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Firefox fails to start with any version newer than 57.04, Dozens of my users are affected.

  • 14 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by ionymem

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Hi There,

We have an issue with any version of Firefox after 57.04. It affects a few dozen of our users. It appears to be specific to our environment, but we need help tracking the source of the issue. The issue in on Windows 10 and Windows 2016 operating systems.

Firefox appears to update successfully, but when we attempt to run it the process appears in task manager using 2.5mb of ram. Nothing else happens. No visible errors, and no windows open. After killing the process we can run the 57.04 installer to revert, which results in a perfectly functional Firefox.

The issue seems to be specific to our environment, but not specific to hardware platform.

We have tried many things: -Various installers and update paths/methods -Safe Mode -Removing addons prior to upgrade -Clean uninstall/install (including deleting firefox profiles) -Disable and uninstalled AV softwares. -Disabled Group Policy Objects.

Please let us know what troubleshooting steps we can take to locate the source of the problem.

Any help is appreciated!

Hi There, We have an issue with any version of Firefox after 57.04. It affects a few dozen of our users. It appears to be specific to our environment, but we need help tracking the source of the issue. The issue in on Windows 10 and Windows 2016 operating systems. Firefox appears to update successfully, but when we attempt to run it the process appears in task manager using 2.5mb of ram. Nothing else happens. No visible errors, and no windows open. After killing the process we can run the 57.04 installer to revert, which results in a perfectly functional Firefox. The issue seems to be specific to our environment, but not specific to hardware platform. We have tried many things: -Various installers and update paths/methods -Safe Mode -Removing addons prior to upgrade -Clean uninstall/install (including deleting firefox profiles) -Disable and uninstalled AV softwares. -Disabled Group Policy Objects. Please let us know what troubleshooting steps we can take to locate the source of the problem. Any help is appreciated!

All Replies (14)

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How does Firefox 60 run in your environment?

I wonder if you meant to ask for help in the Firefox Enterprise section of the forum for specific environments? If so, I can move your question to the right category.

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This request is for standard Firefox. The issue with Firefox 58+ is present on multiple OS and cloud platforms.

Modified by ionymem

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How can we go about troubleshooting the issue? It sits there in the background. Will not start or crash (can't find any crash logs).

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We just tested on a fresh Windows 10 install, no previous Firefox install on the system and have the same issue.

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has the firefox updater run before it went into the 2,5mb ram mode without any visible window?

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(it just reminds me of a bug that I reported some time ago; that bug only happened to me using Nightly in the past though) https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1431916

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Does it look like this to you? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMlvBiykEH8

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Try to create a new profile to test if your current profile is causing the problem.

See "Creating a profile":

If the new profile works then you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.

You can also try a clean reinstall and make sure to delete the Firefox program folder.

Boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support to see if that has effect in case security software is causing problems.

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@djfe That seems like slightly different behavior, but it is similar. For ours the update proceeds normally and seems to be successful, but then when starting Firefox after the successful update the process sits in the background using 2.5mb of Ram, kind of like in that video.

@cor-el Thanks for the suggestions. As mentioned above we have attempted clean installs and new profiles, even new installs of Windows. Safe-mode is however not an option as these machines are virtual with no console access.

What can we do to determine why Firefox is stuck in the background?

Thanks for the help so far.

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Hi there,

What tools and logs can we use to determine what is stopping Firefox from completing it's startup?

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I just found this folder: "C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Crash Reports" It probably contains memory dumps, that Firefox devs could take a look at.

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Chosen Solution

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Crash Reports folder is empty except a "InstallTime" file that has a string of a dozen numbers.

Process Explorer isn't revealing anything interesting.

Procmon captures about 3600 Firefox events before it stops. No events afterwards. Can I upload this to you here?

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procmon revealed to us that our AV wasn't uninstalling completely in our tests, and some of the configurations it made were blocking Firefox. The latest version of the Palo Alto Traps Agent fixes this known issue it has with Firefox.

Thanks for suggesting Procmon!