Foxfire (100.0) is unstable on my MacBook Air M1 OS 11.3.1. It frequently slows down its loading of site data, to the point of timing out Or simply crashing. At other times it is completely normal.

Of the 3 in the house, this is the one connected to the incoming router from the ISP. The other two are connected by wifi, also using FireFox but completely free of the laptop’s seizing up. I have sent in a dozen FF Crash Reports

Even on the laptop, when slowed down to a crawl, the Ookla speed test shows the ISP’s full connection speed of 250MB/s

The problem has survived: • clearing the OS’s DNS cache • running it on the wifi mesh (disconnected from the Ethernet hardwire)at the other end of the house • refreshing FF using “Troubleshooting Info” • clearing FF StartUp cache • clearing FF Cashed Web Content (which quickly climbs back to ~800MB — is this a reasonable load?)

It is now asking me to confirm whether, with CMD-Q pressed, I really want to quit. I am in HTTPS-only mode, and it fails to recognize an HTTPS url, asking if I want to continue on to the HTTP site.

The laptop has run FF for 16-18 months before this showed up. Possibly at the time when I started to delete all cookies (with exceptions) at quitting FF, and enabling HTTPS-Only mode. But reverting these also makes no difference.

Do I have to ditch FF and use Safari?

"The laptop has run FF for 16-18 months before this showed up. Possibly at the time when I started to delete all cookies (with exceptions) at quitting FF, and enabling HTTPS-Only mode. But reverting these also makes no difference.

Do I have to ditch FF and use Safari?"

Would this have anything to do with my settings to delete cookies (except for a dozen or so most used urls) and to favor HTTPS sites.

That would be good to know. FF is becoming a waste of time, and I'd like to know how to fix this.

Hi wbps, You mentioned that Firefox crashes. Does the Mozilla Crash Reporter come up? If so,

1. Open Firefox.
2. Go to Help > Troubleshooting Information. That should open a new tab with info about your Firefox setup.
3. Under "Crash Reports for the Last 3 Days" click on your latest crash report. That should take you to a web page starting with "https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/" and post the address of your latest crash report.

We can then look at the data specific to your crash and have a better idea of what is causing the problem.

Thanks for the reply, Chris. Here's the next to he next-to-latest Crash Report address: bp-26dc8adc-4742-4930-83a0-684380220508

and the latest: bp-8d694032-3759-4219-98d1-6d22f0220515

I look forward to a well FF.

Hi, Looking at the bug reports for that crash, it seems to be experienced by only a few users on M1 macs, and there is no solution yet. Can you try re-installing Firefox? Just delete the current app file, then download the latest DMG from mozilla.org

That was a step I'd considered, with migrating everything to Safari and then migrating back after the fresh reinstall. But it appeared that Safari would import only bookmarks.

Will swapping out the app leave history, PWs, and bookmarks untouched?

Should I refrain from HTTPS-only and delete-cookies-after-quit (with exceptions) for a week or two before reinstating them, to see whether the problem wasn't brought on by them?

Or can you say categorically these shouldn't be a problem?

Does FF version make a difference? The problem was there for a couple of weeks in v99.?.?, and continued after the upgrade to v100.0.

I'll wait for these answers before taking the next step.

here's the entire list of crash reports, oldest first: bp-26650e5e-bf8c-4aee-9337-25e170220418 bp-202fe357-c8b8-42c2-8347-c15df0220427 bp-733b8549-821c-40af-a7a7-fddae0220429 bp-42a2c23f-f420-4cee-afe4-d15e00220429 bp-3deb1c6b-7cbf-4b35-8fc0-5c6770220430 bp-291616f4-4a73-4c6d-9f50-421990220501 bp-5bd56b6d-823a-440c-82d8-0d14a0220502 bp-31642fbe-5c22-46c3-b5b0-c22ef0220503 bp-c49d6daf-f373-4382-a724-3c7200220503 bp-20483fe4-aea9-4968-ba1d-f64920220505

followed by the two already submitted.

Thanks for checking this out.

Hi, Your user data will be kept intact. It is stored in a separate location: ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox

Note that the crashes are shut-down hangs, so something seems to be preventing Firefox from closing down properly.

Are you using "Firefox -> Quit Firefox" ?

Are you using "Clear history when Firefox closes" to clear any data ?

• Settings -> Privacy & Security
  Firefox will: "Use custom settings for history":
  [X] "Clear history when Firefox closes" -> Settings
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/delete-browsing-search-download-history-firefox

You can create a new profile as a quick test to see if your current profile is causing the problem.

See "Creating a profile":

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles

If the new profile works then you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

Thank you, cor-el, for you suggestions.

"Are you using "Firefox -> Quit Firefox" ?"

No, but the keyboard equivalent CMD-Q. I did turn up the other M1 Air user who had found the aforementioned mouse/keyboard Quit caused FF to purge all user preferences upon restarting the app. Their side-step was to close whatever windows are open, then quit.

"Are you using "Clear history when Firefox closes" to clear any data ?"

Not history, but yes for cookies and site data (with a dozen exceptions).

I've done a fresh install of FF 100.0.1. The browser took 45 seconds (and a timed-out) to open this site, so I may not be out of the woods yet.

The fresh install of FF is not the answer to this problem. My default browser currently is Safari (until FF sorts out this bug with a "small number of M1 Air users"). I can continue to send crash reports to FF, in those instances when I try one 'mo 'gin, as well as posting them here. But it's unclear whether a case # exists for this bug, or even whether, if I continue to post crash report IDs here, these will be connected with such a case #.

In the meantime, I enjoy FF on three other machines in the house (none of them an M1).