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Images can't be displayed because they contain error

  • 7 replies
  • 68 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by ravenswd

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Some images on a webpage will not load, giving the error, "The image <image name> cannot be loaded because it contains errors. Whether or not the image loads each refresh of the page appears semi-random. The same page loads fine in both internet explorer and chrome. Resetting firefox, clearing the cache, reinstalling, starting firefox in safe-mode all have no effect.

Some images on a webpage will not load, giving the error, "The image <image name> cannot be loaded because it contains errors. Whether or not the image loads each refresh of the page appears semi-random. The same page loads fine in both internet explorer and chrome. Resetting firefox, clearing the cache, reinstalling, starting firefox in safe-mode all have no effect.

All Replies (7)

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Hello,

Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a Clean reinstall. This means you remove Firefox program files and then reinstall 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 http://www.mozilla.org and save the setup file to your computer.
  2. After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (click Exit from the Firefox or File menu).
  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 run Firefox's uninstaller or use a third party remover as part of this process, because that could permanently delete your Firefox data, including but not limited to, extensions, cache, cookies, bookmarks, personal settings and saved passwords. These cannot be recovered unless they have been backed up to an external device!

Please report back to see if this helped you!

Thank you.

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I am sorry I just re-read the previous thread and you said that I didn't help reinstalling may I ask if you have the most current verision of firefox and did you try installing java or flash ?

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Firefox version is 28.0. I have java and flash installed and up to date, however the images being loaded do not depend on either.

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The "The image <image name> cannot be loaded because it contains errors" text is used as a placeholder. If such a placeholder text stays then there has been a problem with downloading the image.

You can reset user set (bold) network.http.* prefs on the about:config page via the right-click context menu to the default value.


If images are missing then check that you do not block images from some domains.

  • Press the F10 key or tap the Alt key to bring up the hidden Menu bar.

Check the permissions for the domain in the currently selected tab in "Tools > Page Info > Permissions"

Check "Tools > Page Info > Media" for blocked images

  • Select the first image link and use the cursor Down key to scroll through the list.
  • If an image in the list is grayed and "Block Images from..." has a check-mark then remove this check-mark to unblock images from this domain.

Make sure that you do not block (third-party) images, the permissions.default.image pref on the about:config page should be 1.


Make sure that you haven't enabled a High Contrast theme in the Windows/Mac Accessibility settings.

Make sure that you allow pages to choose their own colors.

  • Tools > Options > Content : Fonts & Colors > Colors : [X] "Allow pages to choose their own colors, instead of my selections above"

Note that these settings affect background images.

See also:


There are extensions like Adblock Plus (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) and security software (firewall, anti-virus) that can block images and other content.

See also:

Modified by cor-el

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The images still weren't displaying after a reinstallation of firefox, but I went and checked the config anyway. Resetting all of the net http preferences didn't fix the problem. The images are not being blocked, the color settings seem fine, and running firefox in safe-mode didn't solve the problem either, so I'm pretty confident it's not an extension issue. It doesn't seem like it's an external software issue either, as chrome and IE load the images just fine.

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You can try to reset (power off/on) the router.

Boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test to see if this helps.

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It's a memory problem. Firefox is running low on memory. That's why the issue comes and goes; it varies depending on how much memory is available at the moment.