If at all there is one thing which even its fans don’t like about Firefox is the frequency of its crashes. In most of the cases, it is due to the add-ons you have installed. Here are some of the tips for fixing the Firefox issues.
Firefox crashes
Firefox crash could be because of various reasons but the most common culprits are the out-dated version of Firefox and the add-ons. Before trying to re-install it, you can try out the below steps.
- Ensure you are using the latest version of Firefox. Help > Check for Updates.
- Check if all your add-ons are up-to-date. Tools > Add-ons > Extensions > Find Updates.
- If the Firefox crashes even after doing the above steps, try launching the Firefox in safe mode disabling all the add-ons. If the browser looks stable by disabling the add-ons, one of your add-ons should be the culprit.
- Disable the add-ons which you suspect and try launching the Firefox in normal mode. If it crashes again, try disabling a different set of add-ons. Continue the process till you narrow down to the add-on which is causing the crashes and uninstall the add-on.
This approach has worked for me with a success rate of 90%. If nothing helps, re-install Firefox and make it point to the profile you are currently using. All these issues will be reduced to some extent once Firefox launches its “Per-Process browsing” and “Out-of-process plugin”.
Startup issues
Sometimes, Firefox fails to start with the error “The application failed to initialize properly (0x00005)…”. This error occurs when some of the core files of Firefox are corrupted. If the Firefox update was not successful, then there are chances that the core files get corrupted. To fix this issue, try to open the Firefox in safe mode. If it opens, update the Firefox from there. Help > Check for Updates. This should fix the issue. But, if the application fails to start even in safe mode, then there is no other go. Just re-install Firefox and make it point to the existing profile.
Profile loading issues
Firefox uses profiles to store all the personal settings, bookmarks and other add-on specific settings. The default location of the Firefox profile is %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\. If the Firefox is up and running, a lock file will be created within the profile folder. At any point of time, only one instance of Firefox can use the same profile. If the profile files are corrupted or deleted by mistake, Firefox fails to start with the error “Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system."
- If another instance is actually running in background, kill it from task manager.
- Check if you have write permissions on the profile folder. If not change the access permissions and restart the Firefox.
- If none of the above steps help, try launching the Firefox with the option “-ProfileManager”. This will allow you to either create a new profile or copy the existing locked profile to a new profile location. More info can be found here.
If you are facing any other strange problems with Firefox, check out the solution from Firefox support forum.
-- Varun
The biggest issue with FF is the startup slowness. To fix this, one of the workarounds is to compact the sqlite databases used.
ReplyDeletehttp://lifehacker.com/5344418/make-firefox-faster-by-vacuuming-your-database
for linux, see: http://gitorious.org/opensuse/vacuumizer/trees/master
@Sankar Thanks for the info. :-)
ReplyDeleteI find that if we use different profiles for different modes of browsing it will make the firefox faster. Eg. one profile for Work, One for Leisure. That will avoid many clutter in the window and a significantly reduce the issues with slow start-up. A different profile may also save you from reinstalling FF when it crashes :)
ReplyDelete