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First tab shakes when opening or closing tab.

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I have Firefox 24.0 on Mac OS 10.8. I have never had any issues with the tabs shaking until today.

Only the first tab shakes; the shaking stops once the new tab has been opened or the tab has been closed but seeing this occur repeatedly over the course of just a few minutes is hurting my eyes.

Everything is set to the default. I do not use any special themes or toolbars. I do not usually have more than eight tabs open at once.

I have already tried closing all tabs and restarting the browser as well as rebooting my computer.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

I have Firefox 24.0 on Mac OS 10.8. I have never had any issues with the tabs shaking until today. Only the first tab shakes; the shaking stops once the new tab has been opened or the tab has been closed but seeing this occur repeatedly over the course of just a few minutes is hurting my eyes. Everything is set to the default. I do not use any special themes or toolbars. I do not usually have more than eight tabs open at once. I have already tried closing all tabs and restarting the browser as well as rebooting my computer. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Chosen solution

Yeah, I already tried it in Safe Mode and that didn't work.

I did however ultimately figure it out; I reset the browser (despite everything already being set to default) just to see what would happen and voilà! It stopped shaking. Not sure what caused the problem or why resetting an already minimally-loaded browser would fix the issue but it did.

Hopefully that helps anyone else out there experiencing the same symptoms.

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Is it always the same website tab that shakes or is it always a different one?


Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode, which disables most add-ons.

(If you're not using it, switch to the Default theme.)

  • On Windows you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
  • On Mac you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by holding the option key while starting Firefox.
  • On Linux you can open Firefox 4.0+ in Safe Mode by quitting Firefox and then going to your Terminal and running: firefox -safe-mode (you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)
  • Or open the Help menu and click on the Restart with Add-ons Disabled... menu item while Firefox is running.

FirefoxSafeMode

Once you get the pop-up, just select "'Start in Safe Mode" Safe Mode Fx 15 - Win

If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, and you need to figure out which one. Please follow the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article for that.

To exit the Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.

Please report back soon.

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Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window.
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Sometimes a problem with Firefox may be a result of malware installed on your computer, that you may not be aware of.

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

Did this fix your problems? Please report back soon.

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Chosen Solution

Yeah, I already tried it in Safe Mode and that didn't work.

I did however ultimately figure it out; I reset the browser (despite everything already being set to default) just to see what would happen and voilà! It stopped shaking. Not sure what caused the problem or why resetting an already minimally-loaded browser would fix the issue but it did.

Hopefully that helps anyone else out there experiencing the same symptoms.