Firefox is one of the decent alternatives to Chrome and Edge. However, recent days Firefox also has many issues and crashes when you do important work. In most cases, it shows a pop-up without any option to terminate the browser. In this article, we will explore some possible fixes to the Firefox crashing problems.
Firefox Has Stopped Working Issue
In our case, we have updated the Windows 10 to the latest version with auto upgrade function. From that time, Firefox opens and shows the below message.
The message simply shows “Firefox has stopped working,” mentioning a problem caused the program to stop working correctly. It does not offer any other suggestion with a single option to close to the program.
After relaunching, Firefox will offer you to restore the previous sessions.
This was happening every five minutes unpredictably and showing the crash message. This was also annoying, as it will terminate the browser and you need to close the program.
How to Fix Firefox Has Stopped Working Issue?
We have tried few solutions that worked finally to resolve the issue. Here is a list of fixes we tried:
- Disable Hardware Acceleration
- Disabling Smooth Scrolling
- Disable Extensions like Ad Blocker
- Delete Cookies
- Remove Proxy Settings
- Set Standard Protection
- Reinstall Firefox
- Cleanup and Reinstall Windows 10
- Disable Automatic Update
Let us discuss each fix in detail.
1. Disable Hardware Acceleration
We mention this as first option as this turned out to be a final fix for us after we tried the other options. You can learn more about hardware acceleration in our separate article. Follow the below instructions to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox:
- Launch the browser and open “about:preferences” URL in the address bar. Alternatively, you can also go to the three horizontal line on the top right and choose “Options” menu.
- Scroll down under “General” section to locate “Performance” option.
- Generally, Firefox will automatically enable the “Use recommended performance settings” option.
- Disable the option to further hidden options.
- Now, disable “Hardware acceleration when available” option.
Close your browser and launch again to check this makes the browsing stable.
2. Disable Smooth Scrolling
If the first option does not work then go back to the preferences page. Just below the “Performance” section, you will “Browsing” section. Here, uncheck “Use autoscrolling” and “Use smooth scrolling” options. Check now whether the browser is working without crashing.
3. Disable Extensions like Ad Blocker and VPN
The extensions can cause you problem after Firefox upgrade automatically to the latest version. In our experience, especially ad blocking and VPN extensions cause unintended results and crash the browser. If you have ad blocker or similar filtering extensions, disable them and check it helps.
It is also good idea to completely disable all the extensions or use private mode to check the browser. You can go to “about:addons” page and ensure the browser does not have any installed extensions before you check.
4. Delete Cookies
If you face problem when opening certain websites then the most possible reason could be the cookies. The corrupted or changed cookies may cause unintended crashing of the browser.
- Go to “about:preferences#privacy” page.
- Scroll down to “Cookies and Site Data” section.
- Click on the “Clear Data…” button to delete all stored cookies on Firefox.
5. Remove Proxy Settings
The advantage of Firefox is that it has an inbuilt proxy setup to route the internet connection. This helps you to have two network setup – one for Firefox and other for your computer. Unfortunately, the custom proxy setup can also cause some trouble to the browser.
If you are using proxy, it is good idea to disable and check.
- Go to “about:preferences#general” page and scroll to the bottom.
- Click on the “Settings” button against under “Network Settings” section.
- This will open the “Connection Settings” pop-up.
- Choose “No proxy” option.
- Click “OK” to close the settings.
6. Set Standard Protection
Firefox allows you to setup different levels of security protection. Sometimes, setting up strict level can cause the browser to crash or stop certain sites to open properly.
- Open “about:preferences#privacy” page.
- Under the first “Browser Privacy” section, ensure to select the “Standard” option.
7. Reinstall Firefox
If none of the above fixes work for you then the last option is to uninstall Firefox. Go to Mozilla site to download the latest version afresh and install again on your computer. Check out our article on how to install and uninstall program in Windows 10.
8. Cleanup and Reinstall Windows 10
If you are sure, the problem occurs after Windows 10 upgrade then the solution could be clean installing Windows 10 again. We do not recommend this due to time consuming and it may cause other problems on your computer. Follow the instructions in this article to reinstall Windows 10 when none of the above options works for you.
9. Disable Automatic Updates
Well, this is not a fix. However, in our case the crashing problem start to occur after the automatic update of Windows 10 as well as Firefox. Therefore, it is difficult to understand which one is causing the issue. You can check out our article on disabling auto update in Windows 10. For Firefox, follow the below instructions:
- Go to “about:preferences#general” page.
- Scroll down and locate “Firefox Updates” section.
- Choose “Check for updates and let you choose to install them” option. This will disable the auto update and prompt you when there is an update available. In this way, you can control the auto update and easily understand whether the problem occurs after the update.
- You can also disable “Automatically update search engines” to prevent Firefox changes your preferred search engine settings during update.
Final Words
We hope one of the above-mentioned solutions helped you to fix the problem. We have also noticed the faulty mouse cause the browser to crash unexpectedly. Therefore, check whether you are seeing the crash message whenever you click on the mouse buttons.
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