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Firefox hangs/freezes after 85 update.

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Hi everyone,

After the 85.0.0 update and still now with 85.0.1 and 85.0.2 firefox crashes. It's usually happened with clicking a link that'll take action outside of firefox (not a url link but a download attachment link in gmail or a print link). I've also had it happen with placing links from the search bar to the bookmark bar, and just recently opening up the 'show all bookmarks' window.

It'll hang, i won't be able to click anything, and then it'll give me the 'close window' screen. It's never fully crashed and given me an error message. I start up firefox again, restore the session and everything is back to where it was.

I've tried refreshing. I've tried creating a new profile. I've tried uninstalling and downloading 85 direct from mozilla. Nothing seems to be working. I'm going to see how it does for a bit in safe mode, but all the add-ons I have I've had way before the 85 update and all of them are recommended by mozilla.

I'm all ears (eyes?) for solutions!

Hi everyone, After the 85.0.0 update and still now with 85.0.1 and 85.0.2 firefox crashes. It's usually happened with clicking a link that'll take action outside of firefox (not a url link but a download attachment link in gmail or a print link). I've also had it happen with placing links from the search bar to the bookmark bar, and just recently opening up the 'show all bookmarks' window. It'll hang, i won't be able to click anything, and then it'll give me the 'close window' screen. It's never fully crashed and given me an error message. I start up firefox again, restore the session and everything is back to where it was. I've tried refreshing. I've tried creating a new profile. I've tried uninstalling and downloading 85 direct from mozilla. Nothing seems to be working. I'm going to see how it does for a bit in safe mode, but all the add-ons I have I've had way before the 85 update and all of them are recommended by mozilla. I'm all ears (eyes?) for solutions!

All Replies (20)

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just to be clear, its never 'crashed' officially so I don't have a code to give. Again, just hangs/freezes and I get the 'close' message.

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Edit: for context "not a url link but a download attachment link in gmail or a print link"

Do you recall what was supposed to happen at that point? For example:

  • That normally be the point that Firefox opens a Save As dialog to let you choose where you want to save the download
  • Firefox normally would show a PDF preview in the same tab, or in a new tab, or in a pop-up window
  • Something else normally happens at that point

Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer

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Regarding adding bookmarks, could you let us know what you get when you run the "Verify Integrity" function. That's here:

Open Firefox's Troubleshooting Information page using any of these methods:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

Near the bottom, there is a section titled Places Database -- that's the file which stores history and bookmarks. Click the button labeled Verify Integrity. There may be a 10-15 second delay before results appear.

If all is well, the report that appears below the button should start with:

> Task: checkIntegrity
+ The places.sqlite database is sane
+ The favicons.sqlite database is sane

Does yours say that, or something else? You can select and copy the report, and then paste it into a reply for review and comment.

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Hi Jscher,

Thanks for your reply.


I've been trying to track what triggers it, and its almost always a link to download an attachment, or download a pdf, etc. Sometimes when you download a pdf it'll just pop up in the download bar and show its being downloaded... but it never gets that far. It'll just freeze once I hit the download button. And again it doesn't always happen with links... it's happened with adding a link to the bookmark bar. And opening up 'show all bookmarks' from 'Library'.

And it doesn't always do this too... I'd say I can click to download something 14 times out of 15 and it'll work fine.


Here is the output from Verify Integrity:

> Task: checkIntegrity + The places.sqlite database is sane + The favicons.sqlite database is sane > Task: invalidateCaches + The caches have been invalidated > Task: checkCoherence + The database is coherent > Task: expire + Database cleaned up > Task: originFrecencyStats + Recalculated origin frecency stats > Task: vacuum + Initial database size is 10240KiB + The database has been vacuumed + Final database size is 10240KiB > Task: stats + Places.sqlite size is 10240KiB + Favicons.sqlite size is 7584KiB + pragma_user_version is 54 + pragma_page_size is 32768 + pragma_cache_size is -2048 + pragma_journal_mode is wal + pragma_synchronous is 1 + History can store a maximum of 111393 unique pages + Table moz_origins has 757 records + Table moz_places has 10971 records + Table moz_historyvisits has 26520 records + Table moz_inputhistory has 0 records + Table moz_bookmarks has 166 records + Table moz_bookmarks_deleted has 0 records + Table moz_keywords has 0 records + Table sqlite_sequence has 0 records + Table moz_anno_attributes has 2 records + Table moz_annos has 66 records + Table moz_items_annos has 0 records + Table moz_meta has 4 records + Table sqlite_stat1 has 16 records + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_origins_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_inputhistory_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_bookmarks_deleted_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_keywords_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_anno_attributes_1 + Index moz_places_url_hashindex + Index moz_places_hostindex + Index moz_places_visitcount + Index moz_places_frecencyindex + Index moz_places_lastvisitdateindex + Index moz_places_guid_uniqueindex + Index moz_places_originidindex + Index moz_historyvisits_placedateindex + Index moz_historyvisits_fromindex + Index moz_historyvisits_dateindex + Index moz_bookmarks_itemindex + Index moz_bookmarks_parentindex + Index moz_bookmarks_itemlastmodifiedindex + Index moz_bookmarks_dateaddedindex + Index moz_bookmarks_guid_uniqueindex + Index moz_keywords_placepostdata_uniqueindex + Index moz_annos_placeattributeindex + Index moz_items_annos_itemattributeindex > Task: _refreshUI

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Just happened again now when I opened up 'Show all bookmarks' under 'Bookmarks'. Hang. Freeze. Popup window to close.

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Boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support to see if that has effect in case security software is causing problems.

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HI cor-el,

Thanks for the reply. I've actually tried without antivirus and it still does it. And it happens a bit too at random for me to boot into safemode and wait for it to happen once during a workday.

I'm wondering though if the windows firewall could be affecting it somehow?

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just happened again now, with a PDF download button.

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Did you try refreshing firefox? You can find it in about:support, it just restores everything to default (it does not restore settings, bookmarks etc you have in sync). It can definitely help!

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Hi Alexander,


Yep! I've Refreshed firefox. Didn't fix it. I totally reinstalled firefox. Didn't fix it. I created a new profile. Didn't fix it.


What I will do is keep updating this thread when it happens again, and what triggered it. We'll see if we can figure it out :)

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2/23 12:37pm ET - just happened again in gmail, clicking the link to access/download an attached word doc. Firefox hung, then froze, and I needed to close it. Started firefox and gmail up again, clicked the link to download word doc again, and it worked fine.

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2/24: 12:18pm ET - just happened again, opening up 'Show all Bookmarks' from the Library menu.

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I basically keep my laptop on from maybe 8am ET to 8pm ET and am working from home and have been documenting all the times this happens... so as you can see it doesn't happen often so I can't really recreate the cirumstances it happens under, but it does happen.

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2/24: 5:45pm ET - happened again, dragging and dropping a URL from the search bar to the bookmarks bar

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While it is difficult to see any connections, saving a bookmark and downloading a file both update the places.sqlite database file, and displaying bookmarks reads from the places.sqlite/favicons.sqlite files. That said, it's curious that regular browsing -- which constantly updates the files with new history entries -- doesn't seem to cause the issue. Odd.

Since the new profile test suggests it's not a problem of a corrupted old file, is it possible there is some kind of deadlock there where another program accessing the file(s) -- or one of the related journaling files (-shm, -wal) -- is locking out/locking up Firefox?

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Did you transfer files from the old profile (if any) when you tried the new profile or does this still happen with a new profile with possibly the bookmarks restored via a JSON backup ?

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HI Cor-el,

No, started a new profile. I actually accidentally deleted all my bookmarks during this process and have started fresh with 0 bookmarks.


PS - 2/24 7:23pm ET. Happened again trying to open a private window.

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jscher2000 said

While it is difficult to see any connections, saving a bookmark and downloading a file both update the places.sqlite database file, and displaying bookmarks reads from the places.sqlite/favicons.sqlite files. That said, it's curious that regular browsing -- which constantly updates the files with new history entries -- doesn't seem to cause the issue. Odd. Since the new profile test suggests it's not a problem of a corrupted old file, is it possible there is some kind of deadlock there where another program accessing the file(s) -- or one of the related journaling files (-shm, -wal) -- is locking out/locking up Firefox?


Hi Jscher2000,

I'm definitely not a firefox expert, but that sounds like a reasonable reason... is there a way for me to test this out?

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Back in my Windows 7 days, I had a program that would show what application has locks on a file, and/or would release locks on a file, but I've lost track of that.

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Hi Jscher2000,

I can look for it and give you a few names...

PS - happened again, downloading a .png image in gmail.

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