Firefox Community Forum

I run a drafting site where we share shop drawings for contractors and architects: https://usadraftsman.com

Whenever I open these drawing preview pages in Firefox, the browser gets slow or sometimes becomes unresponsive. The same pages load completely fine in Chrome, so I’m trying to understand what might be causing this only in Firefox.

Most of the previews are large drawings or viewer embeds, so maybe Firefox is struggling with rendering them. I tried clearing cache and turning off extensions, but the issue still comes back.

If anyone has dealt with similar heavy graphics or rendering issues in Firefox, what should I check or adjust? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

When typing to search, address etc keyboard inputs are not being accepted. The typing here is fine but attempting a search or entering a url or even the space bar nothing happens.

I am receiving a not responding message when I try to use Firefox on my Dell Inspiron 3880 with Windows 11

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling but get the same message.

I am using Firefox on my MacOS Tahoe. There is a persistent annoying issue where whenever I close (physically fold) my laptop screen and reopen it, Firefox will be frozen. It will be frozen in the sense that I am unable to interact with any tabs or anything until I manually quit Firefox and reopen it (which automatically reopens all my tabs), making it usable again. This doesn't happen every time I close and reopen my Mac, but it definitely happens the majority of the time and makes the browser hard to use.

I've attached a screenshot of what a new window looks like when Firefox is frozen. It looks just like a Firefox window when unfocused.

Notes:

• It doesn't entirely freeze Firefox. In fact, I can "switch" to a different tab by clicking on the tab and then shutting and reopening my laptop again. The new tab will show on reopening but Firefox will still be frozen. This process can be repeated.
• I can pretty consistently replicate the bug by shutting my laptop, waiting 10 seconds, and reopening it. This will almost always result in the freeze.
• The bug still happens if I'm not focused on the Firefox window but on a different app.
• The bug doesn't seem to happen if I just lock my screen but don't shut it closed.

Things I've tried that haven't fixed it:

• Updating my OS.
• Restarting my laptop.
• Disabling hardware acceleration.
• Disabling themes and extensions.
• Deleting and reinstalling Firefox, including deleting the user data in the "Library/Application Support" folder.

Let me know if there's any more information I can provide or fixes I can try. Also let me know if I should go ahead and file a Firefox bug report for this. Thank you.

(My laptop is very slow. I have cleaned the cashe, performed disc cleanup, cleaned the memory, and everything i can think of. I opened task manager and see that multiple instances of Firefox open. (photo #1) I have uninstalled and reinstalled to no avail. I have also tried changing the preferences to 1 instance, but it wont allow me to. (photo #2) Please help.

This is happening more frequently. sometimes clicking links works but the cursor will not respond if i hover over the new tab button. To continue I have to select a new firefox window, The unresponsive window remains in error even when a new working window is active.

Dear Firefox Support Team,

I am writing to report an issue I’ve been experiencing with Firefox on my MacBook Air (M3, 8GB RAM). Recently, Firefox has been becoming unresponsive quite often, and the Activity Monitor shows significantly high memory usage. For context, I typically have two Firefox windows running simultaneously, with approximately 5 tabs open in each window (10 tabs total). This is when I notice the performance degradation and high memory usage.

To help you investigate, I’ve attached:

• A screenshot of the memory usage in Activity Monitor when Firefox is running.
• A screenshot of the extensions currently enabled in Firefox.

I am open to suggestions, such as disabling or removing certain extensions if they might be causing conflicts. However, I wanted to report this issue first to understand if this is a known problem or if there are optimizations planned for Firefox on Apple Silicon Macs.

Let me know if you need additional details, such as Firefox version, macOS version, or specific steps to reproduce the issue. I’d be happy to provide any information that can help resolve this.

Thank you for your time and assistance. I look forward to your response.

Best regards, Hemant

The lack of a title bar makes it impossible, for example, to close the application by pressing the "X" icon in the upper right corner. The title bar does not appear when the application starts, but does appear when the application window is minimized and then maximized.

Dear Firefox Support,

Since yesterday, I’ve been experiencing an issue where the entire browser randomly freezes for a few seconds. When this happens, everything stops — I can’t open or close tabs or windows, and I can’t type in the address bar. If I’m typing something when it freezes, the input seems to be stored in the background and then appears all at once after about 5 seconds, when the browser becomes responsive again. All add-ons are disabled, the computer has been restarted, and the latest version of Firefox is installed. This issue started just yesterday — before that, everything was working perfectly. No new programs were installed, and all other applications on my system are functioning normally. When I switch to Chrome, there are no issues at all. Thank you for your help.

Best regards, Peter

I usually have multiple tabs open and my MacBook slows down and gets hot. Firefox is using A LOT of memory. Is there a way to have inactive tabs go dormant, helping reduce overall memory usage and improve browser performance? An advisor mentioned this is an option in Chrome. Is there a fix?

Thanks

Firefox prevents going into hibernate mode. It only appears to blank screen until mouse is moved or lid moved. This happened on 3 year old dell and now on new lenovo. I've gotten around it by going into task manager and killing firefox before hibernating. This doesn't happen on a newly opened window. I've noticed that as you use it, in the task manager, (not sure of correct term) the amounts of firefox tasks/threads? increases but does not decrease when tabs are closed. Eventually hibernate stops until I kill the firefox program. I thought this might go away with new lenovo with twice the ram, but happens at same rate. If I forget to kill firefox, I end up with a dead battery. This doesn't happen with edge or other browsers I've tried.

By addressing the problem that I have typed above. Why for over a year have I been getting 'Firefox not responding' message? I then have to start again every time. Thanks

I can complete the sign in and enter my password, and then I get a spinning wheel and can no longer click on the tabs or minimize the window. I have to force close it and it shows as not signed it. I've also tried signing in using my phone and the QR code, same thing. This happens with or without 2FA, I turned it off and the issue persists. Everything else about the browser works completely but I can't sync across devices without the Mozilla login working.

So out of nowhere, I can't use the back button, or delete pages by clicking the 'x. I can't even click on the settings icon, or any icon on the menu bar. When I hover over any web page title, it shows a small window of it, but I can't get rid of it. I didn't change anything, so what's going on?

App is unusable. Freezes up frequently. Tried downloading again. Same problem. I am using Chrome temporarily and it is working just fine. Also ran Safari, no problem. Used it to download ESR 115. Worked fine. Definitely a Firefox problem.

Selecting "Help About Firefox" causes the window to appear but this window then freezes with no information. It is possible to close the window and continue with Firefox. This happen nearly always but occasionally works correctly. Current Firefox version is 146.0 but the problem is not limited this version. System is Kubuntu 24.04, KDE Plasma Version 5.27.12 and QT Version 5.15.13 I have tried several things. Deleting the .Moziila folder will permit the window to work once but after a restart stops working. Any new things to try would be appreciated.

Firefox has been my entire family's browser of choice for as long as I can remember. Which one am I supposed to use now that Firefox won't quit shoving bloatware and diminished performance at me? I'm also seeing articles stating that they plan on making it even worse with more AI. I'm supposed to let them steal my data and turn my browser into sludge with absolutely no benefit to myself? And they're asking me to donate to them on top of it???

Does anyone know of a viable Firefox alternative that isn't a chrome dupe?