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Firefox browser keeps being hijacked. Certain websites no longer open correctly and google maps and youtube don't work at all.

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There are some websites that I visit regularly and now they aren't being displayed correctly at all in Firefox. Google Maps and YouTube do not work properly if at all through Firefox or Chrome on my machine. I have tried searching for malware, viruses and rootkits and have had absolutely no success. I don't understand what has changed to cause pages to not display correctly and to cause all these malfunctions. What could the problem be?

There are some websites that I visit regularly and now they aren't being displayed correctly at all in Firefox. Google Maps and YouTube do not work properly if at all through Firefox or Chrome on my machine. I have tried searching for malware, viruses and rootkits and have had absolutely no success. I don't understand what has changed to cause pages to not display correctly and to cause all these malfunctions. What could the problem be?

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Sometimes a problem with Firefox may be a result of malware installed on your computer, that you may not be aware of.

You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:

Microsoft Security Essentials is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista/XP if you don't already have one.


Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

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You can try basic steps like these in case of issues with web pages:

Reload web page(s) and bypass the cache to refresh possibly outdated or corrupted files.

  • Hold down the Shift key and left-click the Reload button
  • Press "Ctrl + F5" or press "Ctrl + Shift + R" (Windows,Linux)
  • Press "Command + Shift + R" (Mac)

Clear the cache and cookies only from websites that cause problems.

"Clear the Cache":

  • Firefox/Tools > Options > Advanced > Network > Cached Web Content: "Clear Now"

"Remove Cookies" from sites causing problems:

  • Firefox/Tools > Options > Privacy > Cookies: "Show Cookies"

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.

If clearing cookies doesn't work then it is possible that the cookies.sqlite file that stores the cookies is corrupted.

Rename (or delete) cookies.sqlite (cookies.sqlite.old) and delete other present cookie files like cookies.sqlite-journal in the Firefox profile folder in case the file cookies.sqlite got corrupted.