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Since updating to V31, Firefox will only start in safe mode, even with all extensions REMOVED.

  • 4 replies
  • 8 have this problem
  • 7 views
  • Last reply by niblet01

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I'm on Mac OS 10.6.8, and Firefox updated today to v31. I could start in Safe Mode only, so I removed all extensions completely and it still will not start unless I use Safe Mode.

I'm on Mac OS 10.6.8, and Firefox updated today to v31. I could start in Safe Mode only, so I removed all extensions completely and it still will not start unless I use Safe Mode.

All Replies (4)

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Hello, It seems that there is some problem in your profile. You can try by resetting your Firefox. The Reset Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its factory default state while saving your essential information.
Note: This will cause you to lose any Extensions and some Preferences.

To Reset Firefox do the following:

  1. Click the menu button New Fx Menu, click help Help-29 and select Troubleshooting Information.Now, a new tab containing your troubleshooting information should open.
  2. At the top right corner of the page, you should see a button that says "Reset Firefox"Button reset. Click on it.
  3. Firefox will close and reset. After Firefox is done, it will show a window with the information that is imported. Click Finish.
  4. Firefox will open with all factory defaults applied.

Further information can be found in the Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings article.

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

Thank you.

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I reset and it exhibited the hanging behavior on the way through resetting... so I reset it again, and that time I got the dialog about importing my settings,etc. I tried starting Firefox after this successful reset, and it did the same hang it has been doing.

Next steps? Thanks.

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Safe Mode has several changes from regular mode, including:

  • Extensions disabled
  • Hardware acceleration of graphics disabled (works around incompatibilities with your graphics card drivers)
  • JavaScript compilers disabled
  • Various customization files ignored
  • Probably other things I'm forgetting

Since a Reset didn't help, could you try disabling hardware acceleration? You can change this checkbox in Safe Mode, and then try normal again.

  • "3-bar" menu button (or Firefox menu) > Preferences > Advanced

On the General mini-tab, uncheck the box for "Use hardware acceleration when available"

This takes effect the next time you exit and startup Firefox up again.


By the way, is Firefox hanging, shutting itself down, or crashing when it doesn't start? If you get the Mozilla Crash Reporter coming up, you can submit the crash to Mozilla and share it with forum volunteers to see whether it points to the solution. Please check the support article "Firefox Crashes" (especially the last section) for steps to get those crash IDs, and then post some of the recent ones here.

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I turned off hardware acceleration and it came up properly. I'm guessing then that something that changed in v31 which doesn't like my hardware acceleration, since it was working fine prior to the update. I haven't had any time to mess around to see if the effects of this being off are noticeable.

What it was doing was launching bringing up the top menu bar and then just.. kinda... wandering off and thinking about Cupertino. I got a wait cursor (beach ball) and the dock and System Profiler said that it wasn't responding.

Are there next steps? Thanks!