Comments on: Firefox Failing localStorage Due to Cookie Policy

By: Todd Keup

Todd Keup — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 20:22:29 +0000

I found it quite odd that I just went through the exact same steps (reading the Storage specs, etc.) and analyzing this very issue before I found myself here on your site! I wish I would have taken the time to troubleshoot this back in April when I first ran into the issue. A recent task forced the issue and I too am a developer and ultimately I had to figure out what was going on with this security message I was receiving. With my new keyword (localStorge) to use for search I came across your bugzilla report and this post. Thanks. I thought it might be helpful for any future readers (developers) to know that you can put in a try/catch block and incorporate your own handler. I know that the try/catch solution has been mentioned in the bug reports and elsewhere but I wanted to add that the Gecko docs have an example workaround handler or if you are using Modernizr you can load one of the polyfills from there instead. This is by no means a working solution but it should get you started in the proper direction if you find yourself in the same situation:

try { localStorage.foo = localStorage.foo == 'undefined' ? 'true' : localStorage.foo ; } catch (e) { // set your own handler or use a polyfill: // https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/DOM/Storage OR // https://github.com/Modernizr/Modernizr/wiki/HTML5-Cross-browser-Polyfills }

By: George K.

George K. — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 17:29:04 +0000

Thanks for shedding light! was puzzled why caniuse.com has stopped working in my FF on paranoic cookie settings.

By: Izzy

Izzy — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 06:42:03 +0000

You are welcome, Eric! I also posted this solution (including a reference to this page here) on the Stackoverflow Meta section, as it might affect a lot of people at stackexchange (I was one of them). Unfortunately, they do not seem to like it (got downvoted ;) -- but who cares. The information is there for those in need, that's the important thing. So again thanks to you for bringing me on the right track!

By: Eric Meyer

Eric Meyer — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 02:42:59 +0000

Excellent point, Izzy. I’ve started doing the same with a combination of Advanced Cookie Manager and CS Lite Mod, but didn’t think to come back here to document the workaround. Thanks!

By: Izzy

Izzy — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 18:26:04 +0000

There's a work around available, as I just discovered: I use the Firefox addon Cookie Button, which makes it easy to set a policy per-site. So I set it to accept from the sites I need -- and to ask for every other. Seems to work fine. I wasn't aware this has to do with LocalStorage until reading your article (I had trouble with stackexchange) -- thanks to this I was able to solve my problem!

By: tom jones

tom jones — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:08:13 +0000

until this is fixed, and/or if this is a problem only on a couple of important sites, you can add them to the “exceptions” section with the option to always “allow” for those domains. HTH

By: Eric Meyer

Eric Meyer — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:37:39 +0000

Thank YOU, Sean, for reminding me that developers are another important audience for this sort of thing. I’ve updated the post accordingly.

By: Sean Hogan

Sean Hogan — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:52:10 +0000

Thank you. That’s important to know for js devs.