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Firefox freezing on start-up?

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  • Last reply by FredMcD

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I'm on a Mac, running the latest version of Firefox. Recently I've had some work to do that meant I wanted to keep multiple tabs open, so I changed my settings to 'restore previous session' so I'd get my tabs back when I turned my computer off/on.

For a few days all was going well, then Firefox crashed. I managed to get it back up again and change the setting so it wasn't trying to restore multiple tabs. But since then no luck, Firefox opens but I get the spinning wheel curser and Firefox shows as non-responsive, I have to force quit the app.

I've tried uninstalling it, still no luck. I'm writing this from Google Chrome.

Can anyone help? I much prefer Firefox, but it's currently unusable for me, and as the browser freezers I can't get into any of the settings etc.

I'm on a Mac, running the latest version of Firefox. Recently I've had some work to do that meant I wanted to keep multiple tabs open, so I changed my settings to 'restore previous session' so I'd get my tabs back when I turned my computer off/on. For a few days all was going well, then Firefox crashed. I managed to get it back up again and change the setting so it wasn't trying to restore multiple tabs. But since then no luck, Firefox opens but I get the spinning wheel curser and Firefox shows as non-responsive, I have to force quit the app. I've tried uninstalling it, still no luck. I'm writing this from Google Chrome. Can anyone help? I much prefer Firefox, but it's currently unusable for me, and as the browser freezers I can't get into any of the settings etc.

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Should also add I've tried starting in Firefox in Safemode but it's still frozen an unresponsive.

I have the add-on ublock origin, but I've had that adblocker for a while and not sure why that would cause issues.

Screenshots of Firefox frozen in safemode and non responsive in Force Quit attached.


I'm running mac OS Catalina 10.15.4, Firefox was up to date, tried uninstalling and reinstalling too.

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Some problems occur when your Internet security program was set to trust the previous version of Firefox, but no longer recognizes your updated version as trusted. Now how to fix the problem: To allow Firefox to connect to the Internet again;

  • Make sure your Internet security software is up-to-date (i.e. you are running the latest version).
  • Remove Firefox from your program's list of trusted or recognized programs. For detailed instructions, see

Configure firewalls so that Firefox can access the Internet. {web link}