When a crash report fails to submit, it means the servers decided they don’t need that report.

About:Throttling “You're seeing this page because the crash report you selected was held back from submission. For statistical purposes, we don't need every crash report and sometimes we decline the submission of a crash report as a form of throttling." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Bug 1662317 About Throttling Steps to reproduce:

My Firefox crashed but did not submit the crash report.

Actual results:

I tried to manually send the report, and the system gave me the message: About Throttling

Expected results:

If Mozilla does not need the report, I, the user, still want to know what happened. How else can I fix or understand what went wrong?

I'm trying to assist a Vista SP2 / Firefox ESR v52.9.0 user

The crash reports might have helped. But . . . .

Ask things like; What were you doing at the time? surfing, watching a clip, reading something . . . .

Start Firefox using Troubleshoot(Safe) Mode {web link}

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

Use these links to create a new profile. Use this new profile as is. Is the problem still there?

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Navigating_to_the_profile_folder

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles

Type about:profiles<enter> in the address box.

Hi Fred McD;

Thanks for your prompt response.

The message Flyingshark saw when they tried to submit their Firefox ESR v52.9.0 crash reports looks similar to the throttling message discussed in the Bugzilla bug # 1662317. According to post # 9 of Flyingshark's Firefox Crashes After Some Time of Inactivity in the BleepingComputer Vista board the message stated ...

 "You're seeing this page because the crash report you selected was held back from submission. For statistical purposes, we don't need every crash report and sometimes we decline the submission of a crash report as a form of throttling. If you'd like to see your crash report, type about:crashes into your location bar and your report will be automatically submitted to our server where we'll give it priority processing."

... and they were unable to manually submit their crash reports from about:crashes. I don't want to tell them to keep trying to submit their crash reports if this is a known bug.

You mentioned in bug # 1662317 that your throttling messages happened with Firefox v54, which makes me wonder if the Bugzilla servers might be rejecting all crash reports from older Firefox versions. At first glance all the crash reports on the Mozilla Crash Report site at https://crash-stats.mozilla.org/home/product/Firefox are for Firefox v68 (the current ESR version) or higher.

Thanks for the troubleshooting tips, but if you read Flyingshark's thread over in BleepingComputer you'll see those same tips (e.g., reinstall Firefox, start Firefox in Troubleshooting Mode, create a new user profile, etc.) have already been suggested. So far Flyingshark has been reluctant to try anything we've suggested so I was hoping their crash reports could help us narrow down the cause of their crashes.

64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H2 build 19044.1466 * Firefox v96.0.3 * Microsoft Defender v.4.18.2111.5-1.1.18800.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.2.157-1.0.1562 Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

Firefox 52.9.0 ESR (Released back on June 26, 2018) was the last update for the old Firefox 52 ESR as it became End Of Life or EOL once Firefox 62.0 Release and 60.2.0 ESR were Released in September 2018.

You mentioned . . . . that your throttling messages happened with Firefox v54

But I also said it happens with the current version as well. That is why I filed the bug. So far, I have seen no postings on them doing anything.

I read Flyingshark posting on BleepingComputer. Here are some ideas:

> Let’s do a full clean re-install;

Note: Firefox comes in three or more folders on all computers. They are;

Maintenance: (Programs Folder) <Windows Only> Firefox itself: (Programs Folder) And two folders in the profile of each user on the computer for each Firefox profile for that user.

If you remove the Firefox folder, the user profiles would not be affected.

Download Firefox For All languages And Systems {web link}

Firefox ESR; Extended Support Release {web link}

Beta, Developer, Nightly versions https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/channel/desktop/

Install Older Version Of Firefox {web link} Be sure to read everything here.

Save the file. Then Close Firefox.

Using your file browser, open the Programs Folder on your computer.

Windows: C:\Program Files C:\Program Files (x86) Note: Check Both Folders

Mac: Open the "Applications" folder. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-download-and-install-firefox-mac

Linux: Check your user manual. If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it. See Install Firefox on Linux; https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-firefox-linux

If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder Firefox in your home directory. http://www.mozilla.org/firefox#desktop ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Look for, and remove any Mozilla or Firefox program folders. Do not remove the Mozilla Thunderbird folder if there is one.

Do Not remove any profile folders.

After rebooting the computer, run a registry scanner if you have one. Then run the installer. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ If there is a problem, start your Computer in safe mode and try again.

How to Start all Computers in Safe Mode; {web link} Free Online Encyclopedia

The problem could be the system is having issues with the RAM.

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

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-takes-long-time-start-up

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/quick-fixes-if-your-firefox-slows-down

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

MemTest Could you please run a tool from http://memtest.org/ in order to check the integrity of your RAM?

You will need a thumb or disk drive to install it on.

Do you let Windows handle the page file or did you set a fixed size ? Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Performance -> Settings

If you use a fixed size for the page file then try the former and let Windows handle the page file. How to determine the appropriate page file size for 64-bit versions of Windows {web link}

Hi Fred McD:

If you have suggestions on how Flyingshark can solve their Firefox ESR v52.9.0 crashes you're welcome to post in their BleepingComputer thread Firefox Crashes After Some Time of Inactivity.

I only wanted to know if Mozilla has an official policy that they will no longer process crash reports for unsupported versions of Firefox, since the throttling message <above> that Flyingshark now sees implies that they should still be able to submit crash reports manually for processing.

Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H2 build 19044.1466 * Firefox v96.0.3 * Microsoft Defender v.4.18.2111.5-1.1.18800.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.2.157-1.0.1562

Hi James:

I'm aware that Firefox ESR v52.9.0 has not been updated by Mozilla since June 2018, but this is the last Firefox version that is compatible with Win XP and Vista and it is still used as the default browser on many computers with these older operating systems. The IE9 browser that comes with Vista , for example, stopped receiving updates via Windows Update when this OS reached end of support on 11-Apr-2017 and only supports the TLS 1.0 secure connection protocol (although advanced users have found a workaround for this problem), while Firefox ESR v52.9.0 has built-in support for TLS 1.1 and 1.2 and is the preferred browser for many Win XP and Vista users. I am not condoning the use of unsupported operating systems and browsers, just trying to offer assistance to someone who does.

Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H2 build 19044.1466 * Firefox v96.0.3 * Microsoft Defender v.4.18.2111.5-1.1.18800.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.2.157-1.0.1562

I could only suggest you log into Bugzilla, go to the bug report I filed, and tell them. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1662317

Crash reports for very old Firefox versions are no longer kept on the Socorro servers and new reports may no be accepted, so it is likely that Firefox 52 crash reports are no longer supported and accepted as you can see in the version selector that starts with Firefox 68.4.1. This has nothing to do with throttling reports where reports are rejected when you already have send many reports with a specific signature.

Crash reports for very old Firefox versions are no longer kept on the Socorro servers and new reports may no be accepted .... This has nothing to do with throttling reports where reports are rejected when you already have send many reports with a specific signature.

Hi cor-el:

Thanks for your response.

If you read the entire "throttling" message posted <above> the last sentence states "If you'd like to see your crash report, type about:crashes into your location bar and your report will be automatically submitted to our server where we'll give it priority processing." The problem isn't necessarily that recent (i.e., less than 6-months old) crash reports are being held back from automatic submission for some users, it's more that the manual submission fails when they follow those instructions.

I agree it's likely that Mozilla has stopped processing all crash reports for unsupported browsers like Firefox ESR v52.9.0 (it would be nice if someone from Mozilla could give us a definitive answer about their official policy), but if that's the case then it's a bit misleading that the "throttling" message is still telling users with older browsers that their crash report will still be processed if they go to about:crashes and submit it manually.

Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H2 build 19044.1466 * Firefox v96.0.3 * Microsoft Defender v.4.18.2111.5-1.1.18800.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.2.157-1.0.1562

Hi Fred McD: If you have suggestions on how Flyingshark can solve their Firefox ESR v52.9.0 crashes . . . .

I'm not a member of that forum and don't want to be.

Crash reports for very old Firefox versions are no longer kept on the Socorro servers and new reports may no be accepted, so it is likely that Firefox 52 crash reports are no longer supported...

Hi cor-el:

I ran an advanced search on the Mozilla Crash Report site for Firefox ESR v52.9.0 for Windows (I filtered for the tag "52.9.0esr"; the tag "52.9.0 esr" with a space didn't return any results) and did find some crash reports for 2021, but almost 99% had the same "Crash in [@ OOM | small]" signature - see the attached image.

That would suggest that Mozilla is still accepting at least some crash reports for Firefox ESR v52.9.0. However, I don't know if the total number is low because of the Mozilla Crash Report site bug reported in FredMcD's open 2021 Bugzilla bug report # 1662317 titled "About Throttling" [i.e., where users who have had their Firefox crash reports held back from automatic submission (i.e., where the submission was declined "as a form of throttling") are unable to manually submit their crash reports for priority processing as instructed], or if Mozilla is deliberately rejecting Firefox ESR v52.9.0 crash reports unless they have a specific crash signature that is prevalent in newer versions of Firefox.

Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H2 build 19044.1466 * Firefox v96.0.3 * Microsoft Defender v.4.18.2111.5-1.1.18800.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.2.157-1.0.1562