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Firefox 76.0.1 (64 bit) freezes on MacOS Catalina 10.15.4 freezes

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larry.h.heath
larry.h.heath
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Hi, I've just installed MacOS Catalina 10.15.4 and as soon as I ran Firefox i noticed that after a few minutes (variable) it hangs when attempting to populate a new tab (with anything). All other existing tabs are then blank (white screen with spinning grey wheel in the centre). Firefox worked fine on MacOS Mojave prior to the upgrade.

When this happens I can do nothing. If i press command-option-esc to show (and cancel) processes it shows 'Firefox (not responding)'. Firefox can be force quited and will be removed from the display but when I tap on the Firefox icon to restart it just bounces up and down and never starts. I am forced to attempt a shutdown of MacOS but when I issue a 'Shutdown' macOS never shuts down going to the desktop screen and having a spinning wheel. I am forced to press and hold the power button on my iMac (2.7 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Core i5, 8GB 1600 Mhz memory.... I know it's old but it conforms to the spec required for Catalina) to force a shutdown.

If I leave Firefox running unattended for a length of time (say an hour) I come back and find it locked up with the same behaviour.

Safari does not show any of these behaviours and works fine (but I want to continue using FF).

I have... 1) Re-downloaded Firefox and re-installed. Same behaviour 2) Run in safe mode. Same behaviour 3) Attempted to run with individual addons. Same behaviour 4) Created a new 'places' database. Same behaviour. 5) Hardware acceleration is not enabled in 'about:preferences'. 6) Turned off 'Use Recommended Performance settings'. Same behaviour. 7) Not changed the process limit (set to 8 (default)). 8) Checked for duplicated session restore files in the profile folder. There are none (no sessionstore-x.js1 files). 9) I am not using an Automated Proxy Configuration URL (the dialog is set to 'Auto-detect proxy setting for this network. Nothing else is set). 9) Checked on the Activity Monitor for named Firefox processes at the restart attempt. None present but FF still won't start. 10) Searched the web and found a few instances of (in Catalina Beta5) FF crashing on startup.

'about:crashes' shows no dumps produced so i don't have one to upload.

Seen similar?

Thanks for the help, Larry

Hi, I've just installed MacOS Catalina 10.15.4 and as soon as I ran Firefox i noticed that after a few minutes (variable) it hangs when attempting to populate a new tab (with anything). All other existing tabs are then blank (white screen with spinning grey wheel in the centre). Firefox worked fine on MacOS Mojave prior to the upgrade. When this happens I can do nothing. If i press command-option-esc to show (and cancel) processes it shows 'Firefox (not responding)'. Firefox can be force quited and will be removed from the display but when I tap on the Firefox icon to restart it just bounces up and down and never starts. I am forced to attempt a shutdown of MacOS but when I issue a 'Shutdown' macOS never shuts down going to the desktop screen and having a spinning wheel. I am forced to press and hold the power button on my iMac (2.7 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Core i5, 8GB 1600 Mhz memory.... I know it's old but it conforms to the spec required for Catalina) to force a shutdown. If I leave Firefox running unattended for a length of time (say an hour) I come back and find it locked up with the same behaviour. Safari does not show any of these behaviours and works fine (but I want to continue using FF). I have... 1) Re-downloaded Firefox and re-installed. Same behaviour 2) Run in safe mode. Same behaviour 3) Attempted to run with individual addons. Same behaviour 4) Created a new 'places' database. Same behaviour. 5) Hardware acceleration is not enabled in 'about:preferences'. 6) Turned off 'Use Recommended Performance settings'. Same behaviour. 7) Not changed the process limit (set to 8 (default)). 8) Checked for duplicated session restore files in the profile folder. There are none (no sessionstore-x.js1 files). 9) I am not using an Automated Proxy Configuration URL (the dialog is set to 'Auto-detect proxy setting for this network. Nothing else is set). 9) Checked on the Activity Monitor for named Firefox processes at the restart attempt. None present but FF still won't start. 10) Searched the web and found a few instances of (in Catalina Beta5) FF crashing on startup. 'about:crashes' shows no dumps produced so i don't have one to upload. Seen similar? Thanks for the help, Larry