Clip to Devonthink freezes Firefox

Hi
Running macOS Big Sur 11.6.7 and Devonthink 3.9.7 with Firefox 129.0.2. When using the Firefox extension “Clip to Devonthink” from the extension bar at the top right of the browser window, the current website does get saved in Devonthink but when going back to Firefox, the tab with the saved content is stuck loading and every other open tab is stuck and won’t load any new url. The loading animation starts but nothing happens and my only option is to shut down Firefox and open it again. Any idea on how to return to a working Firefox browser after saving a tab in Devonthink? Couldn’t find any other topics on the subject so I assume I must have a weird configuration that trips something up. I did check the security and privacy settings in the system preferences. After opening a new sorter and clicking on the far right icon for web access and allowing DT3 to control Firefox, I did get a new entry in the “accessibility” group but not in the “automation” group that I saw mentioned in a topic with a somewhat similar issue (but it was about the clipper not working). I don’t have an entry to allow Firefox to control DevonThink in the “automation” group, only for the Mail app and the Finder. Is that the reason for my problem? Does it need that permission on top of the accessibility permission in order to not crash Firefox? If so, is there any way to install it without uninstalling and reinstalling DT3?

Thanks for any help

This should not be the answer to the issue (nor many issues).

  • What URL are you trying to clip?
  • What format are you trying to clip to?
  • Are you using the Clutter-free option?

PS: Firefox is pretty lousy for automation on a Mac. Just something to consider.

You should also consider the option that this issue is caused by FireFox and not by DT3.

2 Likes

Thanks for your replies.
Every single URL I’m trying to save produces the same result.
Saving as web archive. The result is the same whether I use the clutter-free option or not.

Ok so does that mean that DT doesn’t need the “automation” permission for Firefox to successfully save to DT? Do you guys have the Firefox option ticket in “automation”? I just had the impression that it would make sense if THAT was the problem, i.e. not having the option to allow Firefox to automate DT.

Everything works fine in Safari and that also doesn’t have the permission to automate DT. But I don’t like having to jump back and forth between Firefox and Safari just to save articles. It’s a workaround, but not ideal

As web archive or webloc / web internet location?

I’m using the German language interface, so I’m translating “Webarchiv” into web archive. It’s not webloc

Works for me, at least with this forum page. FF 129.0, macOS 14.6.1, DT 3.9.7, “Aufgeräumtes Webarchiv”, FF does not hang.

Are you using any FF extensions?

Does the issue persist after rebooting the Mac?

Yes I use quite a few different FF extensions.
Rebooting the Mac doesn’t fix the problem.
Maybe it’s the macOS version. I’m on a Mac Pro 5,1 with Opencore and haven’t updated to the latest Big Sur version because everything else is working the way I want it to. Probably will need to do that sooner or later

You could turn them off one by one and see if one or several interfere with FF etc.

I doubt it. The OS is not really involved in processing HTML or URLs. If macOS or OpenCore or so were the issue here, why would Safari work and not FF?

Trying to turn the extensions off is a good idea. I’ll try that. Thanks

Turns out it’s the Adblock Plus addon in Firefox that interferes with the “Clip to Devonthink” addon. Disabling ABP fixes the problem, but obviously I’d still like to keep that ABP functionality somehow. But at least now I know what caused the issue. Thanks for the great help and suggestions from you all!

3 Likes

Try uBlock instead. I don’t have trouble with that.