A common cause for freezes is unresponsive scripts with Flash using protected mode. If you used to see unresponsive script errors but you changed a setting to allow Firefox to try longer, that can lead to unexplained freezes, which are very frustrating.

Try disabling the protected mode feature of the Flash player plugin. It has security benefits, but seems to have compatibility issues on some systems. There is a hidden setting for this:

(A) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(B) In the search box above the list, type or paste flash and pause while the list is filtered

(C) Double-click the dom.ipc.plugins.flash.disable-protected-mode preference to switch its value from false to true.

This might not take effect until all Flash has been unloaded for a few minutes, or you close Firefox.

Also, while you are troubleshooting this, it might be helpful, to avoid unnecessary pain on sites where Flash is not actually essential, to set Flash to Click-to-Play ("Ask to Activate"). This will delay Flash from starting on a page until you approve it.

To set "Ask to Activate", open the Add-ons page using either:

• Ctrl+Shift+a
• "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Plugins. Look for "Shockwave Flash" and change "Always Activate" to "Ask to Activate".

When you visit a site that wants to use the Flash, you should see a notification icon in the address bar and one of the following: a link in a black rectangle in the page or an infobar sliding down between the toolbar area and the page.

If you don't need Flash on the site, just ignore the notification.

Thanks for reply jscher2000

- disabling protection didn't help

- changing settings to Ask to activate didn't help too

However, I came up with trick, which temporarily solve my issue. It's letting always turned on flash plugin by paused video play on one of your tabs. Ideal solution, would be to write script, which will on every FF start, load some short-small video on background and pause it on it's play. So flash will never turns off, therefore will never freeze.

Is possible ?

Without an add-on, you can specify an additional page to load at startup in two ways:

(1) Add a second home page. See:

• How to set the home page
• Startup, home page, tabs, and download settings

But this also will appear every time you click the Home button or launch a new window displaying your home page (Ctrl+n).

(2) Add the page to the shortcut you use to start Firefox.

In other words, you would add the URLs to the end of the Target line on the Shortcut tab. (right-click the shortcut > Properties > Shortcut tab)

32-bit Windows:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" site1 site2

64-bit Windows:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" site1 site2

For more information, see: https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Mozilla/Command_Line_Options#-url_URL

I'm afraid, it's not what I need. Because when I normally turn on FF, it opens me in last tab used. It's in middle of a lot of tabs from previous session.

But when I use web address in FF shortcut, it opens that web in new tab at the END of all tabs. So I have to scrool back a lot of tabs backwards, where I ended previosly.

Is possible to make FF open that web in place of tabs which were used last time ?

Thank you

Hmm, well, if you are restoring your windows and tabs from the previous session, I think just leaving the Flash page open somewhere at all times will take care of it more easily than a special startup procedure. Maybe Adobe's page: http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/

I have read that page, but I'm not sure why you linked it. Please explain, I don't get it.

Thank you jscher2000

That page uses a very lightweight bit of Flash media, so if you are going to keep a page open with Flash at all times, I thought that might be a good candidate. Otherwise, there's nothing special about it.

I'm confused, because it's only thing you can download from them. Flash player + plugin. You get all at once. There isn't any rough and lightwaight version. Page sais to me: You have version 17,0,0,188 installed I need plugin in firefox run all the time. Not standalone player or still don't know what you were pointing there seriously

o_O

You said that if you keep a page that uses Flash open, then there is no problem. That page uses a small flash player (where the version number appears). That is all -- ignore everything else, it's just a little bit of Flash you can keep open in a tab. If you prefer a different page, that's fine. Forget I mentioned it.

Yes yes ! Finally I got it. It's much better solution than mine - a paused random video. Thanks

I guess, I will everytime I turn on FF load this page on tab and let it run. It's handy because it use low memory :)

Thanks

Alright New version of flash plugin was made, but that bug is still here.

But I'm writing here because of something new and unexpected. When I was browsing this web: http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-paul-ford-what-is-code/

In first third of page, at this point of text: Languages are large, complex, dynamic expressions of human culture. right after starts new chapter: The Beauty of the Standard Library

Everytime I go further down with scrooling, it completelly hard crash whole FF. It closes and windows writes: plugin container stopped working. I have no idea what is there embedded down there.

Strangely, I don't get any plugin notification on that page, but it could be because some servers are being blocked by NoScript...

Does YouTube serve you the Flash player or the HTML5 player? Usually you can tell by right-clicking the player and checking the last line of the short context menu. Most Firefox users are now served HTML5.

I cant believe.. wait, yes i can believe this still has not been fixed. Fortunate for me I fixed that problem a long time ago alternately :)

jscher2000 said

Strangely, I don't get any plugin notification on that page, but it could be because some servers are being blocked by NoScript... Does YouTube serve you the Flash player or the HTML5 player? Usually you can tell by right-clicking the player and checking the last line of the short context menu. Most Firefox users are now served HTML5.

Youtube gives HTML5 player, why ? If you try turn off noscript for a while, what do see in that page, what plugins ?

Carm said

I cant believe.. wait, yes i can believe this still has not been fixed. Fortunate for me I fixed that problem a long time ago alternately :)

How ?

)

There are some funny things in this very long article, especially for someone exposed to old languages: You can pick up the weird metallic smell of large computer centers with raised floors just by looking at some Fortran.

lost_session_4ever said

Youtube gives HTML5 player, why ? If you try turn off noscript for a while, what do see in that page, what plugins ?

I have Flash set to "Ask to Acitvate." When I allow all scripts on the page and scroll down, it seems Flash is used just for the banner ads, but there may be hidden uses that do not have a visible player. Do you want to try accessing the page with Flash disabled? You can set that temporarily using the Page Info dialog. Either:

• right-click the page and choose View Page Info > Permissions
• (menu bar) Tools menu > Page Info > Permissions
• click the padlock or globe icon to the left of the site address > More Information > Permissions

Under Adobe Flash, uncheck "Use default" and set Block. Then reload the page. Does that make any difference?

jscher2000 said

There are some funny things in this very long article, especially for someone exposed to old languages: You can pick up the weird metallic smell of large computer centers with raised floors just by looking at some Fortran. lost_session_4ever said

Youtube gives HTML5 player, why ? If you try turn off noscript for a while, what do see in that page, what plugins ?

I have Flash set to "Ask to Acitvate." When I allow all scripts on the page and scroll down, it seems Flash is used just for the banner ads, but there may be hidden uses that do not have a visible player. Do you want to try accessing the page with Flash disabled? You can set that temporarily using the Page Info dialog. Either:

• right-click the page and choose View Page Info > Permissions
• (menu bar) Tools menu > Page Info > Permissions
• click the padlock or globe icon to the left of the site address > More Information > Permissions

Under Adobe Flash, uncheck "Use default" and set Block. Then reload the page. Does that make any difference?

It seems you have to use different version of FF than me (newest). I hadn't those options exactly like you, but I blocked flash on that page. Now I'm able to scrool over whole page with no problem. But I don't know what I missed when flash off.

Hmm

lost_session_4ever said

It seems you have to use different version of FF than me (newest). I hadn't those options exactly like you, but I blocked flash on that page. Now I'm able to scrool over whole page with no problem. But I don't know what I missed when flash off.

I'm running 38.0.5 but I changed Flash to "Ask to Activate" a long time ago since it often is a complete waste of cycles on many pages.

With "Ask to Activate", when you visit a site that wants to use the Flash, you should see a notification icon in the address bar (looks like a small Lego block) and one of the following: a link in a black rectangle in the page or an infobar sliding down between the toolbar area and the page.

If you do not see media you want to play, usually you can just ignore the notification.

If you see a black rectangle in the page where a video should be or a static image that has a play triangle but does nothing when you click it (e.g., frame grabbed from a video and displayed in front of the player as the "poster"), you can try the icon in the address bar.

There is an add-on which integrates with Ask to Activate and gives you control of individual elements in the page, instead of the basic on/off switch that Firefox offers. You can read more about it here if you want to try it: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/click-to-play-per-element/

I'm sick and tired of this, must be better solution. Or maybe I post to some developers section, maybe firefox can handle it somehow...

No ?

A while back, I read about a build of Firefox with better built-in profiling tools to see where cycles are being used. I saw a few excerpts of logs it generated, but I don't know whether/where that is available.