one).

As for your extensions - if their maintainers are active then I imagine they will release updated versions that will work on PM 32 soon enough, from the release notes it does not look like much changed that would affect extensions (though I am naive in that regard) so I imagine it would be a straightforward task (for the extension maintainers) of update the acceptable version range, test, and release. Once they have updated, you can update your PM in peace.

[Pallid Planetoid]

I agree - the revert-back to previous release would be a difficult endeavor to achieve (and as such perhaps not so practical - that said, a browser with the ability to do this would certainly have a leg-up on their competitor browsers)

Clearly a process to simply check for extension/theme compatibility prior to doing an update would be a more reasonable (easier) approach. I seems to me this could be incorporated into the update process where the compatibility situation would be processed first (instead of after the update) and then a prompt (dialog) could be presented to the user asking whether they would want to continue with the update or not at that point....

... or if not part of the update - then a stand-alone function to check for compatibility issues that might arise as a consequence of an update.

[Night Wing]

I use 64 bit linux Pale Moon. I also manually update every version and point release for linux Pale Moon.

When there is a major milestone update like for verison 32, I always check the theme I use (Moonscape) "first" to see if it will be compatible with the milestone update. If it isn't compatible, I hold off on updating.

BTW, I need to publicly say, Thank You, to (FranklinDM) who keeps on top of the themes he creates when it comes to updating them for the major milestone updates for compatibility. I had a previous post a day to two ago about the Moonscape theme since I knew, at that time a few days ago, it was not compatible with version 32. I checked and it was for 31. But FranklinDM updated it to 32 before 32 was released publicly today.

When it comes to extensions, I do the same thing. I check first if the extension I use will be compatible and if it isn't, I hold off. I must say, I only use one extension and that is uBlock Origin.

Speaking just for myself, too many people blindly update to the newest milestone update and then find out, some of their favorite themes/extensions will not work because of the incompatibility with the milestone update and then come to this site and want to know what happened.

Now for automatic updates which lots of people use. I think automatic updates are for convenience. When I manually update Pale Moon, it takes me about two minutes in total to manually download the update, extract the folder (in linux) and put the folder where I had previously had it, then re-boot Pale Moon. Two minutes of time for me saves me from disappointment when it comes to themes and extensions.

But whether one uses automatic updates or manually updates, it just take a few minutes to check your themes and extensions to see if they are compatible with the milestone updates. If people would take just a few minutes to check, they would save themselves from some disappointment and frustration.

But mark my words. Many people won't do it and this will happen again when version 33 is released sometime in the future.

[Moonchild]

you want PM to have a feature to check extension compatibility _before_ installing an update

I know you mean well but it'll inevitably be a disproportionately heavy-maintenance feature, because:

• Any prior "warning" would go mostly unused, would make people more reluctant to upgrade of those who do see it and would likely hold off on updating the browser full stop, because one of the 100 add-ons in use "might break".
• Add-ons would continue to show "incompatible" if an update would not be cross-update compatible, since that one would never be installed, therefore misinforming the user.
• It cannot give any sort of reasonable guarantee that it even works because such a check performed before an upgrade would need to somehow know what a future version of the browser will contain... unless you're talking about a simple version check for what is in install.rdf, in which case there's the previous point.
• Extensions are forward compatible by default, and those that are not, normally have a very good reason to have strict compatibility. If you take issue with that then you need to talk to the extension dev to consider the default operating mode.

Similarly, a rollback "feature" would be extremely maintenance-heavy because it would require a ton of engineering of something that has to now work forward and backward. It would require a full backup to be made of both application and profile before upgrade, and a "perfect" rollback when a user decides to do so... then there will undoubtedly be issues with people wanting to retain what they did in the new version as well, when rolling back, there's no knowledge of what version was upgraded from, etc. etc.

As you can see, such ideas are interesting on the surface but when you think about actually implementing such things, then you run into a whole tangle of possible problems and situations that need to be accounted for, making it completely ridiculous from a maintenance perspective.

So, if you see a milestone version when you get the update window, choose "later", make a backup of your profile first, then update. You should make regular profile backups anyway...

[Pallid Planetoid]

@Night Wing - how do you check for compatibility of extensions/themes prior to updating (is their an app/extension that does this?)

[Pallid Planetoid]

.... So, if you see a milestone version when you get the update window, choose "later", make a backup of your profile first, then update. You should make regular profile backups anyway...

Of course - excellent advise! (I just wish I had the presence of mind to remain more consistent about this - I'll certainly make an effort to remember FWIW ). I was sort of afraid that even just a simple "compatibility" pre-check (to an update) would be too problematic .

[Night Wing]

@Night Wing - how do you check for compatibility of extensions/themes prior to updating (is their an app/extension that does this?)

There is no app or or extension. I usually send a private message to the developer/maintainer of the themes and/or extensions I use so I don't get caught un-awares when a milestone version for Pale Moon is going to be released. In other words, I'm old fashioned and do my own "leg work".

FranklinDM has many themes for Pale Moon and Moonscape is one of his themes I use. He is a regular on here just like you and I. He keeps on tops of his themes for Pale Moon to make sure they will work for milestone updates when these milestone versions are publicly released like today.

So I never private message him since I know he is like me, detailed oriented. He knows when to update his themes "beforehand". Not "after the fact".

Moonscape worked for me with the new version 32 just like it did for version 31.

[Pallid Planetoid]

Installed "Tab Counter 1.9.9.3" (most current release from Classic Archive) and it works great! -- so I'm a happy camper - no problems remain (thought I'd mention this in case there are others that might be interested in as much as the Pale Moon browser add-on site does not provide an adequate tab counter extension, imo [each tab is numbered on the PM add-on site]). I could strike out my entire topic post at this point (I actually thought to delete the topic itself as of when I enabled the "Black Moon" theme - but (even though there were no posts yet) there was no "Delete" option afforded me.... got a lot of interesting and educational discussions out of the topic, so at least that's a good thing.

[Questor]

I had the same issues with v32.0.0 update. Many of my add-ons and themes stopped working.

What I always do BEFORE installing any update is run PMBACKUP to save my user profile (with all of my plug-ins) and make sure I have the installer for the current version I am using. Glad I did a backup prior to installing the new update this morning. The update hosed my browser so I uninstalled v32.0.0, installed the previous version and did a restore of my user profile. I'll wait a while and see what happens with everyone else before I update again.

[Lootyhoof]

A milestone release is *always* going to be a pain point for themes (and likely some extensions). Please keep this in mind. It just requires some time (which, in the case of the issue you describe, is less than 12 hours). You can use your themes again if you update them.

[moonbat]

Just a heads up - I have updated my extension AutoPageColor to support 32, because it uses strict compatibility. @Moonchild - do I need to do this for the rest as well? They don't have strict compatibility checking enabled. Since I'm using stevepusser's repository, I haven't got the 32 update yet myself.

[Moonchild]

because it uses strict compatibility. @Moonchild - do I need to do this for the rest as well?

Nice-to-have, if you can be bothered. I'd just roll it into any next update you might have. Only StrictCompatibility ones will really need to take extra care about this.