Address bar doesn't work, menus don't work, nothing works after the latest update
Firefox has become completely unusable -- in fact, it is now effectively hijacking my Windows 7 system. After making the mistake of installing the 55.0.3 update, the browser stopped being usable. The address bar and search bar don't respond to entries. The menu windows don't pop up after they have been selected. I can't actually submit any sort of bug report or user information via Firefox because there is literally NO functionality. When I try to restart with addons disabled, the Firefox process is terminated and doesn't restart, but the window still sits on my screen with no response to any sort of input. I have rebooted several times, and tried running under different user profiles, to no avail.
A bit of research in a professionally developed web browser that can actually connect to and load websites reveals that this and similar address bar issues have been going on for a few weeks now. Since Mozilla has clearly been made aware of the problem with this version, why haven't you pulled the update? Are you being bribed by a big player (Google or Microsoft) so they can grab more market share? It seems to be motivated by either arrogance ("our software is great, the user is the problem") or malice -- either way, Mozilla isn't getting donations from me anymore.
I suppose I should thank you for getting me motivated to find something usable, but it's going to be a real chore getting everything dialed in with a new program.
All Replies (3)
Do a clean reinstall of the current Firefox release and delete the Firefox program folder before installing a fresh copy of the current Firefox release.
- download the Firefox installer and save the file to the desktop
*https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/
If possible uninstall your current Firefox version to cleanup the Windows Registry and settings in security software.
- do NOT remove "personal data" when you uninstall the current Firefox version, because this will remove all profile folders and you lose personal data like bookmarks and passwords including data in profiles created by other Firefox versions
Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer.
- (64 bit Firefox) "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\"
- (32 bit Firefox) "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\"
- it is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_Firefox
Your personal data like bookmarks is stored in the Firefox profile folder, so you won't lose personal data when you uninstall and reinstall or update Firefox, but make sure NOT to remove personal data when you uninstall Firefox as that will remove all Firefox profile folders and you lose your personal data.
If you keep having problems then you can create a new profile to test if your current profile is causing the problem.
Still no dice with an uninstall/reinstall process that really shouldn't have even been on the table. As I said in the initial post, I had already tried different user profiles and even user accounts on the computer. The Firefox update was the only change made to my system in more than a week.
I've gone with Opera, which had no problem importing my Firefox profile settings, and it runs faster with a smaller footprint.
Thanks for the reply, but after all this hassle, I'm just another one of the millions of people who have left Firefox for good in the last year (I saw several reports discussing a precipitous drop in the Firefox user base while looking into this issue).
Good luck with the foundation. There's plenty of cash on hand right now, and still millions of remaining users, so you've got a chance to turn things around. Just try going back to the pre-2012 design philosophies and dedication to providing a quality user experience that guided the foundation through its good times. However, I'm not optimistic given the "Forget logic, the change in our program isn't the problem!" attitude that Mozilla has taken towards bug reporting in the last several years.
Try to start Firefox in Safe Mode to see whether that works.
- Windows: hold down the Shift key while starting Firefox
- Mac: hold down the Options key while starting Firefox
Boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support to see if that has effect in case security software is causing problems.
- http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/how-to-start-windows-in-safe-mode/
- http://www.7tutorials.com/4-ways-boot-safe-mode-windows-10
Do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.
Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. All these programs have free versions.
Make sure you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.
- Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php - AdwCleaner:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml - SuperAntispyware:
http://www.superantispyware.com/ - Microsoft Safety Scanner:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx - Windows Defender:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-defender - Spybot Search & Destroy:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html - Kasperky Free Security Scan:
http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan
You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.
- Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:
http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446
See also:
- "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked