Firefox issues: becomes non-responsive after a while...

[VoodooDaddy]

First off, I dont like safari, so please, dont say "use safari."

I used a Camino for a long time but found alot of sites, especially with embedded flash or video, didnt work properly, so I switched over to Firefox.

I didnt have any problems for a month or two. But for a few weeks now, I have to reboot it at least once a day because it will become non-responsive. Ill click a link and nothing happens. And I can always tell when this is going to happen because pages will lose their proper layout and all the graphics. Examples below is Slickdeals. Clicked on it and you can see the layout is messed up compared to what it should look like.

Ive searched and searched for a solution and I cant seem to find one. Any ideas? I know, how hard is it to reboot once a day? Not very. But I just dont feel that is the answer. Thats more of a solution for a Windows user if you ask me.

Last thing, I only use 1 extention, and thats Adblock.

 

[iSaint]

I, too, have had similar issues with Firefox in the past month or so. I can tell it's locking up with links don't work whether through a bookmark or something on another web page.

 

[tizzo]

This has happened to me too but I thought it had something to do with espn.com since it usually happened while visiting that site.

 

[clevin]

Its really easy in your situation since you only have one extension

go to ~/library/application support/firefox, delete everything(COPY out your passwords first!!), and firefox will create a new profile. That should solve most of the problem.

 

[velocityg4]

For me, when Firefox starts to get bogged down I clear private data and that seems to work quite well. If you have passwords saved then untick the saved passwords box so it does not delete those. Sites that auto logon, such as MacRumors will have to have their username/password reentered, unless you actually saved there passwords.

Mainly the parts with lots of entries are:

Browsing History
Download History
Saved Form and Search History
Cache
Cookies

Only the Cache actually takes up a lot of space. The others are basically text files with a lot of entries. So you could start by dumping the cache.

This is what I do for the Windows version my Mac version really does not give me many problems.

Oh and if you are on a broad band connection this little trick will speed up page load times on some sites.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1299854/posts

 

[VoodooDaddy]

Its really easy in your situation since you only have one extension

go to ~/library/application support/firefox, delete everything(COPY out your passwords first!!), and firefox will create a new profile. That should solve most of the problem.

Ive seen this recommended in some of the threads Ive found about this, but it was always geared towards Windows users. I didnt know where the profile info was at on a mac.

Before I do this though, will I lose all my bookmarks after making a new profile? And if so, how can I back those up before hand? Thanks for the help.

Edit - well, I guess deleting everything in that folder will cause me to lose my bookmarks. Duh. I see there is a folder called "bookmark backups" and a file dated 10-13. Do I just save that file, then when the new profile is made import that back in somehow?

 

[skwij]

An easier way to save the bookmarks is to EXPORT the bookmarks from "organise bookmarks" first. Save them to the desktop, then re-import them back in.

 

[VoodooDaddy]

An easier way to save the bookmarks is to EXPORT the bookmarks from "organise bookmarks" first. Save them to the desktop, then re-import them back in.

Thanks. I was looking for an export option first but couldnt find it. Didnt know it was under the organize window.

 

[Sun Baked]

Look inside app support/your firefox profile and drag

urlclassifier2.sqlite

into the trash.

Edit: that used to be the old method for debloating Firefox when it became slow or unresponsive.

 

[clevin]

Ive seen this recommended in some of the threads Ive found about this, but it was always geared towards Windows users. I didnt know where the profile info was at on a mac.

Before I do this though, will I lose all my bookmarks after making a new profile? And if so, how can I back those up before hand? Thanks for the help.

Edit - well, I guess deleting everything in that folder will cause me to lose my bookmarks. Duh. I see there is a folder called "bookmark backups" and a file dated 10-13. Do I just save that file, then when the new profile is made import that back in somehow?

oh yeah

go into that folder, searching around and copy out the files.
1. bookmarks.html
2. signons2.txt
3. key3.db

these are bookmarks and passwords

once firefox created new profile by itself, just copy them back to its original place.