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I've opened a Firefox today, hit the Firebug button and it showed me that in the new version it is integrated into the developer tools.

I hit ok and realized that it doesn't work at all (everytime using Inspect Element the <body> element is selected). So I would like to revert that setup back, but I cannot find where to switch it. I tried to reinstall Firebug, but that setup is stored somewhere so it automatically starts the DevTools instead of Firebug.

Any help how to revert back to the classic Firebug?

Sebastian Zartner
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Mi Ro
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    https://blog.getfirebug.com/2016/06/07/unifying-firebug-firefox-devtools/ — The Firefox developer tools and Firebug are now the same thing. The Firebug extension is no longer supported. – Quentin Nov 30 '16 at 22:43
  • ok thanks, at least how to switch back to firebug theme? I saw there was an option to stay with that theme, but now I cant find where to switch it – Mi Ro Nov 30 '16 at 22:47
  • The option to switch to the Firebug theme is located in the [Settings panel](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Settings#Choose_DevTools_theme). – Sebastian Zartner Dec 01 '16 at 11:54

2 Answers2

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As I wrote in the Firebug discussion group, that the <body> element is selected first before the actual element you inspected is a bug and I've already filed a bug report for it.

There is also a bug related to the Inspect Element with Firebug option, which opens the DevTools, but doesn't actually select the inspected element. This bug got fixed in Firebug 2.0.19 by removing the option (so there's just the Inspect Element option left, which works as explained above).

As mentioned in my answer to a related thread, you may be able to reenable Firebug by setting the preferences browser.tabs.remote.autostart, browser.tabs.remote.autostart.1 and browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2 to false via about:config.

These settings control whether Firefox works in multi-process mode (separate processes for its UI and the websites). Unfortunately Firebug is incompatible with that mode.

Note: This is a temporary solution, because the multi-process mode will be mandatory at some point and the preference will be removed. Also, starting from Firefox 57 only WebExtensions will be supported and Firebug is based on different APIs, so it definitely won't work anymore at that point.

Another way is to install an old version of Firefox like 48, disable automatic updates and install Firebug there. Though, having said that, this option is not recommendable (at least not long term), because you will miss important (security) bug fixes and new features.

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Sebastian Zartner
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    Thank you A LOT. I'm using Firefox for development, and both Firebug and Firefox development tools, for different purposes (Firebug for DOM and CSS manipulation, which is superior, and Firefox Tools for Console and NET panel, which are cleaner). I still can't figure out how they could have possibly thought that merging Firebug with the Tools could have worked, though; clicking with the right button on a page item and then on "analyze with Firebug" was opening the element instead that the element I've clicked on. Which mind can even think of dropping the target functionality ? No comment – Andrea Ligios Dec 07 '16 at 14:26
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    The reason why Firebug is discontinued is shortly [explained in the latest blog post](https://blog.getfirebug.com/2016/06/07/unifying-firebug-firefox-devtools/). In short: Multi-process Firefox would have required to rewrite most parts of Firebug and competition with the DevTools was not an option due to very limited resources. That the inspect feature first selects the element is a regression. I've filed [bug 1324254](https://bugzil.la/1324254) for that. – Sebastian Zartner Dec 19 '16 at 09:15
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In additional to @Sebastian Zartner's answer, (from Firebug's website):

Firebug 2 doesn’t work in multi-process browsers (i.e. e10s) and converting it is too complex, so it will stop working when e10s is activated in Firefox. You will be able to disable e10s for a while to keep using Firebug 2, but this won’t last forever.

More about your question:

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Mehdi Dehghani
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    They better start improving the Tools **drastically** before it happens (and by improving I mean *copying* the best parts of Firebug without changing them at all), or I suspect that half of today's users will migrate to Chrome. Firebug makes the difference, not the Tools. – Andrea Ligios Dec 07 '16 at 14:29
  • @AndreaLigios you right, sadly we should wait for that for while.please try `Developer Edition` or even `Nightly` & report bugs or missed features to helping the team what they care about. – Mehdi Dehghani Dec 07 '16 at 18:49
  • @AndreaLigios - I'm not far off moving to Chrome dev tools. Firefox devtools is rubbish! – user537137 Feb 09 '17 at 10:43
  • Add me to the list of devs switching to Chrome as my primary development browser. The styling of Firefox Development Tools is bloated and sluggish compared to Firebug. – dcashman Feb 15 '17 at 16:43
  • Yeah, this is a nightmare. Literally the only reason to use Firefox was Firebug, and even basic items such as IP is missing from the Network tab now, which is essential for DNS resolution tracking since Firefox will frequently jump between internal/external name servers. This makes server migrations _painful_. – BradZoob Mar 27 '17 at 04:37