I changed my preferences and now Firefox freezes my computer when I open it--why?
i changed a few preferences (including clear browsing history, cookies, cache, etc. when quitting firefox) and it freezes. when i forst wuit firefox after changing these settings, it took more than ten minutes (wheel spinning) and i eventually forced it to quit. then when i reopened firefox, everything on my computer seized up. i could not even move the window aside or select "force quit". i had to hard shut down. when i rebooted my computer i opened safari first, then firefox. when firefox opened it did the same thing--froze everything, couldn't move the window, etc--except this time i clicked the safari icon and then was able to navigate to a force quit on firefox. how do i resolve this issue? i hate safari and want to resume using firefox asap. thanks!
Chosen solution
You can use this button to go to the currently used Firefox profile folder to see where you end up.
- Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)
All Replies (7)
It is possible that if Firefox wasn't able to finish clearing all specified data when Firefox was closed that Firefox tries again on the next start, so it sounds that Firefox isn't able to do this on a next start as well
Create a new profile to check if your current profile is causing the problem.
See "Creating a profile":
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Profile_issues
If the new profile works then you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.
cor-el, thank you for your reply! i tried following the instructions, but i do not have a "library" folder as described--please see screenshot. i am using os 10.6.8. thank you!
Chosen Solution
You can use this button to go to the currently used Firefox profile folder to see where you end up.
- Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)
i'm sorry. i'm still stuck. i don't think the button is linked up. 'help' in finder menu does not turn up a profile directory under troubleshooting information. and i can't access 'help' in firefox because the software is nonoperational. what am i missing?
Mac:
Profile folders are in one of these locations:
~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/<profile folder>
~/Library/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/<profile folder>
The tilde character (~) refers to the current user's Home folder, so ~/Library is the /Macintosh HD/Users/<username>/Library folder.
sweet. i've successfully interpreted that filepath and created a new profile, but firefox is still wigging out. it popped up a window saying firefox crashed on startup and gave the option to start in safe mode. i tried that and it brought me back to eternal spinning wheel state. force quit that and try the other option the window offered, which was reset firefox. this seems to have done nothing, though i do notice a second forefox icon in my dock with a bright little dot under it indicating the application is running. but when i click the icon, the top menu bar does not switch to firefox or otherwise reflect that the program is in use.
...but now firefox spontaneously came to life and appears to be functioning normally with all bookmarks saved, etc. thank you for your persistence, cor-el!