Today I came across a Digg article “I Want To Love Firefox 3.5, But It Keeps Crashing On Me“. It made me wonder how in this age of technology would a mature browser be so vulnerable to crashes. Guess what – as a matter of fact 80% of the affected users are complainers and only 20% are doers. Mozilla has a rich ecosystem of support and resources. But it’s easier to follow some simple steps to figure out what is at fault.
- “Firefox is crashing” means a lot of things to lot of people. But to narrow it down to Firefox, you really must see if you can simulate the problem in safe mode. Someone is more likely to believe that it’s Firefox at fault if it still crashes in safe mode.
- But it is possible that it was not Firefox after all which was allegedly responsible for the crash. It could be one of your addons. Most of the addons at Mozilla are tested and approved. But the vicious mix of addons brings in new angles to the story. Two perfectly stable addons could create issues when used in tandem. Additionally there’s a list of addons with known problems. Try using Firefox with these addons disabled.
- Further it could just be one of the plugins. I had Firefox crash whenever I refreshed Gmail (the entire page). After doing some searching I found it could be the “Google Talk Plugin” I disabled the “Google Talk Plugin” and additionally “Yahoo application state plugin” which I believe have no business in the list of plugins. That fixed the crash at once.
- And by all means if it really comes down to it and you find it really is Firefox that is at fault, take the following actions:
- Note the circumstances when Firefox crashes – does it happen at random or a particular site or when you execute a particular task?
- Can you reliably simulate the crash at will?
- File a bug with the relevant information at Bugzilla.
- Additionally ensure that you are using the latest stable version of Firefox.
Essentially the point I’m driving is to be more aware of what’s really happening to your browser and being able to fix it than just tweet – hey Firefox keeps crashing on me.
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I tried the “Answer” add-on and sure enough, Firefox crashed. I had to “run as administrator” to load it so I could un-install “Answer” and consequently Firefox restarted with no problem.
Firefox 3.5 is really giving lot of problems to users, some guys are even using firefox 2.x coz they think its faster
Most of the time if fox 3 crashes it is because of the plugins the user has chosen to install. Uninstall fox 3 then download and reinstall the browser. Become very picky with your choices of plugins
i want to tell you that some times fire fox get this error uninstall it then download newer version of firefox or opera these both are good browsers you can download it from download.com
My Firefox browser won’t even open up. I click on it, and it tells me it crashed. It’s been doing this since last night. Yesterday, around this time, it was working fine. I have reinstalled Firefox 3.0.1 and it still crashes. I can tell you right now that I don’t have any viruses–just ran a scan, there’s nothing there. Any ideas? I hate IE and really don’t want to be stuck using it.
I have reinstalled Firefox 3.0.1 and it still crashes. I can tell you right now that I don’t have any viruses–just ran a scan, there’s nothing there
I will try what you have suggested as Fx crashes a lot with me and it has almost become unbearable. I will check which add-ons I have and do my best to uninstall them.
Wow, it is very helpful. I’m new to using firefox and have come across several times of crashing. The solutions you’ve offered is very informative. Thanks for sharing it.
Nice tips on dealing with firefox crashing. It is very informative. Thanks a lot for sharing it.
I’ve bookmarked your blog. Keep working.
Great tips.
Very useful and informative post !
Helpful post.
Sorry but since 3.5+ has been released it has been NOTHING but a problem.
I’, an iMac user running the latest version of OSX. I was running Firefox, it had all those groovy add-ons. There’s not much reason to run Firefox if you’re not goosey about some of its add-ons. That’s the problem with Firefox. The add-ons can be buggy, they make Firefox unstable, and slow it down to a crawl. Finally I got wise, reformatted my HD, rebuilt everything from scratch, sans Firefox, and now run Safari. WOW, it transformed my Chev II into a gogomobile! Try it, you’ll like it.
I have never had problems with firefox crashing
I really like firefox, but to say its the add ons is a cop out.
I don’t care if its the add ons, or firefox. I use firefox because of the add ons ( otherwise Chrome). I don’t have time to fiddle with all different combinations. Firefox should do more stack analysis to figure out the problem.