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FireFox won't launch on Mac after receiving a virus alert

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 7 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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I received an alert about a virus from Firefox. This would have been on Sunday 7/4. I figured it was some sort of a scam and don't remember what exactly I clicked, but it was something to the affect that I did not want it to do whatever it was that it wanted to remove the virus. I uninstalled FireFox and have tried reinstalling it numerous times and it will not launch/open at all, it will "bounce" once and sit in the dock. I have a MacBook running iOS Big Sur. Any help provided needs to be very specific in steps and instructions so I may understand what I need to do to rectify the situation. I need my FireFox back.

I received an alert about a virus from Firefox. This would have been on Sunday 7/4. I figured it was some sort of a scam and don't remember what exactly I clicked, but it was something to the affect that I did not want it to do whatever it was that it wanted to remove the virus. I uninstalled FireFox and have tried reinstalling it numerous times and it will not launch/open at all, it will "bounce" once and sit in the dock. I have a MacBook running iOS Big Sur. Any help provided needs to be very specific in steps and instructions so I may understand what I need to do to rectify the situation. I need my FireFox back.

All Replies (2)

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First, let's check your system.

You may have ad/mal-ware. Further information can be found in this article; https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-caused-malware?cache=no

Run most or all of the listed free to use malware scanners. Each works differently. If one program misses something, another may pick it up.

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Note that you should never click a button in such a scam alert, but simply close the tab or kill the Firefox application and not restore the offending tab on the next start.