Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Hierdie gesprek is in die argief. Vra asseblief 'n nuwe vraag as jy hulp nodig het.

Firefox freezes after VPN status change

  • 3 antwoorde
  • 2 hierdie probleem
  • 2 views
  • Laaste antwoord deur zeroknight

Parallax
Parallax
more options

Whenever I change my VPN (not Mozilla VPN) status, Firefox will refuse to connect for something like 30 seconds then times out, leaving me with a blank screen. I have wait until that interval has passed before I can retry, otherwise it will repeat the freeze. This happens whenever I turn my VPN on/off or switch to a different VPN server. It happens only with Firefox. Chrome and my email client have no problems whatsoever. I think it's some kind of DNS caching problem within Firefox as the problem doesn't happen if I visit a site that I hadn't visited very recently. There's immediate response if I do that. I have DNS over HTTPS and secure DNS turned off in the settings, so it can't be those.

Anyone else have this problem? I wish there was some way to clear Firefox's DNS cache other than having to go into about:networking

Whenever I change my VPN (not Mozilla VPN) status, Firefox will refuse to connect for something like 30 seconds then times out, leaving me with a blank screen. I have wait until that interval has passed before I can retry, otherwise it will repeat the freeze. This happens whenever I turn my VPN on/off or switch to a different VPN server. It happens only with Firefox. Chrome and my email client have no problems whatsoever. I think it's some kind of DNS caching problem within Firefox as the problem doesn't happen if I visit a site that I hadn't visited very recently. There's immediate response if I do that. I have DNS over HTTPS and secure DNS turned off in the settings, so it can't be those. Anyone else have this problem? I wish there was some way to clear Firefox's DNS cache other than having to go into about:networking

Gewysig op deur Parallax

All Replies (3)

zeroknight
zeroknight
more options

Press Ctrl+Shift+R to do a hard refresh without any cache.

namnoops
namnoops
more options

I have a similar issue with Firefox on MacOS. Every time I turn my external VPN status on or off, or switch my location my Firefox becomes completely useless - there's just no connection.

No amount of restarting Firefox, hard-refreshing pages, going offline and back online, clearing DNS cache, or using any of the proxy settings (None, Auto-detect, System) help. Sometimes it takes hours before Firefox is working again, sometimes a full system reset is required. Safari doesn't break a sweat with these VPN changes.

Any help appreciated.

zeroknight
zeroknight
more options

What version of Firefox?

Does it still happen with default settings in a new browser profile? An easy way to test a new profile is to install Developer Edition and see if it happens there or refresh your existing profile. Make sure you stay signed out of your sync account when testing.