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pinch in and out on trackpad not working to zoom in and out in firefox

  • 16 replies
  • 19 have this problem
  • 9 views
  • Last reply by tonyk

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Ever since i bought my macbook pro (early 2011) I was able to use the pinch in and out trackpad feature to zoom in and out in firefox. This suddenly stopped working a couple of days ago. It still works in safari so this seems to be Firefox specific. All other trackpad features are still working too.

I uninstalled Firefox on my mac by moving the Firefox icon to the trash and downloaded/installed it again. Note that i didn't delete my profile (just deleted the Firefox icon) so all bookmarks were preserved even after downloading and installing Firefox from scratch. This didn't help fixing the issue.

Any ideas on this problem ? how to fix it?

Thanks!

Ever since i bought my macbook pro (early 2011) I was able to use the pinch in and out trackpad feature to zoom in and out in firefox. This suddenly stopped working a couple of days ago. It still works in safari so this seems to be Firefox specific. All other trackpad features are still working too. I uninstalled Firefox on my mac by moving the Firefox icon to the trash and downloaded/installed it again. Note that i didn't delete my profile (just deleted the Firefox icon) so all bookmarks were preserved even after downloading and installing Firefox from scratch. This didn't help fixing the issue. Any ideas on this problem ? how to fix it? Thanks!

All Replies (16)

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Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode, which disables most add-ons.

(If you're not using it, switch to the Default theme.)

  • Open the Help menu and click on the Restart with Add-ons Disabled... menu item while Firefox is running.

Once you get the pop-up, just select "'Start in Safe Mode"

If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, and you need to figure out which one. Please follow the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article for that.

To exit the Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.


NOTE: Uninstalling Firefox without deleting user profiles and other application data will not fix any issues. You can backup your bookmarks using the Bookmarks Library.

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Thank you for the prompt reply. I restarted in safe mode but that didn't fix my trackpad pinch in and out issue. Maybe I should have deleted more data (user profiles etc) when I uninstalled Firefox. Shouldn't I also be able to recover bookmarks through Firefox sync? I already have that set up. Otherwise can you tell me how to backup my bookmarks using the bookmarks library? Can you please let me know what exactly to delete when uninstalling Firefox ?

Note that i had done a reset in firefox a couple of days ago because of issues with my internet connection when using firefox (some websites would run very slow or stop completely: i.e google would not load; some images would not open in Facebook; or gchat would stop working) which would only get fixed when i quit and reopen Firefox.

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Since the issue still continues in Safe Mode, resetting Firefox will most likely not fix your issue. Therefore will will only reset Firefox as a last choice.

Try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:

Microsoft Security Essentials is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista/XP if you don't already have one.


Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

Did this fix your problem?

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All these programs seem to be for windows. I am facing the issues with firefox on a macbook pro.

I wasn't suggesting resetting Firefox. I have already done this step a couple of days ago as I was facing connectivity issues with some websites completely freezing and not loading. reset didn't help. I started seeing the trackpad issue around the time i did the reset.

I am wondering if uninstalling Firefox and deleting all data associated with it (profiles etc) would fix the issue. Can you advise on what should be deleted with firefox?

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If resetting Firefox didn't fix the issue, then uninstalling it will not either.

This is most likely an issue with your computer. Scan for viruses/malware.

I apologize about the Windows programs above. I completely forgot that you are a Mac user.

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Ok; can you please recommend virus/malware scanning programs for Mac?

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Thanks for the recommendation. I did a scan with clamxav and all it found a lot of .emlx files that are infected with either: . Heuristics.Phishing.Email.SpoofedDomain . Heuristics.Phishing.Email.SSL-Spoof . HTML.Phishing.Bank-391

All these files are email related and are in my users/<username>/Library/Mail folder. Do you guys think these files should be deleted ? They just seem to represent spam email and I dont think they are harmful otherwise.

One other file was found to be infected with a Trojan virus and I deleted it.

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turns out there is an add-on for the pinch to zoom feature (+tap): Pinch-to-zoom and Double-tap Gesture support 0.9.0

Thanks for the help.

I still face the same connectivity issues with Firefox: . Gtalk suddenly logs out . websites like Google and Facebook keep loading for ages without getting opening.

I have deleted Firefox as well as its profiles + plists and cache files and reinstalled it again to no avail. I don't see the same issues with safari so this is a firefox only issue. Any suggestions on this?

Thanks!

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If clearing cookies doesn't work then it is possible that the cookies.sqlite file that stores the cookies is corrupted.

Rename (or delete) cookies.sqlite (cookies.sqlite.old) and delete other present cookie files like cookies.sqlite-journal in the Firefox profile folder in case the file cookies.sqlite got corrupted.

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Thanks for the tip. I deleted 3 cookies.sqlite files from my default profile. That seemed to help for a while but now i am seeing the same problems again with gchat logging off and some pages loading interminably. (don't see the same issues in safari on the same connection).

Any more thoughts?

By the way in my profiles directory I have 2 .default folders (one is just .default and the other .default-xxxxxxxxxxxx). the -xxxxxxxxxxx folder was there before I deleted Firefox. It can probably be deleted now ?

should i try deleting the profiles folder and profiles.ini again?

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Did you check the related browser.gesture.* prefs on the about:config page to see if they still have the correct action set?

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It seems like you are suggesting a solution for the pinch in and out feature. I have already resolved this by installing the following add-on: Pinch-to-zoom and Double-tap Gesture support 0.9.0

Anyway I do have one .gesture line in about:config: gestures.enable_single_finger_input default boolean true

What i am trying to resolve now is the connectivity issues i am facing in firefox.

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cor-el , others, any recommendations on this connectivity issue?

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Does the Network tab in the Web Console (Firefox/Tools > Web Developer;Ctrl+Shift+K) give any indication about what is wrong with the connection?

You can try to disable IPv6and check for other common issues, see:

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disabling ipv6 has pretty much resolved the issue. Thanks!