How do I delete the cache without starting Firefox so it does not automatically load the scam page?
On her computer, my wife looked for Amazon and clicked on an Amazon looking link that was a scam telling her that her computer was infected and that she needed to call 'windows tech support' at (888) 223-8246.
The problem is that this scam filled all of her screen with warnings and the only way I could stop it was to go to windows task manager and shut everything down. (Her computer runs Windows 10, Firefox version 56.0.2)
But, if we start Firefox again, it loads that same scam page automatically thinking that the computer had been shut-down in error.
How do I delete the cache without starting Firefox so it does not automatically load the scam page? Thank you. --Lou
Chosen solution
Hi, it's not the cache, it's the session history file. To hide the session history files so Firefox has no choice but to start up fresh:
Type or paste the following into the Windows Run dialog or the Windows 7 Start menu search box, and press Enter to launch Windows Explorer into this folder:
%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
You should see at least one semi-randomly-named profile folder there. (If you see more than one, you'll want to figure out which one has the unwanted session history in it by checking each one.)
- Double-click into the profile folder
- Right-click the sessionstore-backups folder and rename it to OLDsessionstore-backups (later you can mine the files in this folder for any important tabs you want to restore)
- Check for any files with these names and:
- sessionstore.jsonlz4 - created by Firefox 56 when it shuts down normally - rename to OLDsessionstore.jsonlz4
- sessionstore.js - created by Firefox 55 and earlier when it shuts down normally - rename to OLDsessionstore.js
- sessionstore.bak - obsolete file from years ago - delete
When you start Firefox up again, it should just show the home page.
Success?
If you need to read the contents of any of those hidden files, you can use this tool on my websites to extract out a list of the tabs:
https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/scrounger.html
Read this answer in context 👍 0All Replies (5)
Best to leave it closed. Or just open it and close the tab and delete the cache from a new tab shut down Firefox then : Follow this please : https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-caused-malware and https://www.malwarebytes.com/adwcleaner/ and https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/9573-im-infected-what-do-i-do-now/
Note : Firefox 56.0.2 is current release https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/ Full Version Installer Note : Firefox 57 Quantum release date Nov 14th https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/quantum/ Note : Legacy Extensions will be disabled and or removed.
Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.
Chosen Solution
Hi, it's not the cache, it's the session history file. To hide the session history files so Firefox has no choice but to start up fresh:
Type or paste the following into the Windows Run dialog or the Windows 7 Start menu search box, and press Enter to launch Windows Explorer into this folder:
%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
You should see at least one semi-randomly-named profile folder there. (If you see more than one, you'll want to figure out which one has the unwanted session history in it by checking each one.)
- Double-click into the profile folder
- Right-click the sessionstore-backups folder and rename it to OLDsessionstore-backups (later you can mine the files in this folder for any important tabs you want to restore)
- Check for any files with these names and:
- sessionstore.jsonlz4 - created by Firefox 56 when it shuts down normally - rename to OLDsessionstore.jsonlz4
- sessionstore.js - created by Firefox 55 and earlier when it shuts down normally - rename to OLDsessionstore.js
- sessionstore.bak - obsolete file from years ago - delete
When you start Firefox up again, it should just show the home page.
Success?
If you need to read the contents of any of those hidden files, you can use this tool on my websites to extract out a list of the tabs:
Hi Lou, also, this post has information about the common tech support scam pages and how to "escape" from them, should it be needed in the future: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1180517#answer-1019421
If you find one with a different style, please let me know.
Firefox will automatically try to restore the tabs and windows from the last session if a crash has occurred or Firefox didn't close properly the previous time. If the session crashes another time then you will get the "Well this is embarrassing" page (about:sessionrestore) the next time you start Firefox.
You can set browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes to 0 on the about:config page to get the about:sessionrestore page immediately with the first start after a crash has occurred or the Task Manager was used to close Firefox.
You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.
- Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder - http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
I had a couple of different proposed solutions to my problem, but liked this one best. And, it worked. The problem is solved. Thank you. --Lou PS these instructions were for Windows 7, but my wife's computer uses Windows 10, nevertheless, it worked perfectly. PPS the *.js file had already been deleted by Firefox. It was not present when I applied the fix.