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Getting an indefinite "connecting..." loading

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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Started happening today, though I remember having it a few months ago (cannot recall how it got solved).

In my New Tab page, I select a website, and click to open it in a new tab. It opens a new blank tab with the title "Connecting..." and a spinning grey wheel. The tab remains as it is without actually loading. If I open more than just one tab of the same address, it'll load the site on the other tabs, but keep "Connecting..." in the first one. I can't refresh the connecting tab, because it doesn't display a URL. A similar instance is searching from the address bar. With Google as my search engine, I type a search query, press enter, and I get the same "Connecting..." title with the gray spinning wheel. In this instance, however, the address bar DOES show the URL, so I can select the URL and press enter, and the page immediately loads. Refreshing doesn't seem to do anything.

This issue does not seem to occur on Chrome. Some websites in my New Tab page seem almost immune to this issue, though I can't find any commonality.

Started happening today, though I remember having it a few months ago (cannot recall how it got solved). In my New Tab page, I select a website, and click to open it in a new tab. It opens a new blank tab with the title "Connecting..." and a spinning grey wheel. The tab remains as it is without actually loading. If I open more than just one tab of the same address, it'll load the site on the other tabs, but keep "Connecting..." in the first one. I can't refresh the connecting tab, because it doesn't display a URL. A similar instance is searching from the address bar. With Google as my search engine, I type a search query, press enter, and I get the same "Connecting..." title with the gray spinning wheel. In this instance, however, the address bar DOES show the URL, so I can select the URL and press enter, and the page immediately loads. Refreshing doesn't seem to do anything. This issue does not seem to occur on Chrome. Some websites in my New Tab page seem almost immune to this issue, though I can't find any commonality.

All Replies (1)

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Boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support to see if that has effect in case security software is causing problems.


When multi-process windows in Firefox is enabled then Firefox will use more memory and may be less responsive. Try to disable multi-process windows in Firefox to see if that has effect.

You can disable multi-process windows in Firefox by setting these prefs to false on the about:config page.

  • browser.tabs.remote.autostart = false
  • browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2 = false

You can open the about:config page: via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.