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Firefox crashes

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 25 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

deadite87
deadite87
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I am running Firefox on a Mac running OSX version 10.9.5.

Firefox will start - but I cannot select any menu, type anything into the address bar, or even click on the home page icon without it completely freezing up. I can't even start it in safe mode. It just 'beach balls' and then does nothing. I have to Force Quit it every time. This problem only started happening with the last update made to Firefox. Prior to that, it worked fine. I'm thinking something in the update is not agreeing with my system.

I am running Firefox on a Mac running OSX version 10.9.5. Firefox will start - but I cannot select any menu, type anything into the address bar, or even click on the home page icon without it completely freezing up. I can't even start it in safe mode. It just 'beach balls' and then does nothing. I have to Force Quit it every time. This problem only started happening with the last update made to Firefox. Prior to that, it worked fine. I'm thinking something in the update is not agreeing with my system.

All Replies (3)

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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Try a clean reinstall and drag the current Firefox application to the Trash.

You can find the full version of the current current Firefox release (38.0.5) in all languages and all operating systems here:

Create a new profile as a test to check 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.

deadite87
deadite87 Question owner
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The clean re-install didn't work. Creating a new profile did work initially, but when I went to import all of my information from my old profile, Firefox froze again.

I think it may be an issue with some file in the profile itself. Suggestions?

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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What files did you restore from the old profile?

It is usually best not to copy the full profile folder, but only restore files with personal data that you really need like the

  • bookmarks and history: places.sqlite and the backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
  • other SQLite files like cookies.sqlite (Cookies) and formhistory.sqlite (saved form data)
  • logins.json and key3.db for the passwords.
  • permissions.sqlite and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for the permissions and Site Preferences
  • cert8.db for stored intermediate certificates
  • sessionstore.js for (pinned) tabs

Verify that Firefox keeps working properly before proceeding to the next file.