Fixing Firefox: Failed to register/update a ServiceWorker for scope

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February 1st, 2020

For users that take privacy serious, Progressive Web Apps and the Push API and Notifications API are a real headache. They offer good performance and service, but privacy wise they are not that nice. Something like a supercookie. You like them but somewhere you know, you don’t really want them.

So in Firefox, Service Worker APIs are hidden and cannot be used when the user is in private browsing mode.

But also when users have Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed checked, sites can not register a Service Worker.

An error in the Javascript console will show up:

Failed to register/update a ServiceWorker for scope ‘https://domain/path’: Storage access is restricted in this context due to user settings or private browsing mode.

SecurityError: The operation is insecure.

Most solutions  suggest that the user should change or uncheck that setting, but that is not necessarily needed. A better solution is to create an exception for a that particular site. Like there own. Or they want a limited set of sites they trust to enable service workers.

Press the Manage Permissions button and add an exception for your domain.

That way you can use Progressive Web Apps or service workers on a selected collection  of trusted sites, and still keep your privacy settings on a high level.

 

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