Why do I keep getting "Firefox not responding" messages. I have done everything that has been advised to do and it continues to be slow and unresponsive.
No matter where I go, homepage, website, etc., I get the "not responding" message. I have done all updates and everything else that has been advised but it continues to happen.
Chosen solution
Start Firefox in Safe Mode by holding down the <Shift> (Mac=Options) key, and then starting Firefox. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-using-safe-mode
A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Is the problem still there?
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Is that the website is not responding, or Firefox? Or is the error something else?
FredMcD said
Is that the website is not responding, or Firefox? Or is the error something else?
Firefox not responding and very slow to accept any inputs. For example, it took forever for it to catch up and show the words I am typing. Constantly getting "Firefox not responding" and loading wheel indicator. Getting very frustrating.
Chosen Solution
Start Firefox in Safe Mode by holding down the <Shift> (Mac=Options) key, and then starting Firefox. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-using-safe-mode
A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Is the problem still there?
So far, in Safe Mode, it does not appear to be an issue.
You can try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.
- Options/Preferences -> Advanced -> General -> Browsing: "Use hardware acceleration when available"
You need to close and restart Firefox after toggling this setting.
You can check if there is an update for your graphics display driver and check for hardware acceleration related issues.
When multi-process windows in Firefox is enabled then Firefox will use more memory and may be less responsive. Try to disable multi-process windows in Firefox to see if that has effect.
You can disable multi-process windows in Firefox by setting these prefs to false on the about:config page.
- browser.tabs.remote.autostart = false
- browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2 = false
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.
Yeah, thanks, but I am not going to do that. This is a recent thing that happened when they changed to updates 52 & 53. I'll wait until they either fix it or continue to use a different browser. Thanks for your help though. I hope they get it figured out as I used to like Firefox a lot. Plus I am kind of confused why it would work OK in Safe mode and not in regular mode. But again, at this point it doesn't make much difference as I am going to start using a different browser until they get this all sorted out. Seems strange that everything was great until they updated from 51 to 52 and it has been down hill ever since.
Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that temporarily turns off hardware acceleration, resets some settings, and disables add-ons (extensions and themes). If the problem goes away, that tells us one thing. If it does not, that tells us something else.
Seems to work fine in Safe Mode, but I am uncomfortable making the changes you suggested before. I wish they hadn't made the upgrade from 51. 51 seemed to be working just fine.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-older-version-of-firefox?cache=no Be sure to read everything here.
If you still want to downgrade, look under; I still want to downgrade. Click the Directory of other versions and languages link. Look for the directory of the version that you want. But, remember that old versions may have security issues.
You should also check out Firefox; Extended Support Release https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/notes/
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/system-requirements/