Is anyone able to clearly give steps to reproduce his problem and then the steps to prevent it occurring ?

Step one: Sign onto facebook with firefox. Step two: Begin typing in either the status box, or a comment box on someone elses' status. (it has to be long enough of a status to trigger at least 3 of the drop-down boxes that provide tagging suggestions.) Keep typing as though you're not trying to tag, (meaning don't click any of the suggestions in the drop down box.) Step three: watch firefox freeze.

More importantly as I am sure not everyone has this issue what is the common factors of those that do have the issue. Has anyone worked that out ?

I don't know about everyone else, but I am using Windows 7, (It has happened to my husband as well, using windows 8.)

If you have problems can you confirm alternative browsers have no problem ? What browsers have you tried ?

It does not freeze with any other browser I have tried. I have tried Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Opera.

Does the problem reoccur on restarting Firefox and using Facebook IF firefox remains in safemode and with no plugins active ?

For me, he freezing happens regardless of if it's a new profile, a resent reset, brand new install, in safe mode, with add-ons activated or not.

That is as far as I'll be able to help, since I'm switching to a different browser until the issue is resolved. I run many groups, and can't afford to keep loosing entire paragraphs of text that I have to retype repeatedly.

I reset Firefox and it still happens. I restarted FIrefox in Safe Mode with all add-ons and plug-ins disabled and it still happens. It ONLY began happening when I was upgraded to Firefox 28, it doesn't happen in Chrome.

If you have problems can you confirm alternative browsers have no problem? What browsers have you tried?

Trident-based and Blink-based browsers do not have problems. Firefox does have the problem even with its portable version installed separately on a USB flashdisk.

We seem to have established the problem does not exist in a new profile and that tends to indicate it is a Firefox issue. However that does not entirely rule out third party software interactions.

The problem does exist even in a new profile as I realized.

Does the problem reoccur on restarting Firefox and using Facebook IF firefox remains in safemode and with no plugins active?

Initially use a new profile AND with Firefox in safemode No plugins enabled, Now after using FaceBook close Firefox in the ordinary manner and then restart and use FaceBook again and the existing profile that was used above AND making sure it is the same configuration: safemode and no plugins Is FaceBook still problem free? Or have FaceBook problems reapeared again?

It does not have to be reproduced in such a complicated way. The issue can emerge even for new profiles in safemode. I would just add to rainetensai's comment that a more "reliable" way to reproduce the issue is not to write into status or comment boxes (as not always dynamic search starts) but to use the search box.

The bug has been already reported three times:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=977668 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=989789 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=990995

rainetensai

Thanks for writing that out STR clearly. I have just tried that but did not manage to reproduce. If it has any relevance

• It was a new facebook account
• No special Firefox precautions NOT safe mode or clean profile
• I actually used Fx 30.0a2 (2014-03-30) Canonical on Ubuntu 12.0.4
• ( I have Windows 7 and will try Fx Mozilla Release on that later)

xmrazik

I commented in the bugs someone with edit privileges and after a more thorough check will probably close at least two of those down.

The thread title is Fx28 and some have mentioned not problems on earlier fx versions. You tried the unofficial Fx Portable and reproduced the issue.

• Could I suggest you try with FxPortable ESR that will be using Fx24.4.0
  • Link http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox-portable-esr
  • It is at least a workaround if that works
  • If the issue may be demonstrated on Fx28 but Fx24 shown to be ok we are part way to getting an idea of where the fault occurred.

everyone

This is clearly a real problem and affecting a lot of people, but presumably not everyone.

• Do your other FB friends have problems on Firefox ?
  Most/some/NotMany seems worth asking around
• If fx esr proves ok the next step is probably to get someone to run a special utility that pins down the regression range.

If we can do that the bug can probably be confirmed; and next, with any luck, assigned to someone to work on investigating and fixing.

It was a new facebook account

I'm confused...the tag suggestions are made up of friends, people in the group you're commenting in, or pages you've liked, if it was a new account, how would there be any tag suggestions generated?

Try a new account yourself, maybe it is something about existing accounts that is the problem. If so is it pointing towards a FB site issue that needs identifying .

Even on anew account FB lists suggestions in the search box, so I followed the suggestion above

a more "reliable" way to reproduce the issue is not to write into status or comment boxes (as not always dynamic search starts) but to use the search box. 

I am busy at present and not yet got round to trying this on Windows, or maybe I will not see this in a new a/c.

I did start a contributors thread to try to collect a bit more information about this issue. It is a real issue, but I am guessing for some reason it only affect a subset of Firefox users and by no means all FB users with Firefox on Windows.

• Facebook hanging in Fx28 /forums/support-forum-contributors/710159

I have also added an escalate tag to this thread to see if the Firefox HelpDesk or anyone else has better ideas for a way forward.

Dear John99, thank you for your care.

I can confirm that freshly installed Firefox Portable 24.4 does not have any problem, freshly installed Firefox Portable 28 immediately freezes (see attachments).

Try a new account yourself, maybe it is something about existing accounts that is the problem. If so is it pointing towards a FB site issue that needs identifying .

I tried to log on some other Facebook account and searched with the same result - Firefox not responding.

Update

I do note there was a comment that this may no exist as a problem in Firefox 31. Fx 31 is currently on the Nightly channel. Would someone able to reproduce this issue like to test that out please.

• Explanation on how to install an additional version: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Testing_pre-release_versions#Installing_multiple_versions
• Downloads from http://nightly.mozilla.org/

Thanks for the help in investigating this everyone. I hope you are able to continue with this

If others can confirm this it is looking as if there is a Firefox regression (i.e. a fault/bug introduced) between Fx24 & Fx31 and most likely Fx28 & Fx31.

There is a utility that is able to pin down these regressions exactly. That allows developers to see exactly which update caused the problem. It is not entirely straight forward to do but is fairly user friendly. I would expect anyone capable of installing an additional version of firefox will be more than capable of using the utility. The utility automates the temporary install and removal of additional versions and records yes/no test result answers that you provide.

To find out more and with instructions on how to download install and use this please see

• http://mozilla.github.io/mozregression/

I reproduced the issue immediately even in Nightly (see picture; Neodpovídá means Not Responding)...

I will return to it later but I can confirm that the issue emerged between Fx27 a Fx28.

Even on anew account FB lists suggestions in the search box, so I followed the suggestion above

hm, I see, I've never been able to produce the bug using the search box, just comments and statuses. I would think they would be two separate issues, because while they both rely on dynamic menus, one is set for all users, and one is account specific. (for example if you type in "Lady Gaga" in the search bar every user is going to get the exact same results list generated, but if its suggesting tags then it's people or pages the users have already friended or liked that appear in the list, therefore its different for everyone.)

I really hope this gets fixed soon. I tried another browser all day yesterday, and hated it. There's a reason Firefox is my favorite lol none of the others measure up. I'm back to using notepad to copy and paste long statuses/comments and using firefox for everything.

its not just with Facebook it is doing this ON ANY SITE NO MATTER WHAT AND NO MATTER WHAT U DO EVEN RESETTING FIREFOX DOESN'T WORK FIX IT MOZILLA THIS IS GETTING RIDICULES CAUSE ITS DOING IT EVERY MINUTE INCLUDING AS I AM WRITING THIS REPLY.

Hi default3883,
Sorry you are having problems with Firefox.

I am not sure you are experiencing the same problem as others in this thread. This thread is about hangs in Facebook only.

We could be dealing with two or more separate issues with Facebook in this thread. The issues with Facebook could be similar or the same problem that sometimes causes crashes instead of hangs.

I am making an effort to collect information to see if suitable bugs can be filed or progressed.

I am not sure what your problem is but could I ask you to start your own thread so someone can help you with that.

• Please use /questions/new

You may wish to post back here to confirm you have started a new thread. Others may wish to follow that or offer you help.

Hi,

I have searched a few thing and I cannot reproduce this on Win 8 or 8.1 u=in a new profile version 28, as summarized in John99's post.

My question for third party software: are they any blocking the ajax type ahead search.php. Try deleting all of the cookies for facebook that were accessed before the update. How to clear the Firefox cache I know this seems silly, but if its not a third party software consistent between all the people affected, then is it an old preference that is changed in the update?

I appreciate the help, guigs2. But, wouldn't a brand new profile be even better? That has been tried already, and it didn't work. Or, am I missing something? Thanks!

I am having the same issue started today. Does anyone know if the firefox team is working on this issue? I would be nice if they said something about this!

I tried clearing cookies and clearing my cache. It didn't work.