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I have websites that take control of my browser..the sites are constantly refreshing and I lose all control over browser functions.

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I open firefox to an online newspaper?blog site and I will scroll through for articles to read, when I find one or even while I am just browsing the articles the page auto refreshes and the browser quits responding to any input. The refreshing of the site occurs every few minutes and really is an hassle, I lose the article and what should only take me a couple of minutes to read turns into an wait for it to stop ordeal because firefox quits responding, I have the stop autorefresh checked in firefox but it doesn't work on my reading sites, I want to have control of my browser not let any website have control of it. Is there a fix for this? (Huffington Post is the worst offender).

If you need more information please request.
Thank You
I open firefox to an online newspaper?blog site and I will scroll through for articles to read, when I find one or even while I am just browsing the articles the page auto refreshes and the browser quits responding to any input. The refreshing of the site occurs every few minutes and really is an hassle, I lose the article and what should only take me a couple of minutes to read turns into an wait for it to stop ordeal because firefox quits responding, I have the stop autorefresh checked in firefox but it doesn't work on my reading sites, I want to have control of my browser not let any website have control of it. Is there a fix for this? (Huffington Post is the worst offender). If you need more information please request. Thank You

All Replies (2)

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Update Firefox

Update Firefox to the latest release

Scan for Malware

Sometimes a problem with Firefox may be a result of malware installed on your computer, that you may not be aware of.

You can try some of the following programs to scan for malware:

Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

Reset Firefox

The Reset Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its factory default state while saving your essential information. Note: This will cause you to lose any Extensions, Open websites, and some Preferences.

To Reset Firefox do the following:

  1. Go to Firefox > Help > Troubleshooting Information.
  2. Click the "Reset Firefox" button.
  3. Firefox will close and reset. After Firefox is done, it will show a window with the information that is imported. Click Finish.
  4. Firefox will open with all factory defaults applied.


Further information can be found in the Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings article.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

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Some sites run a script or have a meta http-equiv tag that automatically refreshes the page every few minutes.

Maybe NoScript that block this refresh.

There may also be Greasemonkey scripts to stop the refresh on specific websites.