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Firefox crashes when trying to download a file

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This article covers the situation where Firefox displays a message about crashing when you try to download files or save images.

The crash message may look like one of the following:

Windows:
  • Firefox has encountered a problem and needs to close
3:
  • Mozilla Crash Reporter

Taula de continguts

Corrupted download history

Firefox can sometimes crash when you try to download files because its download history has become corrupted. If this happens:

  1. Open your profile folder:
    1. (Firefox 3.6): At the top of the Firefox windowOn the menu bar, click on the Help menu and select Troubleshooting Information.... The Troubleshooting Information tab will open.
    2. Under Application Basics, click on Open Containing FolderShow in Finder.
  2. From the menu at the top of the Firefox windowbar, select FileFirefox and then select the ExitQuit FirefoxQuit menu item.
  3. In your profile folder, find the downloads.sqlite file and delete it.
Linux:

Prism extension

The Prism extension has been reported to cause Firefox to crash when downloading files on Linux systems. To prevent this, you can disable Prism following the steps below:

  1. At the top of the Firefox windowOn the menu bar, click the Tools menu and select Add-ons. The Add-ons window will open.
  2. In the Add-ons window, select the Extensions panel if it is not already selected. The set of installed extensions is displayed.
  3. Select Prism to display the "OptionsPreferences", "Disable", and "Uninstall" buttons for that extension.
  4. Click the Disable button.
  5. Prism will be disabled when you restart Firefox.

Crashes when loading PDFs

There are a couple of know causes for Firefox crashing when loading PDF files...

Download Embedded extension

The Download Embedded extension can cause Firefox to crash when trying to load a PDF file. You can disable this extension by following the steps below:

  1. At the top of the Firefox windowOn the menu bar, click the Tools menu and select Add-ons. The Add-ons window will open.
  2. In the Add-ons window, select the Extensions panel if it is not already selected. The set of installed extensions is displayed.
  3. Select Download Embedded to display the "OptionsPreferences", "Disable", and "Uninstall" buttons for that extension.
  4. Click the Disable button.
  5. Download Embedded will be disabled when you restart Firefox.

User agent longer than 128 characters

The user agent is the text that Firefox reports to websites and external programs identifying its version. With some versions of Adobe Acrobat Reader, when Firefox has a user agent that has been modified to be unusually long (over 128 characters) Firefox will crash when loading PDFs.

  1. In the Location bar, type about:config and press EnterReturn.
    • The about:config "This might void your warranty!" warning page may appear. Click I'll be careful, I promise!, to continue to the about:config page.
  2. In the Filter box, enter the following: general.useragent. This will show only the preferences that contain the text general.useragent.
  3. For each of these preferences that begin with general.useragent, right-clickhold down the Ctrl key while you click on the preference and select Reset. This will return your user agent to the Firefox default.
3, Windows:

Norton Antivirus Office document scanning

Users of Norton Internet Security or Norton Antivirus with the Microsoft Office document plugin may find that Firefox will occassionally crash when downloading a file. You can disable this feature in Norton with these steps.

  1. Start Norton AntiVirus.
    • If Norton AntiVirus is part of Norton Internet Security or Norton SystemWorks, then start that program.
  2. Click Options.
  3. In the left pane, click Miscellaneous.
  4. In the right pane, under "How to keep Microsoft Office documents protected," uncheck Enable Office plug-in.
  5. Click OK.

For some users, the following steps are used instead:

  1. Start your Norton program.
  2. In the lower left corner of the window, click Options > Norton Internet Security or Norton AntiVirus.
  3. In the left pane, click Real-Time Protection.
  4. In the right pane, under "How to keep Microsoft Office documents protected," uncheck Turn on scanning for Microsoft Office documents (requires Microsoft Office 2000 or later).
  5. Click OK.

Alternately, you can disable virus scanning in Firefox using the following steps:

  1. In the Location bar, type about:config and press EnterReturn.
    • The about:config "This might void your warranty!" warning page may appear. Click I'll be careful, I promise!, to continue to the about:config page.
  2. Locate the browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone preference and double click it to change the value to false.

3:

Firefox crashes when attempting to perform a virus scan

A new feature in Firefox 3 is virus scanning with the system default scanner after files are downloaded. With some antivirus programs, this scan may cause Firefox to crash. You can disable virus scanning in Firefox with the following steps:

  1. In the Location bar, type about:config and press EnterReturn.
    • The about:config "This might void your warranty!" warning page may appear. Click I'll be careful, I promise!, to continue to the about:config page.
  2. Locate the browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone preference and double click it to change the value to false.


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Darrera modificació de la plana el Dijous 19 de Novembre, 2009 18:55:56 PST.
Col·laboradors d'aquesta pàgina: Bo , AliceWyman , Chris_Ilias i Cww .
- This is a support/troubleshooting article -