Refresh Firefox without losing Settings
Firefox has a serious problem. Within a few days of refreshing it, it starts to bog down and becomes noticeably slow.
I almost gave up using it, but then found the refresh function. The first time I did this, it sped things up nicely and I retained everything. Within a week, Firefox slowed down again. So, in frustration, I reset it again. This time it did strip all my settings and saved them in a folder on the desktop.
I have seen the solution that things can be copied from this profile folder into the new profile folder.
However, I have to say that from a usability perspective, this is a real fail. To ask users to selectively copy files even once is just a pain in the ass. To expect them to do it once a week (at least) in order to keep Firefox running crisply is ridiculous.
I implore the Firefox team to come up with a better solution to help users keep Firefox running smoothly. I know it's complicated and that add ons are the real issue. But there's got to be a way to make this process more user friendly. Even just a notification when the browser senses itself slowing down that points to a well written, step by step troubleshooting guide would be good.
Or perhaps a refresh that disables addons but keeps the rest of the data. That might help people more quickly realize that an addon is causing the slow down (assuming that is the case).
I don't know what the best solution, but there has got to be a better way than refreshing, losing all data, and then being expected to selectively copy information into a profile!
Thanks!
All Replies (4)
It's definitely not normal to have to refresh Firefox regularly. It is meant to be a fix to major issues, not a task that has to be done multiple times.
Are you installing any add-ons, or changing any settings that then lead to slowdowns? Have you made sure that you are running the latest version of Windows and your graphics driver? What anti-virus do you use?
Thanks for the reply. It's running quite crisply now. I was confused by the fact that the refresh process did not remove any settings the first time I used it.
Now that it has, I'll watch as I renable things and see where the issue might be.
I use bit defender and that would be my first suspicion.
The next time this happens;
1) Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link}
A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Is the problem still there? +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2) Type about:support in the address bar and press Enter. Under the main banner, press the button; Copy Text To Clipboard.. Now in the Reply Box on the forum page, do a right-click in the box and select Paste.
This will show us your system details. No Personal Information Is Collected.
If you can't fit everything in one post, do not worry. It's the upper part we need to check out.
Thanks everyone for the feedback. Things seem to be working ok.
There is one issue that is really bothering me though. I use the (heaven sent) dark reader addon to take care of my eyes. I had used this solution to stop Firefox from flashing a white screen before loading dark web pages:
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/822j2y/how_do_you_stop_firefox_from_flashing_a_white/
It was working great. But with the refresh firefox, it stopped working, so I copied the userchrome.css and usercontent.css files from the old profile folder into the new one, but it doesn't work anymore. This should probably be its own question, but what is the up to date way to stop firefox from flashing white screens?
Edit: I went ahead and posted this as a separate question: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1269392
Modified by john76