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Firefox once loaded freezes.When I try to close I am told that 2 tabs are open when there is only 1

  • 6 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 14 views
  • Last reply by Dingeroo

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Tried using Google maps and setting my home page to Google. I then tried opening Firefox but it opens with Google maps and freezes. None of the buttons work, and when I try to close Firefox I am told that two tabs are open but there is only one.

Tried using Google maps and setting my home page to Google. I then tried opening Firefox but it opens with Google maps and freezes. None of the buttons work, and when I try to close Firefox I am told that two tabs are open but there is only one.

All Replies (6)

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Is the problem on a PC and you are only posting from another device because Firefox is not working on the Desktop or Laptop computer ? What is the Operating System ? e.g. Windows 7

Try starting Firefox in its safemode by for instance holding the Shift key when using the mouse to click on Firefox's startup icon.

If Firefox will not start not even in safe mode you will not get an option to use the user friendly Firefox Refresh feature

Try starting in a newly created additional Firefox Profile

If the steps above fail then you will need to try a clean reinstall of Firefox including removal of existing program files (NOT the profiile files)


Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a Clean reinstall. This means you remove your Firefox program files and then reinstall Firefox . This process does not remove your Firefox profile data (such as bookmarks and passwords), since that information is stored in a different location.

To do a clean reinstall of 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 mozilla.org (or choose the download for your operating system and language from this page) and save the setup file to your computer.
  2. After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (or open the Firefox menu New Fx Menu and click the close button Close 29).
  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 use a third party uninstaller as part of this process. Doing so could permanently delete your Firefox profile data, including but not limited to, extensions, cache, cookies, bookmarks, personal settings and saved passwords. These cannot be easily recovered unless they have been backed up to an external device! See Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles.

Please report back to say if this helped you!

Thank you.

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If really two tabs are open then you should be able to switch between the two via the Ctrl+1 and Ctrl+2 shortcut keys.

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John 99 , many thanks for your advice. Yes I did post this problem on my Hudl 2 as I cannot access FF from my PC. My PC is running Windows 7 Home Premium. I have switched for the time being to Chrome. I will certainly try all of your suggestions.


Cor-el, thanks for reply. However, I cannot switch between tabs as FF freezes and only shows one tab.

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Firefox itself is still running in the background. It may be frozen and using no system resources or it may be chewing up your available CPU time. Have you tried closing FF by using the Task Manager? If not, this is how to do it:

First, open the Task Manager by pressing these three keys together at once: Ctrl+Shift+Escape. Another way is to right-click with your mouse in your task bar in the area around the clock/date and select Task Manager from the drop down menu.

In the first pane of Task Manager, Firefox won’t appear in the list of running applications because this list only shows applications with open windows. No problem – just click on the Processes tab.

(On Windows 8, you should find Firefox under Background processes. You can also click the Details tab to see a full list of processes.)

Type the letter f and you should instantly jump to the firefox.exe process in the list. You can also click the Image Name header to sort the process list alphabetically and locate firefox.exe that way. Is up to you.

Once you’ve located firefox.exe in the Task Manager's list of processes, select it and then click the End Process button at the bottom of the Task Manager box.

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Thanks Dingeroo, will certainly have a try.

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Re your home page setting - If Firefox is opening at Google maps, have you checked the URL you have set for your home page? Sounds like you have inadvertently put in the URL for Google maps?

Did you want a particular page to open in Google or just its home search page? If it is the latter, then there are correct steps you need to follow to do that in Firefox. Go to this page here and scroll down to the Firefox settings.