Fix problems that cause images to not show

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  • Reviewed by: AliceWyman
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If you are experiencing difficulty downloading or viewing images through Firefox, follow the troubleshooting instructions below.

This article applies to:

  • Still image file formats such as PNG, GIF, and JPG
  • Animated file formats like animated GIF

This article does not apply to the following formats:

Note: If you're having trouble with a website, click the padlock icon Fx89Padlock in the address bar to see if Firefox has blocked insecure parts of the page. See Mixed content blocking in Firefox for details.

Clear cookies and cache

Sometimes problems loading websites can be fixed by clearing the cookies and cache.

  1. Click the menu button Fx89menuButton to open the menu panel.
  2. Click History and select Clear Recent History…
  3. In the Time Range to clear: drop-down, select Everything.
  4. Below the drop-down menu, select both Cookies and Cache. Make sure other items you want to keep are not selected.
  5. Click OKClear Now.

Check image permissions

Firefox allows you to prevent images from loading for certain websites to make pages load faster. If you are having trouble viewing images:

  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 Fx89menuButton and select Settings. .
  2. OptionsPreferences window, select the Content panel.
  3. Make sure there is a check mark next to Load images automatically
  4. Click on Exceptions… next to Load images automatically to open the Exceptions - Images window.
  5. In the Exceptions - Images window, look at the list of sites. Make sure the sites with which you're having trouble are not in the list.
  6. Click Close to closeClose the Exceptions - Images window.
  7. Close the Settings page. Any changes you've made will automatically be saved. .

Check image permissions for a specific website

Firefox allows you to prevent images from loading for certain websites to make pages load faster. If you are having trouble viewing images for a specific website:

  1. Click the Site Identity Button (the website’s icon to the left of its address).
  2. Click the More information… button in the prompt. The Page Info window will open.
  3. Select the Permissions panel.
  4. Make sure Allow is selected next to Load Images.
  5. Close the Page Info window.

Security software

Some Internet security software (including antivirus and anti-spyware programs, firewalls, privacy programs, and others) may identify and block certain images as web bugs or may prevent images from animating. Check the settings for your Internet security program to make sure it allows images to load.

Images load the first time but not later

The RealPlayer Browser Record Plugin extension (installed with RealPlayer) can cause Firefox to show images correctly upon the first visit to a website, but not on subsequent visits or refreshes. Disabling this extension will fix the problem.

  1. Open the RealPlayer program.
  2. Go to the Tools menu and click on Preferences.
  3. Go to the Download & Recording section and uncheck the option Enable Web Download & Recording for these installed browsers.
  4. Click OK.

Or see the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article for instructions on how to disable or uninstall extensions in Firefox.

Images load but look wrong

If images on websites load, but don't look right or don't look the way they do in other browsers:

  • If you are using any sort of web accelerator software, disable it and see if images load properly. For more information, see the documentation that came with the software.
  • If the image area shows text or some form of gibberish, see the MozillaZine Knowledge Base article Page displays as gibberish.

Other reasons why images may not load

  • The site that displays the images may be down or experiencing difficulties. To verify, try loading the site from a different computer or browser.
  • Some pathnames to images contain backslashes (e.g. example.com\MyImage.jpg). In browsers other than Internet Explorer, these pathnames do not load. If you see that the image's URL contains a backslash, contact the site's webmaster about the issue.

  • You may have modified one of your Firefox preference settings which is causing images not to show. You can either reset all preferences or else try the following:
  1. Type about:config in the address bar and press EnterReturn.
    A warning page may appear. Click Accept the Risk and Continue to go to the about:config page.
  2. Find browser.display.use_document_colors in the list of preferences. It should be set to true by default.
  3. Right-clickHold down the control key while you click on the preference if its value has been set to false and select Reset.

Images still do not load correctly

If you have tried all of the solutions in this article and images or animations still don't load correctly then try these solutions:



Based on information from Images or animations do not load (mozillaZine KB)