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Recent Firefox update put virus into my startup menu (Mac OS)

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  • 2 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by csandi

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Running Mojave 10.14.2 About 1 week ago Firefox auto-updated to Quantum 64.0.2 and introduced a "virus" that displays a fake error message that says something about a problem with the "daisy-chain" on "my PC". The message persists about 30 seconds, then disappears. It always appears during startup from power-on or from sleep mode. It reappears about every 10 min during running, on the top level of the screen (hiding what's beneath). A screenshot doesn't show the message. So far I haven't seen any other changes in computer performance. I tried reloading Firefox from the Mozilla website, but the "virus" persists.

Running Mojave 10.14.2 About 1 week ago Firefox auto-updated to Quantum 64.0.2 and introduced a "virus" that displays a fake error message that says something about a problem with the "daisy-chain" on "my PC". The message persists about 30 seconds, then disappears. It always appears during startup from power-on or from sleep mode. It reappears about every 10 min during running, on the top level of the screen (hiding what's beneath). A screenshot doesn't show the message. So far I haven't seen any other changes in computer performance. I tried reloading Firefox from the Mozilla website, but the "virus" persists.

Chosen solution

That's a strange message. To see whether this is something in your current profile (settings folder), could you try this:

New Profile Test

This takes about 3 minutes, plus the 10 minutes to wait for the unwanted notification.

Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.

Click the Create a New Profile button, then click Next. Assign a name like Jan2019, ignore the option to relocate the profile folder, and click the Finish button.

After creating the profile, scroll down to it and click the Set as default profile button below that profile, then scroll back up and click the Restart normally button. (There are some other buttons, but please ignore them.)

Firefox should exit and then start up using the new profile, which will just look brand new. Please ignore any tabs enticing you to connect to a Sync account or to activate extensions found on your system so we can get a clean test.

Does Firefox behave better better in the new profile?

When you are done with the experiment, open the about:profiles page again, click the Set as default profile button for your normal profile, then click the Restart normally button to get back to it.

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Chosen Solution

That's a strange message. To see whether this is something in your current profile (settings folder), could you try this:

New Profile Test

This takes about 3 minutes, plus the 10 minutes to wait for the unwanted notification.

Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.

Click the Create a New Profile button, then click Next. Assign a name like Jan2019, ignore the option to relocate the profile folder, and click the Finish button.

After creating the profile, scroll down to it and click the Set as default profile button below that profile, then scroll back up and click the Restart normally button. (There are some other buttons, but please ignore them.)

Firefox should exit and then start up using the new profile, which will just look brand new. Please ignore any tabs enticing you to connect to a Sync account or to activate extensions found on your system so we can get a clean test.

Does Firefox behave better better in the new profile?

When you are done with the experiment, open the about:profiles page again, click the Set as default profile button for your normal profile, then click the Restart normally button to get back to it.

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You may have ad/mal-ware. Further information can be found in this article; https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-caused-malware?cache=no

Run most or all of the listed malware scanners. Each works differently. If one program misses something, another may pick it up.

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Profile update recommended by jsher2000 seems to have cleared the problem. I appreciate everybody's help & input.