Firefox Community Forum

As the title says -- I can no longer save images or download files without Firefox locking up. Whenever I do, the window grays out, the cursor's "busy" animation starts up, any videos playing in Firefox at the time grind to a halt, and I have no choice but to close Firefox when the "This program is awaiting a response from you" error message pops up. Whatever I'm trying to save will get saved to my computer, but Firefox always freezes up.

I've tried updating Firefox, resetting Firefox, restarting my computer, clearing my download history, changing the download folder, running troubleshooting mode and a private window. I even tried downgrading from 137.0.2 (64-bit) to version 136.0 out of desperation, and even that didn't solve it. I'm running Windows 11 Home, and this problem has only started happening in the last few weeks.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Firefox has been running incredibly slow. I currently only have this window open, but if I open my task manger it shows 10 Firefox windows running. If I right click and end task, it will end the task, but shortly there after a new one will pop up. 1 of the is running in efficiency mode. I assume this is what is slowing down performance, but I do not know how to fix.

Please tell me why this happens daily. I cannot access my laptop after a break at 10:00 am..... for some reason, Firefox freezes, only thing that will work is the Chrome browser.

Dear Mozilla Support Team,

I hope you're doing well. I'm writing to request a feature enhancement for Mozilla Firefox that would greatly improve the user experience, especially on lower-end or older hardware.

Currently, whenever I open Firefox after closing it, it takes about 2–3 seconds to launch. In comparison, Microsoft Edge opens almost instantly due to features like Startup Boost and background mode, which allow it to keep essential processes running even when the main window is closed.

I would love to see similar functionality in Firefox — such as:

An optional "Startup Boost" feature to keep Firefox running in the background for faster launching.

A tray icon mode that allows Firefox to stay running in the system tray instead of closing completely.

A setting to allow background updates or session prep on startup/login.

These additions would make Firefox even more competitive in terms of performance and convenience.

Thank you for your continuous efforts in maintaining a privacy-respecting and open-source browser. I truly appreciate your work.

Best regards, RIYYAN AMIR

I have removed Firefox and installed fresh the latest version 137.0.1 to address the issue of not being able to start a new tab or a new window. I am writing this from the initial window that opens when Firefox is launched. If I try to open a new tab it will hang with the blue circle displaying. If I click anywhere on the window if will grey out the background and display the error message :

Firefox is not responding

if you close the program, you might lose information

-> Close the program -> Wait for the program to respond

Tried waiting and it never comes back. Only option is to close the program. After that there is a message that is reporting the issue to Microsoft.

OS: Xubuntu 24.04.2 Apache: 2.4.58 Firefox 137.0.1 and earlier

In general Firefox is working. However, after every update, both major as well as point releases, where Firefox updates and then restarts itself, it almost always starts up and displays the homepage (local page on my machine) but is completely unresponsive. It will not load a locale or a remote page. I can kill all running firefox processes and then manually restart the browser -- with the same behavior. I have discovered that if I wait for around 10 minutes or so, then the browser starts working and continues to work just fine until the next update. Once past this initial update wait, I can kill/restart the browser, reboot, etc. and Firefox is responsive. It is only immediately after the updates that this problem occurs. This has been going on for at least the past six months or so, but is new behavior that didn't exist prior to that. This isn't a show-stopper, but it is very frustrating.

Any suggestions.

Hello.

I have the latest version of Firefox (137.0) on all of my computers, but it all of a sudden became unresponsive on my laptop:

MacBook Pro 13inch M1, 2020 MacOS Sonoma version 14.7.5

The homepage loads and I can go into preferences, but pages won't load, and then it freezes up and I have to force quit. I tried re-installing Firefox, but that didn't help.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you.

I'm unable to do much with Firefox now.

Chrome works fine. I'm using it (unfortunately) now in order to contact you.

When using FIrefox, it starts and does some partial loading, but then stops responding. On the default Firefox startup, about 1/2 of the "thought provoking story" pictures load. If I go directly to Youtube, for example, again....it starts loading then "hangs".

I can't close Firefox either: the window closes, but it's still running. If I attempt to restart it after closing, I get a "Firefox still running" error (which also won't close it.) Windows task manager will shut down the 5-10 (it varies) Firefox processes.

Tried checking for updates. That also gets stuck trying (let it try for about 10 minutes). Don't see any "reinstall" option.

Tried "Refresh Firefox" (fails....Firefox won't close). Tried "Clear startup Cache)" (same) Tried "Troubleshooting Mode)" (same)

Should I delete it and download again?

I have recently built myself a new computer and started running MS Windows 11.

I have a problem with Mozilla Firefox, where after a few days of being installed it takes 10 seconds or more to load (or to load subsequent new windows). It also takes a long time to switch from window to window or to close any windows. Opening and swapping between tabs is immediate.

Here is what I have tried:

- Switching off hardware acceleration. - Clearing the cache, deleting all other data and uninstalling the single add-on I use. - Creating a new profile. - Using Mozilla's own "Refresh Firefox" option. - Trying the beta version. - Probably some other stuff that I've forgotten about.

The ONLY way I can get things running at the proper speed again is to completely uninstall Firefox using an uninstaller (that also deletes all the registry entries), restart the computer, and then reinstall Firefox.

After setting things back up the way I want, Firefox will run nicely for a number of days, then will slow down again to the point where I have to uninstall and reinstall (whilst also deleting the registry entries).

It doesn't seem to make any difference whatsoever whether the computer has or hasn't been restarted during that time.

Does anyone have any idea why this is happening?

Hi -

I've been using Firefox for 10+ years, and have not touched my add-ons etc for years. I also regularly clear my cache of temp files.

That said, searching my (vast) bookmarks in Firefox used to be lickety-split, very fast. Then, it started slowing down, on both PC (Windows 10). Then, a little while later, it started on my laptop (Macbook with latest IoS).

It's now gotten so bad that I am searching my emails to find the links I'm looking for, rather than putting my browser into a coma for a time, because it freezes.

What is the problem, and how do I overcome it?

J

I don't know what is happening, but for the last few weeks my Firefox has been freezing on me, I know the cause is not the website(s) because I can browse them fine with other browsers, also when it freezes it won't let me close it, I even tried to close it using Task Manager, but I get an Access Denied when I click End Task, so I have to restart my PC.

Any ideas qhat can be happening?