Firefox sometimes can't load pages in new tabs until I restart it
I'm experiencing an intermittent issue with Firefox and I'm trying to figure out what might be causing it.
Occasionally, Firefox stops loading pages in new tabs. If I open a new tab and try to navigate to any website, it won't load, it'll state "waiting for www.[anywebsite].com" forever. However, if I use a tab that was already open before the issue started, I can still navigate to different websites from that tab without any problems.
The only reliable fix I've found is to completely close Firefox and start it again.
One strange thing I've noticed is that, sometimes while this issue is happening, if I put my laptop to sleep and then wake it up again, Firefox starts working normally, including in new tabs, without needing to restart the browser. But this isn't a something that works everytime.
I've already gone through the troubleshooting steps in the Mozilla Support article "Firefox can't load websites but other browsers can", but none of the suggested solutions resolved the issue.
I also tried disabling all my extensions, one by one, but the problem still occurs.
Has anyone seen this behavior before or knows what could cause it?
Additional information:
Firefox version: 152.0.2 (64-bit) (currently shows an available update requiring a restart, but it never seems to update even when enforced restarting) Operating system: Windows 1p Pro Version 10.0.18363 Build 18363
I'd appreciate any answers
All Replies (6)
So when a site gets stuck, when you open a new Private Window and load it from there, it's stuck in a similar fashion?
You haven't mentioned explicitly restarting into Troubleshoot Mode from Help menu which disables all extensions and some configuration all at once, this would be baseline to figure out any next steps from.
jbr said
So when a site gets stuck, when you open a new Private Window and load it from there, it's stuck in a similar fashion? You haven't mentioned explicitly restarting into Troubleshoot Mode from Help menu which disables all extensions and some configuration all at once, this would be baseline to figure out any next steps from.
Usually I have a normal browsing window with multiple tabs opened and then a different private window also with multiple opened tabs when this happens. I don't think this is the issue, it's just the way I usually organize myself.
Regarding restarting into Troubleshoot Mode, no, I have not done that. The reason why is that since this issue is intermittent, it will take hours or days to happen to me again, because when I restart Firefox it comes back into functioning normally. Perhaps I should give it a go either way?
I think that jbr is right - trying Troubleshooting Mode would be a good idea if only to help narrow down what might be causing this issue.
FYI if you have trouble applying the pending updates, just get a full installer at firefox.com and install it over the existing instance to update it.
If you're facing issues with a particular site or types of sites also do mention that, unless you can't open literally anything in that moment (incl. wikipedia, example.com, mozillamemory.org, ksi.cpsc.ucalgary.ca, your local radio station or volunteer firefighters etc.) — just to make sure it's "any" connection, and not related to just some cloudflare CDN, the same YT tracking beacon endpoint maxing out pending connection limits, or a webworker for a certain app not serving anything new.
If it's still happening, would be willing to capture a profile (perhaps one with network presets, the other with debug or developer defaults) and upload it +share a link? profiler.firefox.com/docs
It still is happening. Happened just now but I couldn't enter the profiler website to be able to enable the button. Restarted firefox and enabled it, now I just have to wait for the issue to happen again and I'll send the captured profiles. I won't update Firefox until then because maybe these profiles can help fix an underlying issue even if updating might solve my problem, thanks!
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