Firefox Community Forum

I had a problem where FF 140.0 would not update, and in trying to get FF yo update, I used a re-install tool to which I was pointed in my problem report. This caused FF to wipe out my configuration, and I lost all my windows and tabs. I have gone to

    \Appdata\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Proifiles\abnfpged.default

cleared all of the data therein, and restored that directory from a backup I made last Monday. But I cannot get FF to use that directory. "about:profiles" shows only two profiles, but the Profiles directory has five profiles:

03/10/2026 09:39 AM <DIR> qf00ka5x.default 03/10/2026 09:39 AM <DIR> v842ceue.default-release 04/11/2026 09:16 PM <DIR> .. 04/11/2026 09:16 PM <DIR> . 04/12/2026 03:08 PM <DIR> abnfpged.default 04/12/2026 06:29 PM <DIR> jdfj91sd.default-release-1775960183850 04/12/2026 06:48 PM <DIR> f1jq4mlq.default

Only the profiles beginning with "j" and "f1" are seen in the "about:profiles" screenshot I have attached. And I have attached a screenshot of my profiles.ini file. Also, in the abnfpged.default directory I restored, where is the list of all of my open windows and tabs? FF used to keep that in a sessionstore.jsonlz4 file, but that file is only written when FF closes. I tried to save a copy when I was having problems, but I stored the copy in the same directory, which FF changed during the re-install process. Here is my profiles,.ini file:

[Install308046B0AF4A39CB] Default=Profiles/jdfj91sd.default-release-1775960183850 Locked=1

[Profile1] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/f1jq4mlq.default

[Profile0] Name=default-release IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/jdfj91sd.default-release-1775960183850

[Install641D10338ABA448D] Default=Profiles/abnfpged.default Default=1 IsRelative=1 Locked=1

[General]

StartWithLastProfile=1

Version=2

[BackgroundTasksProfiles] MozillaBackgroundTask-308046B0AF4A39CB-defaultagent=lnvi5jn5.MozillaBackgroundTask-308046B0AF4A39CB-defaultagent

I have not worked with the ;profiles.ini file in many years, as my FF configuration has not had problems. Thanks.

Good morning. I opened up Firefox this morning and all 4 rows of shortcuts were missing. I have gone into settings and made sure the settings for 4 rows was still the same. I cannot find them anywhere. Please help

In support.mozilla.org/questions/1598971 it's still not clear how you're getting this. You seem to be posting this question from a perfectly running Firefox so it apparently starts up and works fine on its own.

It sounds it's related to your Windows desktop shortcuts, or their exact target perhaps — however without knowing their content (destination or commands run) there's not much more to do here.

If you have anything new to add to the questions in the thread above, please post in that original thread so anyone trying to help understands what this pertains to. WELL LIKE I SAID I HAVE HAD THE SAME DESKTOP ITEMS FOREVER EVEN BACK ON WINDOWS 7 AND THIS HAS ONLY HAPPENED ONCE WHEN I FIRST STARTED WITH FIREFOX AND WAS TOLD THEN HOW R TO STOP IT AND BY THE WAY IT IIS NOT A NORMAL STARTING FIREFOX I GET IT WHEN I CLICK ON TH S THDESKTOP ITEM THERE ASWELL HOW COME ALL THIESES YRS HAVE HAD THE SAME DESKTOP ICOND S AND THIS ONLY STARTED ON THE 154.0 AND STILL ON THA 154.1 AND NOT BEFORE AND ITS ME NO I THINK IT IS A FIREFOX ISSUE . i HAVE Y USE THGE SAME DESKTOP AND FIREFOX SESKT OP FOR YRS AND NOTHING AND NOW IT HAPPENS WHY IS IT ME AND NOT FIREFOX//

I have years of bookmarks that have disappeared and my history is missing. Firefox opens with the tabs that were open when it shut down. I really want my bookmarks back.

I'm running Firefox on Win10 with no options to upgrade to 11. Since the latest firefox update installed, I'm getting a screen that says "Oops, something's wrong," and then I'm kicked out of gmail. A screen asks about sending a report to Firefox, which I check OK for. Today this is happening about every minute to 30 seconds . What needs to happen?

A week ago I got a BSOD that ruined settings of most of my extensions and most likely some of Firefox's settings too (at least it erased my custom findbar.matchdiacritics value, but probably not just that). After that I moved Firefox's folder and re-installed it. I also created a new profile. The 2 profiles are synced. Because of that, the new profile got (almost) all the extensions from the old one automatically. Then, I decided to do a clean install of those extensions (the reason why is a story for another ticket). So, while both profiles were opened, I removed one extension in the new profile, waited for a bit and checked the old one to see if it got removed from there too. At first it wasn't, so I thought they are not synced (anymore). Yeah, sure, but once I removed all extensions from the new one, the old one woke up and removed all extensions from there too. Great! Awesome! Loved it wholeheartedly! It really had to wait until I removed them all, didn't it? Anyway, I had a backup of my old profile, so I restored my extensions and their settings on both profiles eventually. So now I have clean installs of Firefox and extensions. Back to the issue. I can't load Steam pages (at least store.steampowered and steamcommunity) normally anymore. They load forever, and if the blue dot eventually stops moving (after an insane amount of time), it's either a plain white screen, or badly loaded page with most images missing.

• Edge loads them just fine
• Steam client loads them just fine.
• If I turn on VPN plugin (I use Browsec), then it works. It's like that in both old and new profile. That's why I mentioned that funny little story before.
• Tried Troubleshoot Mode, didn't help.
• Tried to selectively disable some extensions, same.
• Obviously tried to remove cookies, Ctrl + F5 and whatnot. Btw, if I clean everything and try to load it, then it's (most likely?) a white page, but if I turn the VPN on and load it first, and then turn it off and reload it, then it will look a bit better, but still will load forever with some media missing. (Which kinda make sense since something was already cached.)
• Tried to change proxy settings from “Use system proxy settings” to “No proxy” and “Auto-detect proxy settings for this network”, nah-ah.
• Tried to disable DNS in Firefox's settings, no siree.
• The console throws different warning and errors every time (that are probably even unrelated). Or none at all.
• Probably tried something I already forgot about.

Also, it seems the culprit is actually Akamai (it's where the Steam stores its media) or whatever is preventing reaching it. Because it often shows something like “Waiting for community.akamai.steamstatic.com...” in the status bar for a long time. It seems like the problem is within Firefox's settings, and it also looks like settings aren't synced across profiles (or at least some aren't, I definitely had to configure them on the new profile manually). Anyway, I am out of ideas and my butthurt thrust is about to deliver me to Uranus. Thanks for your attention!

Hello all,

I am currently testing the new VPN feature in Firefox. I Is noticed that Firefox always starts with this integrated VPN being off. I searched but I didn't find any way to have it always on when launching VPN. Is that possible?

Thanks!

Every time I manually update firefox, it reinstalls the automatic update malware "Mozilla Maintenance Service". I can't stop this malware from being installed with my browser every time I update Firefox. I call it malware because its not wanted, and it behaves like malware by secretly downloading content without my consent and then shutting down my browser when it finishes by blocking access to all new tabs.

I've tried adding policies to stop auto updates, but Mozilla Maintenance Service ignores all policies. I'm going to see if I can contact AVG and explain to them that Mozilla Maintenance Service is malware and see if I can get it classified as such to see if that'll finally get through to someone because I'm sick of this crap constantly being installed and forcing things on me whenever they want and not when I want.

Now after this update, every google search forces open my location service trying to force me to give location rights. This update is even more malware than all the other updates before hand. Firefox is getting extremely dangerous.

Today for the first time after the latest update 127.0 (64-bit), my many firefox pages and tabs crashed and closed and a pop up to send crash report.

So I have fired up firefox again to find only a single page opens up, I have lost probably 16+ pages with multiple tabs on each, been like that for months, I have 32GB memory so there is normally no issues or slowness. However after the crash, even though only a single firefox page is open, windows task manager shows Firefox (20) and if I expand the task, I can see each firefox is taking lots of memory.

So it looks like the old session pages/tabs are still there somewhere but not accessible, I would like to get them back if possible. I went through reseting it to default, disabling the add ons etc but nothing has worked.

Roughly every 2 weeks I backup important files to a external hard drive.

One of the things I always backup is my Firefox profile. I have been doing this for years without any problems.

I 7zip my profile and copy it to the hard drive.

I tried to do this yesterday (July 25 2025), and was getting access denied messages for files in the profile. So I tried to simply copy the profile. Same thing access denied.

I cleared the history, used wise disk cleaner, rebooted my machine and tried again. Same thing access denied when trying to backup or copy the profile.

I am assuming that this is happening since 141 because I updated Firefox since the last time I backed up my profile, and never had a problem previously.

Could anyone have an idea what the problem is? Thank you for your time.

After updating to v 133.0, when maximizing Firefox (not F11 fullscreen), a taskbar that is set to "auto-hide" will no longer unhide when mousing to the bottom of the screen. This did not occur with the previous version (132.0.2).

This behavior is also unaffected by the "devtools.toolbox.alwaysOnTop" setting in about:config as i've tried switching from the default "true" to "false".

Update: Still persists in 136.0.2

I am using the latest Fiefox and i have disabled all adons i have tried everything I have changed my Facebook password every time i g try to share something on Firefox get a black box on the bottom right that says something wrong . I have tried to copy the entire hing but can not i got some of it I have even reinstalled firebox ans still can not share anything I have tried contacting Facebook but that does not happen no response i appears to work in Chrome on a noter Facebook account so it is Firefox. i will send you what i could get on the screen shot the part that is missing s the part that says something s wrong

After a recent update my bookmarks toolbar appears blank. It is shown, but empty. When I go to the bookmarks menu I find all of the bookmarks shown as being on my bookmarks toolbar. How do I get them back where they belong?

I'm begining to regret installing v146.0!

One of the most useful features of Firefox is the PDF editor and with this update, I've found that after annotating a PDF with several text boxes, clicking the text box icon (as shown in the attached screenshot) does absolutely nothing and it is impossible to enter any further text. The only way out of this is to refresh the pdf (after saving otherwise all changes will be lost) and then starting all over again only for the error to repeat itself making the editor almost unusable. Would really appreciate knowing how to work around this especially since to make my notes clearer, I change the color and the font size which is all lost everytime I have to refresh the PDF :-(

Incidentally, why are there so many updates? I prefer stable software that works rather than 'new features' that I never use!

Finally, Firefox used to have an amazing facility of making the Firefox private browser the default browser for Windows 10 but this was removed some years ago and can only be reinstated by changing registry keys. Everytime there's an update, these registry keys are overwritten :-(. Why was such a useful feature removed please?

Thanks in advance.

I downloaded Firefox not too long ago to combat the fact the Microsoft Edge wasn't working correctly, but ever since I downloaded Firefox it's been making my computer run really slow on the browser. Things are often slow like scrolling up on and down pages websites like Pinterest, and the text when typing on Google docs takes a moment to show up after I've typed it and not instantly, for example.

I checked my computer's task manager because I recently cleaned the laptop, thinking that something else was causing it to be slow, but it isn't. I don't have many processes open on the computer mainly mandatory things and my browser, since I use my laptop mainly for school work, music, or writing. Firefox opens multiple processes, the highest being 21 at one time, and takes up most of the memory on the laptop. Is this normal? Because it takes 1,094.0 MB and keeps my laptop's memory at 90-91%. If it isn't normal, how can I reduce this as well as the lag on my laptop when Firefox is open?

I attached a photo as well.

I suppose this is a kind of support question, of sorts, but in my opinion this also has to be treated as a complaint, in a sense.

About one and a half months ago, Firefox became unresponsive, that is, it became awfully slow. I experienced just about every issue with the browser that was mentioned in the following support pages and support issues (posted by others) and I read all of those :

Websites don't load - troubleshoot and fix error messages

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/websites-dont-load-troubleshoot-and-fix-errors#w_the-problem-only-happens-with-certain-websites

firefox is extremely slow or fails to load sites

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1550371

Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-extensions-themes-to-fix-problems

Secure connection and security warning error pages in Firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/secure-connection-failed-firefox-did-not-connect

An oddball situation had occurred in which I couldn't for the likes of me go to my librarything.com homepage at each restart of the previous Firefox session, which also causes lagging when the session wants to connect to the other (normally unproblematic) website session tabs, and I also get multiple connection errors + insecure connection notifications for some of these websites. (sometimes refreshing a page does not help, sometimes it does)

I got bored reading all those support pages and trying out the solutions, because nothing seemed to help. In the long run, I decided to de-install the whole browser after backing up bookmarks, speeddial settings, passwords and the whole profile. Simultaneously, I also tested the connectivity to these websites in another browser (Brave) and this did not present me with any problem.

So I did the following :

1) deleted the whole cache and closed the browser 2) uninstalled FF with Revo Uninstaller (which has an option to remove all remnant files / folders/ registry items on the Hard Drive) 3) made sure to remove all cached leftovers from HD by using multiple cleanup tools in succession : 1) Wise Disk Cleaner followed by 2) Bleachbit followed by 3) CCleaner

Went to the mozilla website, downloaded and installed the last version of FF. Next, imported bookmarks, speeddial settings and passwords. Next, reinstalled the Firefox extensions I used before (without any lag until one and a half months ago). I also did NOT copy the stored profile but decided on starting afresh with a new profile.

Everything worked lightning fast and efficiently until a few days ago, when I received an automatic update of Firefox - 151.0.3 - and all of a sudden, the same problems are reoccurring. And again, I can't connect to an unproblematic website like librarything.com, whereas before the update I was able to without any problem !!!

What the hell is going on with these auto-updates ???

Since I upgraded from FF128-esr to FF140-esr I always get the "Firefox is being updated by another instance" This is really driving me crazy, as I checked / did / .... everything (and even more) I found on the internet related to that.

Nothing helps !

Creating and using a new default profile didn't help

Finally I ended up uninstalling FF completely (making sure no -zero- leftovers remained in ProgramFiles, AppData a.s.o.), and reinstalled FF140.7.0-esr freshly. After installation I started FF immediately with the created default profile (only existing one) --> SAME THING : "Firefox is being updated by another instance"

And this is really a FF140 thing, when I go back to FF128, on the same computer, same profiles, ...., the problem is gone.

I would like to know in detail what checks are really done by FF to decide to give that "Firefox is being updated by another instance"

I am unable to use my bill pay with my bank using Firefox browser. However, I am able to use it logging on with Microsoft Edge. What has changed with Firefox recently? This has only become a problem as of today.