Adblock Latitude filters/subscriptions randomly disappear

[rm118899]

I've had this issue with Adblock Latitude filters/subscriptions randomly disappearing. I believe it happens after a restart. It's possible to re-subscribe, but of course it's tedious to do this every time I start the browser.

The only filter that survives and appears to be updated regularly is "allow non-intrusive advertising" (which I have disabled). EasyList and Anti-Adblock Killer randomly disappear sometimes, and even when they don't disappear, they seem to fail to automatically update, even after several days have gone by, so I have to manually update.

If you search Google for "adblock filters OR subscriptions disappear" you get a lot of hits from people who appear to have a similar problem with Adblock Plus (which, I understand, ABL is forked from).

I thought this might be an issue with my profile, but I would rather not nuke the entire thing. Where does ABL store its filter/subscription data? Maybe I could try just deleting those files/folders instead of my entire profile? Or maybe try uBlock Origin, I dunno...

Other people having a similar problem:

https://adblockplus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29188
https://adblockplus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15690
https://adblockplus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23436
https://adblockplus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18072
https://issues.adblockplus.org/ticket/559
http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/i-nee ... 452764946/
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... 8&t=590305
https://www.reddit.com/r/adblockplus/co ... _blocking/
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthre ... e-vanished

(edited to correct unintentional double negative)

[coffeebreak]

I thought this might be an issue with my profile, but I would rather not nuke the entire thing. Where does ABL store its filter/subscription data?

In the adblockplus directory (folder) in your profile:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Moonchild Productions\Pale Moon\Profiles\********.default\adblockplus
(To navigate there quickly while the browser is open: Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> click the 'Show Folder' button)

Just FYI you can test with a new profile without nuking your current default. If you're on Windows:
Open the Run command (Windows key+R) -> and enter: palemoon -p -no-remote
This brings up the Profile Manager for creating an additional profile.

Or in the alternative, can test using the portable version of PM which contains its own profile and won't interact with that of the installed version. If you decide to try this, please also read this sticky thread.

[coffeebreak]

Additional thoughts.
You didn't say which versions of PM and ABL you use but...

If you have been trying to use PM 27.* with ABL 3.0.3.1, be aware that they aren't compatible.

If you updated from ABL 3.0.3.1 to v3.5 or to v4.0.*, be sure to uninstall v3.0.3.1. People who kept both have reported all sorts of problems.

If the above doesn't apply, look into your security software. Read forum thread ABL loses filter subs & custom filters; cannot reload, in particular the last post.

[New Tobin Paradigm]

Also, and yeah.. I am plugging.. All previous users who stuck it out with ABL 3.5 should move to ABPrime.. Likewise remove ABL before doing so..

[Moonchild]

plug plug plug plug

[coffeebreak]

Off-topic:

plug plug plug plug ;-)

Were you joining Tobin in plugging?

[Moonchild]

Off-topic:

plug plug plug plug

Were you joining Tobin in plugging?

Off-topic:
Nope. Although I see the advantages of his approach I also see the disadvantages. so it was just being silly I prefer my ABL over ABPrime, thanks.

[rm118899]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try them when I get a chance. I'm hopeful deleting the ABL stuff in my profile will do the trick.

(I was using ABL 4.0.0, which I downloaded right after updating to PM 27. My security software is just Microsoft Security Essentials, which usually isn't super aggressive.)

edit: At one time I had both ABL and an old version of ABP installed (but with the latter disabled) -- although I did eventually completely uninstall ABP to see if it would fix the issue. So maybe installing ABL before uninstalling ABP corrupted my profile.