KeeFox 1.8 contains a handful of changes that will help people using the deprecated KeeFox 1.x Firefox addon to avoid some minor annoyances in 2019 and beyond.
Users of Kee 2.x do not need to take any action.
Users of KeeFox within Thunderbird must uninstall KeeFox and then install the new add-on, KeeBird 1.0. The first release of KeeBird contains some fixes for recent versions of Thunderbird as well as similar changes to those listed below for KeeFox.
Users of old versions of Firefox (earlier than version 57) or alternative Firefox-based browsers should manually update to KeeFox 1.8 by installing the XPI file from GitHub. You will not receive an automatic update because we are no longer allowed to host legacy versions on the official Mozilla add-ons website.
Installing the update is strongly recommended but there are no critical issues so if you plan to switch to Firefox 57+ and the Kee add-on soon, you may wish to postpone the upgrade decision for a short time.
Changes since KeeFox 1.7
- The metrics system is no longer in use. One day (not until at least 2020) I will shut down the server that is currently receiving and discarding all active metrics requests. When that happens a little disk space will be used up on your computer (around 25-50MB) if you keep using versions of KeeFox earlier than 1.8.
- Some irrelevant notification messages have been removed, including:
a. A request to rate the addon on the Mozilla website despite it no longer being hosted there.
b. A notification about the defunct privacy policy regarding the collection of anonymous metrics.
c. The “you are running a very old and insecure version so you should update to the latest version” warning notification that is due to be displayed in early 2019 to all users on KeeFox 1.7 or earlier. - Worked around a long-standing issue with a new way that Firefox displays the HTTP Authentication style popup dialogs so that the controls for selecting passwords are no longer partially hidden at the bottom of the dialog. (https://github.com/kee-org/KeeFox/issues/732)
- All languages and platforms are now enabled since we no longer have a separate Beta release channel for KeeFox.
Long term support warnings
KeeFox 1.7.x will no longer receive any security updates.
KeeFox 1.8.x will receive only security updates. Bug fixes and new features are no longer feasible. Ensure you “watch” this “Project news” category to receive notification of any future security update - as mentioned above, it is no longer possible to offer automatic updates.
After the end of 2018, even security updates may not be released unless someone else steps up to take over the management of the legacy KeeFox addon at that time. I will post a further warning at least a month before this change occurs (and it may well be a long way into 2019 or beyond, it’s too early to decide on an exact date for this).
Note that Thunderbird users can continue to use the new KeeBird add-on, which is still under active development.