Firefox crashes

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This article is about Firefox closing itself unexpectedly. If Firefox remains open but becomes unresponsive, see Firefox hangs.

When Firefox crashes, it may bring up some windows that include one of the following sets of text:

Windows:
  • Firefox has encountered a problem and needs to close
Firefox 2:
  • Quality Feedback Agent
Firefox 3:
  • Mozilla Crash Reporter

These windows do not cause the crash; they come up after a crash, however they all indicate a crash. Sometimes, you may get none of these and Firefox can close unexpectedly.

There are a number of knowledge base articles for cases where Firefox crashes in specific instances. For more detailed help, please see the article that best describes your symptoms.

  • If you get the crash dialog or window as soon as you start Firefox and are unable to load Firefox at all, please see Firefox crashes when you open it.
  • If you get the crash dialog or window when you try to browse certain pages but Firefox can work fine on other pages or if Firefox crashes "randomly" in the middle of a browsing session when you're not attempting to downlaod files, please see Firefox crashes when loading certain pages.
  • If you get the crash dialog or window when trying to download files or certain file types or when trying to save images or pages to your computer, please see Firefox crashes when trying to download a file.
  • If you get the crash dialog or window only when trying to close Firefox and Firefox fails to shut down properly, please see Firefox crashes when you exit it.
  • For other cases, or if you're unsure which of the above cases apply to you, please follow the general troubleshooting steps below.

Since crashes can be caused by numerous issues and can appear quite random, this article will focus on a few ways you can try to narrow down the problem as well as steps you can take to correct it. It ends with ways to get information about your crash to help Mozilla support staff when you get help.

Table Of Contents

Possible causes of crashes

Not using the latest version of Firefox

Firefox updates are regularly released and a number of the fixes are crash related. One of the first, and easiest, things to check is to make sure you're using the latest release. See Updating Firefox for details.

Problematic or out of date extensions or themes

Extensions and themes can often cause crashes and other errors. This is especially true if you recently installed or updated an extension. Follow the steps in the Troubleshooting extensions and themes article to determine whether an extension or theme is causing your problem. The support articles for various specific symptoms of Firefox crashes include lists of extensions that may cause certain crashes.

Problematic or out of date plugins

Plugins are programs that let Firefox display video and sound and do other things. If you find that certain, specific pages cause Firefox to crash every time you visit them, they may need a common plugin. Follow the steps at the Troubleshooting plugins article to determine whether a plugin is causing your problem.

Windows:

Malware: viruses or spyware

A number of different viruses and spyware are known to crash Firefox. Ensure that your system is kept clean of spyware and viruses. For more information, see Is my Firefox problem a result of malware.

Getting information about your crash

A number of different alert windows my pop up when Firefox crashes that can help provide information about your crash. This information can be helpful when you get help.

Firefox 2:

Quality Feedback Agent

The Quality Feedback Agent is used to provide Mozilla with key information. If you have the Talkback extension enabled, you'll have the option to submit an incident report after a Firefox crash. When you get help, the incident ID will be very helpful in narrowing down the cause of the crash and fixing it.

Firefox 3:

Mozilla Crash Reporter

The Mozilla Crash Reporter module activates on a Firefox crash. To submit information to Mozilla about the crash, check the box next to Tell Mozilla about this crash so they can fix it, then either click Restart Firefox or Quit Firefox as desired.


To access the Report ID, do the following steps:

  1. In your Firefox address bar, type about:crashes. You should see a window like the one below listing the crash reports that you've submitted.
  2. The report ID is the number listed, with the date and time to help you identify the correct report. It is also a link to the crash report. When you get help, having the report ID or the crash report URL will make it much easier to narrow down the cause of the crash and fix it. If you experience a crash multiple times, providing multiple crash reports will help us pinpoint the cause as well.
Mac OS, Windows:

Accessing crash reports if Firefox does not start

If you are unable to open Firefox, you can still access your submitted crash reports using another browser or on a computer that is unaffected.

To get the report ID URL, follow the following steps:

  1. Click the Windows Start button, and select Run.... Type in "%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Crash Reports\submitted" including the quotation marks and click OK. Open Finder and go to your home folder. Note: your home folder is usually the name of your Mac user account. From your home folder open /Library/, then /Application Support/, then /Firefox/, then /Crash Reports/, then /submitted/.
  2. This brings up a folder containing each of the successfully submitted crash reports. Look for one that you have submitted for the crash that you are investigating based on the date stamp on the file. Double click to open in a text editor.
  3. The contents will look something like the following (this is an example, the numbers will be different in your case): 
    Crash ID: bp-277ca492-ef87-40ea-b667-051b437f2b78
You can view details of this crash at http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/277ca492-ef87-40ea-b667-051b437f2b78?date=2008-10-10-40
  4. Copy the URL of the page where your crash report is located (the line of text starting with thehttp://) and paste it into another browser or type it into the location bar of a web browser on another computer. This will take you to the crash report. You can also provide this URL to a support helper when you get help.

Windows:

Windows crash alert

Windows will put up an alert with the text similar to Firefox has encountered a problem and has to close. As you're not submitting any information to Mozilla, support helpers will not be able to access the crash report when you get help. However, there is still a lot of useful information even on that popup that can be used.
When the Windows crash alert pops up, click on the click here link after For more information about this error,.


When the error details appear, copy down all the information from Error signature as shown below. Having this information ready when you get help will make it easier to narrow down the cause of the crash and fix it.




Based on information from Firefox crashes (mozillaZine KB)


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Page last modified on Saturday 01 of November, 2008 02:39:22 PST.
Contributors to this page: underpass , Callek , df1099 , Cww , Bo , AliceWyman , Chris_Ilias , np and tosher .
- This is a support/troubleshooting article -