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.

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

Lots of "well, this is embarassing" and FF hangs when downloading or opening Options

  • 8 replies
  • 61 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

FF3.6.6 FF hangs when I try to download anything, it also hangs when I try to open Options...I click on tools/options...nothing happens, if I click on tools again I get an hourglass and eventually a not responding note

This happened

Every time Firefox opened

== this week

FF3.6.6 FF hangs when I try to download anything, it also hangs when I try to open Options...I click on tools/options...nothing happens, if I click on tools again I get an hourglass and eventually a not responding note == This happened == Every time Firefox opened == this week

Chosen solution

Usage of 3.6.3 is not recommended, because it doesn't include the latest security fixes. If you don't want to use Firefox 3.6.6, please use 3.5.10, as it includes the latest security fixes, like 3.6.6.

Also, Berndt, did you try safe mode? Disabling add-ons in the start screen of safe mode is a sure fire way of knowing you didn't do anything wrong when disabling add-ons (extensions, themes and plugins), and it's temporary, so it's a good thing for diagnosing problems.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (8)

more options

Hello Jon.

It's possible that you are having a problem with some Firefox add-on that is hindering your Firefox's normal behavior. Have you tried disabling all add-ons (just to check), to see if Firefox goes back to normal?

Whenever you have a problem with Firefox, whatever it is, you should make sure it's not caused by one (or more than one) of your installed add-ons, be it an extension, a theme or a plugin. To do that easily and cleanly, run Firefox in safe mode (don't forget to select Disable all add-ons when you start safe mode). If the problem disappears, you know it's from an add-on. Disable them all in normal mode, and enable them one at a time until you find the source of the problem. See this article for information about troubleshooting extensions and theme and this one for plugins.

If you need support for one of your add-ons, you'll have to contact its author.

more options

Morbus, I started in safe mode but that didn't help. I tried to open Options, nothing then a second time and FF crashed (in safe mode)

more options

Please try reinstalling Firefox.

If that doesn't help, check if your firewall/antivirus/security suite is causing this problem. Disabling them temporarily is ok, if you don't ok untrustworthy sites.

more options

I have exact same problem with Firefox 3.6.6. I've tried uninstalling all plugins and that did not help. I installed Firefox 3.6.3 again and then everything worked again.

more options

Chosen Solution

Usage of 3.6.3 is not recommended, because it doesn't include the latest security fixes. If you don't want to use Firefox 3.6.6, please use 3.5.10, as it includes the latest security fixes, like 3.6.6.

Also, Berndt, did you try safe mode? Disabling add-ons in the start screen of safe mode is a sure fire way of knowing you didn't do anything wrong when disabling add-ons (extensions, themes and plugins), and it's temporary, so it's a good thing for diagnosing problems.

more options

I have the same problem. Every ten or so minutes my the page freezes and then I get see Mozilla Firefox (Not Responding) in the address bar. FF used to be so reliable. Now it's worse than IE :( How do I fix this?

more options

I have the same problem, but it's with version 3.6.12 (the latest at the time of this writing). Deleting downloads.sqlite doesn't help. Deleting mimeTypes.rdf doesn't help. Disabling all my addons doesn't work. Running in safemode doesn't work. Deleting my profile folder, and reinstalling firefox doesn't help. Disabling my firewall/antivirus doesn't help.

Opening the Downloads window OR initiating a download of any kind causes firefox to freeze with an hourglass.

Opening the general tab in Options also causes a freeze. This issue resembles that in this post and I think it's related. I'm going back to ff v3.6.3.

more options

You can use the EnumProcess program written by trolly, a moderator on the MozillaZine Forums, to check what is running (e.g firewall, security and anti-virus software).
You can find more info on trolly's website: http://www.trolly.homepage.t-online.de/tools.html
The link to download the file is at the bottom of that page.
You need to run the EnumProcess program as administrator to get all info.


Do a malware check with a few malware scan programs.
You need to use all programs because each detects different malware.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of the database before doing a scan.

See also "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked and What to do when searches take you to the wrong search website