Firefox browser loads garbage text after 77.0.1 update
My Firefox browser won't load any websites correctly after I closed and reopened it today and updated it to 77.0.1. All sites load as nothing but garbage text, preventing me from accessing ANYTHING, not even Google; it just appears as a white page filled with random garbage text, some as question mark squares. I have tried the following already, they have not worked:
- Firefox is the only browser affected, IE works fine
- I am connected to the internet just fine
- I ran malware/virus scans, nothing came up
- I disabled extensions and add ons, nothing changed
- It still happens in Firefox Safe Mode and in Windows Safe Mode with Networking
- sfc /scannow didn't fix it
- Turning Hardware Acceleration on/off does nothing
- Changing Unicode does nothing
- Tracking Protection on/off does nothing
Please help me, I'd rather not have to resort to Refresh, System Restore or uninstall/reinstall Firefox over this issue given that it'd be difficult to get everything back.
Chosen solution
Hi Felis-2, someone on Reddit mentioned turning off a new feature to resolve this issue. There's a note in the code that this preference means "use DocumentChannel with parent process' sDocShell" but I don't know the consequences of changing it, so you may want to research it further:
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.
(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste ppdc and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Double-click the browser.tabs.documentchannel.ppdc preference to switch the value from true to false
You may need to do a regular exit and restart of Firefox before that takes effect.
More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox.
Read this answer in context 👍 1All Replies (9)
Hi, felis-2
I don't know how but there was a variable automatically created in System properties/advanced system settings/advanced/environment variables/ called MOZ_FORCE_DISABLE_E10S so, just remove it and the problem will be solved.
Hope it helps you.
Thank you
Himanshu prabhakar said
Hi, felis-2 I don't know how but there was a variable automatically created in System properties/advanced system settings/advanced/environment variables/ called MOZ_FORCE_DISABLE_E10S so, just remove it and the problem will be solved. Hope it helps you. Thank you
Can you please tell me how to access that? Is it in a file on my computer somewhere or?
hello Felis,
please follow the steps Felis easy to resolved your problem:
Do you possibly have disabled multi-process in Firefox by using the MOZ_FORCE_DISABLE_E10S=1 environment variable?
Bug 1638652 - Content-Encoding not honored when e10s is turned off via browser.tabs.remote.autostart=false or MOZ_FORCE_DISABLE_E10S=1' (please do not comment in bug reports
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html)]
tell me when resolved your problem and mark solution.
Thank you!
You can access environment variables via the Windows Control Panel.
- Control Panel > System > Advanced > Environment variables
- Right-click My Computer > Properties > Advanced > Environment variables
You can clear the value on a specific variable to remove this environment variable.
ARMAN KHAN said
hello Felis, please follow the steps Felis easy to resolved your problem: Do you possibly have disabled multi-process in Firefox by using the MOZ_FORCE_DISABLE_E10S=1 environment variable? Bug 1638652 - Content-Encoding not honored when e10s is turned off via browser.tabs.remote.autostart=false or MOZ_FORCE_DISABLE_E10S=1' (please do not comment in bug reports [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html)] tell me when resolved your problem and mark solution. Thank you!
cor-el said
You can access environment variables via the Windows Control Panel.You can clear the value on a specific variable to remove this environment variable.
- Control Panel > System > Advanced > Environment variables
- Right-click My Computer > Properties > Advanced > Environment variables
I think I remember setting this up before. I'm afraid I can't remove browser.tabs.remote.autostart=false or MOZ_FORCE_DISABLE_E10S because my computer can't handle more than 1 firefox process running, and I've been told it was ok to set this. I don't want that issue again.
I have now tried Refresh, uninstall and reinstall to no avail. These don't work, and I don't want to remove MOZ_FORCE_DISABLE_E10S if it means overheating my computer with more processes.
Funny that I find later that someone had the same issue after updating to 77 like me and yet IT HASN'T EVEN BEEN FIXED SINCE. This is a serious issue and yet it has to be fixed by reintroducing another glaring issue?
I can't believe I have to do a System Restore to fix this.
- Bug is fixed in version 78. While waiting for update, you can remove the environment variable and limit a number of content processes in Options.
- They're going to drop support for MOZ_FORCE_DISABLE_E10S soon.
- Things are getting optimized, everything's smoother than two years ago.
Chosen Solution
Hi Felis-2, someone on Reddit mentioned turning off a new feature to resolve this issue. There's a note in the code that this preference means "use DocumentChannel with parent process' sDocShell" but I don't know the consequences of changing it, so you may want to research it further:
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.
(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste ppdc and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Double-click the browser.tabs.documentchannel.ppdc preference to switch the value from true to false
You may need to do a regular exit and restart of Firefox before that takes effect.
More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox.
jscher2000 said
Hi Felis-2, someone on Reddit mentioned turning off a new feature to resolve this issue. There's a note in the code that this preference means "use DocumentChannel with parent process' sDocShell" but I don't know the consequences of changing it, so you may want to research it further: (1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk. (2) In the search box in the page, type or paste ppdc and pause while the list is filtered (3) Double-click the browser.tabs.documentchannel.ppdc preference to switch the value from true to false You may need to do a regular exit and restart of Firefox before that takes effect. More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox.
Thank you, it's fixed!