Firefox Not Responding- Your Guide to Solutions

Things to do when your Firefox not responding and stops working. I have listed some frequently asked questions and solutions to Firefox’s functionality to help your Firefox experience get better

There is no doubt that Firefox is one of the most heavily used browsers worldwide. The browser has offered us with high utility and an easy design for a better user interface. Despite its great design and high delivery with efficacy, many users have faced issues with a common nightmare- “Firefox Not Responding”.

Common Reasons Why Your Firefox Is Not Responding-

Firefox’s No Response error can be caused for various reasons and at times for the most irrelevant reasons.

The most common reasons that can give you the “Firefox Not Responding” error message is-

Usage of many converters- This may include Word to pdf, Converters for the image, etc.
Usage of numerous plug-ins- There are many useless Plug-ins that slow down and cause Firefox to not respond.
The hijacking of the browser- Changes in the default search engines and automatic tabs that open a new search engine.
Infections in malware- Installing malware on your device

If your Firefox is showing “Firefox is not responding” error because of these reasons, you can simply follow these three initial steps. This should solve your issue if your Firefox is not responding for the reasons stated above.

Clean up all the Cache, data of offline website delete all the cookies.
In case your Add-ons are enabled, start by disabling them.
Turn up the Firefox in safe mode. (Instructions below)

Troubleshoot for Firefox

Most of the problems with Firefox can be settled by following the instruction for troubleshooting.

Back to Restart

This is the most common solution to “Firefox not Responding” errors. Most of the issues can be resolved by restarting the computer.

Clear Your Cookies and Cache

Many issues can be resolved that crop up while your Firefox is loading your WebPages. Many times these simple instructions to clear your cookies and cache can fix your issue-

Go to the “Menu” button Select “History” and click on “Clear history”.
In the drop-down of “Time range to clear” select the option “Everything”.
Select the arrow that is near the “Details” to list the items that can be cleared.
Select “Cookies” and “Cache” both.
Select “Clear Now”.

Restarting Firefox in a Safe Mode

This is the mode for troubleshooting by Firefox that disables all the hardware acceleration, turns on Default designs, default toolbar settings, disables the extensions, etc.

For starting the Safe Mode-

Select the “Menu” option.
Click help and select “Add-ons disabled”
Firefox will initiate Firefox in Safe Mode.
In the Firefox Safe mode dialog, click “Start in safe mode”.
Take a look if the problem still continues.
If the problem persists, follow the next option.

Re-Installing Firefox

At times Firefox is faced with issues from one of its programs. It is completely okay to remove and reinstall Firefox without being worried about losing ay Firefox Profile data (like Password and Bookmarks).

Step 1- Download the latest version of the browser from the Mozilla.org.

Step 2- Exit Firefox by going to the menu and selecting the exit button.

Step 3- Uninstall browser from your device.

Step 4-Delete the folder of Firefox Program.

Step 5- Reinstall Firefox.

Try to open the Firefox and if the issue persists, follow the next way.

Refreshing Firefox

The feature of Refreshing Firefox can fix many issues that come up while working with Firefox. This option restores your profile to the state that it was in before and save your information too.

If you can see the option of Refresh Firefox straight from the screen then select it or if not then visit the “Firefox About: Support” page of Troubleshooting Information.

Select “Refresh Firefox” button from the window that appears for confirmation.

Firefox will close for a while to refresh itself.

When it is complete a window will pop up listing your information.

Select “Finish”.

Creating A New Profile For Firefox

At times it is seen that the data that is stored in the Firefox Profile folder that is corresponding to essential data that is not removed by Firefox Refresh. They can be browsing history or bookmarks. Creating a new profile ensures that no previous data gets carried forward.

Other Reasons

If the problems persist, then the problem may be in the hardware or software of the computer.

Settling “Firefox Not Responding” Errors in Windows 10

Before trying to fix these issues it is necessary to clean the browser properly. So make sure that you thoroughly clean the cookies and the cache, delete the history from the Firefox’s history.

Restart Your Computer

This is the most common solution as was said earlier to resolve “Firefox not Responding” errors. Most of the issues can be resolved by restarting the computer.

Updating Graphics and card Designers

There are times when updating graphics can solve the issues with problems arising from the graphics card and the setup of graphics causing lagging of Firefox and slowing down.

Firstly, turn off the hardware acceleration and go the browser window.

Go to the Firefox tab.

Go to “Advance” panel after clicking on the”Options”.

There may be a check on the “Use Hardware acceleration when available”.

Unselect the option.

Create A New Database Place

At times Firefox shows “Firefox Not Responding” when you are downloading files and you have quit Firefox. The browser starts to hang up if the database place is corrupted. It is very simple to solve this issue. You just have to open a new database place. This will delete all your browsing history and bookmarks too.

Steps To Create a New Database Place

Go to the Firefox tab that is on the upper left side of the browser window.

Go to Help

Click on troubleshooting information

Find “Application Basics”

Show folder

Then alter “places.SQLite” to “places.sqlite.old”

If you still see that the files exist then start the Firefox again and Firefox will create a new database place.

Updating the Plug-in

If the Plug-in in out of date then too, Firefox may show you the “Firefox not responding” Error or may slow it down. So, you just have to re-start your plugins database and have the plugins updated.

To update, Go to the browser tab and select “Help”.

Click on the “Troubleshooting Information” option.

Move to “Application Basics”.

Click the option “Show Folder”.

Delete “plugging.datafile”

Move back to the Firefox tab.

Click on
“exit” to restart Firefox.

Type “about plugins” in the location bar that will show the list of plugins.

Next, to every Plugin, there will be an update Plugin Option. Click on Update to update al the Plugins.

Deleting Useless Copies Of Files

If there are many copies of Firefox’s Session Restore that that could also be a reason for “Firefox Not Responding” error. Delete all the duplicated Session Restore files.

Go to Firefox tab

Go to Help

Go to Troubleshooting Information

Click on Show Folder under the Application Basics section

Exit Firefox

Delete sessionstore.js and its entire duplicated files from the folder.

Set Firefox Back To Default

The easiest and straightway to fix this issue is to reset the browser back to its Factory settings.

The steps are very simple-

Open Firefox and select the Firefox tab on the left side on the top.

Click Help and Click on the Troubleshooting Information.

Select Reset Firefox

Click Reset Firefox that appears in the confirmation dialogue box.

Click Finish to restart the browser.

Other Ways To Solve This Issue-

There could be a possibility that you aren’t using Firefox correctly. There could be many tabs opened that are utilizing Java, Flash, etc. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc and it will open Task Manager so that you can take a look at the memory usage of Firefox that is under Processes.
It should not exceed 500-700 MB, even if there are multiple tabs opened. Do not open more than 20 tabs at a time as Firefox sends inactive pages to the Virtual Memory of Windows.
There could be an extension of Firefox that is slowing down the browser with useless RAM.For this boot the browser in Safe Mode. Then go to restart with disabled ADD-ons. This should solve the issue.
Do not clutter the Page File by running on too many games or starting a disk defragmenter, running MySQL, running Visual Studio 2013/Eclipse, etc. while you have more than 10 tabs active. There can be cache timeouts that may cause memory and disk access to slow down very much or totally stop that can cause the “Firefox Not Responding” errors.
The browser gets tired of waiting for the page to be loaded from disk and gives up. This can also happen when the space on the disc isn’t enough where the Page File is situated. This can be solved easily by searching for “Virtual Memory relocation in [windows version]” to move them, on Google.
At times, Disk fragmentation can be the issue behind causing the Error of “Firefox Not Responding”. Fix the size of your Pagefile so that it doesn’t cause a load of unnecessary reads/writes or to cause file resizes. You can take a look at the HDD’s fragmentation state. Go to My Computer and right-click on any disk. Click on Properties. Click on the Tools tab find disk defragmenter. Check your disk to resolve the issue.
Lastly, you may be having a malware on your system. You can use an anti-virus. If you already have then you can be ensured if that is the case or not. At times antivirus is also no a full protection. So it is better to check all options.