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Firefox crashes

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  • Last reply by FredMcD

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Firefox started crashing last night. Now it is at the point where it wont open at all, just a blank screen and spinning wheel of doom. I have to force it to quit Safari works ok and I have used that to troubleshoot and go through remedies to try and fix firefox- I have deleted and reinstalled, checked up to date version etc but nothing works. What can I do?!!

Thanks

Firefox started crashing last night. Now it is at the point where it wont open at all, just a blank screen and spinning wheel of doom. I have to force it to quit Safari works ok and I have used that to troubleshoot and go through remedies to try and fix firefox- I have deleted and reinstalled, checked up to date version etc but nothing works. What can I do?!! Thanks

All Replies (2)

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Hi, try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Firefox Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that temporarily turns off hardware acceleration, resets some settings, and disables add-ons (extensions and themes).

If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu:

  • Click the menu button New Fx Menu, click Help Help-29 and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.

If Firefox is not running, you can start Firefox in Safe Mode as follows:

  • On Windows: Hold the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
  • On Mac: Hold the option key while starting Firefox.
  • On Linux: Quit Firefox, go to your Terminal and run firefox -safe-mode
    (you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)

When the Firefox Safe Mode window appears, select "Start in Safe Mode".

SafeMode-Fx35

If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, theme, or hardware acceleration. Please follow the steps in the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article to find the cause.

To exit Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.


If that doesn't help, please do the following to give us crash IDs that will help us understand more about the crash.

  1. (OS X 10.6 or previous) Click the Finder icon in the dock. Your home folder will be selected. In the right side of the window, click the Library folder to open it. Then open the "Application Support" folder, the "Firefox" folder, the "Crash Reports" folder and finally the "submitted" folder.
    (OS X 10.7 or above) Click the Finder icon in the dock. On the menu bar, click the Go menu, hold down the option or alt key and select Library. A window will open containing your Library folder. Then open the "Application Support" folder, the "Firefox" folder, the "Crash Reports" folder and finally the "submitted" folder.
  2. Open the 5 most recent files with a text editor and copy the IDs.
  3. Paste each ID with bp- into the reply window on the forums.

You can find more information and troubleshooting steps in the Troubleshoot Firefox crashes (closing or quitting unexpectedly) article.

When you figure out what's causing your issues, please let us know. It might help others with the same problem. Thank you!

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Some problems occurs when your Internet security program was set to trust the previous version of Firefox, but no longer recognizes your updated version as trusted. Now how to fix the problem: To allow Firefox to connect to the Internet again;

  • Make sure your Internet security software is up-to-date (i.e. you are running the latest version).
  • Remove Firefox from your program's list of trusted or recognized programs. For detailed instructions, see

Configure firewalls so that Firefox can access the Internet. {web link}