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Firefox hangs every few seconds

  • 7 replies
  • 6 have this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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Lately, Firefox has been hanging every few seconds. Every 10 seconds or so, it'll just lock up, and the blue doughnut will spin for a couple seconds.

I've tried everything to fix it, to no avail.

Lately, Firefox has been hanging every few seconds. Every 10 seconds or so, it'll just lock up, and the blue doughnut will spin for a couple seconds. I've tried everything to fix it, to no avail.

All Replies (7)

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Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link} by holding down the <Shift> (Mac=Options) key, and then starting Firefox.

A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Is the problem still there?


Start your Computer in safe mode with network support. Then start Firefox. Try Safe websites. Is the problem still there?

http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Linux+Safe+Mode Starting Any Computer In Safe Mode; Free Online Encyclopedia


https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Firefox+is+already+running+but+is+not+responding

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-slow-how-make-it-faster

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-uses-too-many-cpu-resources-how-fix

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-uses-too-much-memory-ram

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-hangs-or-not-responding

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That doesn't fix the problem.

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You can check for problems with the sessionstore files that Firefox creates in the sessionstore-backups folder in the Firefox profile folder that stores session data. You can try to remove all files in the sessionstore-backups folder.

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.


You will normally find these files in the sessionstore-backups folder:

  • previous.jsonlz4 (cleanBackup: copy of sessionstore.jsonlz4 from previous session that was loaded successfully)
  • recovery.jsonlz4 (latest version of sessionstore.jsonlz4 written during runtime)
  • recovery.baklz4 (previous version of sessionstore.jsonlz4 written during runtime)
  • upgrade.jsonlz4-<build_id> (backup created during an upgrade of Firefox)

You can copy a file from the sessionstore-backups folder to the main profile and rename the file to sessionstore.jsonlz4 to replace the current file (make a backup copy of the current sessionstore.jsonlz4).

Firefox 56+ releases compress the files in the sessionstore-backups folder with LZ4 (.jsonlz4 instead of .js), so it is no longer easy to inspect them.

See also:

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So when is this problem going to be fixed? I've tried all of the above suggestions and many more - all to no avail.

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Try disabling graphics hardware acceleration. Since this feature was added to Firefox, it has gradually improved, but there still are a few glitches.

You will need to restart Firefox for this to take effect so save all work first

Then perform these steps:

Click the menu button New Fx Menu and select Options on Windows or Preferences on Mac or Linux.

Select the General panel and then the Performance tab.

Uncheck Use recommended performance settings & Use hardware acceleration when available.

Restart Firefox and see if the problems persist.

Modified by Adib Obaid

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I tried this already, and it didn't help.

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Boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support to see if that has effect in case security software is causing problems.