GUI issues are often related to add-ons, including themes.

I would suggest to use the default theme first if not already. If that does not help, disable both NoScript and Nuke Anything Enhanced add-ons to see if the issue stays away, and enable them one by one (use Firefox in between) to see which one may cause it, and if there is an update for them available.

Or: temporarily run Firefox in Safe Mode to see if the issue occurs, but you would need to do the above afterwards if that helps.

I assume you are aware of the fact that you should know what you’re doing when changing preferences, and you should revert them if that didn’t help.

Thanks for the response!

I think I know what I am doing with preferences, I look each one up (this is handy: http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries), and I log my changes with dates so I can revert if something goes wrong.

I do not use themes. I think safe mode is a good idea, but I may have found the problem. I went looking through win 10 preferences and saw that windows was allowed to automatically change to tablet mode.

I have a desktop so I changed that yesterday and rebooted, and have had no problem since. If it comes back I will try safe mode else I will come back here and declare the problem solved.

Thanks again, Tonnes.

I'm having this problem, too, but I'm not tech savvy like you seem to be....entering those codes and such. I work off Windows 7. How would I see if there was a setting to allow it to automatically change to tablet mode that's maybe making mine do it? I usually put my computer to sleep at the end of the workday, and every time I reopen it, I have to go to about:support, hit "Refresh", then it locks up so I have to hit CTRL+ALT+DLT and reopen it. Only then does the bar at top work....until next time I open it.

Verdae said

Thanks for the response! I think I know what I am doing with preferences, I look each one up (this is handy: http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries), and I log my changes with dates so I can revert if something goes wrong. I do not use themes. I think safe mode is a good idea, but I may have found the problem. I went looking through win 10 preferences and saw that windows was allowed to automatically change to tablet mode. I have a desktop so I changed that yesterday and rebooted, and have had no problem since. If it comes back I will try safe mode else I will come back here and declare the problem solved. Thanks again, Tonnes.

Hi Mary,

My tablet solution ultimately did not work. If you want to check it out anyway, click your windows button, then click the settings icon (which looks like a gear). When the settings window pops up, type 'tablet' in the search line and should see the available settings for tablets. Pick one. This is one way to find tablet settings on Win 10 and I think it's the same or similar for Win 7.

The way I have to fix the problem now is to simply stop and restart firefox. That buys me a few hours.

I will try safe mode next and post success or failure.

Cheers

Mary9 said

I'm having this problem, too, but I'm not tech savvy like you seem to be....entering those codes and such. I work off Windows 7. How would I see if there was a setting to allow it to automatically change to tablet mode that's maybe making mine do it? I usually put my computer to sleep at the end of the workday, and every time I reopen it, I have to go to about:support, hit "Refresh", then it locks up so I have to hit CTRL+ALT+DLT and reopen it. Only then does the bar at top work....until next time I open it.

I don't have a "settings" function when I hit the Windows button. I have to use the control panel, but I couldn't locate anything about a tablet. Maybe because it's Windows 7? Guess it doesn't matter since it didn't fix your problem anyway. I don't understand why we can't get support on this issue. I really appreciate your reply, though.

I still do not know what causes this problem, but here is how I fixed it:

This problem appeared after I replaced my hard drive and reloaded Windows 10 and all software, including firefox on the new drive. But I had forgotten to replace the hosts file, with the custom I file I use to block known bad sites and ad sites. After fixing the hosts file, I have not had the problem for a few days. I assume the hosts file is blocking the site that is somehow providing the malware.

Verdae said

After an hour or so, right click to bring up context menu does not work and the top menu shows but is not selectable on firefox. I can only fix it by restarting firefox, but the problem reappears after a few hours. Click and hold to bring up context menu stops working too. Also the 3 bars on the right side of the address bar that bring up menu options also becomes unselectable. I made these changes to FF to try and fix this problem: dom.event.contextmenu.enabled;false ui.click_hold_context_menus;true services.sync.prefs.sync.dom.event.contextmenu.enabled;false dom.disable_window_open_feature.menubar;true These problems began a few weeks ago after disk drive problems forced me to replace my main drive and reload Windows 10 and all software, including firefox. Thanks!

Glad to see you solved it, but I doubt if it is the solution. If it was, that would mean a website is capable of causing this behavior in Firefox by default, as well as without installing malware. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I have never seen it. I would think of some script running instead.

You may be better off inspecting the Browser Console what happens exactly, scan for malware (yes, even on the fairly fresh OS install) or prevent installing some software as a default step (such as particular security / antivirus software) to get to the bottom of the issue. If it was my system, I’d be curious what is blocked now but able to trigger it. ;-)

Fwiw: there may be better solutions than editing and updating the OS’s hosts file, such as using add-ons that use the same method but without affecting that (default) file - I think uBlock Origin can do this - or using a .pac script.

Please keep us posted in case the issue returns.

The issue has never gone away. I still have it. I also don't understand what you are telling me to do. All of us aren't computer experts. We just understand how to work the programs .... not how the programs work. I use Webroot antivirus, and it has picked up nothing. What exactly are you suggesting I do? I have Windows 7, not 10.

Replacing a hosts file is a little complicated. Read this article about changing the hosts file and if you think you can locate and modify your hosts file, I will tell what I did if you like, but after I wait a few more days to see if the problem does not return: https://support.rackspace.com/how-to/modify-your-hosts-file/

Mary9 said

The issue has never gone away. I still have it. I also don't understand what you are telling me to do. All of us aren't computer experts. We just understand how to work the programs .... not how the programs work. I use Webroot antivirus, and it has picked up nothing. What exactly are you suggesting I do? I have Windows 7, not 10.

Here is the big mystery posed by this problem, as I see it: 1. It affects every tab, not just one tab as I would expect if it were a javascript problem. 2. It affects the mouse (right click and press and hold left click), the keyboard (context menu button), and the firefox menu button (becomes unselectable). That seems very sophisticated. 3. The problem disappears when I stop and restart Firefox and only reappears after some time has passed, several sites visited.

Number 1 tells me it must not be a Java script problem, else it would only affect one tab a time, not every tab and I usually have a lot of tabs open. Number 3 tells me that the problem must be rooted in firefox, maybe a virus that injects something in firefox in memory, instead of the executable file. But that seems way too sophisticated for the little trouble that this is causing. More info: I use msoft's Windows Defender and added Bitedefender after the problem started appearing, which found some phishing attempts by veruda. com, but did not solve the problem. I use Chrome browser for sites where noscript is too big of a PIA to bother with, and Chrome is not affected/does not show this behavior.

This problem is beyond my pay grade.

Oh, and all a hosts file does is act like a local DNS server. If something stops working, a quick search of the hosts file for that domain will suffice to see if the problem is rooted there. And it is a faster lookup that using an external site that may get inundated with traffic.

Cheers!

Tonnes said

Glad to see you solved it, but I doubt if it is the solution. If it was, that would mean a website is capable of causing this behavior in Firefox by default, as well as without installing malware. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I have never seen it. I would think of some script running instead. You may be better off inspecting the Browser Console what happens exactly, scan for malware (yes, even on the fairly fresh OS install) or prevent installing some software as a default step (such as particular security / antivirus software) to get to the bottom of the issue. If it was my system, I’d be curious what is blocked now but able to trigger it. ;-) Fwiw: there may be better solutions than editing and updating the OS’s hosts file, such as using add-ons that use the same method but without affecting that (default) file - I think uBlock Origin can do this - or using a .pac script. Please keep us posted in case the issue returns.

I recently started my own question about this - happening every three days or so but then it stopped. As soon as I said "solved" it happened again.

Today it's happened three times in about four hours. There's no clue when it happens or when it's going to happen.

You seriously expect people to disable add-ons individually and see if it still happens? That could take weeks. Until today it was about every three days so disable an add-on and wait, what, 4 or 5 days then enable it and try a different one? Seriously?

Monsieur_Rioux said

You seriously expect people to disable add-ons individually and see if it still happens? That could take weeks. Until today it was about every three days so disable an add-on and wait, what, 4 or 5 days then enable it and try a different one? Seriously?

Yes, seriously, or just disable the suspicious one, or only enable the ones you really need, but this would not be the only way to solve your issue quickly.

First, and it may sound odd, it’s the user’s responsibility to install add-ons, and so they can run into trouble when add-ons have flaws. Running Firefox in its Safe Mode (which disables all add-ons including non-default themes!) is the first and easy step to take in order to find out if any of them cause trouble and the issue is not in Firefox, but usually such issues occur right away. Unfortunately this one turns up after a while, which makes it a little harder.

Please don’t be surprised about it - this is not something Mozilla or Firefox is responsible for, even if add-ons are signed by Mozilla and passed the review process. Issues may also be caused by a particular combination of add-ons, e.g. when using a WebExtension and a legacy add-on (which happened recently with a particular version of uBlock Origin if I remember well.) Please understand the concept of add-ons: if you buy a car and you decide to replace the tyres because they make the car look better in your opinion even though the tyres are suspicous and known to explode in 3 weeks, it’s your choice to not replace them in order to avoid that and be safe, and to be sure it’s not the car causing it. It’s not the car manufacturer who’s responsible for checking the tyres and "do debugging" on them.

Users running into issues with add-ons can however speed this up, which is also what some forum helpers may do. Just check the reviews for any add-ons installed on addons.mozilla.org, or on their own forums. You may find reported issues there, so you can have your answer within 5 minutes and just disable or update the one responsible or find a replacement. As written above, it may also be possible to check the Browser Console in Firefox and see error reports that may point to a specific add-on, or another cause.

In other words, if you want to blame Firefox, you have to a) be sure the issue does also occur when no add-ons are installed (so you can run 55.0.3. with a separate profile), and b) be sure any add-ons are compatible with that Firefox version and do not cause issues even if they are. From that perspective, if an add-on version does not cause an issue in 54.0.1, that does not mean it is fully compatible since their developers sometimes do not check for this properly. As a guess: NoScript and Tab Mix Plus are add-ons that may cause issues, or just require one of their options to be set properly.

Looking at your own question, I’d advise to provide info if someone asked for it so we can see more or even install the same add-ons in order to reproduce the issue - if not, things will be a mystery for us as much as they will for you. Therefor follow any steps as suggested in that (or any) question even if they don’t make sense to you, and read about any links pointed to. You were asked to provide several pieces of info exposing installed add-ons and other things, as well as to crash Firefox intentionally in order to find out more, but I only see complaints about what currently happens, which is not really useful - not for us, not for developers. It would also be best to continue there rather than in another question.

We’re trying to help people out, not to bug them, and providing such info and following steps is intended to speed that up. Your issue could have been resolved in August. ;)

@verdae, is your issue still valid? If not, please unmark this question’s solution. Btw, I know what a hosts file does, but again, adding entries there is not the solution to this issue but would merely be an unreliable workaround.

No it doesn't sound odd for it to be my responsibility. But there is a difference when everything goes fine and then it stops being fine following an update and when there has been no change in add-on settings or indeed no other change, as in no add-ons added.

That rather sounds as if the cause is the update.

Look, my original post said it had been happening every 3 days or so. And then when it looked like it was no longer a problem it didn't happen for over a week.

So let's say I have to muck around with removing or adding back an add-on to try to identify what's to blame. I'd have to let it go for something like 10 days to play safe, to rule out that there hadn't just been a lucky period.

For each add on. I have about 6 that are essential for day to day use. Not just day to day use, more sanity! Maybe there are a couple I could disable until actually needed.

So that suggestion could take two or three months.

Nah, I'll just stick with control C/V in the meantime and hope a future version of FF fixes it.

As for providing information originally requested....I did.

I have no add-ons. How do you explain that? I'm still having issues as well.

Well I still have the problem. After about three days it reappeared. I only use two addons which I disabled one at a time, and that did not help.

Back to the drawing board.

I will try safe mode tomorrow. I may also disable flash.

Safe Mode also turns off hardware acceleration, so try disabling only that while running Firefox in regular mode and restart it. I should have mentioned it above.

I’ve seen missing submenu issues when hardware acceleration was enabled and with Intel graphics. Your system info reports Intel too but regardless, you could check for graphics driver updates that may fix known issues (with FF acceleration enabled). See the same KB article for more info.

Also see Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems.

(...) I suddenly recall there is a response template for this:

Try disabling graphics hardware acceleration in Firefox. Since this feature was added to Firefox it has gradually improved but there are still a few glitches.

You will need to restart Firefox for this to take effect so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.,) and then perform these steps:

In Firefox 54 and below:

1. Click the menu button and select Options (Windows) or Preferences (Mac, Linux).
2. Select the Advanced panel and the General tab.
3. Uncheck Use hardware acceleration when available.
4. Close Firefox completely and then restart Firefox to see if the problem persists.

In Firefox 55 and above:

1. Click the menu button and select Options (Windows) or Preferences (Mac, Linux).
2. Select the General panel.
3. Under Performance, uncheck Use recommended performance settings. Additional settings will be displayed.

   

4. Uncheck Use hardware acceleration when available.
5. Close Firefox completely and then restart Firefox to see if the problem persists.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

If the problem is resolved, you should check for updates for your graphics driver by following the steps mentioned in these Knowledge base articles:

• Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems

• Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL

Subject: FF 56.01 (and now 56.02) loses response to right clicks and some left clicks after resuming from hibernation, other browsers are fine.

The OS is Win 7 Home Premium, 64-bit, up to date. The problem is only with FF. I can select an open tab, or add a new tab, or change sites of an open tab, using the bookmarks toolbar, if the bookmark isn't in a folder, as the folder doesn't open. right click works no where except in the Active Title Bar of FF -- no right click in an open site (such as google.com); also no right click on a tab, or a bookmark or in the toolbar of the window (File, Edit, View, History, Bookmarks, Tools, Help) if I left click the visual indication is that it has been clicked on, but nothing opens; left clicking again reverses that indication.

similarly, none of the shortcuts work -- I can add a bookmark, or go to the home page, but that's all. have also realized that when I try to close FF, I can't without using the Task Manager -- after I click the x to close the window, FF loses focus, but remains on-screen; if I then try again, I get the familiar ding! which usually means a program is waiting for a response in a popup window, which of course is nowhere to be found. all of my add-ons are disabled, Extensions, Appearance, Plugins; I've done a Refresh FF, and that did not help.. iirc, this happened around one or 2 updates ago; if I close FF and re-open, all is fine; and as the subject says, it's only FF. I've gone thru the disabling hardware acceleration exercise, that didn't help. Any thoughts or suggestions as to a fix? I can always go back to a previous version, if necessary, but as Monsieur_Rioux said on 16-Sep-2017, it seems odd when everything which had been working fine suddenly changes after an update, with no other changes having been made to the system. thanks in advance, Rick

Hi rrtid54, since your issues started recently, you might be experiencing something different.

One of the main effects of the Firefox 56.0.1 update was to migrate 64-bit Windows users from the traditional 32-bit version of Firefox to the 64-bit version. We've received a number of puzzling reports of Firefox either not starting (probably due to incompatibilities with 64-bit drivers that Firefox expects/requires) or not loading any pages after this migration. While I don't know that hibernation/sleep issues have been traced to the migration, there definitely are some unexpected glitches.

If the usual investigation doesn't yield any solutions, it is worth trying a return to 32-bit Firefox.

While normally this kind of change is seamless -- the installer detects your existing data and preserves everything -- you might want to make a backup "just in case."

• Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles
• How to opt out of 32-bit Firefox migration to 64-bit

Note: If you decide to try 64-bit Firefox on the same system at some point in the future, see: How to switch from 32-bit to 64-bit Firefox.

thanks for the reply; in my case, I had had both 32=bit and 64-bit FF on my laptop, and at some point over the summer the 32-bit version disappeared -- don't know if that's a factor or not, but I'll look at your links and see what happens. Again, thanks!