Hello, Can you please give us some more information on what you meant by 'refreshing the feeds'. Do you mean the RSS feeds that you subscribed to or is this something else. If I understand your reported issue correctly, the issue you are facing is this

1. You have subscribed to multiple RSS feeds
2. These RSS feeds are getting refreshed at a very short interval
3. Due to this, you are not able to fill forms, write emails

If the above is correct, can you please let us know what is the behavior you are seeing when you try to, say, fill forms. Does the data that you typed get removed instantly?

We definitely want to help you resolve this issue and request you to provide us some information that can narrow down the problem.

Thank you

A few moments ago I tried to type an elaborate message and commended your site here for sitting still long enough for me to enter my message without being devoured by the “refresh feed.” Unfortunately, the page refreshed and wiped away my brilliant response to your questions. I will try to answer more briefly, and will cut and paste my reply. I pray that I don’t have to do this repeatedly. Here goes:

1. I used the term “refresh feed” because that was the only way I knew to describe it. For example, the ads change regularly in the NYT Online. I do subscribe to that. The pop-up alert has been coming far more frequently than before, and the ads are coming far more frequently than before. I see a correspondence between the refreshed ads and the change in the webpage. This is why I called the problem “refresh feed.” By the way, I have my pop-up block set to block. 2. I use Desire to Learn (D2L). I don’t subscribe, per se, but it is a password-protected site I have to use for my work. Within D2L, when I try to compose a message or respond to a question, what I write is immediately erased when the page refreshes, which is quite frequently. I am forced to compose on another program, as I’m doing now, and pray that I can paste my message in before I lose the entire email; I have to reenter the “to, from, subject, message,” and so on. I’ve had to do this over and over and over and over for just one message. 3. The issue happens when I use Outlook online. At least there I get a question asking if I really want to leave the page. Of course, I don’t because I’m still composing my message. I’ve taken to saving the messages frequently. I can’t do that in the D2L app. 4. This issue happens when I am just browsing a webpage for which I have no affiliation. The page will refresh and I find I’m back at the beginning of the initial page, or the beginning of an article I’m reading (if I’m lucky) or series of photographs or whatever. My place is lost. I often have to start all over again. It’s as if I’ve never been there. 5. This issue happens when I’m trying to make purchases. It happens immediately when I enter personal data. It’s as if I’ve not entered anything. I only use trusted sites. I’ve run my Internet security software and have checked for viruses. All is well there, at least I hope so.

I hope, too, that this additional information helps you help me. I so need it. Thanks much.

Sometimes the page refreshes within a milisecond, repeatedly, just as it has now.

I've never seen the page refresh by itself on this site. (Could be nice sometimes if someone else has responded since I opened the page, but that's a different discussion.)

As a short term workaround, you might look at an extension that helps prevent data loss in forms, such as this one: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/lazarus-form-recovery/

Firefox sometimes has inexplicable problems with more unusual input devices such as multi-button trackballs and wireless keyboards. If you are using something very "custom" you might check for a driver update.

Also, can you trigger the problem by pressing any particular keys? In particular, I'm thinking of the r key because it is used in the keyboard shortcuts to reload the page (Command+r), and to reload the page bypassing the cache (Command+Shift+r), which also has the effect of clearing the form.

By the way, what kind of pop-up alert are you seeing? Is it the infobar above the page, or something else?

Could you check your connection settings? I'm not sure of the default on Mac, but "No proxy" might be worth a try:

Firefox menu > Preferences > Advanced > Network mini-tab > "Settings" button

I notice that you have Xmarks installed.

Did you try Firefox Safe Mode to check if an extension is causing the refresh?

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

• Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

I’ve changed the settings to no proxy and will wait to see if it makes a difference. Thanks. The info bar at the top of the page is where I’m seeing the popup message, with a “preference” button on the far right.

It didn't make a difference, though. The page still refreshes and erases . . .

Switching to safe mode hasn't made a difference either. The page still refreshes frequently, wiping out any text I enter in this box. I'm typing quite fast to avoid the inevitable.

Thanks for your help, by the way. I appreciate the troubleshooting.

Firefox sometimes has inexplicable problems with more unusual input devices such as multi-button trackballs and wireless keyboards. If you are using something very "custom" you might check for a driver update.

Also, can you trigger the problem by pressing any particular keys? In particular, I'm thinking of the r key because it is used in the keyboard shortcuts to reload the page (Command+r), and to reload the page bypassing the cache (Command+Shift+r), which also has the effect of clearing the form.

Hi, I cannot trigger the page erasure or refreshment. No keys are signaling any action; if I pause, the page will refresh, if I type the page will refresh, and again, all text will disappear as if I never typed at all. Sometimes the intervals are so close I couldn't add a type character if I tried. I don't have a wireless keyboard or multi-trackball.

Maybe look at this extension for now:

• Lazarus: Form Recovery: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/lazarus-form-recovery/

You can also consider to compose longer texts in a text editor and paste the content to the web page form once you've finished.

You can try a scan for malware:

• https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bitdefender-virus-scanner/id500154009?mt=12
• http://www.google.com/search?q=mac+malware+scan

I'm running a full scan now, and will use the links above soon thereafter.

I just added the Lazarus Form Recovery. After the scan I'll run Lazarus.

I already use the text editor and paste, which doesn't help for forms or email addresses and subjects and so on, but maybe Lazarus will be useful there.

I'll report back after all is done. Thanks again!

Well, the problem persists and to a lesser degree. I have scanned for viruses and found none. I have emptied the cache, history, etc., for Firefox and have reset it. I have installed Lazarus. I have worked with an Apple tech and resolved registry issues. I have reset my Mac. I have switched USB power ports; I have moved files from one thumb drive to another.

While things have settled down somewhat, somewhat meaning that the frequency of refresh is much less frantic than yesterday, I still have the problem. --As in right now. Thank goodness I copied this text!

If you still get the pop-up info bar, one bit of information appear when you click the button and that is the address of the page that Firefox blocked from popping up. Is there any pattern to those?

Hi, The pop-up info bar isn't really a bar in the web app version of Outlook. It's a box that comes up to ask if I want to stay on the page, and not often enough because the text I'm entering will still disappear unexpectedly.

I don't get other pop-ups pertaining to this question. My text erase, go away, without warning, or web pages I'm viewing will "refresh" in other web apps, like this one, without warning, taking me back to the beginning, where I started.

I'd given my browser a rest and thought the issue resolved, but this morning is proving that hope dashed.

Hey folks, I really need your help. I can't even listen to streamed music anymore without the webpage reloading randomly.

I looked up reload on the web and found old instructions to check the "Warn me when web pages request to redirect or reload" but as the other responders discovered, that doesn't work for the problem.

I'll look for your fix. Thanks again for all your help!

Hi Chideb, the checkbox in the preferences dialog only applies to a limited set of ways that pages can reload. These include:

(1) Timed reload generated by a meta tag in the page (the built-in setting should catch this).

(2) Timed or triggered reload generated by a script in the page, but this usually is limited to sites that refresh themselves intentionally (such as news index pages), or parts of pages, such as advertising frames.

(3) Reload triggered by a keyboard shortcut, typically sent by the user, but possibly generated by a hardware glitch, or by software which dispatches keystrokes to other programs (e.g., some automation software).

Beyond that, it sounds like an add-on malfunction, or a page modification injected by a proxy server, or corruption in Firefox's program files.

The Safe Mode test should have ruled out an extension as a culprit. You also could try disabling any nonessential plugins by setting them to "Never Activate" and setting some others that are widely used, such as Shockwave Flash, to "Ask to Activate" to see whether that makes a difference.

If you use any external software that filters or modifies your web traffic, or proxy services (such as private VPN), it would be worth bypassing those temporarily for testing purposes.

If you want to check whether Firefox 24 would still have this problem on your system, the following article has a link, and you would install as described in the general Mac article (as a Windows user, I can't provide step-by-step guidance):

• Install an older version of Firefox
• How to download and install Firefox on Mac

Hi Jsher2000,

I was looking for the "install an older version of Firefox" and couldn't locate it. Thanks so much for the link. That may be my only recourse now. All though the problem has calmed down with a reset and reinstallation, it persists nevertheless. I've tried the add on disable and also non essential plug-ins. Ooohweee. I'm ready for this to stop now.

I'll try the older version. I'll let you know how it goes. I may not get to it for a while, but I'll check back.

Greetings,

The new version of Firefox, 27.0, seems to have solved all the problems I've listed above, and I'm thrilled. Thank you for your time in trying to help me resolve the problems. Because of security reasons I was hesitant to go to a previous version, and went to Opera instead. Opera isn't supported, however, by my institution so although it helped, I couldn't sustain using it.

Thanks, too, to the team who built 27.0. I appreciate it.

My problems are now solved.