Why does plugin-container.exe so often crash when closing PDF files?
When I load multiple PDFs in Firefox to check their content for errors one by one, closing one PDF tab to reveal another PDF tab very often causes plugin-container.exe to crash, which means I have to reload each remaining PDF tab to view the remaining files. This of course defeats the purpose of opening more than one at a time, and actually adds about 5 times as many clicks to the whole process because I have to clear the error and reload each page, then it might happen again or might not. It doesn't happen every time I close a PDF, but about 1 in 4 times.
I realize I have two versions of Acrobat installed (Acrobat 9.5.5 and Reader 11.0.10), and thus two Firefox plugins, but for the record this same thing happens on other computers that just have Reader or just have Acrobat, so it's not an issue of conflicting plugins. Though I did notice you aren't allowed to disable just one or the other -- deactivating one deactivates both. At first it seems not to, but if you reload the plugins page, you'll see both are actually off.
Windows coughs up the following error report when plugin-container.exe crashes, but Firefox says nothing, I guess because the plugin-container is a standalone app:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH Application Name: plugin-container.exe Application Version: 36.0.4.5557 Application Timestamp: 550d0883 Fault Module Name: xul.dll Fault Module Version: 36.0.4.5557 Fault Module Timestamp: 550d07d2 Exception Code: c0000005 Exception Offset: 011f734a OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48 Locale ID: 1033 Additional Information 1: 0a9e Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789 Additional Information 3: 0a9e Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Appreciate any help available in resolving this crash.
Chosen solution
Looks like this was fixed in 37.0.1. Thanks all.
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Hmm, in your More System Details, there are two versions of the Adobe Acrobat plugin listed. It might help to delete the older one. To try to discover its location on disk, type or paste about:plugins in the address bar and press Enter. In the page that loads, do a find for 9.5.5, the old version number. This should lead to where it lurks.
If it is in a Firefox folder, it's almost certainly safe to delete. If it's somewhere else on the system, there probably is a corresponding registry entry created by either an old version of Acrobat or Reader, or some other program. It would be ideal to also remove that registry entry, but for immediate testing purposes, I think you can just delete the file.
You might need to exit Firefox and start it up again before Firefox stops showing that you have two Acrobat plugins.
Hopefully that will help, and if not, could you post some of the the crash report IDs corresponding to your crashes? The last section of this article describes how to gather those from the about:crashes page: Troubleshoot Firefox crashes (closing or quitting unexpectedly).
You can at least set the older version to never activate in "Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Plugins".
cor-el said
You can at least set the older version to never activate in "Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Plugins".
As I said in my original post, you cannot set only one of them inactive. If you try, it sets them both inactive, but you have to refresh the plugins page to see that.
Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape "9.5.5" Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape 11.0.10
Having more than one version of a program may cause issues.
Remove the 9.5.5 as instructed above.
FredMcD said
Having more than one version of a program may cause issues. Remove the 9.5.5 as instructed above.
As I said in my original post, this issue occurs even on computers that only have Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape 11.0.10, so the duplication of plugins is irrelevant.
jscher2000 said
Hmm, in your More System Details, there are two versions of the Adobe Acrobat plugin listed.
As I said in the original post, I'm aware of this.
It might help to delete the older one.
As I said in the original post, having more than one is irrelevant. The issue can be reproduced on machines that only have one plugin or the other installed.
Hopefully that will help, and if not, could you post some of the the crash report IDs corresponding to your crashes? The last section of this article describes how to gather those from the about:crashes page: Troubleshoot Firefox crashes (closing or quitting unexpectedly).
Firefox isn't what's crashing. plugin-container.exe crashes by itself, but does not cause Firefox to crash. Firefox crash reports or about:crashes results will not help.
Is Adobe Acrobat the only plugin that causes plugin-container.exe to crash with any regularity? For example, does Flash cause any problem if you open Flash media in 5+ different tabs and then close one or more of them?
Are the PDFs on HTTP, HTTPS, or FILE URLs, or a mix of those?
I think there is a way to extract more detail from Windows' crash data that what you pasted in your original post, but I don't know the details on how to do that, or how to interpret it once you have it. But it might be helpful to the developers if there is a way to provide that.
I noticed your "More System Details" doesn't list any extensions. Is that because you posted using Firefox's Safe Mode? That's a standard diagnostic tool to deactivate extensions and some advanced features of Firefox. More info: Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode.
If you haven't already replicated this problem in Firefox's Safe Mode, please try that.
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
Not all add-ons are disabled: Flash and other plugins still run
After Firefox shuts down, a small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Reset).
Any difference?
jscher2000 said
does Flash cause any problem if you open Flash media in 5+ different tabs and then close one or more of them?
I cannot get Flash to crash plugin-container.exe; of course it's possible I didn't try enough times or in the right way. I can't prove a negative.
Are the PDFs on HTTP, HTTPS, or FILE URLs, or a mix of those?
They are file URLs over HTTPS.
I think there is a way to extract more detail from Windows' crash data
I will look into this.
Is that because you posted using Firefox's Safe Mode?
No.
Any difference?
None. It still crashes just as easily.
Somehow this bug came up on my radar yesterday later in the day: the first two comments indicate different plugins, and the third refers to the Acrobat plugin:
This seems to happen if Adobe Reader is used for displaying PDF documents (pdfjs.disabled set to true and Preferences > Applications > PDF to "Adobe Reader (in Firefox)").
Opening two tabs displaying PDFs and closing one crashes the other one.
Was able to reproduce with Firefox 36.0.1 and Adobe Reader plugin "Adobe Acrobat 11.0.10.32". When I tried to reproduce it later again in the same profile (or on Nightly and Beta), the tab didn't crash.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1113190
Sounds like your issue, but it's puzzling that they got a tab to crash and in your case only plugin-container.exe crashed.
Yes, this sounds like almost exactly the same thing to me. I suppose there's not much I can do at this point but wait for the bug to be fixed, is there?
If your about:crashes page doesn't have any new information to add to the bug discussion, then maybe not. You can register on Bugzilla and vote for the bug to be fixed (there is a link in the top summary area for voting).
Did that and posted a minor correction. Thanks.
Chosen Solution
Looks like this was fixed in 37.0.1. Thanks all.