Zombie Firefox processes block Firefox communication
When I use incognito mode and open and close multiple incognito tabs, closing the tabs and closing the last incognito mode browser instance leaves behind what appears to be Firefox processes for each closed tab. When I return to my open normal mode tabs, I cannot browse from the normal tabs, I get spinning circles and no progress. The only way to clear this is to close the normal browser and all its tabs, then use the task manager to manually end the remaining Firefox (zombie) tasks that seem to be left behind by the incognito tabs that were already closed. Then when I restart Firefox and restore my previous session, I can browse normally again.
It seems like there may be a bug here that the incognito tabs are not properly ending their processes when the tabs close. I have no involvement in the innards of Firefox, and simply wanted to report my difficult experiences to help in identifying problems. I am using Windows 11 and the latest version of Firefox - 158.0. I have seen this problem for at least a month or so. That means at least a few earlier versions of Firefox shared this issue.
I typically keep more than 10 tabs open in normal mode, and for incognito mode, I usually progress through at least ten more tabs, with two or three open at a time, but closing them after a few minutes as I complete each task. When I complete the browser tasks in incognito mode I make sure all the incognito tabs are closed. When I return to an open tab in normal mode and click on a link to browse onward, I never see any progress. I close the Firefox browser and all the normal tabs. I open the Windows task manager and even though I just closed Firefox, I see between 10 and 12 Firefox processes. I use the "end process" command in task manager to manually close what I think of as zombie Firefox processes. When I then open a new instance of Firefox, and use the History section to restore my previous session, all my normal mode tabs reopen, and I can use links in those tabs normally to proceed with browsing normally.
I am not familiar with the Firefox community and have not participated in your forums. I hope this might help you identify and fix any bug that may be present. I feel like I have a work around that is only slightly awkward.