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"Firefox Home Content" (new tab page) pinned websites have been reset. Extension alternative? (self.firefox)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by Imhotep to c/[email protected]

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Hi!

I like to have some preferred websites showing up as big icons in a new tab (4 rows of 8 icons each).

I had them pinned and rearranged to my liking but today they're all gone.

Before I try to recreate it as it was, maybe there is a good extension for a startpage? All I need is some big favicons (not any other feature like weather).

edit: I'm going through the extensions but can't find one that I like. Is it possible to make a backup of the pinned websites so if Firefox resets them I can just bring them back? It only happened twice in a few years but it takes a while to restore.

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[–] PassingThrough 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Might be a bit over the top, but I set up a custom homepage startpage, and then grabbed the New Tab Override extension so that it opens on new tabs as well as being my homepage.

So if you can think of any websites that might do what you want like cardd or link tree, or are interested in making your own little webpage and hosting it somewhere free, that might work and as a bonus will be the same across all your browsers and devices. Could even load it up on someone else’s computer if you remember the link.

[–] Imhotep 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Never thought of that!
I rent a small VPS, so I could use that. Although my connection is really shitty I wouldn't want it to load every time I open a new tab

[–] PassingThrough 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

If you’ve got a VPS at your disposal, many of the homepage softwares I’ve tried over the years have some amount of caching to make them quite fast or even operate offline(“Homer” for one required me to deeply purge my cache as it would still appear when my site was offline…despite having replaced it long ago! 😂). Or, if you wanted to roll your own static HTML page, you can absolutely add a Service Worker for your own offline caching.

That’s where I’m at now. I use a custom ServiceWorker static HTML for my homepage and tab page on all my devices. This page is a bouncer, checks if I’m at home or not(or if my local dashboard is offline) and either redirects me to the local homepage which has all my HomeLab services on it, or if it fails just tells me I might be abroad or offline and lists a few public websites.

And yes, this works offline or over a shitty connection. Essentially the service worker quickly provides the cached page from the browser storage, then tries to take the time to check the live version. If it gets one, it updates the cache, if not, enjoy the offline version.

[–] Imhotep 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Thank you for this detailed answer. It's very interesting, and indeed a service worker sounds like a good answer to my bad connection