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

Firefox is frozen and will not close but I want to un-install it. HELP!

  • 1 reply
  • 5 have this problem
  • 74 views
  • Last reply by Moses

more options

Firefox was open and an error message. Unresponsive script running, continue or stop script? All options were frozen I was not able and still not able to close firefox or any tabs from it, it has been frozen for two days. Is there an easy command line to just close the application?

Firefox was open and an error message. Unresponsive script running, continue or stop script? All options were frozen I was not able and still not able to close firefox or any tabs from it, it has been frozen for two days. Is there an easy command line to just close the application?

Chosen solution

You can close Firefox through the Terminal if it refuses to close through Firefox > Quit
You can open the Terminal by searching for it on the Spotlight (top right corner, magifying glass) Once open, you can run this command to kill the Firefox process:

  • kill -9 $(ps -x | grep firefox)

I'm not a Mac user but that command works for me in Ubuntu.


To figure out what's causing the unresponsiveness, you can try to start Firefox in Safe Mode. To start Firefox in Safe Mode, just do the following:

  • Clikc the Help menu on the menu bar and select Restart with Add-ons disabled.
  • Click Start in Safe Mode to the dialogue box that comes up.

Safe Mode disables the following:

  • Extensions
  • Default theme is used
  • userChrome.css and userContent.css files are ignored
  • default toolbar is used
  • Hardware acceleration is disabled.
Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (1)

more options

Chosen Solution

You can close Firefox through the Terminal if it refuses to close through Firefox > Quit
You can open the Terminal by searching for it on the Spotlight (top right corner, magifying glass) Once open, you can run this command to kill the Firefox process:

  • kill -9 $(ps -x | grep firefox)

I'm not a Mac user but that command works for me in Ubuntu.


To figure out what's causing the unresponsiveness, you can try to start Firefox in Safe Mode. To start Firefox in Safe Mode, just do the following:

  • Clikc the Help menu on the menu bar and select Restart with Add-ons disabled.
  • Click Start in Safe Mode to the dialogue box that comes up.

Safe Mode disables the following:

  • Extensions
  • Default theme is used
  • userChrome.css and userContent.css files are ignored
  • default toolbar is used
  • Hardware acceleration is disabled.

Modified by Moses