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Facebook causes Firefox to freeze or crash

  • 19 valiny
  • 104 manana an'ity olana ity
  • 17 views
  • Valiny farany nomen'i DuctTapedHalo

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I leave Facebook open in a tab, and every time I click on it, It screws up Firefox. At best, Firefox will freeze for several seconds before loading an updated Facebook news feed; at worst, Firefox will just crash. And sometimes Facebook just crashes Firefox on its own, even when I'm away. How do I fix this?

I leave Facebook open in a tab, and every time I click on it, It screws up Firefox. At best, Firefox will freeze for several seconds before loading an updated Facebook news feed; at worst, Firefox will just crash. And sometimes Facebook just crashes Firefox on its own, even when I'm away. How do I fix this?

All Replies (19)

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Hello,

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!

Thank you.

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That seems inappropriately extreme. I'm not willing to lose everything just to try out something that seems unlikely to work (since this is a common problem).

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Firefox reset won't cause you to lose everything, only your extensions (which probably cause the problem anyway). All other data will be saved.

Also make sure that Firefox is updated to Firefox 22.

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I'd still like to hold off on this-- it seems like a generic answer that has nothing to do with this problem. Hopefully there's a simpler fix!

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Have you updates to Firefox 22? Do you have any crash reports Mozilla Crash Reporter ? Unfortunately with the question you asked it's a very generic question, and Reset will fix it in 90% of cases.

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Try to disable the Flash plugin and possibly the Java plugin.

You can check for problems with current Flash plugin versions and try these:

  • disable a possible RealPlayer Browser Record Plugin extension for Firefox and update the RealPlayer if installed
  • disable protected mode in the Flash plugin (Flash 11.3+ on Windows Vista and later)
  • disable hardware acceleration in the Flash plugin
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Just chiming in here. I am on the latest Firefox on Windows 7 and Ubuntu, have cleared the caches, but I have stopped short of doing a reset. It only began happening in the last week, so my feeling is that it’s Facebook and not Firefox, though a friend on Chromium says he is not experiencing this.

I will try disabling the extensions manually. Cor-el, I have a sneaking suspicion it is Flash.

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I just started seeing this problem this morning. Everything was working fine up until this morning when I logged onto FB. I'm using the latest version of Firefox running under WinXP. My specific problem is that Facebook will open as normal but after a few minutes of use, the entire browser just disappears. I can reopen FB again but after another couple of minutes - poof - nothing. It's done this at least a half-dozen times so far already. I tried opening Facebook using IE and the problem isn't nearly as catastrophic. In IE I get a "tab has been recovered" message and the page simply reloads. But IE doesn't crash completely. I tried resetting all Firefox settings - that didn't help. I believe there is something going on with Facebook and it's not necessarily a browser problem but the fact that Firefox shuts down completely and IE doesn't is a little troublesome. I checked the Facebook help center and saw a few posts related to this problem. But FB doesn't respond to their own forum help messages so it's impossible to know if they're even aware of the problem or not.

Btw - this isn't the first problem I've seen with Facebook. I started getting "unresponsive script" errors a couple of weeks ago in regards to the newsfeed section. Again, there were numerous reports of similar problems in the Facebook help forums. Many "solutions" were proffered but none of them worked. I have a pretty good feeling these problems are the result of some tinkering going on at Facebook. The problems don't seem to be affecting everyone though. I don't know what the common thread is for those who are experiencing similar difficulties. The problems seem to span operating systems, browsers, add-ons, etc. so I don't think there's anything Mozilla is going to be able to do about this business. I'd run screaming from Facebook if it wasn't for the fact it's still the 800 pound networking gorilla and leaving would put me at a disadvantage with my business since most of my customers use Facebook for virtually everything. Anyway, I hope the problems can be resolved one way or another.

Novain'i krizrox t@

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I suspect it is Facebook, too, Krizrox. The home page would also completely shut down Dolphin Browser on Android (though an upgrade solved that).

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I actually have an interesting update related to my previous message. I got suspicious about my hardware and decided to run a memory test to see if my memory chips were doing what they're supposed ta - I don't know what made me think of that but I was getting desperate and willing to try anything. As it turns out the memory test software found bad memory in my system. It's entirely possible that this was just a bad sequence of events - set off by a memory chip that failed when I turned the computer on this morning. The computer is currently running on the remaining good chipset so I'm going to watch this and see if maybe that was the culprit. Failing memory can be a root cause for stuff that doesn't seem like it would have any bearing. Worth downloading and running a good memory test program. I use something called Memtest which Is free and should be easily found. I'll report back if I find anything else worth reporting. Want to run for a day or so to make sure this was the issue. :-)

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OK - so enough time has passed - the bad memory was definitely the culprit. Everything is working fine now. I would highly recommend anyone who's seeing random unexplainable crashing to check your system memory. That Memtest program I mentioned requires that you create a bootable CD-ROM disc so you'll need another program like Roxio or Nero to do that. I thought perhaps I had picked up a virus or something. The indicators initially were like a virus - even though I had up to date virus protection installed. Anyway good luck to you all - hope u figure out ur problems.

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It turns out that the problem was caused by a program called 'browserdefender' or something like that. Uninstalled it and everything is fine now, no crash no freeze.

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I don't know whether this is the same case with the one that I faced.

Indication: Previously I use cheat software/ engine for game. Then when I open facebook, it keeps loading and read www.userscripts.org

Solution: I try to fully reinstall Grease Monkey and Adobe Flash Player add ins.

Good Luck

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You and Krizrox are both right.

I suspected for some time now that Facebook causes instability of Firefox.

I too noted just too many times the pattern of irresponsive scripts, causing freezes.

The explanation I believe is that Facebook has over-developed the platform, cramming too much functionality(objects) into its web app. Almost as if they are overly eager/anxious to keep their visitors, coming up with new spin-offs. Well with too much of this I can manage it can almost become a operational problem, and causing unnecessary complexity.

One simple solution. Log into your account via m.facebook.com. You`ll see firefox very responsive. Why? Because its built for a mobile platform and they need to keep the memory footprint low for the target device. As with desktops and laptops/bigger architectures, they can use much more libraries etc, and all those objects takes up alot of the users pc resources. Just take a look at the memory usage during facebook usage. While with the mobile version much less involved.

Then you must hope that the browser CAN take care destroying those objects when it goes out of scope. - mem leaks.

I know the mobile version is much constrained, but the point is its badly written javascript/something, and that causes client-side issues.

But to advise resetting firefox... losing Bho`s!!! No ways. Imagine, if you even succeed that is, to re-register each bho manually? If that fails, you need to re-install every program that had a bho element, ie security package or so.

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Could be something in the DOM model of Javascript...

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Forgot to comment specifically on Krizrox`s memory observation.

Bad memory is certainly a big issue, and the root of many system wide issues.

Also bad memory will lead to BSOD`s etc, just like bad drivers.

Both my desktop and laptop responds the same way only when loading facebook. The rest of the internet the browser and system is good for.

So, no. I think if its not bad add-ons, flash/java or so, I`d say rather try a firefox upgrade first if available, and do that. If the problem still persists, my last resort will be memory checking via boot cd with memtest on it.

Even a antivirus that hooks into the browser to specifically look for browser based attacks, can also cause instability.

But my suspicion is still facebook - they need to look at their code.

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Boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test to see if that helps.

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I have reset Firefox, have done a complete sweep/clean of my system, deleted old files, ran a malware test (recommended by, of course, firefox), updated everything and still I have this problem. Firefox is becoming a toad and if I cannot get this resolved, I will delete this nightmare browser and go back to IE...

None of these solutions work. It is even 'freezing' up when I try to type on this....ridiculous

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am def. going to try this... I have went as far as disabling all extension and add ons, installing safari and checking on that browser (YUCK) i HATE change, and i LOVE firefox! I did the reset, I even went as far as uninstalling a lot of programs that I thought could be the culprit, because this just started happening about a week or so ago, and no new things have been done to my computer other than my son installing a program. I ran a virus scan, which we did find one from the program he installed, done the whole spybot, reran it, redone the virus scan, got rid of the virus, and I have spent the past literally 6 hours trying to fix this problem. Talk about getting MAD! I uninstalled firefox after finding out how to save my profiles and all, and reinstalled it. I sent a message to facebook, and now, Im here trying to figure out what to do. I refuse to leave firefox, but I WILL leave facebook. I have other ways of communicating with friends and family other than facebook to be honest. but I LOVE my firefox. Its the easiest and safest browser I have found so far that I have found that I like and once I get used to something, I dont like change. I dont adapt well to it. If its as easy as a simple url change, that I can get used to, no problem, but not a browser change. Forget that. Thank you for the suggestion. I will let you know if it works for me :)