Firefox Settings let you customize how your browser works—from restoring sessions and blocking ads to syncing data and managing privacy. This article explains each panel in the Firefox Settings menu and includes links to common tasks like organizing bookmarks, recovering closed tabs, or managing ads.

To open Firefox Settings:

1. In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click Firefox and then select Preferences or Settings, depending on your macOS version.Click the menu button and select Settings. The General settings panel will open.
2. For other settings, select a different panel from the left column.

   

Overview of Firefox Settings panels

General

This panel includes startup, tab behavior, downloads, language settings and more:

• Startup: Set Firefox as your default browser and restore previous sessions.
  • Make Firefox your default browser.
  • Set Firefox to restore your previous session at startup.
  • Import data from another browser.
• Tabs: Manage your tabs.
  • Choose how tabs are opened.
• Language and appearance: Change fonts, colors, zoom level and interface language.
  • Change website appearance settings in Firefox.
  • Change the fonts and colors websites use.
  • Change the size of webpage content.
  • Choose the language to display menus, notifications, messages and other parts of the Firefox interface.
  • Choose a preferred display language for web pages.
  • Use the Firefox spell checker.
• Downloads: Choose where downloaded files are saved.
  • Change the download folder Firefox uses to save files.
• Firefox updates:
  • Check your update history or change update settings for Firefox.
• Applications: Set how Firefox handles different file types.
  • Change the application used or the action taken for different file types.
  • Choose whether to watch DRM content in Firefox.
• Performance: Adjust hardware acceleration and content processes.
  • Customize performance settings in Firefox.
• Browsing: Enable caret browsing and text search.
• Network settings: Set up proxies or manage connection settings.
  • Change Firefox connection settings and set a proxy to connect to the Internet.

Home

Customize what appears when you open Firefox:

• Homepage and new windows: Set a custom URL or use the default Firefox Home.
  • Choose what you see when you open your home page, a new Firefox window or a new tab.
  • Set your home page or new windows to the default Firefox home page, a blank page or a custom URL.
• New tabs: Choose what appears on new tab pages.
  • You can set new tabs to open the default Firefox home page or a blank page.
• Firefox Home content: Toggle web search, top sites, recommendations and more.
  • Customize content on the New Tab page, including Web Search, shortcuts to most visited sites, recommended stories and recent activity.

Search

Control your default search engine and how search works in the address bar:

• Change your default search settings in Firefox.
• Manage one-click search shortcuts.
• Control the address bar settings.

Privacy and security

Manage privacy, security and site permissions:

• Enhanced Tracking Protection: Block trackers and cookies.
  • Control settings for the Firefox Enhanced Tracking Protection.
• Cookies and site data: Manage or clear data stored by websites.
  • Control whether websites can sell or share your data.
  • Manage website cookies.
  • Manage website data storage.
  • Manage cached web content.
• Logins and passwords: Control password saving and autofill.
  • Manage passwords.
  • Fill in forms.
• History: Manage browsing, download and search history.
  • Manage your browsing, download, search and form history
• Permissions: Control website access to your location, camera, notifications and more.
  • Manage Web Push notifications.
  • Manage pop-up windows.
  • Manage warnings when websites try to install add-ons.
• Firefox data collection and use: Decide whether to share usage data.
  • Allow Firefox to send technical and interactive data to Mozilla.
  • Install and run studies.
  • Send crash reports to Mozilla.
  • Perform privacy-preserving ad measurement.
• HTTPS-Only Mode: Enable encrypted connections only.
  • View and manage website certificates and security devices.
  • Block dangerous content or downloads.
  • Enable or disable HTTPS-Only Mode.

Sync

Sign in with your Mozilla account to sync bookmarks, passwords, history and more across devices:

• Click Sync in the Settings sidebar.
• Sign in or create an account.
• Choose what types of data to sync.

More from Mozilla

Discover other Mozilla tools and services:

• Mozilla Monitor: Get alerts if your email is in a data breach.
• Firefox Relay: Mask your email with private aliases.
• Mozilla VPN: Browse securely with a VPN.
• Firefox Mobile: Sync browsing across devices.

Common questions about Firefox settings

How do I restore a previous session or reopen closed tabs?

Firefox can restore your tabs from your last browsing session:

1. In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click Firefox and then select Preferences or Settings, depending on your macOS version.Click the menu button and select Settings.
2. Open the General panel.
3. Under Startup, check the box for Open tabs from the previous session.

How can I block or reduce ads?

Firefox includes Enhanced Tracking Protection and optional add-ons to help block intrusive ads:

1. In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click Firefox and then select Preferences or Settings, depending on your macOS version.Click the menu button and select Settings.
2. Open the Privacy and security panel.
3. Under Enhanced Tracking Protection, select Strict for more ad and tracker blocking.
4. To block more ads, consider installing a content blocker like uBlock Origin from the Firefox Add-ons site.

How do I organize my bookmarks?

You can manage bookmarks from the Library:

1. Click the menu button and select Bookmarks.
2. Select Manage bookmarks at the bottom.
3. Use folders to organize your saved pages.

Related articles

• Restore previous session - Configure when Firefox shows your most recent tabs and windows
• Use bookmark folders to organize your bookmarks
• Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox for desktop
• How do I set up Sync on my computer?
• Recover lost or missing Bookmarks