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Preferences frozen. Cannot get to other sites.

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I open firefox. I go to preferences to clear cache. Preferences opens up. Everything frozen. Cannot access anything. Why?

I open firefox. I go to preferences to clear cache. Preferences opens up. Everything frozen. Cannot access anything. Why?

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You probably noticed a change in Firefox 38, switching from the pop-up Preferences dialog to a page-based system.

Could you test Preferences in Firefox's Safe Mode? That's a standard diagnostic tool to deactivate extensions and some advanced features of Firefox. More info: Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode.

If Firefox is not running: Hold down the option key when starting Firefox.

If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
  • Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

and OK the restart.

Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).

Does the Preferences page work?


If we aren't able to quickly spot the issue, you could try switching back to the old dialog for now. This is how:

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

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

(3) Double-click the browser.preferences.inContent preference to switch it from true to false

Does that make any difference to whether the checkbox is enabled?

(Note: I don't know whether the old dialog will be in Firefox forever or is a transitional feature. As you've probably noticed, the long-term trend is to remove things that pop up.)