Firefox is refusing to load my designated homepage (brings up a blank tab instead)
Yesterday everything was working fine. When I launched Firefox my regular home page would open. I did not instal anything. Watched part of a movie on Netflix and downloaded some pictures off Facebook. Came back an hour later and now I get a blank tab page when I launch my browser. I have gone into the utilities (tools/options/general) and for Start-Up, the "always check if FF is my default browser" is checked (FF is my current default browser), "When FF starts" - the indicated selection is "show my homepage", my homepage link is showing in the homepage box. I have tried changing the homepage address, changed "show my homepage" to "show blank page" and "show window tabs from last time" and back to "show homepage" but the browser always opens as a blank tab. Also, the search box won't run searches. It is set to use Google, but after I type a query in the box and hit enter, it just sits there. I have to manually type in an address in the address bar. Then it will launch Google or whatever I type in.
I have run a quick scan with my anti-virus scanner - all good. Everything else is working fine.
All Replies (4)
Is the home page problem only at startup or do you get a blank page when trying either:
- Home button on the toolbar
- New window (Ctrl+n)
- Double-clicking Firefox desktop icon or clicking Firefox pinned Taskbar icon
If the home page setting is being ignored in all contexts, then "something" is overriding it, usually a bad add-on...
Here's my suggested procedure for tracking down and cleaning up bad add-ons. I know it seems long, but it's not that bad.
(1) Open the Windows Control Panel, Uninstall a Program. After the list loads, click the "Installed on" column heading to group the infections, I mean, additions, by date. This can help in smoking out undisclosed bundle items that snuck in with some software you agreed to install. Take out as much trash as possible here.
(2) Open Firefox's Add-ons page using either:
- Ctrl+Shift+a
- "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
- in the Windows "Run" dialog, type or paste
firefox.exe "about:addons"
In the left column, click Plugins. Set nonessential and unrecognized plugins to "Never Activate".
In the left column, click Extensions. Then, if in doubt, disable (or Remove, if possible) unrecognized and unwanted extensions.
Often a link will appear above at least one disabled extension to restart Firefox. You can complete your work on the tab and click one of the links as the last step.
Any improvement?
(3) You can search for remaining issues with the scanning/cleaning tools listed in our support article: Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware. These on-demand scanners are free and take considerable time to run. If they finish quickly and especially if they require payment, you may have a serious infection. I suggest the specialized forums listed in the article in that case.
Success?
It is possible that your security software (firewall, anti-virus) blocks or restricts Firefox or the plugin-container process without informing you, possibly after detecting changes (update) to the Firefox program.
Remove all rules for Firefox and the plugin-container from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full, unrestricted, access to install for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.
See:
jscher2000 [[#answer-729009]" Thanks jscher2000 - everything is back to normal. In step 2 / Plug-Ins - I put everything to "ask to activate" as I use a number of these add-ons while browsing. When I clicked on Extensions it only had 1 ... "Troubleshooter 1.1a" that was shown as "downloading" but seemed stuck at less than 5%. I clicked the cancel "x" button next to the "downloading bar" but nothing happened.
I then closed my browser and re-opened it. FireFox did an update. Everything is back to the way it should be. Went back into Extensions to check on "Trouble Shooter 1.1a". It was no longer there. But now I can see the Extensions for my other programs "Norton, DivX, Skype, etc". Thanks again.
cor-el [[#answer-729137]
Thanks for the suggestion cor-el. It's always nice to have few options in case the first idea doesn't work.