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.

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 keeps not responding

  • 11 replies
  • 15 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by Bill1426

more options

Every time I try to load most websites (such as Google mail or YouTube) Firefox stops responding for several minutes and then fails to load the page properly, I have tried reinstalling, using a new profile and various other fixes and none of them work.

Every time I try to load most websites (such as Google mail or YouTube) Firefox stops responding for several minutes and then fails to load the page properly, I have tried reinstalling, using a new profile and various other fixes and none of them work.

Chosen solution

A possible cause is security software (firewall) that blocks or restricts Firefox or the plugin-container process without informing you, possibly after detecting changes (update) to the Firefox program.

Remove all rules for Firefox and the plugin-container from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full unrestricted access to internet for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.

See:


Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See "Basic Troubleshooting: Make a new profile":

There may be extensions and plugins installed by default in a new profile, so check that in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions & Plugins" in case there are still problems.

If that new profile works then you can transfer some files from the old profile to that new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.

See:

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (11)

more options

See if this helps... Make the change in about:config

network.http.request.max-start-delay 2

more options

Nope didn't help. Thanks anyway

more options

I've discovered that the problem seems to be Flash, Firefox works fine when I disable it the problem is though I mostly use Firefox for watching Youtube so disabling flash isnt really an option. Any ideas on how to fix it? I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling flash which didnt help

more options

I'd uninstall it, then use ccleaner (www.ccleaner.com) to remove the registry info.. Reboot and then reinstall it..

Modified by Bill1426

more options

Nope still not fixed

more options

Chosen Solution

A possible cause is security software (firewall) that blocks or restricts Firefox or the plugin-container process without informing you, possibly after detecting changes (update) to the Firefox program.

Remove all rules for Firefox and the plugin-container from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full unrestricted access to internet for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.

See:


Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See "Basic Troubleshooting: Make a new profile":

There may be extensions and plugins installed by default in a new profile, so check that in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions & Plugins" in case there are still problems.

If that new profile works then you can transfer some files from the old profile to that new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.

See:

more options

Thanks, that first one seems to have fixed the not responding problem but Youtube videos still wont load, I just get black box

more options

If you right click on the video, and go to global settings.. Make sure the storage is set to "Allow Sites to save information..."

more options

Do you have the 32 bit version of the Flash player installed?

You can find the 32 bit version of the Flash Player installer for a 32 bit Firefox version here (scroll down to Flash Player (32 bit)):

If you use extensions (Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) like Adblock Plus or NoScript or Flash Block that can block content then make sure that such extensions aren't blocking content.

more options

I'm an idiot guys, turns out Youtube videos are working fine and it's just the videos from one channel that arent working, I never thought to try any other videos. Thanks for the help anyway

more options

Good to hear it's fixed...