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Firefox 5 Crashes Repeatedly in Mac OS X Lion

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I have been using Firefox 5 on the Mac OS X Lion developer preview for a few days now, and Firefox crashes over and over again.

If I have more than 2 tabs open, Firefox can't last more than 20 minutes without crashing. I have submitted multiple crash reports.

I have been using Firefox 5 on the Mac OS X Lion developer preview for a few days now, and Firefox crashes over and over again. If I have more than 2 tabs open, Firefox can't last more than 20 minutes without crashing. I have submitted multiple crash reports.

All Replies (20)

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You may be interested in some general information I posted recently /questions/840936#answer-210511

  • Are you able to get crash signatures from your crash ID s ? if so what are they ?
  • Is the problem specific to this particular OS build
  • Have you tried firefox in safe mode
  • Is the problem specific to Firefox 5 (have you tried 3.6 and 6.0a2)

Edit
see also my post lower in the thread about Apple deprecating (effectively removing) Java features and technical discussions linked from /questions/845600#answer-210156

Modified by John99

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I have the same issue with Firefox 5 crashing in the GM version of Lion. App tabs do not work either. I do not have any addons installed and I get the same results in Safe mode, other beta's and also Aurora...

Modified by thewhiteboy

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Did you read the other thread I linked to for further information, (and the further links from that) and did you try with Firefox 3.6 NOT other betas & Aurora.

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Hi John99,

Thanks for TRYING to help, but you're not really helping by telling us to try a version of Firefox that is 2 down from the current (and SHOULD be stable). This support board is supposed to help the developers to fix the bug and release a NEWER (not 3.6.X) version of the browser.

I am also running Lion GM with Firefox 5 and I do have the same problem as reported initially. Apple fixed/broke something in Lion that caused this problem. Mozilla needs to figure out what that is and fix their software.

That is all. Please escalate this bug because Lion will be out in a week or two.

Thank you!

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I'm having the same issues as reported above. Please fix ASAP.

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Hi Treworld,
the changes were made by Apple not Mozilla Firefox.

This is a support forum and can only try to provide support answers. You need to try elsewhere if you hope for changes to be made, but you will note from my other comments a bug has already been filed. I presume there is no guarantee that Mozilla Firefox will be able or willing to to fix problems caused by Apple deliberately deprecating features of your OS. Similarly there is probably little prospect of Apple reverting your OS.

Newer versions of firefox will also be released shortly, and firefox 3.6 will not necessarily be supported for much longer. Firefox 6.Oa2 is out on the Aurora channel already and that is expected to change to Firefox 7 within a week or so.

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"Please use Firefox 3.6 in the meantime." Is this Microsoft or Mozilla? "We have released Vista but if you are having issues, please use XP. It's the hardware's fault Vista doesn't work" I tried to post this response but ironically Firefox 5 crashed while I was trying to post this.

A fix, a workaround, an update would be nice. Pointing the finger at Flash, Apple, Java....whatever is disappointing and is going to just confirm the fact that while Firefox was awesome at one point but it has gotten too big for itself and they are out of touch.

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I'm not going to use firefox 3.6....whats the point? I like the features in Firefox 5 and Mozilla needs to address the issue not Apple. Chrome works without any issues on Lion, I'll just use that till Firefox is fixed.

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You may observe the original post and my original reply related to a specific and probably Alpha development build of Lion. Such builds are released specifically with he intention of obtaining feedback on problems they may cause. In such cases it is useful to compare the situation with what happens in other builds of the OS, and in other Versions of Apps.

It may also be of interest to some readers of this thread to note Apple is deprecating some Java features see discussions and technical information linked from thread :

Modified by John99

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Back to the original poster cliftonite - pardon me if you know this but you have the renowned memory hog Firebug. The strong recommendation is to disable it when you are not actually using it. Some even go so far as to recommend a separate profile for it. See -

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problematic_extensions

When your O/S settles down, if problems persist it wouldn't hurt to work through this troubleshooting(Safe Mode etc) -

https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Troubleshooting%20extensions%20and%20themes

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Apple depreciated Java features in 10.5 so they could improve features in 10.6, neither of which truly reference the 10.7 GM seed being discussed here. Unless Apple finds some serious bugs in this build, it is what will be made available on release day.

Both Chrome and Safari work properly...so the burden of this problem lies with Mozilla to fix. The purpose of the developer release by Apple is to not only discover OS level bugs, but also so developers can test their applications and recode them to use the new OS.

Both Chrome and Safari use the new fullscreen mode Lion offers, but FF doesn't. So of the three, FF is already behind in development for the new OS. Add the crashing into this and they fall even further behind.

I'd prefer to continue using FF as my browser on all my Macs, which is what brought my search for solutions/answers here. Most other frustrated users will be brought here too since it was the #1 result in my Google search. I think we're all hoping to read a "change this setting" post from anyone that will stop the crashing and allow us to use FF again.

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Do you also get firefox crashes with the new OS, if so

  • have you tried it with the latest Nightly version in Firefox safe mode ?
    clean install without extensions
  • have you (or anyone else) tried to check,
    has anyone already filed a bug about this ?

Java
Note Firefox did release a workaround patch re the problem I mentioned in my earlier post.

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The latest 6.0 beta build of Firefox seems to be working properly.

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New releases made or in progress to address both the crash issue and the Java issue. Alice Wyman drew attention to this Mozzilla Firefox Blog on the subject:

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Firefox 6 beta is working great. Not a single crash after several hours.

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This is mainly because of the new resume feature in lion, what you can do is disable it from resume and firefox should work. I am using firefox in lion retail version and everything is fine no crashes yet.

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Extremely disappointed to see the total lack of resolve in trying to make FF work with the new Lion release. Not only does FF freeze repeatedly, I mean again and again, but it freezes up my brand new iMac, having to restart the machine..... ugh! Using FF5 as well as 6 ....

As a web developer I been "stuck" with FF ( and quite happily), but I am seriously considering moving over t0 Chrome ....

Modified by rob.elings@gmail.com

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Same problem here and getting really ticked off!

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Me too!

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Possibly the original problem is thought to have been solved with Firefox 6. You may do better to file separate new questions; and in any event you will only get advice on potential solutions in this forum, it is not a place to file requests for changes.

If you have continuing problems with freezes on a brand new Mac I suggest a new question is appropriate, and you should endeavor to provide full information in that question, hopefully someone will try to give you an answer.

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