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

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Using Safe Mode to try to identify why Firefox is slow. Instructions unclear.

  • 6 replies
  • 9 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by geocar

geocar
geocar
more options

Firefox has slowed down: I get the spinning beachball at every click. I looked at the instructions for running it in Safe Mode to try to identify what's wrong. Safe Mode instructions are unclear...Do they mean that whatever buttons are clicked in the Safe Mode window, including Disable All Add-ons and Delete All Bookmarks Except for Backups, Firefox will have all add-0ns and all my bookmarks once I'm back in normal mode? Safe Mode Window says these changes are not permanent. But then there's the warning that These Changes Cannot be Undone. So I'm hesitant to do this. Mac 10.6.4 desktop.

Firefox has slowed down: I get the spinning beachball at every click. I looked at the instructions for running it in Safe Mode to try to identify what's wrong. Safe Mode instructions are unclear...Do they mean that whatever buttons are clicked in the Safe Mode window, including Disable All Add-ons and Delete All Bookmarks Except for Backups, Firefox will have all add-0ns and all my bookmarks once I'm back in normal mode? Safe Mode Window says these changes are not permanent. But then there's the warning that These Changes Cannot be Undone. So I'm hesitant to do this. Mac 10.6.4 desktop.

All Replies (6)

the-edmeister
the-edmeister
  • Moderator
more options

Don't select anything in that window, just hit Continue in SafeMode at the bottom of that dialog window.

geocar
geocar Question owner
more options

I don't want to be in Safe Mode forever. What do I have left when I exit Safe Mode?

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

If it does work in Safe-mode then disable all your extensions and then try to find which is causing it by enabling one at a time until the problem reappears.

  • Use "Disable all add-ons" on the Safe mode start window to disable all extensions.
  • Close and restart Firefox after each change via "File > Exit" (Mac: "Firefox > Quit"; Linux: "File > Quit")

See Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems and Troubleshoot issues with plugins like Flash or Java to fix common Firefox problems

geocar
geocar Question owner
more options

Thanks. Strangely, but luckily, installing the new Flash Player recommended by Firefox, to replace the previous buggy one, seems to have solved the problem. Don't know what the connection was, but now things are working "normally" (whatever that is).

See the security warning here: http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/

the-edmeister
the-edmeister
  • Moderator
more options

Your original posting in this thread says that Shockwave Flash 10.1 r102 was already installed.

geocar
geocar Question owner
more options

Don't know anything about that; Firefox filled that in. Anyway, I installed the version recommended by Mozilla's Plugin Check page, and the problem went away. I hope away forever.