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Firefox stops responding as soon as I open the Tools- options tab.

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Whenever I open the Tools tab/window and click on options, Firefox stops responding. I have to open my task manager (ctrl, alt & del) to close Firefox as it doesn't respond no matter how long I wait.

Whenever I open the Tools tab/window and click on options, Firefox stops responding. I have to open my task manager (ctrl, alt & del) to close Firefox as it doesn't respond no matter how long I wait.

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Hi waraqah, some others users are reporting that some aspects of the new "in tab" preferences page do not work for them; so far, I only saw one other report of Firefox freezing.

As a diagnostic, if you don't mind, could you test the Options page in Firefox's Safe Mode? This will help assess whether this problem is caused by one of your extensions. Here's how:

If Firefox is not running: Hold down the Shift key when starting Firefox.

If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
  • Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

and OK the restart.

Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).

Any improvement with the in-tab Options?


Or you might need to switch back to the old pop-up style Options dialog. Here's how:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste pref and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.preferences.inContent preference to switch it from true to false

(Note: I don't know whether the old dialog will be in Firefox forever or is a transitional feature. As you've probably noticed, the long-term trend is to remove things that pop up.)

Does that one work without freezing?