Firefox doesn’t display images!

Arg, I’ve figured it out: in case anyone else runs into this. My problem was with Adblock Plus. The EasyList filter subscription included a “*” in the filter, filtering out ALL images. If your Firefox isn’t showing images and you have Adblock, look in Adblock Options for the “*” (solo). To fix it, disable that “*” filter by clicking the green Enabled ball. (A checkbox would be more logical, but whatever.) Other troubleshooting, try disabling Adblock and/or all extensions to see if that is the problem.

UPDATE (Feb 24, 2007): If you are using parental control software (Cybersitter for example) see rick752’s comment below, he says that Cybersitter (and maybe others) corrupt Adblock Plus filters, and suggests whitelisting adblockplus.org in the parental control software, see his comment for details.

58 thoughts on “Firefox doesn’t display images!”

  1. Ok thanks for the tip. But I do not know that I have this Adblock Plus. I do know that Firefox will not show any images since it went through its last update. I will search my computer to see if the Adblock Plus is on it.

  2. Oh my god, I couldn’t beleive this! I spent an hour wondering why a single image on my site wouldn’t show up and bingo you were right! Adblock Plus. Its so damned quiet and efficient!

    Thank you mate!

    Liam

  3. Dan: Have you updated or installed anything recently? Try looking at that first. Are you using any other Extensions or Add-Ons? Firefox 2 lists extensions under Tools > Add-Ons > Extensions. Try disabling other extensions to see if they are hiding images.

    Or Tools > Options > Content and is “Load Images Automatically?” checked? Anything listed in Exceptions?

    Also, do you have any firewall (besides Microsoft’s XP built in firewall) or security software (i.e. Symantic or McAfee) or parental controls that could be blocking images?

  4. @ Kenward:

    I know this might be a bit outdated, but are you using a “kid-blocker” like CyberSitter? If so “adblockplus.org” would have to be whitelisted on CyberSitter.

    We have just now found out that CyberSitter (and maybe some others) corrupts Adblock Plus filters during downloads by stripping parts of the info out of the subscriptions. A filter string that may have said “*adultfriendfinder*” would be stripped of the word “adultfriendfinder” … leaving just the asterisks which would block ALL blockable items everywhere on every page and on every site.

    The reason I am asking is that I have NEVER uploaded a filter with just an asterisk “*” alone before. If I did, I would have had 800,000 people all over me as that would have blocked every conceivable element on a page except for the straight text.

    Just thought that I would pass that info on here.

    -rick752
    Author of the EasyList and EasyElement filters for Adblock Plus.

  5. Rick:

    I have briefly tried parental filtering software (don’t remember if it was specifically Cybersitter), I see how it could have corrupted AdBlocker in that manner. I’ll update my post.

  6. I had the same problem without having an Adblocker or any Add- Ons and there were no software like Cybersitter too.
    I solved the problem by pushing the right mouse button and select “Grafiken von … blockieren” what means “do block images from…” In the second step I deactivated it again -> from now on Firefox showed all images :-)

  7. Just something else to look at if all else fails… make sure your url uses back-slashes “/” and not forward-slashes “\”. Forward-slashes will work in IE but fail in Firefox. For some strange reason I make this typo all the time.

  8. Hi,
    Not all the images, but only those images that are accessed from the local hard disk are not being displayed. Is there any work around for dis? I am just trying to show a preview of the image yet 2 be uploaded
    Thanks in adv.

  9. Meribah, did you find a solution? I’m having EXACTLY that problem, local disk images will not display in FF, all others OK.

    Can anyone tell me how to sort this out?

    Thanks

  10. Neil, do you have any add-ons? Try turning them off one-by-one. See some of the other comments in this thread for other suggestions…

  11. Kenward

    Thanks – I’ve been through them – no add-ons at all. In the end I had to configure FF using a user.js file, which allowed me to see images from my local hard drive accessed by a web page.

    Not much of a solution though, can’t expect everyone using my site to do that… :(

  12. I just had the problem too and I don’t have any of those programs you mentioned. one day I hit some keyboard combination and it started blocking my pictures..

    Anyway, right click where you think a pictures is and you will see the unblock options

  13. Robb, try this in Firefox:

    • Click Tools, then Options.
    • Click the Content icon
    • There should be check next to “Load images automatically” (if there isn’t this is why you aren’t seeing images!)
    • Click Exceptions next to “Load images automatically” make a note of all Sites/Status listed here (so you can add them back later if you want them back).
    • If anything is listed here, click “Remove all sites”.
    • Click Close then click OK.
  14. I just had this same problem, no add-ons, a clean install of the latest firefox, Load images automatically was checked. I was testing using google to search for images and just getting the place holders.

    Looking at post 16. by Robb where he said to try the following, “right click where you think a pictures is and you will see the unblock options” seemed worth a try so up comes the context menu and it only had a block option, so I thought what the heck block the images, and so I did (still no images but what would you expect, lol), but then I repeated and told it unblock images and lo and behold the images were back, not just for google image seach but also in other pages as well. So an illogical fix for the illogical problem :)

  15. I made the mistake of blocking images from photobucket.com. I use windows xp/firefox, can someone help me unblock those images?

  16. Firefox update: Now Images do not load

    1. In the Location bar in Firefox, enter about:config (you can leave this window open and just open a new tab and type it there – that’s what I did)

    2. In the Filter textbox, enter permissions.default.image. (or scroll down the list and find it alphabetically like I did)

    3. If the value for permissions.default.image is not set to 1 (the default value), right-click and select Reset. (my value was set at 3 go figure)

    Once you’ve hit RESET…..

    4. You can close that window and your images should now be showing!

    Here is the link in case you need more info:
    http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Images%20or%20animations%20do%20not%20show

    (I, like many others, had no add-ons, tried everything on this site that was referred to and still couldn’t load images – then I found this link and bingo – it worked!)

    Good Luck!

  17. oops – didnt scroll down far enough to notice someone already found this site!

    Sorry! Thanks anyway :)

  18. I found this during a google search for why WPAds (for wordpress) wouldnt display images in firefox, turns out it was adblock! though god-knows-how since I only set the site up a week ago…
    disable it and they display fine.

    now, to figure out how I can get around it

  19. Lest we not forget the simplest and easiest, most obvious fix for seeing placeholders instead of pictures…. Download the latest version of Java and Java runtime.

  20. ed, re: Java, how so? I don’t see the connection betw Java and displaying images?

    ed, re: ad block, If you are using Ad Block Plus, point your mouse pointer to the ABP icon (looks like a red stop sign) and the tool tip will tell you “Most Active Filters”.

  21. I had the no images display problem after an update, but i had no extensions that could be blocking them, so i right clicked the page, hovered the mouse over “web developer” then “images” then “disable images” and “all images” under that was checked. I unchecked it and now it is displaying images.

  22. I don’t have add ons that will block ads, however I’ve fixed this by clearing my cache.

  23. I’m using firefox 3.0 beta 2 for ubuntu. Apparently firefox just decided to block the image to all of my websites. A quick fix is just going to edit>preferences>content>Exceptions and remove all the sites that firefox blocks. then voila the images are back.

  24. I have been having this issue for almost a year now with Firefox. I just updated to the 3.0 version of Firefox and no go. Some sites I can’t see pictures or buttons. The two most common ones I see are http://www.myspace.com and http://www.hotmail.com. I use to have the same issue with http://www.facebook.com but this updated version of Firefox cleared that page up. I checked to make sure that the “load images automatically” was selected and there are no expections. I have no adblocker or firewalls. IE works fine with images. I would just stick with that but for some reason it hangs up on me a lot and I get errored out of it… thats a different story though. I got rid of all my extensions as recommended as well. Not really sure what could be causing this. I have been working on it here and there for some time now. If any other suggestions or updates on this issue have come up please let me know.

  25. Firefox 3 is beta (as of this writing), if you are having problems, recommended you go back to the current stable version, 2.

    Another suggestion, try a new profile in Firefox, it will start with default settings and no plugins, and the nicest part is you can easily switch back to your original profile.
    Start Firefox with the “-P” switch. In Windows: Click Start; Click Run; type this:

    “C:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe” -P

    then click OK. (This assumes Firefox is installed at “C:\program files\mozilla firefox\”, if it’s installed elsewhere then change to match your install location.)

  26. I took Robb and Paul’s ( messages 16 & 18) advice after downloading Firefox 3.0 and discovering missing images: tried blocking the non-loading pictures, then hit ‘undo’: lo and behold, the pictures are all back!

    If your issue is with the latest Firefox, this seems to be a working solution.

  27. Ryan, have you tried “Tools -> Options -> Content -> Colors” check “Allow pages to use their own colors, instead of my selections above” ?
    Fixed it on my Firefox

  28. Okay so my problem is that when I’m on a blog, I click “View Image” and normally, it would load the image in a new tab. Now? It asks me to download the image, it doesn’t actually load the image anymore in the browser window. Not sure why it doesn’t know how to handle these images anymore … this for seriously JUST started happening today.
    In the Tools -> Options -> Applications -> JPEG image, it NOW says “Always Ask” … Any ideas?
    (BTW, FireFox 3.0.1 on XP)

  29. OMFG!!! I just figured it out, thanks to all those who said “Try disabling some add-ons. I did just that, if you have an add on called Image-Show-Hide, disable it quick. Because I just did that and it worked perfectly for me. Im pretty sure anyone’s problem wasent because the box on “Load images automaticlly” wasent clicked, because its always checked on default settings unless you tempered with it. But Look for any image add-on you have and toy around with them by disabling one by one and seeing if that helps you out. I helped me out.

  30. It turned out to be the age-old “/” and “\” problem for me. :) FF3 does not seem to consider “\” and wants only “/” throughout the URL of the image. And yes, no initial “/” either, if using relative address! Quite simply the URL should look like “wp-content/images/myImage.gif”. That works!

  31. If in firefox 3, go to about:config and type in permissions.default.image. If the value is anything other than 1 (the default), change it so that it reads one. This loads all images on pages, and doesn’t block 3rd party images.

  32. To fix this problem in Firefox 3 just go to “TOOLS” then go to “OPTIONS” Click on the “CONTENT” and enable “LOAD IMAGES AUTOMATICALLY”

  33. In my case it was Outpost Firewall’s ad block option.
    Disabling it solved the [ad] thing.

  34. hi..i just want to give my gratitude today i’ve got same problem..firefox wont show any images..i wonder why.. i nearly death to think of it..
    ang then i’ve this solution and it really help

    thx a lot

  35. I’ve had this same problem since my last firefox update a month ago, I finally figured it out – only some sites weren’t showing images and they always showed before the update – well it was fixed by going to tools, options and (load images automatically was checked) but under exceptions, for some reasons the sites were listed there – so give that a shot if you are still having any problems! :)

  36. I am still having this problem, but it seems to be exclusive to my facebook pictures. I did an update and now a bunch of my pictures are replaced with “?”. This is also the case for a few of my friends’ pictures that I was able to see before. I have tried all of the fixes but as of yet nothing’s worked. any other suggestions?

  37. read everything above. my case seems a bit different. i building a basic site (dreamweaver). I uploaded some changes using the firefox ftp site (fireftp) which is pretty good. The changes “took” on safari but not IE or Firefox. It’s only 2 pages on a site of about 60 pages. It’s a site that’s just jpgs that are image mapped. On the pages in question, the mapped links from the jpgs work, you just can’t see the jpg. And you don’t get a broken image/link icon, you just see nothing…mouse over it and you can tell your link is there, and it works if you click this blank white space.

    Any thoughts?

  38. Here is one other culprit: the Skype extension for firefox can totally stop firefox loading images.
    Took me weeks of searching to uncover this.
    In firefox go to “tools” “add ons” find the Skype extension and disable it. If you then get images back, find the extension again and uninstall it.

  39. It’s not the addons, or adblock or any other program. It is Firefox, it hasn’t worked right since early versions and why Mozilla does not fix the problem is a joke. People keep giving the same answers that are not the answer, the fact is Firefox use to be good now it simply sucks!!!!!

  40. I had this problem was driving me nuts in 2.0 updated to 3.x same issue. As already mentioned in another post what solved it for me was changing the permissions.default.image setting back to 1 , it had been set to 3 some how. about:config in your url window will get you to the advanced settings area to change this.

    Details
    http://kb.mozillazine.org/Permissions.default.image

  41. Hi there, alot of you do have a problem where, images/pictures from your website which is stored on your pc/computer at home do display well in internet explorer but not at all in firefox.

    if your webpages cant display pictures in firefox because may be you wanted to customise a pay button/ shopping cart button on your webpage into a picture of your own, then i do have the answer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. i had the same problem and suprisingly it only takes a second to solve. just a second,,,,,,,,,,,,,.

    just copy the location of the picture as usual into the src=”” attribute.

    then only add a single forward flash(/) at the very beginning of the picture source name. eg src=”/C:/……..

    the first forward flash(/) at the start like above, is the answer to displaying your pictures in firefox on webpages that are still stored on your pc.

    cheers, let me know if it worked.

  42. Firefox 3.6+, got to Tools–>Options–>Content–>Load Images Automatically: Exceptions button –> Remove the websites for the sites that are currently are being blocked. Once you do this, click OK to close all windows. Reload your fire fox and your websites images should load with the page.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *