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What can I do to prevent Firefox from hanging when I quit after trying all suggested fixes?

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  • 26 have this problem
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  • Last reply by AliceWyman

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Running Windows 7 with all updates. Starting with Firefox version 29.0.1, Firefox frequently hangs when I exit. When restarting Firefox, I get "Firefox is already running, but is not responding...". I then have to manually stop firefox.exe*32 before I can restart the program. I have applied all the suggested fixes (disable all add-ons, extension, and themes), and made sure I can delete the parent.lock file. Also noted the shut down delay mentioned with the Vista user. I have the error message occur many minutes after exiting Firefox, although I have often used the X key in the top right screen to exit Firefox consistently with no problems in the past. Has the function of this key changed too? Anyway, I am using the exit key in the pull-down menu now, but still have the hang problem.

Running Windows 7 with all updates. Starting with Firefox version 29.0.1, Firefox frequently hangs when I exit. When restarting Firefox, I get "Firefox is already running, but is not responding...". I then have to manually stop firefox.exe*32 before I can restart the program. I have applied all the suggested fixes (disable all add-ons, extension, and themes), and made sure I can delete the parent.lock file. Also noted the shut down delay mentioned with the Vista user. I have the error message occur many minutes after exiting Firefox, although I have often used the X key in the top right screen to exit Firefox consistently with no problems in the past. Has the function of this key changed too? Anyway, I am using the exit key in the pull-down menu now, but still have the hang problem.

Chosen solution

That's a bug in Firefox 29 where Firefox hangs on exit when the setting "Clear history when Firefox closes" is selected.

If you use custom settings for History in your Firefox Privacy options and you've selected "Clear history when Firefox closes", remove the checkbox. See this article for details:

Settings for privacy, browsing history and do-not-track

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Chosen Solution

That's a bug in Firefox 29 where Firefox hangs on exit when the setting "Clear history when Firefox closes" is selected.

If you use custom settings for History in your Firefox Privacy options and you've selected "Clear history when Firefox closes", remove the checkbox. See this article for details:

Settings for privacy, browsing history and do-not-track