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How can I prevent Firefox from closing when it crashes?

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

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So, I'm using a Windows 8 computer, & when it crashes, it closes altogether & it's really annoying having to reload my session, but when I was using a Windows 7 computer, Firefox hardly ever closed altogether when it crashed- all it did was freeze. Is there some way to only have it freeze instead of closing altogether? I hope you understand what I'm saying. Thanks.

So, I'm using a Windows 8 computer, & when it crashes, it closes altogether & it's really annoying having to reload my session, but when I was using a Windows 7 computer, Firefox hardly ever closed altogether when it crashed- all it did was freeze. Is there some way to only have it freeze instead of closing altogether? I hope you understand what I'm saying. Thanks.

All Replies (4)

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If only, if only! :)

No, there isn't a way you can choose what Firefox does when it crashes. It crashes for a reason. But we can see what's causing those crashes.

Can you give me your crash reports?

  1. Enter about:crashes in the Firefox address bar and press Enter. A Submitted Crash Reports list will appear, similar to the one shown below.
  2. Copy the 5 most recent Report IDs that start with bp- and paste them into your response here.

Your System Details looks very light/empty. Can you start by giving us the troubleshooting information from the Firefox installation that's having problems. This is an essential step in troubleshooting.

  • Click the Firefox button at the top left, then click the Help menu and select Troubleshooting Information from the sub-menu. If you don't have a Firefox button, click the Help menu at the top and select Troubleshooting Information from the menu.

Now, a new tab containing your troubleshooting information should open.

  • At the top of the page, you should see a button that says "Copy text to clipboard". Click it.
  • Now, go back to your forum post and click inside the reply box. Press Ctrl+V to paste all the information you copied into the forum post.
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I didn't submit any crash report. I was just wondering if this is because it's Windows 8 & the settings have changed? Like I said, when I was using Windows 7, Firefox rarely closed altogether- all it does was freeze up & then it would eventually work again, but now it's closing altogether. I hope you understand what I'm describing. Thanks.

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Yes, if you and me are on the same page.

When Firefox closes out by itself, that means it's crashed. It doesn't have anything to do with how Windows operates or what Windows settings have been changed. Firefox is independent upon its own settings and it either hangs (freezes) when a script stops responding (flash for example) or it crashes because something happened that Firefox couldn't recover from so it closes out to avoid data loss. The window to report a crash looks like below:

If you click Restart or Quit, it'll submit the crash report to Mozilla and to your about:crashes page where you can give the IDs to us and we can see what caused it to crash.

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Start Firefox in Safe Mode
While you are in safe mode;
Firefox Options > Advanced > General.
Look for and turn off Use Hardware Acceleration.