FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

No, the 'Missing e' browser extension/add-on is not affiliated with Tumblr, Inc. in any way. Its features are intended to improve the ease of use of that site, but it is neither approved nor endorsed by Tumblr, Inc. That being said, as an unofficial extension for Tumblr, 'Missing e' is proud to do what it can to enhance your enjoyment of the microblogging experience.

By downloading and using this extension, you agree to the terms and conditions set forth in the Missing e End User License Agreement

You can see a full list of changes (features added, fixed or removed) in the Change History page. You might also consider following 'Missing e' on Tumblr for news and information about the extension.

Recently, Tumblr began to enforce an API License Agreement which prohibits the use of many of the features of 'Missing e'. In order to continue distributing 'Missing e' and preserve as many useful features as possible, all those that depended on the Tumblr API (and those which put excessive strain on Tumblr's servers) were removed as of 'Missing e' version 2.0.0.

Almost all features were preserved or modified (with little to no perceivable impact) to acheive this goal. However, Follow Checker and Unfollower were removed from 'Missing e'.

We apologize for the inconvenience that affects users who depended on these features. However, I hope you will understand that these sacrifices were made so that you may continue to use and receive new versions of 'Missing e'.

You may have seen a warning message put out by Tumblr, suggesting that 'Missing e' is a browser "hack" that could cause problems for your account. Rest assured that 'Missing e' is completely safe. Using it will not cause your account or any of your posts to be deleted! The only change is that Tumblr will not provide technical help for your account while you are using 'Missing e'.

The issues Tumblr mentions in their warning are a worst-case scenario for installing browser extensions, scripts or modifications of any kind. However, 'Missing e' is not a source of these kinds of problems.

Data Loss

It is very unlikely that 'Missing e' will cause any data loss. This is especially true of existing posts. Without your interaction, 'Missing e' will not delete anything!

Privacy / Private Information

'Missing e' does not obtain, use or store your email address, password, IP address, search queries or contents of any of your existing posts.

There is a useful Tumblr post that explains what browser extension permissions 'missing e' uses, explaining many of the security notifications you get when installing the extension. Click here to learn about that.

Page Scraping

'Missing e' implements only a small amount of what Tumblr calls page scraping. It is not done regularly, nor is it excessive. With it, you have access to features like adding your sidebar to all dashboard pages, seeing timestamps of messages in your inbox and being able to reblog yourself from the dashboard.

All users are encouraged to examine the 'Missing e' source code to confirm all of these claims.

If you have any questions about specific problems you've heard are related to 'Missing e' or about the extension in general, you are welcome to drop by the 'Missing e' askbox. If you are still uncomfortable with using 'Missing e', please feel free to uninstall it (instructions).

Browser extensions need to ask for certain permissions from your browser in order for many features to work. Please read this post on Tumblr for an explanation of the permissions 'Missing e' uses and why.

Google Chrome

• Go to the Chrome Web Store and click the "Add to Chrome" button.

Apple Safari

• Download the extension here. When it asks you to "Open" or "Save" the file, choose "Open", then click "Install".
• If you are never presented with the option to "Open" the file, check your "Downloads" window. Find the file missinge.safariextz, right-click (Ctrl+click on Mac) on it and hit "Open", then "Install".

Mozilla Firefox

• Go to the Firefox Add-ons Gallery and click on the "Add to Firefox" button.
• 'Missing e' only works on Firefox 7 and above. If you have not yet upgraded, follow these instructions to update your Firefox browser to the latest version.

By downloading and using this extension, you agree to the terms and conditions set forth in the Missing e End User License Agreement

This error is almost always a result of the installed version of Google Chrome being too old. In the Google Chrome menu (the little wrench icon at the top of your browser), click on "About Google Chrome". The window that pops up will check for available updates to your browser and allow you to manually apply the update. Once you have updated Chrome, you should be able to install 'Missing e'.

For some reason, a small number of users find that the 'Missing e' browser extension can stop working without warning. In order to fix this, it is not necessary to uninstall and reinstall the extension! Instead, all you need to do is to disable and re-enable 'Missing e' in your browser's extensions/add-ons list. Here's how:

Google Chrome

In the Google Chrome menu (the wrench icon at the top right of the browser), go to "Tools" and click on "Extensions". Once in your extensions list, find the entry for 'Missing e' and uncheck the checkbox labelled "Enabled". Then, click the same checkbox again to re-enable it. Once complete, reload your Tumblr dashboard to continue using 'Missing e' features.

Apple Safari

Open the Safari menu:

• Mac OSX: click "Safari" in the menu bar at the top of the screen
• Windows: click on the gear icon at the top right of the window, just under the close button

In the Safari menu, go to "Preferences". Select the "Extensions" tab. In the list of extensions, click 'Missing e'. Uncheck the checkbox labelled "Enable Missing e", then click the same checkbox again to re-enable it. Once complete, reload your Tumblr dashboard to continue using 'Missing e' features.

Mozilla Firefox

In the Firefox menu, go to "Tools" and click on "Add-ons". Once in your add-ons list, find the entry for 'Missing e' and click the button labelled "Disable". Then, click the same button which is now labelled "Enable" to re-enable it. Once complete, reload your Tumblr dashboard to continue using 'Missing e' features.

We're sorry to hear that! Don't forget, if there are certain features you don't like and others you do, you can customize 'Missing e' and only use the features you want. Find out how.

If you still want to uninstall, follow these instructions:

Google Chrome

• In the menu (the little wrench icon at the top of your browser), go to "Tools" > "Extensions" and click on "Uninstall" in the 'Missing e' section.

Apple Safari

• Open the Safari menu
  • Mac OSX: click "Safari" in the menu bar at the top of the screen
  • Windows: click on the gear icon at the top right of the window, just under the close button
• In the Safari menu, go to "Preferences". Select the "Extensions" tab. In the list of extensions, click 'Missing e', then hit the "Uninstall" button.

Mozilla Firefox

• In the menu, go to "Tools" > "Add-ons". In the list of add-ons, find 'Missing e' and click on its "Remove" button.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome extensions should update automatically on a somewhat regular basis. If you would like to force Chrome to update 'Missing e' now, follow these instructions:

• Open the Google Chrome menu (the wrench icon at the top right of the browser).
• In the menu, go to "Tools" and click on "Extensions".
• A new tab opens with your list of extensions. Click the "Developer mode" button on the right-hand side.

• Then, click the "Update extensions now" button.

You have successfully updated 'Missing e'. Reload any Tumblr tabs you have open to take advantage of features in the new version

Apple Safari

If Safari is configured to update extensions automatically, extensions should be updated on a somewhat regular basis. If it is not configured to do so, or you wish to force Safari to update 'Missing e' now, follow these instructions:

• Open the Safari menu
  • Mac OSX: click "Safari" in the menu bar at the top of the screen
  • Windows: click on the gear icon at the top right of the window, just under the close button
• In the Safari menu, click on "Preferences".
• In the Preferences window, click on the "Extensions" pane.
• Your list of installed extensions appears at the left. Click on the "Updates" button to show available extension updates.

• Click on the "Install All Updates" button to update all of your extensions.
  • If you wish to only update 'Missing e', find it in the list of avaialable updates and click on the "Install" button beside the 'Missing e' icon.

Mozilla Firefox

Firefox should update extensions automatically. However, the newest versions of 'Missing e' may not be immediately updated until they are reviewed by the Mozilla Add-ons site. If you wish to force Firefox to update to the newest version of 'Missing e' now, follow these instructions:

• Go to the 'Missing e' Version History page on the Mozilla Add-ons site.
• Simply click on the "Add to Firefox" button next to the newest version (the one at the top of the list)

All of the 'Missing e' can be enabled, configured and disabled individually! This customizability is one of the extension's greatest assets.

Simply go to the settings page (find out how). You can also read the Tumblr post series on how to customize 'Missing e' to your personal preferences.

Google Chrome

• In the menu (the little wrench icon at the top of your browser), go to "Tools" > "Extensions" and click on "Options" in the 'Missing e' section.
• Click on the 'e' at the top of any Tumblr dashboard page.

Apple Safari

• In the menubar, click on the button labelled 'e.'.
• Click on the 'e' at the top of any Tumblr dashboard page.

Mozilla Firefox

• In the status bar (usually at the bottom of your browser), click on the button labelled 'e.'.
• Click on the 'e' at the top of any Tumblr dashboard page.

For a visual example of how to get to the settings page, see the related Tumblr post.

In version 2.2.13 or higher of 'Missing e' you can export your settings to a file and import them from a file.

Export Settings button

On the browser you wish to export your 'Missing e' settings from (the source browser), go to the 'Missing e' settings page (find out how to get there). At the bottom of the settings page, click on the Export button. A dialog box will come up allowing you to save your 'Missing e' settings in an .xml file.

Import Settings button

If you are moving your 'Missing e' settings to another computer, first transfer your saved .xml file to that computer.

Open the 'Missing e' settings page in the browser to which you wish to apply your settings (the destination browser). At the bottom of the page, click on the Import button. A dialog box will come up asking you to open an .xml file. When you open a 'Missing e' settings file, the extension will process it and apply the changes.

Any settings you have manually set in the source browser will be set in the destination browser. All settings that you have not manually set in the source browser will be reset to their default values in the destination browser.

Tagging of messages (asks) when you answer them, part of the Ask Tweaks feature is disabled by default when you first 'Install Missing e' or update to version 1.2.1 or higher. To enable it, you need to go to the settings page (find out how) and enable it under the Social Features tab, in the Ask Tweaks section.

The Better Reblogs feature can automatically keep the tags from a post when you reblog it. To support this on individual post pages, Better Reblogs must get the tags from the Tumblr RSS feed. When it does so successfully, the reblog button changes to what you see below to indicate that the tags will be preserved when you reblog.

Reblog (with tags) button

During times when Tumblr is very busy or error-prone, the RSS feeds may not work correctly. Better Reblogs will retry a few times before giving up. When that happens, the reblog button will change to the button below. You can still click on it to reblog the post, but the tags will not be added automatically.

Reblog with tags (failed) button

The Better Reblogs feature can add tags from the original post when reblogging. You can turn it off completely in the settings (which you can access like this), under the Post Features tab, in the Better Reblogs section.

You Can:

• Turn off reblogging tags completely
  • Do this by turning off the checkbox labelled: "Keep original post tags when reblogging"
• Disable automatic adding of original post tags
  • You will still be able to manually add the original post tags with the "Reblog Tags" button

Quick (1-clicking) reblogging, part of the Better Reblogs feature, is disabled by default when you first install 'Missing e' or update to version 1.1.0+. To enable it, you need to go to the settings page (find out how) and enable it under the Post Features tab, in the Better Reblogs section.

In the 'Missing e' settings page (find out how to get there), under the Post Features tab, in the Better Reblogs section, you can choose the Tumblr blog you want to use quick reblogging with.

In these settings, either choose Main Blog or Secondary Blog and specify an account name. Remember that you must have posting rights on the account you specify or quick (1-click) reblogging will always fail.

When you hover your mouse over a post's reblog button, the quick reblog menu appears. In the Tags input box at the bottom, you can add tags. To add multiple tags, simply separate each individual tag with a comma!

For example, to tag a post with #chocolate #cookie, simply type chocolate, cookie into the Tags input box before clicking the reblog button.

The Bookmarker feature allows you to jump directly to a post in your dashboard without having to scroll all the way there yourself. As such, you are only able to bookmark posts by Tumblrs that you follow. These posts (which you will usually on tag search result pages like 'http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sometag') will not have a Bookmarker icon that you can click on.

Some blogs (especially secondary tumblrs) do not behave correctly on your Tumblr dashboard. They may appear in your feed for a time, but after a while you may no longer be able to scroll to them. The posts are still visible on the Tumblr's personal page, but not on the dashboard.

Both Bookmarker and Goto Dash Post may instead bring you to the next earliest post by someone that you follow.

This is an issue with Tumblr's dashboard and is not caused by 'Missing e'.

In the settings (which you can access like this), you can change the default format of how the date and time will appear on bookmark labelss. By default, the format will be %Y-%m-%D %H:%i, which would look like 2011-04-09 23:07.

There are plenty of these "special sequences" that you can use, all of them conveniently listed on the settings page. For example, if you wanted that same timestamp to show up as missing-e: 9-Apr-2011 11:07pm (for a bookmarked post written by Tumblr "missing-e", you would enter the format as %u: %d-%M-%Y %g:%i%a.

You can set a custom name for a bookmark when you create it:

• Hold down the key when you click on the bookmark icon of a post.
• A popup box will appear for you to write in the custom bookmark name.

You can also change the name of an existing bookmark:

• Hold down the key when you click on a bookmark in the list in your dashboard sidebar.
• The link will change to an input where you can type in the custom name.
• If you decide not to change the name, just press the key.

Renaming an existing bookmark

Bookmarks are stored in your browser using something called DOM Local Storage. It is possible that this data will be lost if you clear browser data, such as cookies.

Please read this post for more information.

The queue Shuffle button, part of the Dashboard Tweaks feature, is disabled by default when you first install 'Missing e' or update to version 2.2.13+. To enable it, you need to go to the settings page (find out how) and enable it under the Dashboard Features tab, in the Dashboard Tweaks section.

Once activated, a Shuffle button will be added to the dashboard sidebar whenever you are on a Tumblr Queue page. Clicking it will randomize the order of queued posts currently loaded on the page.

Due to the way the Tumblr interface works, the Shuffle button can only randomize queued posts that are currently visible in the Queue page.

However, you can use Tumblr's "endless scrolling" dashboard feature to load as many queued posts as you want. The Shuffle button can then randomize a larger set of queued posts.

In the settings (which you can access like this), under the Dashboard Features tab, in the Dash Links to Tabs section, you can change this behaviour.

You can:

• turn the tab-opening feature on/off completely (by clicking the toggle switch)
• turn the tab-opening feature on/off for the new post buttons at the top of your dashboard
• turn the tab-opening feature on/off for links in the sidebar (on the right side of the dashboard)
• turn the tab-opening feature on/off for dashboard post reblog buttons
• turn the tab-opening feature on/off for dashboard post edit buttons

In a recent update to 'Missing e' (version 1.0.53), custom options were added for reblog and edit buttons on dashboard posts (reblog/edit OR ), allowing you to choose whether or not to open these links in a new tabs. By default, these options are set to not open in new tabs.

You can change this behaviour in the settings (which you can access like this) under Dash Links to Tabs which you can get to by clicking on the Dashboard Features section.

Unlike Chrome and Firefox, Safari will, by default, load any link that requests a new window in a new window instead of a new tab. You can change this behaviour in Safari's preferences: in the "Tabs" section, change the setting "Open pages in tabs instead of windows" to "Automatically".

Safari preferences - open pages in tabs

Some blogs (especially secondary tumblrs) do not behave correctly on your Tumblr dashboard. They may appear in your feed for a time, but after a while you may no longer be able to scroll to them. The posts are still visible on the Tumblr's personal page, but not on the dashboard.

Both Bookmarker and Goto Dash Post may instead bring you to the next earliest post by someone that you follow.

This is an issue with Tumblr's dashboard and is not caused by 'Missing e'.

The basic Tumblr interface allows you to navigate your dashboard using only your keyboard:

• J - Jump to the next post in the dashboard
• K - Jump to the previous post in the dashboard

If you use Tumblr's endless scrolling dashboard, you can continue navigating through posts using these keys. However, if you do not use endless scrolling, navigating with J and K will stop once you reach the bottom (or top) of the dashboard.

To improve navigation for those who don't use endless scrolling, 'Missing e' provides a setting you can activate in the Dashboard Tweaks feature (find out how to get to the settings page) that will cause the J and K keys to jump to the next page automatically when you reach the end (or beginning) of the current page!

When you navigate your dashboard using the J and K keys, Tumblr and 'Missing e' provide a few more keyboard shortcuts that can perform certain actions on the current post:

• L - Like the current post (this feature is part of the Tumblr interface)
• M - Bookmark the current post using the Bookmarker feature
• C - Open the comment/reply box for the current post

If you use the 'Missing e' quick (1-click) reblogging feature (find out how to activate it), the following keyboard shortcuts are also available:

• R - Reblog the current post using quick reblogging
• D - Reblog the current post to your drafts using quick reblogging
• Q - Reblog the current post to your queue using quick reblogging

Magnifier adds a small icon to all photo posts on the dashboard. Simply click on it to view the full-size image without ever leaving the dashboard. Magnifier will resize the image to fit on your screen, but you can click on the enlarged image to open it in a new tab or window.

The Magnifier icon is also added to photoset posts. When you click on it, the enlarged images will appear as a slideshow you can navigate with arrow buttons on either side.

Photos enlarged by Magnifier are shown scaled down so that they fit into your browser window. You can click on the enlarged photo to open it in its own tab or window at full size.

The option that enables enlarging of Tumblr avatars is disabled by default when you first install 'Missing e' or update to version 1.5.7+. To enable it, you need to go to the settings page (find out how) and enable it under the Dashboard Features tab, in the Magnifier section.

When the option is enabled, Magnifier adds a icon to Tumblr avatars (in the dashboard and in follower/following lists) that appears when you hover your mouse over the small avatar image. Clicking on this icon enlarges the avatar image without leaving the current page.

You can click on any photo enlarged by Magnifier to open it in its own tab or window at full size.

The Tumblr Mass editor is limited to editing tags or deleting only 100 posts at a time. This is a limitation of Tumblr, not 'Missing e'.

Much like the '+ Upload Photo' button that Tumblr places on new text post pages by default, Posting Tweaks must load an additional Tumblr page in the background before adding the button. During times when Tumblr is very busy or error-prone, this page may not load.

Try reloading the post page to try again.

In order to add a reblog link to your posts on the dashboard, Reblog Yourself has to read that post's permalink page. During times when Tumblr is very busy or error-prone, this may not work correctly. Reblog Yourself will retry a few times before giving up and showing: reblog.

You can click on the reblog text to tell Reblog Yourself to try again. If it shows up without the strikethrough (ie. 'reblog'), then the link works!

You should note that the reblog button added to individual post pages (not on the dashboard) is more or less unaffected by Tumblr server problems.

Although you can also reply to notes loaded by clicking on the "notes" button of a dashboard post, it is best if you have "Show notifications" turned on in your Tumblr preferences to show notifications directly on your dashboard.

Simply click on the notifcation icon on the right side of one of these notifications (heart, reply arrow, etc) to open a new post with the notification already added, ready for you to comment on.

Sample Tumblr dashboard notification

You can also reply to notes displayed by clicking on the "notes" button of a dashboard post. Simply click on the notification icon on the right side of one of these notes to open a new post with the notifcation already added, ready for you to comment on.

Sample post notification

1. Hold down the key and click on the icons of each of the notifications you want to reply to.
2. Click (without ) on the icon of the last notification you want to include.
3. All the notifications will appear in a single post in chronological order!

Turning Safe Dash on and off with the link in the sidebar of your dashboard hides and unhides images immediately.

Deactivating Safe Dash on the 'Missing e' settings screen disables it completely. Any tumblr dashboard page loaded with Safe Dash disabled will not have the Safe Dash toggle button in the sidebar. All images will be shown, as normal.

These images are hidden:

• All image posts
• All photoset thumbnails
• Photosets that have been clicked (enlarged)
• Inline images in other types of posts
• Album art in audio posts
• All video thumbnails
• All full-size videos

These images are NOT hidden:

• All tumblr-generated user avatars
• Images enlarged by the 'Missing e' Magnifier feature.

You can add a blog sidebar (which includes your post, follower, message, draft and queue counts) to dashboard pages that don't normally have them. You can activate this feature in the settings page (which you can access like this), under the Dashboard Features tab, in the Sidebar Tweaks section.

When you turn on the "Add Tumblr sidebar..." feature (find out how), Sidebar Tweaks will start out by adding the blog sidebar for your primary Tumblr account. If you wish a different account's blog sidebar to appear, simply click on the blog title at the top of the added sidebar, and select a different Tumblr account.

Selecting an account for the added sidebar

When you select a different account, your choice will be remembered the next time you load the dashboard! Note that you cannot switch the blog sidebars shown on blog pages (/tumbelog/your-name).

During times when tumblr is very busy or error-prone, Sidebar Tweaks may not be able to get your post, follower, messages, draft and queue counts. It will retry a number of times before giving up.

When Sidebar Tweaks cannot get the information from Tumblr, it will replace the numbers in the blog sidebar with: ↻. You can click on that symbol to make Sidebar Tweaks try again.

In the settings (which you can access like this), you can change the format of how the date and time will appear on post timestamps. By default, the format will be %Y-%m-%D %H:%i, which would look like 2011-04-09 23:07.

There are plenty of these "special sequences" that you can use, all of them conveniently listed on the settings page. For example, if you wanted that same timestamp to show up as 9-Apr-2011 11:07pm, you would enter the format as %d-%M-%Y %g:%i%a.

Timestamps uses the time of a post embedded in the dashboard or presented in the Tumblr permalink page. Unfortunately, Tumblr is known to sometimes report the time of a post incorrectly, often several hours after it was actually posted. For posts where Tumblr is incorrect, Timestamps will also be incorrect.

In order to add the date and/or time to ask messages in your inbox, Timestamps has to read that post's permalink page. During times when Tumblr is very busy or error-prone, this may not work correctly. Timestamps will retry a few times (specified in your settings) before giving up and displaying: Timestamp loading failed. Retry.

You can click on 'Retry' to tell Timestamps to try again.

The "Allow replies to reblogs" option does, indeed, allow you to reply to reblogged posts with a button that looks like [reply] or . If the user who reblogged it has their "Show notifications" setting turned on in their Tumblr preferences, they will most likely receive a notification of your reply. However, your reply may not always show up in the post's notes. Especially if you have also reblogged it, or reblog it after replying.

On top of that, the attempt to reply may not even work at all! When attempting to send a reply, the experimental reply button will be replaced with an icon, if successful. If the reply fails for some reason, you will see an icon.