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On this computer (only) Firefox (only) will not open any AncestryDNA pages (only those) on the Ancestry website, while other browsers and other computers do.

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About 5-6 weeks ago, while working on my matches on the Ancestry DNA portion of the Ancestry website, I began getting a spinning wheel while the pages tried to open. Each time I closed Ancestry and then went back, I could access one DNA page, then I only got the spinning wheel. Here's what I have done. ...Cleared browsing history and cookies...three times. ...Restarted computer...lost track of the numbers of times. ...Contacted Ancestry. Told them I could access all parts of the site, EXCEPT the DNA pages. They told me to do the above, and that the problem must be with my browser. Suggested using another browser. ...I tried Edge. Didn't seem to have any difficulties in the time I had available to work (an hour or two at that time). Have worked on Edge several times with no problems. ...By this time I not even get one page open, then the spinning wheel. All I get in any part of the DNA pages is "Page Not Found". It is still ONLY in the DNA pages and on every page choice there. ...Contacted Ancestry again. They accessed my pages on Firefox and accessed my DNA pages just fine. Suggested I try the other computer here at home, running on different OS. It also seemed to work fine. To me it seemed that the problem was this computer alone, but the problem is ONLY on a CERTAIN part of ONE website...the DNA pages on the Ancestry site. ...I have STILL been deleting browsing history. ...Contacted my tech support friend. Suggested uninstall Firefox and re-install clean copy. And also that I run Malwarebytes while Firefox was uninstalled. ...Did that too. No change. ...I started up the Chrome browser as well, and I have no problems with it either. However, I don't like Chrome, and I don't like Edge. I like Firefox. But something isn't working right...on Firefox only...on THIS computer only...on Ancestry site DNA pages only...ALL the time. I cannot figure out why. Thanks for following all this... Diane Cramer

About 5-6 weeks ago, while working on my matches on the Ancestry DNA portion of the Ancestry website, I began getting a spinning wheel while the pages tried to open. Each time I closed Ancestry and then went back, I could access one DNA page, then I only got the spinning wheel. Here's what I have done. ...Cleared browsing history and cookies...three times. ...Restarted computer...lost track of the numbers of times. ...Contacted Ancestry. Told them I could access all parts of the site, EXCEPT the DNA pages. They told me to do the above, and that the problem must be with my browser. Suggested using another browser. ...I tried Edge. Didn't seem to have any difficulties in the time I had available to work (an hour or two at that time). Have worked on Edge several times with no problems. ...By this time I not even get one page open, then the spinning wheel. All I get in any part of the DNA pages is "Page Not Found". It is still ONLY in the DNA pages and on every page choice there. ...Contacted Ancestry again. They accessed my pages on Firefox and accessed my DNA pages just fine. Suggested I try the other computer here at home, running on different OS. It also seemed to work fine. To me it seemed that the problem was this computer alone, but the problem is ONLY on a CERTAIN part of ONE website...the DNA pages on the Ancestry site. ...I have STILL been deleting browsing history. ...Contacted my tech support friend. Suggested uninstall Firefox and re-install clean copy. And also that I run Malwarebytes while Firefox was uninstalled. ...Did that too. No change. ...I started up the Chrome browser as well, and I have no problems with it either. However, I don't like Chrome, and I don't like Edge. I like Firefox. But something isn't working right...on Firefox only...on THIS computer only...on Ancestry site DNA pages only...ALL the time. I cannot figure out why. Thanks for following all this... Diane Cramer

All Replies (9)

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Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a Clean reinstall. This means you remove your Firefox program files and then reinstall Firefox. This process does not remove your Firefox profile data (such as bookmarks and passwords), since that information is stored in a different location.

To do a clean reinstall of Firefox, please follow these steps: Note: You might want to print these steps or view them in another browser.

  1. Download the latest Desktop version of Firefox from this page) and save the setup file to your computer.
  2. After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (or open the Firefox menu New Fx Menu and click the close button Close 29).
  3. Delete the Firefox installation folder, which is located in one of these locations, by default:
    • Windows:
      • C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
    • Mac: Delete Firefox from the Applications folder.
    • Linux: If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it - see Install Firefox on Linux. If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder firefox in your home directory.
  4. Now, go ahead and reinstall Firefox:
    1. Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
    2. Once the wizard is finished, choose to directly open Firefox after clicking the Finish button.

More information about reinstalling Firefox can be found here.

WARNING: Do not use a third party uninstaller as part of this process. Doing so could permanently delete your Firefox profile data, including but not limited to, extensions, cache, cookies, bookmarks, personal settings and saved passwords. These cannot be easily recovered unless they have been backed up to an external device! See Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles.

Please report back to say if this helped you!

Thank you.

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I already did an uninstall and reinstall of Firefox. Ran Malwarebytes before the re-install. I believe I said that in my post.

Any other ideas?

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Yes but was it done with a Full Version Installer and not the Stub Installer ?

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I used the uninstall program in the Windows control panel.

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And I did the install from the full online version download.

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Is this at all happening ? Firefox's Tracking Protection feature. When it is blocking content in a page, a shield icon will appear at the left end of the address bar next to the padlock icon. This article has more info on managing this feature: Tracking Protection

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No, there is not a shield icon.

Here's what I noticed in exploring the address bar. I don't know if it means anything.

I checked the "info" button next to the lock in the address bar. I clicked on it on each tab on Ancestry, went to the "more information" for the site. On every one of those information pop-ups I got page info for that page. On all the tabs EXCEPT the DNA page I got tabs for General, Media, Permissions, and Security, along with website identity information, history, etc.

On the DNA page there were only General and Media tabs, the website identity info is blank, as is history, etc.

I'm still down to the bottom line. Something is different on this computer in Firefox that does not allow me to access those pages. Other browsers will access those pages. My other computer accesses those pages on Firefox. BTW. When I checked the DNA pages on that computer, full info is given on the info tab I was referencing above. For some reason this computer is different.

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I just realized the blank info for the "DNA" page I mentioned above is for the "page not found" page, not an Ancestry page. So ignore that difference.

The first and last paragraphs still apply.

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Revise that again. The information popup IS for Ancestry.com/dna.