A lot can happen in six months. Some of it not good. For example; (Google Earth) This may be your problem,

Firefox v52+ disables all plugins except for Flash Why do Java, Silverlight, Adobe Acrobat and other plugins no longer work? {web link}

Install Older Version Of Firefox {web link} Be sure to read everything here.

If you still want to downgrade, look under; I still want to downgrade. Click the Directory of other versions and languages link. Look for the directory of the version that you want. But, remember that old versions may have security issues.

You should also check out Firefox; Extended Support Release {web link} ESR Notes System Requirements

singlewc said

I was injured and spent a lot of time in the hospital

I hope you are getting better.

I found Firefox to be basically nonfunctional, slow, clunky and unable to actually loa the same websites I visited on a daily basis. It will be apparent that I am very frustrated.

Is this with all sites, some, a few?

I have a lot of trouble finding history, bookmarks, and other useful functions.

These are the same place they have always been. Are you using <Control> H (history) B (bookmarks) . . .

I would like to tell you which version I downloaded but I don't I find that information anymore in Firefox.

There are two ways to check what version you are using;

1) Press the Alt or F10 key to bring up the toolbar. Then Help > About Firefox will tell you what version have. WARNING: and install any updates.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/update-firefox-latest-version +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2) Type about:support<enter> in the address bar. This page contains information about your system and Firefox.

when I opened my shiny new Firefox, I found that it would not go to any websites.

Some problems occur when your Internet security program was set to trust the previous version of Firefox, but no longer recognizes your updated version as trusted. Now how to fix the problem: To allow Firefox to connect to the Internet again;

• Make sure your Internet security software is up-to-date (i.e. you are running the latest version).
• Remove Firefox from your program's list of trusted or recognized programs. For detailed instructions, see

Configure firewalls so that Firefox can access the Internet. {web link}

Sorry you are having so many problems John. Some of them we may be able to solve one at a time. Some of the issues may be due to changes in Firefox and may need either workarounds or simply it may unfortunately not be easy to do anything about them.

I note you posted some years ago on this forum

• firefox29, on a new win7 computer which has never had ff installed, will not install the latest flash plugin from adobe. /questions/1002934

Looks like at that time you were using quite a few plugins and those would not work now (Other than Flash Player and that is being phased out).

I also not in another thread you mentioned

{/questions/1157104#answer-975713}... sorry. I do not start lines with empty spaces. fact is, I use voice to dictate into these boxes, so the problem is not me. ...

Some of your problems may be partly an issue due to the assistive technology you use. Extra spaces or punctuation added within a url or file name is going to break things. I dont know if any of the advice in this help article or website helps you or helps explain some of the issues

• Accessibility features in Firefox - Make Firefox and web content work for all users
  • http://accessfirefox.org/
• Accessibility not available during multi-process support

The original Google Earth is no more. See their own announcement

• Maps APIs Blog The Google Maps APIs blog covers all aspects of Google Maps APIs, including product launches, updates and developer stories
  Announcing deprecation of the Google Earth API
  Friday, December 12, 2014
  https://maps-apis.googleblog.com/2014/12/announcing-deprecation-of-google-earth.html

John99 said

Sorry you are having so many problems John. Some of them we may be able to solve one at a time. Some of the issues may be due to changes in Firefox and may need either workarounds or simply it may unfortunately not be easy to do anything about them. I note you posted some years ago on this forum

• firefox29, on a new win7 computer which has never had ff installed, will not install the latest flash plugin from adobe. /questions/1002934

Looks like at that time you were using quite a few plugins and those would not work now (Other than Flash Player and that is being phased out). YIKES! :-) This is an indefensible shift in direction to a totally irrelevant issue. I wish you had not done this. probably most users will not have even the same install of windows, two years in a row, let alone a same plugins in firefox, especially when it has been clearly stated that I have reinstalled windows 7 and uninstalled/installed Firefox versions multiple times I also not in another thread you mentioned

{/questions/1157104#answer-975713}... sorry. I do not start lines with empty spaces. fact is, I use voice to dictate into these boxes, so the problem is not me. ...

Some of your problems may be partly an issue due to the assistive technology you use. Extra spaces or punctuation added within a url or file name is going to break things.

what url? 

I use voice to dictate into these forum text boxes. i do not dictate urls into Firefox but for those of us with only one hand, it is easy to dictate into notepad, then paste into the boxes in this forum

may I please insert a light-hearted "doh! you really are implying that I am inserting random characters when I dictate into notepad and paste that text it into this page?, I think this is why frustration builds.

open firefox, open page, choose "save page" try to open page from firefox "open file " command, epic fail this isn't a random url character issue

I dont know if any of the advice in this help article or website helps you or helps explain some of the issues

• Accessibility features in Firefox - Make Firefox and web content work for all users
  • http://accessfirefox.org/
• Accessibility not available during multi-process support  ???????????

The original Google Earth is no more. See their own announcement

• Maps APIs Blog The Google Maps APIs blog covers all aspects of Google Maps APIs, including product launches, updates and developer stories
  Announcing deprecation of the Google Earth API
  Friday, December 12, 2014
  https://maps-apis.googleblog.com/2014/12/announcing-deprecation-of-google-earth.html

If google earth is no more, what exactly resides at this url? https://www.google.com/earth/

looks like google earth to me. the splash page tells me that chrome is required, but IE works just fine. IE has no problems with it. I Understand that Firefox is getting squeezed by junior microsoft, that wants it to fail and firefox will never is not gonna run it, and I don't care. Frankly, I have no idea why google earth is even on the docket :-)

hiding behind voice dictation errors is ridiculous. open notepad, dictate message, copy and paste it into the text box here. there is NO way that should cause any of the issues I am having.

actually it is quite condescending that you suggest that assertive technology can even create this problem, and it is wrong to assume I ever use it with firefox, because when troubleshooting, first remove all potential variables. but it is one good way to deflect from the reality that firefox cannot open a file it saved only two minutes earlier.

too much effort has been expended trying to make this my fault. an issue I posted two years ago about flash is not even close to relevant, firefox29 and firefox 53?? that's a long time ago... unless you missed the explanation that if I reinstall windows 7, install the newest Firefox, and, for example, I go to

https://gigaom.com/2012/07/09/10-google-chromebook-tips-tricks-and-tweaks/

and used firefox to "save the page"

closed firefox, used my computer to find the file,

right click, "open with firefox" and firefox opens with this :"

file:///C:/Users/john/Downloads/Gigaom%20_%2010%20Google%20Chromebook%20tips,%20tricks%20and%20tweaks.html" in the url box, a white page and nothing happening.

if I try to open any html file at all in firefox, I get that format of a url, a blank white page, and nothing. happens.

I do think that given the medium we are using, nothing good is going to come from this exchange. I can not conceive of a more concise way to explain the simple steps to save a fie and open it. I do not wish to put forth the attitude that I am at all personally upset with you, or anyone else who has offered help.

The best anyone can do is try to provide as much information as possible when asking for help but it can be aggravating to have that information tossed because it is not understood why it was included like voice dictation or a to year old unrelated post.

It almost looks like a classic deflection when, elsewhere, a poster with the same issue is asked if h/she knows what an html file is? seriously?

it used up everyone's time.

I really do think it better to say an honest heartfelt 'thank you' for your time, and patience, and I will just learn to do my work with a chromebook that can do what I need.

the help here is important for users, and if I am irritated, I don't want it to poison the group. it seems silly, but it is imperative that a user be able to download the latest update , and have it work without configuration or profile issues. if it does not, that can surely not be your fault.

thank you very much for your time. I am sorry if I got " short " with you. that was never my intent.

an addendum: I have been looking for the cause of the formatting issue in my posts,  which I think you said are caused  by spaces at  the  start of the line?

I call them tabs at the start of a paragraph.

I press "preview" and can fix it up, but I am not able to find the elegant way to close the preview and get back to my post so I can send it.. can you enlighten me?

kind regards.
John

Hi John, the Preview appears below your post, you can scroll up to get back to the box with your input.

The file:/// URL looks normal, except that in real life it shouldn't have " marks around it.

If you select the entire contents of the page by pressing Ctrl+a, is there anything there? Just wondering if it could be white text on a white background, and that's one way to check for that.

In another thread, I also suggested trying to turn off style rules on the blank page:

View menu > Page Style > No Style

If you don't normally display the classic menu bar, you can activate it temporarily by tapping the Alt key or the F10 function key.

You may use tabs at the start of a paragraph on the new support forum software and it will display as you expect it to. On this forum software it changes it to one pre-formatted line.

I realise you have an issue trying to open local html files, but you also have an issue with pages from the internet

... All of my history information was still within the URL bar, and when I dropped it down I just simply chose the one at the top, since that would be one I use most. Nothing happened. I don't have Internet issues here, and I do know how things work, so I typed in a URL to match my net service providers homepage, and nothing happened when I press enter. ...

I am not trying to deflect blame on to you or anywhere else, but Firefox is highly customisable and we can not see exactly how you use it. If something works for myself and possibly most other users but not for you it is quite likely it is some customisation, change or different way of using Firefox that prevents something working as expected.

... If google earth is no more, what exactly resides at this url? https://www.google.com/earth/
looks like google earth to me. the splash page tells me that chrome is required, but IE works just fine. IE has no problems with it.

That is not the old Google Earth that was FlashPlayer based and included a flight simulator. Seen from Firefox that url is an advert for the new Google Earth Apps.

This newly revamped version will work on Firefox Android as a Google Play store App. Not sure how, why, or if it works on IE, but as I am not using Windows at present so I can not immediately look at that. I don't know if in the near future Google will release a full version able to be used on Firefox on Desktop PCs. Google may prefer to keep it available only on Google Chrome; or they may change it to work on other browsers including Firefox. _{I did find this discussion but only glanced at it https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/6638m0/new_version_of_google_earth_runs_on_chrome_only/}

I am running Win7 Pro 64 BIT and I along with many people love this windows version but I see in the future I will need to change when Win7 is not longer supported but until then I will use it. I have been a long time die hard Firefox user for years. When 52.0.2 came out there was a little tweaking that needed to be done with several image editing websites in about:config to get them to work properly. I have noticed that with each new version of Firefox that has come out since 52.0.2 I am noticing more and more trouble with websites. I have noticed on some websites that they take longer to load and I have also noticed that scrolling has also gotten worse. With the new update to 53.0.3 Facebook has become a real pain in the ass to use. It is slow and clunky to navigate. On my image editing sites the brushes are slow and at times jerky making it impossible at times to do any fine editing. I have only three plugins and two of those are loaded by Firefox and the other is Flash. I only have three extensions and those are Google Image Search, Tineye Search and Adblock Plus.

Several weeks ago I did something I thought I would never have to do is download Chrome. I spent all day getting it set up to my liking with extensions and playing with the settings and testing it on sites. I must say that it now beats Firefox 53.0.3 hands down in being much faster, website loading and response, scrolling and Facebook is working properly.

Now yesterday I came into the Forum just to see what problems people were having in Firefox and I saw this discussion. I paid attention to FredMcD's post and decided to downgrade my Firefox browser to see if my problems would go away. I followed the link to downgrade but I must point out that yesterday the version I saw to downgrade to was 52.0.2 which I did and today it is 51.0.1. I think it is because Firefox sees that I am now running 52.0.2. Anyway after downloading 52.0.2 and turning off auto update I have seen a significant change in the way Firefox handles websites. I see a quicker response time and the handling of website especially Facebook has improved greatly. I am not worried about the security as I do not go to malicious websites and my antivirus is constantly monitors it's own firewall that it has set up instead of using my systems and I also use Malwarbytes just to scan weekly. Now I must also say that my browser is set to removed cookies, clear cache, temp file etc etc on closing and I use CCleaner at the end of the day. My defrag is on a schedule to run weekly. My computer is in no way bloated with programs as I still have about 75% of free space left on my hard drive. If I did not take care of my machine I would probably think I was the problem but I do take care of it and after testing I see that Firefox has the problems and the engineers should take a long hard look at it. Maybe it is a wonderful browser for those running Win10 but I feel Firefox should take into account there are many users out here that are still running older Window versions and eventually with each new update Firefox puts out it will become to much of a pain in the ass to try to use and Firefox will loose users to Chrome.

I strongly advise against using insecure unsafe versions of Firefox. Your AV is unlikely to protect you from some threats such as people stealing your info or you using insecure sites.

• Update Firefox to the latest release
• (Do not) Install an older version of Firefox

Try updating Adblock Plus to the latest 2.9.1 version. Current ADB 2.9 causes severe slowness in some cases. ABP 2.9.1 is being released with a workaround.

We often suggest people try Firefox in its safe mode not as a long term solution, but as a step to help identify whether issues may be related to add-on use etc.

• Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode

Firefox in recent releases and the next Fx54 uses a multi process mode method for most users. This is expected to speed things up, but is more resource hungry and may need the settings tweaked, or even needs to be turned off on low spec machines.
(Personally I think it would have been good to provide an easy to use settings interface {That is work in progress.} before rolling this out too widely.)

My ABP is at 2.9.1 and I have used safe Mode on Firefox 53.0.3 and I still experienced the same problems when not in Safe Mode. I have even done a refresh and still no help. I am not about to be aggravated with a browser that does not perform up to the standard that Firefox "use" to perform at. I had no choice but to downgrade to 52.0.2 in order to keep using Firefox and since I have done so I have not experienced any problems like I have described above. I see where you do not want people to downgrade because of the security that is if one is so stupid as to visit porn sites or other click bait suspicious sites or open mail from people you do not know but it gets to the point where one must or switch browsers entirely. I am now using Chrome more and more as each day passes. My antivirus has been excellent in protecting me for years and has very strict rules as to what gets past it's firewall. So I do feel safe in using 52.0.2. The new Firefox has a lot of problems now that the engineers need to address and that is quite obvious as to the increased amount of problems users are reporting in the forum.

new_aged2perfection Thanks for the posts.

Could I ask you to start your own thread about your own problems. If you then post back here to say you have done so we can try to look for a solution or workaround.

If there is a regression that makes Firefox 53 worse than earlier versions we need to figure out what that is and whether it is a known problem already being worked on or whether it may be something new and not yet reported.

This is NOT an official recommendation - it is probably against suggested use - but personally if I were in your position I would use ESR not the old Release version. (& maybe test out in DE)

I do note you have an open thread

• Problem With Random Facebook Post Comments and Reaction Emojis Not Opening In FF 53.0 /questions/1158826

I am not a facebook user so will not get involved with that question but it appears at that time you were using Fx53 & ABP 2.8.2

You mentioned

... This problem did not seem to crop up until after the update to Firefox 53.0. ...

Do you still see that Facebook issue now that you are using Fx52 and ABP2.9.1 ?

That Facebook issue is now completely gone since I am now using Firefox 52.0.2 (32 bit) and ABP 2.9.1. The videos in news feeds no longer stops intermittently while playing. I have also noticed a change in other websites that I visit such as Flickr. The scrolling is much smoother and the pages and images load quicker.

Firefox 53.0.3 (32 bit) got so aggravating with website performance that I downloaded Google Chrome Version 59.0.3071.104 (Official Build) (32-bit) and the difference is like day and night between Firefox 53.0.3 and Google Chrome. I now use Chrome and Firefox 52 and I am now beginning to use Chrome more and more.

So yes there is a regression in Firefox 53.0.3 that makes it worse than earlier versions such as 52.0.2 and the engineers should be looking into it. I do not know if it is a incompatibility issue with Win 7 64 bit or what but Firefox should realize that are many Win 7 users still out here.

Firefox should be working as well with Windows 7 as it does with Windows 10. If problems are discovered the most important ones are fixed.

Mozilla Firefox has a few methods of discovering problems, but if you need to find out whether your own particular problem is known and fixable or being fixed you need to give full details in a separate thread so that we can figure out what is going wrong.

If Firefox 54 for example is suddenly much slower for all Windows 7 users on all sites that would be a major issue and hopefully would be picked up immediately. On the other hand if it only affects a small percentage of users and a small number of websites; or only those with specific addons or hardware, it is not going to be noticed as easily. Such an issue could affect thousands or millions of users but until reports come in that we can understand and enable engineers to reproduce the issue it is very difficult to make any attempt to investigate and fix the issue.