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Why is firefox occasionally closing of its own accord when I minimize it?

  • 5 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by columba

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It's happened twice now, within the past 8 hours. I minimize Firefox in order to carry on in Microsoft Word, and then I'll notice all of a sudden that the Firefox window has closed 'all by itself' when I go to click on my session. This happens without me closing my laptop, but during my use of it whilst Firefox is minimized.

This is inconvenient by itself, but especially because when I open a new session the session which has closed hasn't been saved.

Thanks for your help.

It's happened twice now, within the past 8 hours. I minimize Firefox in order to carry on in Microsoft Word, and then I'll notice all of a sudden that the Firefox window has closed 'all by itself' when I go to click on my session. This happens without me closing my laptop, but during my use of it whilst Firefox is minimized. This is inconvenient by itself, but especially because when I open a new session the session which has closed hasn't been saved. Thanks for your help.

All Replies (5)

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Did the browser shut down, or crash? Did the "crash reporter" show up?

Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web Link} by holding down the <Shift>
(Mac=Options)
key, and then starting Firefox.

Open a web page or two. Then minimize it. Is the problem still there?


You may have a corrupt xulstore.json file.

Type about:support in the address bar and press enter.

Under the page logo on the left side you will see Application Basics. Under this find Profile Folder. To it’s right, press the button Show Folder. This will open your file browser to the current Firefox profile. Now Close Firefox.

Locate the xulstore.json file. Then rename or delete it. Restart Firefox.

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The browser neither shut down, nor crashed - the "crash reporter" didn't show up. It just closed down whilst minimized.

The problem has been sporadic, thus I can't test it at will, so I cannot be sure if the problem has been solved or not.

I followed your prompts, found the xulstore.json file, and deleted it. In a couple of days if the problem doesn't recur I'll mark this as solved.

Thanks heaps!

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Hi again,

After having deleted the xulstore.json file, today, after several days without any problem, it has happened again.

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Hi, I am not sure I can help with the closing problem, but I can help with the session restore. There are two options, one is the system itself, and the Firefox one.

http://mzl.la/1BAQAMJ

if you follow the instructions here that should make sure you get your sessin restore back. :)

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Thanks for that, that's helped part of the problem :)