Hello,

The Refresh feature (called "Reset" in older Firefox versions) can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its factory default state while saving your bookmarks, history, passwords, cookies, and other essential information.

Note: When you use this feature, you will lose any extensions, toolbar customizations, and some preferences. See the Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings article for more information.

To Refresh Firefox:

1. Open the Troubleshooting Information page using one of these methods:
   • Click the menu button , click help and select Troubleshooting Information. A new tab containing your troubleshooting information should open.
   • If you're unable to access the Help menu, type about:support in your address bar to bring up the Troubleshooting Information page.
2. At the top right corner of the page, you should see a button that says "Refresh Firefox" ("Reset Firefox" in older Firefox versions). Click on it.
3. Firefox will close. After the refresh process is completed, Firefox will show a window with the information that is imported.
4. Click Finish and Firefox will reopen.

Did this fix the problem? Please report back to us!

Thank you.

This won't help. Firefox can't finish launching (even after 10 minutes of waiting). So I can't even get to the place where I can Refresh Firefox.

What I need is to get Firefox to display the Restore Session page, with the list of all my windows and tabs, so I can eliminate the problematic tab(s). How can I get Firefox to bring up that page when launching it?

Right it looks like you will have to launch in safe mode instructions below Hello,

Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Firefox Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that temporarily turns off hardware acceleration, resets some settings, and disables add-ons (extensions and themes).

If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu:

• Click the menu button , click Help and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.

If Firefox is not running, you can start Firefox in Safe Mode as follows:

• On Windows: Hold the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
• On Mac: Hold the option key while starting Firefox.
• On Linux: Quit Firefox, go to your Terminal and run firefox -safe-mode
  (you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)

When the Firefox Safe Mode window appears, select "Start in Safe Mode".

If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, theme, or hardware acceleration. Please follow the steps in the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article to find the cause.

To exit Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.

When you figure out what's causing your issues, please let us know. It might help others with the same problem.

You can set the browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes pref to 0 on the about:config page to get the about:sessionrestore page immediately with the first start after a crash has occurred or the Task Manager was used to close Firefox.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/about:config

That page is called about:sessionrestore so you could paste that the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it. However, when a session is resumed automatically, it's too late to do that...

Normally if Firefox crashes consecutively, it will give up on trying to restore automatically and show the "This is embarrassing" page with the list of windows and tabs. But perhaps due to the brief time that Firefox runs, that isn't kicking in.

If Firefox could run long enough to use about:config, here is where you would bypass the automatic restore:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste sess and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes and edit the value from 1 to 0 (that's a zero) and OK the change.

Now... in order to make this change, you might need to hide your session history files from Firefox. To avoid losing your tabs, please back up all of the following files in your profile folder:

(1) With Firefox not running, open your profile folder

This article has the steps: Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data.

(2) Check for a file named sessionstore.js and, if you find it, back it up to a safe location such as your Desktop. Then rename the file to sessionstore.old so Firefox doesn't find it.

(3) Check for a file named sessionstore.bak and, if you find it, delete it. This file is no longer used and it probably has a very old session in it.

(4) Double-click into the sessionstore-backups folder.

(5) Check for a file named recovery.js and, if you find it, back it up to a safe location such as your Desktop. Then rename the file to recovery.old so Firefox doesn't find it. (Note: if Firefox is running, this could cause an error in Firefox.)

(6) Check for a file named recovery.bak and, if you find it, back it up to a safe location such as your Desktop. Then rename the file to recovery.bak.old so Firefox doesn't find it. (Note: if Firefox is running, this could cause an error in Firefox.)

(7) Check for a file named previous.js and, if you find it, back it up to a safe location such as your Desktop. Then rename the file to previous.old so Firefox doesn't find it.

As a result of these changes, when you start Firefox, it should not be able to restore anything, and should start up to your home page.

Once Firefox is set up the way you want, quit Firefox again and copy the sessionstore.js, recovery.js, and previous.js files back to their regular locations.

When you start Firefox, assuming it detects that it had a problem, you should get the "This is embarrassing" page. If Firefox goes straight to the home page, try using the History menu > Restore Previous Session.