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Firefox takes 6 minutes to load and then does not respond so what should I do?

smoore2024
smoore2024
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After starting Firefox on my Mac (10.8) it takes 5 to 6 minutes to appear. A minute or so later the "Bookmarks and History system will not be functional because one of the files is being used by another application" message appears and Firefox either does not respond or responds very slowly to various mouse clicks and such. For example, I wanted to disable all plug ins and when I clicked on Tools and Addins it took three minutes for the tab to open and after 20 minutes still nothing had appeared on the tab. I've tried restarting Firefox, restarting the Mac, resetting Firefox to the default settings, starting Firefox in safe mode, renaming the places.sqlite file, uninstalling Firefox and reinstalling from a fresh download, performing a complete uninstall and reinstall in which I remove the Firefox folder from the Application Support folder after uninstalling, and relocating the plugins folder. I've tried just about everything in every Firefox support article that there is and nothing works. Any suggestions would be very helpful.Thanks.

After starting Firefox on my Mac (10.8) it takes 5 to 6 minutes to appear. A minute or so later the "Bookmarks and History system will not be functional because one of the files is being used by another application" message appears and Firefox either does not respond or responds very slowly to various mouse clicks and such. For example, I wanted to disable all plug ins and when I clicked on Tools and Addins it took three minutes for the tab to open and after 20 minutes still nothing had appeared on the tab. I've tried restarting Firefox, restarting the Mac, resetting Firefox to the default settings, starting Firefox in safe mode, renaming the places.sqlite file, uninstalling Firefox and reinstalling from a fresh download, performing a complete uninstall and reinstall in which I remove the Firefox folder from the Application Support folder after uninstalling, and relocating the plugins folder. I've tried just about everything in every Firefox support article that there is and nothing works. Any suggestions would be very helpful.Thanks.

All Replies (1)

Wesley Branton
Wesley Branton
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Sometimes a problem with Firefox may be a result of malware installed on your computer, that you may not be aware of.

You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:

Microsoft Security Essentials is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista/XP if you don't already have one.


Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

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