The Reset Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its factory default state while saving your essential information. Note: This will cause you to lose any Extensions, Open websites, and some Preferences.

To Reset Firefox do the following:

1. Go to Firefox > Help > Troubleshooting Information.
2. Click the "Reset Firefox" button.
3. Firefox will close and reset. After Firefox is done, it will show a window with the information that is imported. Click Finish.
4. Firefox will open with all factory defaults applied.

Further information can be found in the Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings article.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

Hi keviam,

We are investigating to see if there is actually a performance degradation between FF 14 and 15. Did the Firefox Reset work? If not, would you be willing to help us by performing some additional troubleshooting steps?

Let me know!

Hi, i have the same problem, FF does not load many webpages, only if i click on the X and i refresh it. Sometimes i have to repeat the procedure many times to access... I saw at the bottom that the pages are waiting for charging things what i never installed on my own web sites (something like ss.statick.com or other). I was looking for someof them on internet and found out that those are trackers which swamp the page and slow down the load.

It became hard to navigate on the web, what can i do against them ?

I'm having the exact same problem - but with Firefox 17. It was working fine and then this suddenly started about two weeks ago. It's driving me CRAZY!

Web pages take forever to load. And frequently they don't load at all. Some pages load half way then spend an eternity trying to load the rest of the page.

While at the same time I can load all these same pages - at the same time in Chrome, Opera and IE. In fact in those browsers I can skip around to 10 or more different pages while Firefox is still trying to laod the first one.

Earlier today I reinstalled Firefox. (I didn't uninstall it beforehand though). Just now I tried the Reset option suggested here. No change. In fact, I've been waiting for nytimes.com to load the whole time it's taken me to write these last this paragraph - and it still hasn't loaded the first page element.

Follow Up: I just did a complete uninstall. Then reinstalled it - and still no change. Still not bringing up most websites.

I have a similar problem. PC#1 is WIn Vista 64 bit OS, WiFi to my router, running FF 17.0.1 - NO PROBLEMS.

PC#2 is Win 7 64 bit OS, direct ethernet to same router; running same version of FF 17.0.1

On PC#2, all pages load VERY slowly (after last FF & MS updates). Tried resetting FF, no joy. Tried deleting cache & cookies, no join again. BUT I do notice that MS IE also loads pages very slowly now. So, it does not appear to be browser specific.

What do both FF and MS IE browsers on PC#2 have in COMMON that may cause this problem? I've performed a FULL SCAN using MS Security Essentials (no evidence of infection).

Any feedback or suggestions are VERY welcome. Thanks!

--- UPDATE: I reboot and solve this problem - for a while. Later, the same problem returns. Very puzzling.

jcncnc:

Try rebooting your pc and let us know what you discover. In my case, this solved the problem (at least for some time). There seems to be bugs in FF, maybe memory leak, I dont know.

Thanks jh63 - but no change after reboot.

It's amazing to me that Firefox doesn't seem to know about this or address it. If you do a simple search on "firefox is very slow" thousands of pages come up. Many of them here in the mozilla forums. Every different conversation gets the same answers - reset firefox/scan for malware/create new ff profile/etc., etc.

But hundreds of people (at least), here have reported none of those things work.

I just don't understand how a fatal browser problem like this could go on undetected by the people who make the software for so long!

Oh and I even tried completely deleting ff 17 and installing firefox 18. 18 is slightly better, but still lags far behind other browsers by 20-30 to even 60 seconds per page. Firefox 17 wouldn't load most pages no matter how long I waited. At least 18 will load them - eventually!

Unfortunately, there are many other browsers on the market and this is forcing me to use them.

There was a problem plug in on one of my machines. I removed that plugin, reset the browser and deleted cache/cookies/etc...now the browser works fine.

Let's see how long it lasts ;)

jh63,

Which plugin was it? That will help others!

I've had all my plugins uninstalled since I began trying the beta v. 18 firefox the other day. And still having the problems.

I do not know guys if you red my comment here above... as i said, trackers are installed, did you check if you have the same problem ? just check out what/why the page is charging so long (check at the bottom of the page if there are things charging what you do not know what it is : static.com, or some bullshit like that).

I did not have any answer here from the side of Mozilla, i asked myself if Mozilla knows that problem and if it is there own creation : they were negociating with some companies regarding advertising issues... just a theory but what is for sure is that trackers are the cause of the slow of my browser...

I have a new fenomen : when i open my own web site to the browser, a new advertising window opens... however mozilla delets all cookies after closing the browser...

I think i will change Mozilla, it became really bad and nobody gives me any answer, any explication from the side of Mozilla, i will suggest to all my friends and clients... it is a pitty.

We ran into the same slowdown issues with FireFox 17 last month and found a solution that actually works. Our profiles were several years old and I am quite convinced that over time they deteriorated thanks to conflicts between add-ons, etc. Here's the step-by-step procedure we used to bring our FireFox installations back to life, speedy and stable. (And I must report that the beta of FF18 really speeds up FF like never before).

Make a list of the add-ons (extensions and appearance) you have installed. You might want to download the latest versions of each add-on to a directory on your hard drive for installing after you rebuild your profile. With earlier versions of FireFox, you can use the extension "InfoLister" to create the list. In FF 17, go to Help, and then Troubleshooting Information which instantly gives you a list of your extensions (and Important Modified Preferences). Print the list - you'll want it later when you reinstall your add-ons.

Now, here are two alternatives from which to choose. The first one, we did not do, but I realize in retropsect that it may work for folks and save you a lot of time. The second one is what we did, albeit it is more time consuming.

First, however, take a screen shot of your FireFox window so you know where you like the various icons to be placed. Print it.

Before doing either of these, you should go into your Add-Ons Manager and export settings for all of the extensions that allow you to. This way when you recreate your profile, you can simply import the settings. There will be a lot of extensions that don't allow you to do this. You should write down the settings for each of them so you don't have to reinvent the wheel in your new profile (or take screen shots).

If you don't already have them, install the FEBE and CLEO extensions (available at http://softwarebychuck.com/ ). CLEO combines nearly all of your extensions (xpi files) into a single xpi file with which to reinstall nearly all of your extensions after you have cleaned up your profile according to the instructions that follow below. Now some extensions will not be included -- you'll have to install those separately. And I caution that the process might not work as well as the second alternative I'm about to describe. But this first alternative can save you a few hours if you have a lot of extensions installed. I must caution, however, that I didn't do this with the existing extensions in our profiles because I didn't think of it. But it might work well for you (assuming that the extension xpi files are fine and I can't think of any reason for them not to be).

The second alternative which is the one that we actually used will require you to individually reinstall each extension -- but if you exported the settings for those that allow it, you can easily import those settings and save a lot of time. In this alternative you simply don't use CLEO to create the single xpi file of extensions and you just plan to reinstall those you want one by one.

Whichever alternative you use, the remaining steps are pretty much the same:

(1) From the Help Menu, select "Troubleshoot Information." Then click (in the upper right hand corner) the "Reset FireFox" button. This brings up a small window that tells you what is saved when you reset FireFox (cookies, bookmarks, browsing history, saved passwords, saved form history). Click on the "reset FireFox" button and a new profile will be created without any add-ons. This creates a new profile without an add-ons.

(2) Reinstall your add-ons one by one making sure that none of them slow down your now very speedy FireFox. Alternatively if you used the first option and created a single xpi file of extensions with CLEO, install that file. Hopefully, none of these extensions will slow down FireFox. It's a risk, but it does save hours if you have lots of extensions.

(3) Import the settings you saved for the extensions that allowed you to export them. Adjusst the settings in the other extensions.

(4) Recreate the appearance you want in FireFox by going to the View Menu and selecting the Toolbars you want and by clicking on "Customize" to place icons where you want them.

This procedure should enable you have the speedy FireFox to which you had grown accustomed.

Your solution is helpful dlauber if extensions are causing problems for someone. But it doesn't address the problem we're talking about here - which is not extension related at all.

I've completely uninstalled, deleted, wiped-out all extensions. Then I completely uninstalled, deleted and wiped out all traces of firefox. Then from scratch I installed Firefox 18.

You're right - it's a lot faster! Instead of taking 5-6 minutes to load a page FF18 only takes 1-3 minutes.

In other words, still having the problem from a completely fresh install.

The thing is - there's something wrong with Firefox. If you search around you'll find thousands and thousands of people are complaining about this very issue and no one from FF or elsewhere has begun to offer a solution.

The solution for me was dumping Firefox. I had to. I simply can't wait 1-3 minutes for each page to load.

Jcncnc,

I am really sorry to hear you're having so much trouble with FireFox -- there is no excuse for any browser to take so long to load web pages.

I would wager that there is some setting or feature on your computer that is causing this problem (reportedly some Internet security programs don't get along well with certain browsers, but I can't really confirm that) and, frankly, there is probably no way on earth to figure out what it is in a reasonable amount of time. I'm assuming that you're using a Windows operating system and that your other browsers are working just fine -- which means the problem rests with FireFox and/or FireFox's interaction with some other software (possibly the operating system) on your computer.

While there are a slew of settings that can be changed in FireFox about:config to speed up the browser, I doubt if collectively they could eliminate this inexcusable 1 to 3 minute wait.

It sounds like switching to another browser was your best alternative. Something is amiss and I doubt if it's worth the time necessary to track down the cause, if it can be tracked down at all.

Yep, something is amiss alright. And it is only with firefox that I have such problems. IE, Chrome, Opera and Safari all work fine... ALL of them work fine!

I'm on Windows 7. The only security software I have installed are that which comes with Windows and Norton/Symantec products. So it's all very mainstream... nothing off the wall.

I've been searching on this problem for several months now. And I have come to see that literally thousands of people are having the exact same problem. And the problem goes several years and several versions back. So many people have abandoned firefox over this. It's a real shame too because it's really the most useful browser if you do any kind of web development at all. A real shame.

I was having the same problem with version 18.0 as soon as it finished installing. I also noticed Firefox AND MSE were using up-words of 27% to 40% each of my CPU. I tried resetting to defaults to no avail. I then uninstalled Firefox and reinstalled version 13.0.1 and all is well. I also disabled the automatic update feature. So for now it will be 13 at least until the bugs are worked out of FF 18.

A possible cause is security software (firewall,anti-virus) that blocks or restricts Firefox or the plugin-container process without informing you, possibly after detecting changes (update) to the Firefox program.

Remove all rules for Firefox and the plugin-container from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full unrestricted access to internet for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.

See:

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Server+not+found
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Firewalls

Very strange behavior indeed, gandgsand. Have you tried FireFox 17? I ask only because FF 13.0 is relatively insecure and FF 17, if it works for you, would be more secure.

Also, did you try FF 18 in safe mode? If you did and it still ran so ridiculously slowly, the problem rests with FF. If it ran at "normal" speeds," the problem rests with something in your FF configuration or add-ons.

Just trying to eliminate some possibilities. Hope this helps. I know all too well how frustrating this can be.

I've not tried 17. 13 was the only one I still had in my download folder. I have come to the conclusion (you can tell me if it's logical) that if every thing was fine prior to the 18 install, why should I have to do something extra just to make it run? I will try and find a link for 17. I'm not all that computer savvy so I get impatient when it comes to trying to make software work for me. On a side note: Since reinstalling version 13, FF and MSE at the very most utilize 15% CPU TOGETHER. And that's when watching a movie (with no lag) on one site and downloading music on another. Thanks for the feedback.