How to Enable or Disable Broken Site Reporter Tool in Firefox

Newer versions of Mozilla Firefox web browser (version 123.0 and later) come with a new feature called “Broken website reporting tool“. This article will help you in enabling or disabling the new site reporter tool feature in Firefox web browser.

The new tool can be accessed and used from the main Firefox menu -> Report broken site option. If you can’t find the new option, this article will help you.

In this article, we’ll discuss methods to enable or disable the new reporter tool as well as secret tricks to fine tune and reveal new options in this new tool.

What is Broken Website Reporter Tool in Mozilla Firefox?

Mozilla team has added a new feature to Firefox 123.0 and later versions which is called “Web compatibility reporting tool” and also referred as “Broken site reporter tool” by many users. This new tool allows Firefox users to report a website to Mozilla developer team if the user finds any incompatibility issue with the browser.

For example, a website is working fine in other web browsers such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera or Vivaldi but the same website is not loading properly or crashing in Firefox web browser. It might be possible that the website is not compatible with Firefox web browser. The user can use the new broken site reporter tool and let the Mozilla developer team know about the incompatibility issue.

The new tool will help Firefox developers in identifying and fixing the reported web compatibility issue or bug. The main idea to develop this new feature in Firefox is to make the web browser better and more responsive.

How to Enable Broken Website Reporter Tool in Firefox

If you upgrade or install to Firefox 123.0 or later version, you can access and use the new broken website reporter tool using main Firefox 3-lines hamburger menu. Once you click on Firefox menu button, you’ll see a new option “Report broken site” present between “More tools” and “Help” options.

If you can’t see the report site option, it means you have turned off data collection and usage option in Firefox previously. The new site reporter tool requires collecting data and sending it to Mozilla developer team, so if the data collection option is disabled, the new site reporter tool option will not be available.

If you want to activate and use broken site reporter tool in Firefox, following steps will help you:

STEP 1: Open Firefox Settings page by clicking on the main Firefox Menu (3-lines Hamburger menu icon) present at the right-side end of the toolbar and selecting Settings option. Alternatively, you can direct option Settings page using about:preferences command in address bar.

STEP 2: In left-side pane, click on “Privacy and Security” tab and in right-side pane, scroll down and go to “Firefox Data Collection and Use” section.

STEP 3: Now enable “Allow Firefox to send technical and interaction data to Mozilla” option.

That’s it. As soon as you enable the above mentioned option, the broken site reporter tool will be activated and added to Firefox menu.

PS: The broken site reporting option will be grayed out on pages which can’t be reported such as built-in Firefox pages.

How to Disable Broken Website Reporter Tool in Firefox

If you are worried about privacy issues and don’t want to use broken site reporter tool, you can disable it in Firefox using following steps:

STEP 1: Open Firefox Settings page by clicking on Firefox Menu button on toolbar and selecting Settings option.

STEP 2: Click on “Privacy and Security” tab and in right-side pane, scroll down and go to “Firefox Data Collection and Use” section.

STEP 3: Disable “Allow Firefox to send technical and interaction data to Mozilla” option.

Once you disable the above mentioned option, the broken site reporter tool will be deactivated and removed from Firefox web browser.

Turn On/ Off Broken Site Reporter Tool in Firefox Using About:Config Page

There is a hidden secret preference/flag available in Firefox which can be modified to manually enable or disable the new site reporter tool in Firefox. Advanced users can use this secret trick to quickly add or remove site reporting tool in Firefox.

STEP 1: Open Mozilla Firefox and type about:config in the address bar and press Enter. It’ll show you a warning message, click on “Accept the Risk and Continue” button. It’ll open Firefox’s hidden secret advanced configuration page i.e. about:config page.

STEP 2: Now type reporter in Search filter box and look for following preference in the window:

STEP 3: To activate and enable the new site reporter tool in Firefox, set the above mentioned preference to True.

If you want to deactivate and disable the new site reporter tool, set the preference to False.

To change the preference value, double-click on the preference and it’ll toggle the preference value.

That’s it. It’ll immediately enable or disable site reporter tool feature in your Firefox browser.

Hidden Secret Configuration Tips to Customize Broken Site Reporter Tool in Firefox

While searching for “reporter” preference/flag on about:config page, I noticed a few other preferences related to the new site reporting feature which are as follows:

These extra preferences can be configured to customize or tweak the new site reporting feature in Firefox. Following screenshot shows an example of the customization which can be achieved by modifying these secret preferences:

extensions.webcompat-reporter.enabled can be modified to enable or disable the built-in extension responsible behind the new site reporting feature.

extensions.webcompat-reporter.newIssueEndpoint contains the web URL which displays the form to report the website. It’s set to https://webcompat.com/issues/new which is the main site to report web compatibility issues.

ui.new-webcompat-reporter.enabled is the main preference which turns on/off the site reporter tool in Firefox.

ui.new-webcompat-reporter.reason-dropdown preference decides whether to show “choose reason” drop-down box under “What’s broken” option on site reporting fly-out. It’s set to 2 by default which enables the reason option. If you set it to other number, it’ll remove the reason drop-down box.

ui.new-webcompat-reporter.reason-dropdown.randomized preference randomizes reasons.

ui.new-webcompat-reporter.send-more-info-link preference adds an extra link “Send more info” on site reporting fly-out which launches the official https://webcompat.com/issues/new website in Firefox. It’s disabled by default to hide the link.

Also Check:

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