Firefox Support Forum

Firefox just stops responding when trying to load a web page. The only way to get it back working is to reboot the computer. I have tried quitting the application but when I try to restart it it doesn't respond and I end up having to force quit and reboot the computer and then it will work fine. MacBook Pro (15" 2017) MacOS13.6.6 Firefox 125.01

Any idea what's going on?

This has been happening for months now, on multiple devices (I have tried at least 3 different devices), and on multiple networks.

I have read the articles in here, but they just want me to check network configuration which is exactly the same for all browsers.

If I restart firefox it starts working again.

How can I prevent it from breaking randomly? This is the only browser having issues, I'm almost positive is some bug and not a configuration thing, given that it happens under multiple circumstances and devices, while Edge and Chrome simply keep working just fine.

There is no consistent repro I can give, afaik it is just random, at some point Firefox just decides to stop working and I have to restart it. This disrupts my work and browsing activities as I can lose progress on input forms and similar actions.

I see my original question is now archived at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1380948#question-reply I never closed it because I didn't know if my last process could really fix the issue. It didn't, not always. Over the years, there have been times when the issue would still pop up, but not as often as before (2022 and earlier).

I have a feeling that during an issue, FF is having difficulty setting up shop after starting up. Consequently, it is spending more time before it could become prepared to connect to the Net. I've come up with another "solution," which is deleting (or moving out) xulstore.json in the profile folder after exiting or before starting FF. You can create a batch command or script to execute the process.

So far, FF is connecting immediately after startup.

So I'll be typing like normal (I type 100 WPM), and all of a sudden, I'll type a sentence, but each individual letter starts taking about 3 seconds to show up on the screen. I have to sit and wait a super long time for everything I typed to finally show up. Other times, I move my mouse over something I should be able to click on, and have to wait a long time for the arrow to turn into a hand, letting me click on it. These periods of slowness will last a few minutes, then disappear.

What's really interesting is that when the slowness starts, I can type just fine up in the URL bar. I might type my entire message there, then copy paste it down to where ever I was wanting to post it. However, when I do that, if I have another tab open and that tab is playing music, the music will start to break up and lag as I type. Again, after a while, the slowness disappears and we're back to normal.

Can anyone tell me what's going on?