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Google pages show up as random symbols

  • 7 replies
  • 23 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by pongsifu

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A majority of Google's websites suddenly don't work (gmail, RSS, login, ect). Firefox updated itself (13.01) and then google suddenly stopped working. At first even www.google.com wouldn't work, but after clearing cookies/cache that started working, but the rest do not. I've tried turning off all add-ons and restarting the computer, but to no avail. It works fine on IE, but not FF.

The websites just show up as random symbols. I've actually had this problem on other websites before (like torrentfreak) but it was very rare and on websites I didn't much care about. Google, however, I need to work.

What I mean by "random symbols" is the page loads with nothing but this:

"?�?�}k�$�q���?�Es�[��ӯy���esO�˽}�2fǃ���ک�jVUσ�?��q� �?�;[8�8H:Z�)��$?N�l 8�_ �$ܗ�`�w�;�/\Df�;��3C?)�Ý���������|��K/�r��?ܻ�L��ym�*�QLb��*��kK�ruB��?��#�6!�K��:�F� ?�?�I� ��0����G?9�T?��ؤWWxy@�"S�Wu�j�1�?�R?Ͷ̈�?�X|?�?p">�Hd���)?�MB".?c]0�8� wf��-eh�ھ_'�9X<?[�R6Z�����ALԕy@�'?����]�?#�:��6K�R�?��;�6m��N��?�$i}B��?ȶz�?������??�j�[�??���u�Ag�?�m�c�h�Mb�z���Y?A&�?u?D�?pM?d/ЁԖc���vO(��?�Q?��"

That is a small chunk of it, and it randomly changes if you refresh the page.

Do I need to simply roll back to an earlier version to fix it?

A majority of Google's websites suddenly don't work (gmail, RSS, login, ect). Firefox updated itself (13.01) and then google suddenly stopped working. At first even www.google.com wouldn't work, but after clearing cookies/cache that started working, but the rest do not. I've tried turning off all add-ons and restarting the computer, but to no avail. It works fine on IE, but not FF. The websites just show up as random symbols. I've actually had this problem on other websites before (like torrentfreak) but it was very rare and on websites I didn't much care about. Google, however, I need to work. What I mean by "random symbols" is the page loads with nothing but this: "��}k�$�q����Es�[��ӯy���esO�˽}�2fǃ���ک�jVUσ���q� ��;[8�8H:Z�)��$N�l 8�_ �$ܗ�`�w�;�/\Df�;��3C)�Ý���������|��K/�r��ܻ�L��ym�*�QLb��*��kK�ruB����#�6!�K��:�F� ��I� ��0����G9�T��ؤWWxy@�"S�Wu�j�1� �RͶ̈��X|�p">�Hd���)�MB".c]0�8� wf��-eh�ھ_'�9X<[�R6Z�����ALԕy@�'����]�#�:��6K�R���;�6m��N���$i}B��ȶz��������j�[����u�Ag��m�c�h�Mb�z���Y A&�uD�pMd/ЁԖc���vO(���Q��" That is a small chunk of it, and it randomly changes if you refresh the page. Do I need to simply roll back to an earlier version to fix it?

Chosen solution

You can check the network.http.* prefs on the about:config page and reset all bold user set network.http prefs to the default value via the right-click context menu -> Reset.

Check at least:

  • network.http.accept-encoding: gzip,deflate
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All Replies (7)

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Chosen Solution

You can check the network.http.* prefs on the about:config page and reset all bold user set network.http prefs to the default value via the right-click context menu -> Reset.

Check at least:

  • network.http.accept-encoding: gzip,deflate
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Yeap, that fixed it. Thanks a lot, you're really good at this :)

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That answer does fix my problem temporarily, however I have the same problem every time I open firefox in the morning which means I then have to reset them again. How do I save those settings?

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I actually had the problem come back just like you, but was able to fix that as well. See this thread:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/930118

Modified by pongsifu

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ok, that seems pretty clear except I'm not sure where the user.js file is, I'm new to sorting this stuff by myself and I'm having trouble finding it? thank you for your help!

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You can use this button to go to the Firefox profile folder:

  • Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Open Containing Folder

See also:

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Alternatively you can hit the windows key+R and put in "%APPDATA%" (without quotes) and form there go to Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/(profile name) and it will be in there.