Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Èròjà atẹ̀lélànà yii ni a ti fi pamọ́ fọ́jọ́ pípẹ́. Jọ̀wọ́ béèrè ìbéèrè titun bí o bá nílò ìrànwọ́.

Firefox stops responding as soon as I open the Tools- options tab.

more options

Whenever I open the Tools tab/window and click on options, Firefox stops responding. I have to open my task manager (ctrl, alt & del) to close Firefox as it doesn't respond no matter how long I wait.

Whenever I open the Tools tab/window and click on options, Firefox stops responding. I have to open my task manager (ctrl, alt & del) to close Firefox as it doesn't respond no matter how long I wait.

All Replies (1)

more options

Hi waraqah, some others users are reporting that some aspects of the new "in tab" preferences page do not work for them; so far, I only saw one other report of Firefox freezing.

As a diagnostic, if you don't mind, could you test the Options page in Firefox's Safe Mode? This will help assess whether this problem is caused by one of your extensions. Here's how:

If Firefox is not running: Hold down the Shift key when starting Firefox.

If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
  • Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

and OK the restart.

Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).

Any improvement with the in-tab Options?


Or you might need to switch back to the old pop-up style Options dialog. Here's how:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste pref and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.preferences.inContent preference to switch it from true to false

(Note: I don't know whether the old dialog will be in Firefox forever or is a transitional feature. As you've probably noticed, the long-term trend is to remove things that pop up.)

Does that one work without freezing?