windows 11 pro delete history freezes and firefox is not responding so windows has to close the browser.

If you open "Help" › "More Troubleshooting Information" from menu, and go to "Places Database" section — does "Verify Integrity" button show anything interesting?

I have tried clicking the integrity button multiple different times when trying to clear the history. I have done the different things recommended and it still doesn't work. I refreshed firefox and no luck. I also uninstalled and installed new, but still won't delete correctly. I see "Firefox freezes when trying to clear browing history" on the side of this page. I will read that now.

So refreshing and reinstalling does a lot of things, but one thing that's unconditionally preserved is your "places database" (basically history and bookmarks) — if that thing got somehow broken, it will persist all attempts on that profile.

If you create a new temporary profile, and try clearing history on that one, does it work or you're also seeing hangs?

I'm having this problem also. I've been using FF for years now and getting increasingly fed up with how slow it is. I'm gradually moving to Brave with an expectation that it will be my primary browser soon.

Yesterday in the profile folder I renamed the file places.sqlite to places.sqlite.old, but it still hangs. It hangs with the settings privacy and security clear browsing data also. On the regular clear history menu it will delete one page at a time if it is not too many. If it is a lot they will all be back after deleting the list one at a time. I am deleting the menu list when I am done for the day by letting windows close the program/browser. A google search shows many others with the same problem and saying it is the latest version 153. update causing it. That is also when it started on me several days ago. It would be nice if Firefox will come up with a fix.

Do any of the google searches mention someone filing a bug, or posting any logs anywhere so a) somebody knows about it and b) it's somehow actionable?

Ah okay this thread could be what you meant www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1v3cgch/firefox_153_bug_clearing_last_hour_history/ (given every other search result is 5–6 years old) even though it mentions different scenario — not clearing the time range and removing/corrupting/losing all after hanging/killing the process.

There's two Mozilla engineers in that thread so once anyone posts any useful info they will see it.