Firefox crashes when opening blank tab
Just in the last day, I've started having problems with Firefox crashing. For the first hour or so, the problem only seemed to happen when I went to certain websites, such as Gmail or YouTube.
Now, however, Firefox will crash as soon as I open a new blank tab. I'm able to start up Firefox, and it will show the "Restore Session" page. I can use the menu to open, for example, about:support, but as soon as I do CMD+T to open a new tab, Firefox will crash.
Some of the bug reports include (there are more):
bp-562281ad-b615-413e-b0d2-9396e2150728 bp-0e7bb865-79cb-4085-9433-9efe32150728 bp-f1f0a3b2-7d3e-4765-9ccb-2b7ed2150728 bp-74c640bf-165f-410c-bc68-3ecc72150728 bp-21b9817c-2530-444e-bd6a-d54372150728 bp-787d91cf-db70-4d5a-8e4c-006fa2150728 bp-e1ed70ec-59a6-4acb-9305-2352f2150728 bp-b797a169-518e-481b-95dc-4c82d2150728 bp-eade6904-15ea-4864-825c-874082150728 bp-1d9d167a-6ff2-4128-9698-3f9082150728 bp-4c9e723a-f148-4878-ad02-f05c42150728 bp-a96454ef-71b3-4318-b4a2-c91ea2150728 bp-d8fe6a87-4498-445e-9e2b-cd5fd2150728 bp-73c94445-9177-4b06-a06f-8f5872150728
This seems to happen even when I start Firefox in safe mode.
I've also tried refreshing Firefox and doing a new install of Firefox, but neither of these troubleshooting steps have fixed the problem.
Chosen solution
Hmm, so I recently had my hard drive fail on me, and I had to reformat it and transfer everything over from a backup from my laptop. Since doing that, Firefox seems to be working just fine again. Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions!
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What is the setting of the new tab page?
You can check the browser.newtab.url pref on the about:config page. You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/about:config
See this article about the New Tab page (about:newtab):
https://support.mozilla.org/kb/new-tab-page-show-hide-and-customize-top-sites
kushagra said
What is the setting of the new tab page?
Its status is set to 'default', its type is set to 'string', and its value is set to 'about:newtab'.
And sorry, your question made me realize that the title that I gave to this post is very misleading. The problem is not just about opening a new tab. Even if I start Firefox and don't open a newtab but instead type in youtube.com to the address bar, for example, and press ENTER, Firefox will then crash.
Could you test in Firefox's Safe Mode? That's a standard diagnostic tool to deactivate extensions and some advanced features of Firefox. More info: Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode.
If Firefox is not running: Hold down the option key when starting Firefox.
If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:
- "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
- Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
and OK the restart.
Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).
Any improvement?
Oops, I see you already tried Safe Mode.
It seems that your crashes all follow an identical pattern and that all the reports for this pattern are yours:
That's unfortunate because we don't have data or comments from other users.
A Refresh generates a new profile folder and carries over a subset of your settings files. As a test, could you create a completely new profile. This will be in parallel with your regular profile and not replace it.
In the Profile Manager, please do not delete anything and please do not change the default folder location of your new profile.
Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles
Is Firefox any more stable in the new profile? You can restore your last bookmarks backup to the new profile to ease the process of testing. Since you use Refresh, there should be a copy on your desktop in the Old Firefox Data folder. In the Library dialog, on the Restore menu, you can use Choose File to point Firefox to Old Firefox Data, then into your old profile folder, then into the bookmarkbackups folder.
Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer
You can check for issues caused by plugins and set plugins to "Ask to Activate" on the "Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Plugins" page (plugins are not affected by Firefox Safe Mode)
Chosen Solution
Hmm, so I recently had my hard drive fail on me, and I had to reformat it and transfer everything over from a backup from my laptop. Since doing that, Firefox seems to be working just fine again. Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions!