If it worked for you that has to be good.

Normally use of cleaners and especially Registry cleaners would not be recommended for trying to solve Firefox issues.

There is always the possibility of unwanted side effects. Registry damage. Slowdowns due to removal of cache. Inadvertent removal of passwords or history items or downloads would not be unknown.

For more conventional solutions see

• Troubleshoot Firefox crashes (closing or quitting unexpectedly)
• Avoid crashes - Tips and tricks
• Adobe Flash plugin has crashed - Prevent it from happening again
• Firefox hangs or is not responding - How to fix

Afraid I spoke too soon... the problem has come back with a vengeance.

This doesn't just concern Firefox, I tried installing a different browser and the hang still persists. Firefox also takes persuading to open, multiple clicks on the icon and while the loading wheel appears, nothing happens.

This leads me to open up the Task Manager and repeatedly end the process until it finally boots up.

The hang also happens when I right-click to save an image.

Thanks John but I've already covered those links and they don't seem to help with the issue. I'm completely stumped.

If this is happening on other places besides Firefox, this is most likely a Windows issue.

Please ensure that all of your drivers are up-to-date.

Sometimes a problem with Firefox may be a result of malware installed on your computer, that you may not be aware of.

You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:

• Microsoft Safety Scanner
• MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware
• TDSSKiller - AntiRootkit Utility
• Hitman Pro
• ESET Online Scanner

Microsoft Security Essentials is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista/XP if you don't already have one.

Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

OK as it is not exclusively Firefox it probably is not really a Firefox support question. All I can really do is offer general advice rather than the detailed help you may need.

• Does the problem only occur when browsing the web ?
• Does it only occur when uploading files, not when downloading ?
  Probably worth remembering your upload speeds are likely a lot slower than download speeds. Has it previously worked ok ?

(In fact you mention saving images is a problem)

• Roughly what is your usual expected download speed. (Presumably you use broadband and not for instance an old dialup line)

There are still very many possibilities It could still be a general issue such as hard drive or RAM problems. What about general connectivity problems with the net can you try from another location. Or with another device from the same location. Is it a WiFi or router issue ?

Malware is a potential problem, that may cause all sorts of issues.

• Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware
• Malware and other issues are mentioned in this long article http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Other_solutions

You mention Hangs / Crashes are you actually seeing the Mozilla Firefox crash reporter at all ? What is happening is the browser remaining open but not responding ?

Thanks for the suggestions. I've already checked that my drivers are up to date and ran countless malware scans. My computer is completely clean.

I would say yes the problem seems to only be when browsing the net, since I can open file locations on my desktop which is the File Manager I'm having trouble with.

The problem occurs when I go to upload a file or save it to my Harddrive. Downloading (thankfully!) causes no issues. I downloaded MozBackup to save my setting and tried a completely fresh installation of Firefox, deleting all of my old preferences so it was a clean slate. The problem persists.

What happens exactly is when I right click to 'Save file as' or click on a 'Browse' button to upload a file, (Like the one under this very message box) the File Manager either comes up as a white box and infinite loading occurs. Or it simply doesn't come up at all and again, infinite spinning wheel.

Firefox will say that it is not responding which leads me to close it down when prompted, or if I click again a few times within the browser, crashes to desktop. No crash report prompt is given, nothing.

I haven't made any major updates or downloads, I simply turned on my computer yesterday and the problem was there. I am indeed hooked up to directly to my router, I have fibreoptic so I'd be highly surprised if my net was causing the problem. I've already disconnected it from the internet to test this out, in which case a box came up saying 'An error has occured' when I tried again, or again, made Firefox hang.

I have a tablet and android phone I could test this on, but no other location... Although I could pack up my desktop and move it to a buddy-of-mines house.

Hope I included as much information as possible, but I'm considering doing a re-installation of Windows...

Edit: Here's the crash data I managed to pull:

Description:

 A problem caused this program to stop interacting with Windows.

Problem signature:

 Problem Event Name:	AppHangB1
 Application Name:	firefox.exe
 Application Version:	27.0.1.5156
 Application Timestamp:	52fc0faa
 Hang Signature:	ebff
 Hang Type:	513
 OS Version:	6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
 Locale ID:	2057
 Additional Hang Signature 1:	ebff8596d793efe6c62264aa4890ff2a
 Additional Hang Signature 2:	5b84
 Additional Hang Signature 3:	5b84624d88dcb41872676dd9aadf33e7
 Additional Hang Signature 4:	8983
 Additional Hang Signature 5:	8983912d488ce0153375cb120f00d73c
 Additional Hang Signature 6:	918f
 Additional Hang Signature 7:	918ffdfb9dd041aa5f2e3ae316d6c254

Have you tried resetting your router ?
And checking out Firewall and security settings ?

I know there has been recent mention of Window updates affecting things also.

The hang details relate to Windows and you would probably be best asking on a Windows forum about them even if they relate to Firefox.

If the problem occurs when you to browse to a location locally to find a file to upload that does not sound like a Firefox issue. You could try with IE does that work ok for uploading files. If that also misbehaves it is surely not a Firefox problem.

_{Probably not related, but unconfirmed Bug 988417 - can not browse when uploading a file in another tab
I wonder if the profiler would throw light on this issue ?}

Rather a longshot this suggestion but consider trying this.

1. Get your system into a state where you are not going to loose information, close open applications and documents etc.
2. Create a Windows restore point
3. Close down and then reopen your system.
4. Restore to the restore point just recently created.

There is just a possibility it could improve matters.

• A possibly related issue in thread
  Firefox stops responding when trying to "save page" or "save image"
  /questions/991630#answer-548841

See also

• http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/create-a-restore-point

Thanks for your help John, thankfully I managed to fix the issue. You were right, it was Windows based. I have noticed that there's a lot of people with this problem and almost no solution. So frustrating! For those with the same problem, this is what I did. I hope it'll work for you.

1. Started computer in 'Safe Mode with Networking'. Hit F8 on your keyboard while your computer is starting up, BEFORE it gets into Windows. You should be able to select this option. Check if the issue still persists. Hopefully not. It didn't with me so then...

2. I performed a Clean Boot of my machine, to do this hit start, type 'msconfig' into the search box then hit enter. Click the 'general' tab, then 'Selective startup'. Clear the 'Load Startup Items' checkbox. Now go to the services tab. Click on 'Hide all Microsoft services' then click on 'Disable All' for everything that is left. Click OK and then Restart.

To see screenshots of this process, go: here. And click on which OS you have. This will also detail what you need to do after you've done a Clean Reboot. Follow the instructions and I hope this resolves your issue.

While this is a Windows issue, because it mainly affects browsers the amount of troubleshooting about this in browser support forums is staggering. With no solution from what I can see, I looked for hours to try and solve this.

Hopefully this will help people who come looking around here with a similar issue.

Again, thanks to John99 and Wesley Branton. Sorry to have possibly wasted your time!

Good that you have a solution that works, so I have marked your post as the thread solution.

This seems a rather drastic step to take clearing all non MS startup items. I suspect that could have unwanted consequences for some users. Possibly it is a particular item that causes this and it would be good to know what that is.

As you say we are likely to have other users with the problem. Should you come across any better solutions or the reason behind this I hope you will let us know.

I'll certainly try to. I will say, oddly enough, none of my background programs or services seemed to be causing the issue. I thoroughly ran through them all and routinely eliminated them one by one. This took many reboots, and in the end when I put my computer back into normal boot up, without un-installing or deleting anything, the problem was gone.

Another user with the same problem stated that after multiple reboots how the issue seemed to have resolved itself. I forget the Forum in which this was posted, I've browsed so many. I have no idea if the issue will come back tomorrow, but I'll keep this thread updated. Fingers crossed it's gone for good.

This problem is quite widespread and seems to have no clear cause. A simple search of 'browser hangs when uploading files' or 'browser hangs when clicking browse button' shows this. I just sincerely hope that this helps someone out there, I felt completely useless in trying to problem solve this due to the lack of answers.

I found the page that I followed in full detail, so I'll leave that link here too. This is the one peeps with the same problem will want to follow: How to determine whether background programs are interfering with your games or programs.

SOLUTION (your mileage may vary)

I was experiencing precisely the same behavior.

Then, based on a comment by user "mattyjt" over at BleepingComputer (http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/505204/file-upload-window-hangs/), I disabled Bluetooth in the Startup tab in Task Manager, then stopped the three Bluetooth services in the Services tab (later, I followed this up with open Services.msc and setting all three to Manual).

That did the trick. Immediately (I didn't even have to reboot), I could use Firefox's file dialog again. Don't know why. But, reasoning out how file dialogs are typically called in programming, and seeing how your issue was resolved by disabling startup items, I began to suspect that it wasn't a Firefox issue, per se, so I began to google around without the word "Firefox", which led me to the BleepingComputer forum linked above. Hope this works for you as it did for me!