[Plugin: NextGEN Gallery] Galleries Not Populating

I was running the easy rotator plug-in but decided to try nextgen. de-activated easy rotator, of course.

I recently upgraded to 3.4.2 (from 3.4.1) and dl’ed nextgen 1.9.6. I can upload photos into a gallery, but when I try to insert that gallery into a post, the dropdown just hangs and won’t populate.

de-activated easy rotator, deleted nextgen, re-downloaded: same. reverted back to default wp theme: same.

I have seen threads about this from people running earlier versions but the answer is never clear cut. the quick test when I dl’ed said my theme would work with nextgen.

mac: 10.5.8
firefox: 15.0.1
wp: 3.4.2
nextgen: 1.9.6

is there an answer/fix for this?

https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/nextgen-gallery/