Before you try any of the below tips, make sure to always keep the Firefox browser up to date. It’s always a good idea since it will certainly prevent your browser from crashing too often and will keep your browser up to date with the latest features.
Using the Mozilla Crash Reporter
After Firefox crashes, you should see the Mozilla Crash Reporter. This is a dialog box where you can tell Mozilla what has happened so they can do something about it (hopefully). If you would like Mozilla to contact you about the crash, remember to click on that option as well.
If you want to see the technical details of the crash, click on “Details.” You can add any further information here if you think that it will help Mozilla fix the issue. The more information you can provide the better. It’s also a good idea to tell the company what page you were on when the crash occurred. That way they can see if the page you were on might have had something to do with the crash. If you choose “Restart Firefox,” and the crash happens again, there is a good chance that one of the windows or tabs you have opened is causing the crash. Select “Start New Session” and hopefully, Firefox will stop crashing.
Switch to Safe Mode
When Firefox stops working, you can also try launching the browser in “Safe Mode” to see if an extension is the problem. You can start Firefox in Safe mode by pressing the “Shift” key while it is starting, or you can click on the “menu button – > Question Mark -> Restart with Add-Ons Disabled,
and select “Start in Safe Mode” on the popup window.
Use Firefox and see if the browser keeps crashing as it did before. If it doesn’t, an extension, hardware acceleration or theme is to blame.
What to Do When Firefox Keeps Crashing in Safe Mode
If Firefox is still not stable even in Safe mode, the theme, hardware acceleration or the extensions are obviously not to blame. Mozilla suggests that you see the Firefox Hot Topics section to see if you can find a solution to your particular problem there. If you were unable to find a solution, you could always try to get help by using your crash ID. You can do this by going into the Firefox location bar, typing about:crashes and tapping on Enter. You should see a page listing submitted crash reports. Locate the latest crash under Report ID, right-click and select “Open Link in New Tab.” You should see a tab that will lead you to a page on crash-stats.mozilla.com. When it has finished processing everything (Look for the words Your report is being processed), close the report tab.
How to Reset Firefox
Resetting Firefox can also be very useful since it gets rid of themes, extensions, site specific preferences and search engines. Why is this helpful? Because your information is stored in a profile folder, and sometimes there can be problems with that folder. By resetting Firefox, a new profile folder is created, but don’t worry – you still have your browser history, bookmarks, cookies, saved passwords and auto-fill. To reset Firefox, click on the Menu button and go to “Question mark icon -> Troubleshooting Information.” In the page that loads, select “Refresh Firefox.”
Try reinstalling your favorite extensions one by one and see if they crash Firefox. If yes, then you will know which extension is the culprit. The same goes for the theme.
Conclusion
Trying to find the exact cause of a crash can be tough and may require the help of the experts over at Mozilla, but now you know what you can do when Firefox crashes. Does your Firefox browser crash often? Let us know in the comments. Image credit: Car Crash
