Firefox 3 Beta 3 Crashes — A LOT!
I’ve been using Firefox 3 Beta 2 for almost two weeks now. Other than a few minor glitches, it’s been a pretty stable release. I was generally pretty happy especially with its fixes on memory leaks, not to mention its sheer speed.
So when Firefox 3 Beta 3 came out today, I rushed to download the latest living-on-the-edge version. What a mistake that was… Beta 3 chokes and crashes on the tiniest things; page render screws up quite a bit; the bookmark menu is huge and un-resizable… I could go on.
On the other hand, the new UI is REALLY gorgeous and is very Leopard-ish. And again, the speed is amazing as does its memory management. I guess that means they’ll need a couple of more beta versions before 3.0 goes gold…. 
So now I am back with 2.0.x…
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May 25th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Yes, it is awful
Experiencing the same thing here.
June 9th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Tested FF3 which was excellent until I tried to open the AUTOBLOG.COM website and the FF3 stalled my OS 10.5.3 iMac to the point that I had to use the power button to restart and fix it.
Impossible to force quit FF3 in any other way–none of the force quit commands worked nor did logging out and logging back in again.
Couldn’t restart from the drop-down menu, either. So, after a successful power button restart, I replaced FF3 with the current FF 2.0.0.14 which is OK.
No harm done from the FF3 crash, but I hope this problem is fixed by the time it’s released.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:36 am
I can’t believe it.. I downloaded firefox 3 now (was released about an hour ago) I got this error message saying that I should report it and restart, I click restart, what happens? Firefox, comes up with the same message, tried everything, but doesn’t work
June 17th, 2008 at 11:48 am
I had that problem when FF3 beta tried to use the old user profile I had. I ended up having to clear out the old user data (backed up first, of course) and allowed FF3 to build a fresh one. Then I re-imported all the bookmarks, which were the only thing I cared about saving anyway.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
How can you get 2.0 back? Firefox 3 is crashing all day on me.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Download the appropriate Firefox build you want here. Search one of my previous posts and you will find ways to make FF2 and FF3 coexist peacefully.
June 18th, 2008 at 8:23 am
I have been a big fan of Firefox but the new version 3.0 simply sucks. It crashes on anything I try to do on Yahoo or Google. I think they need to provide the patch real quick otherwise, people will have get back to FF2.
June 18th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Same here !
Extensions : firebug, delicious and alexa sparsky
Firefox 3 just keep crashing (10-20 times a day !) and there’s no particular reason to taht !
June 19th, 2008 at 1:06 am
This version crashes almost constantly. Now even the older versions are crashing as well!
June 19th, 2008 at 8:32 am
Man, it’s good to see I’m not the only one with crashing problems (Firefox 3)…..I’m going back to ver. 2 for a while.
June 20th, 2008 at 12:53 am
I have found that by disabling Add-ons and then slowly bringing them back one by one that the crashes are stopping. Try killing add-ons for a day or two and see if it resolves.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:09 am
FF3 is blazing fast, but crashes TOO much. most of the sites i browse are simple, development blogs. i can’t believe this passed QA testing.
going back to FF2.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:39 am
Have you guys tried ditching the old profile and allow FF3 to build a new one from scratch as I suggested earlier? This should fix most of the crashes you are experiencing. Brian also made a good point about disabling all of your addons and bring them back one at a time to determine if they are indeed the culprits. So far my FF3 has been rock solid. But I did have to let FF3 build a new profile first to get over the constant crashings!
Good luck.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:54 am
YES ! I uninstalled FF2, FF3 then deleted all mozilla firefox profiles and content.
Then reinstalled FF3, default profile created. No plugins and FF3 started to CRASH !
I’m on vista. I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts and often it just crash because of a ctrl+t or ctrl+w, i don’t know if that helps …
This morning it crashed 5 times … GREAT !
June 20th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Im experiencing the same problems, always when I enter my partnerpage on google apps. I’m using vista too. what matters to get the record of downloads if the FF3 dont work well? for some time I will use saffari for windows. Lets see what happens.
June 21st, 2008 at 9:28 am
Same thing happened to me. Downloaded FF3 on download day and it crashed the moment I opened it. Uninstalled FF3 using appdelete but still crashed. So now I’m back to FF2 but it’s acting funny now. I’m on an ibook btw.
June 21st, 2008 at 9:51 am
Wow. I am really surprised there are quite a few number of people with similar issues that I experienced with FF3 Beta 3. Looks like Mozilla will have to release a fix in a hurry if they intend to see the market share rise for FF3. Thanks for all the reports.
June 21st, 2008 at 11:33 am
add me to the list…
I cant even bring up a simple cached page from google.
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:13 am
Yet another person with the same problem. If I had still been using Ubuntu, I probably would have unfairly blamed it for the crashes, but I am now using XP. At least with Ubuntu I could tell exactly what the problem was (e.g. segmentation fault).
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:14 am
Same sort of problems here, can’t pin down what exactly makes it crash. I’m still using Firefox 3 RC2 and have been having occasional crash problems ever since I installed. Not as bad as what some are describing here though.
I think it’s pretty ridiculous how they said RC3 was just a bug fix for Macs, and that they would still have a download for Windows but it would be exactly the same. I was thinking “where is the bug fix for Windows!”. According to posts above it sounds like that was a lie…
Also silly to try to get people to download RC3 when you tell them it’s exactly the same! I didn’t download because I didn’t want to risk more problems. Come on Mozilla, give me a tiny incentive like “It’s shinier!”.
June 22nd, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Yeah, nothing but crashes. 7 over the past 3 days. WOW!! Only had a couple with FF2 in 7-8 months. Need a patch fast for 3…
June 24th, 2008 at 6:15 am
I installed Firefox 3 stable version on my laptop and it keeps crashing on me too. I tried to open it after installation and it just won’t start. It made me switch to IE
. Anyone know where I can find setup file for Firefox 2?
June 24th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Firefox site offers a solution (it worked for me):
Quit Firefox
Do safe startup (hold down option key while booting)
reset the preferences and menus
restart
June 24th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
and for windows? what can I do?
June 24th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Windows > Start > Programs > Mozilla Firefox > Safe Mode OR
Windows > command > firefox.exe -safe-mode
Then reset pref menus etc…
Then restart Firefox
I hope this will work for me, 0 crash atm. It’s strange, i have installed a pure standard FF3 so pref etc should be default ? I think they have a bug in the installer and don’t say it !
June 24th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
It just crashed another time
:( 
June 24th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Is it just me having this problem - sometimes Firefox loads some sites very slowly. I tried logging into http://gmail.com and visiting http://chillwellnyc.com . They took quite some time to load.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:51 am
FF3 is bitter-sweet. I love all the new features (well, except for the address bar constantly searching everything while you type), but the crashes are almost intolerable. It’s becoming very unproductive for me to continuously restart FF3 on its every whim. Some situations (like doing too many things at once) I can understand - somewhat, but oftentimes simple tasks (like opening up a new tab) is too much for it to handle. Why can’t it be as robust as it’s predecessor? I’ll probably end up disabling most of my plugins, but I can’t do without firebug (well, I can, but it makes life so much easier).
June 26th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Yup same problem here and I did a fresh install and disabled all add ons.
Question is what Windows is everyone on? I’m on Vista whilst my friend on XP has no problems at all.
June 26th, 2008 at 7:44 am
I’m on Vista too.
June 26th, 2008 at 7:53 am
I am on XP media center edition. It’s a laptop. Firefox doesn’t even start (normal mode or safe mode).
I uninstalled Firefox along with data, preferences, etc and installed it again. It didn’t work. I uninstalled FF3 and installed FF2. It worked.
June 26th, 2008 at 8:43 am
Given this bug (and going by the search engine returns for “firefox 3 crashes” it’s a bug) and the fact that there is apparently a serious exploit in Firefox 3 Mozilla should be rushing out an update.
June 27th, 2008 at 6:14 am
I love(d) Firefox until installing version 3. Now, the damn thing crashes 10-20 times a day. FIX IT GUYS !!!!!!!!!!!11
June 30th, 2008 at 12:52 am
I downloaded FF3 on it’s release date too… sadly it unbelievably crashs way too much. (mostly while i’m trying to download a lot of stuff.. which makes it really bad cause then I gotta keep re downloading it.. Also it was missing a whole bunch of my bookmarks, luckily i backed them up..
I tried to install the Firefox Portable because I thought maybe it was all my plugins and old incompatible extensions that messed ff3 up .. and It seemed like it was workin okay for a while then started crashin like 10 times
Went back to Firefox 2.. but you cant load new Firefox3 bookmarks into ff2 :[
July 1st, 2008 at 7:06 am
I’m getting the crashes too. I’ve been a dedicated FF user since version 1, but this is ridiculous. FF 3 is really buggy. FF 2 crashed on me a handful of times in 2 years. FF 3 has crashed on me 10 times in a few days. To anyone reading this, don’t download FF 3 until they refine it. They shouldn’t have released this software when it wasn’t yet ready for prime time. This is the worst major browser release in my memory.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Firefox 3 crashed a lot on my iMac. Twice it crashed while attempting to print at different government websites. On the second attempt to print, my HP printer went off and I haven’t been able to get it back on! Never had any major problems with Firefox 2.
July 7th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
I finally got around to downloading FF3 and what a mistake it was! I’ve had it for about 8 hours and it has already crashed at least 8 times. I use Linux and am not used to programs crashing. I’ve already lost an important email I was writing in mid-sentence and it seems to crash on some of the most frequented sites of the web. (Gmail, facebook, etc) You would think a web browser would be capable of browsing the top sites. I’m totally disappointed.
It’s a sad day when I’d almost prefer to use Konqueror or wine IE over Firefox… :[
July 7th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
I switched to Opera. If they don’t want people emigrating to other broswers or older versions they should find a fix soon
July 16th, 2008 at 1:39 am
yeah mozilla really dropped the ball on this one the only thing to do is disable all ur add-ons and it should become more stable
July 16th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
We spoke and they listened and a patch arrived. Since installing the patch an hour ago I’ve not frozen or booted once from FF3. Anyone still has issues? The patch just appeared on my screen, I didn’t go looking for it. Thank you for listening and doing something fast about it.
July 19th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Looks like I’m not alone! I’ve been having the same problems with FF3.. I’m on Windows 2000 and ever since ‘upgrading’ to 3, I’ve been getting regular crashes. It starts with a pop-up box warning that “firefox.exe has generated errors…” I don’t have any add-ons. I tried going back to FF2, but it crashed too. I don’t know how to go about the recommendations mentioned above.. re-setting profile or getting the patch.
I hope they come up with some solution.. I really LOVED FF2!
July 20th, 2008 at 4:42 am
Hello, since 3.01 no more crashes, just update
July 21st, 2008 at 5:28 am
Sorry… I have the most recent edition, but it still blows! It seems to crash a lot when I’m trying to check my email (yahoo.ca). Really frustrating and annoying!!
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I thot i was the only one experiencing this overkill of crashes…god..even while typing the fox has crashlanded twice! in the beginning it felt like a vista problem…but everytime i try to open gmail it crashes…i cant access gmail becAuse internet explorer refuses to open it..and there seems to be some open security issue on IE which fucks up all the more…ok…i have now restarted firefox the fourth time after i began typing this thing out! please help..
July 23rd, 2008 at 5:15 am
The patch works. No more crashes since 3.01 version. I only think that tey take too much time to correct it.
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Actually, after reading some other forums, it looks like the problem is being caused (at least in my case) by the new AVG 8. I cancelled it as an add-on a few days ago and my FF3 hasn’t crashed since. Before that, I could only use FF3 in ’safe’ mode. According to some of these other comments, we need to wait for AVG to make some updates before it can be ‘friendly’ with FF3!!
July 26th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Oh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My firefox crashes even before I see one website. Its useless. I can see sites for only 10sites. Nah!
July 26th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
CORRECTION!
Firefox is working for me now.
I tried safe mode, reinstalling, disabling addons and reset everything to defaults. Firefox still kept crashing.
Do this: When uninstalling firefox, somewhere I had an option to delete old data. There is a check box you have to click. (somebody clarify this) It says that you will lose all old data like bookmarks etc… Go ahead and delete old data. I found some exe file was deleted. Then, install firefox 3.0.1. No crashes! Gmail, tabs everything is safe.
Woohoo!
July 28th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
I went back to FF2 after constant FF3 crashes. Mozilla has really set the bar low with this one.
Only thing is, after re-installing FF2, I no longer have any “Back” or “Forward” buttons on the control bar!
WTF IS UP WITH THAT?
August 2nd, 2008 at 9:24 pm
I am just fed up of Firefox 3 constant crashing practically every time I use it. I’m no techno-savvy person, so I’m just as perplexed as the next door snake charmer neighbor of mine…
When I discovered Opera had released their 9.51 browser, I downloaded it of course, hoping that it might offer me an alternative, and I’m glad that I’ve done so. Opera 9.51 is stable, fast, friendly and offers some ingenious touches such as ‘paste & go’ button on their google search bar. I’m not paid by Opera to ad this, I wish they’d do so, but really Opera 9.51 seems to be a much better browser than FF3. I’m a new fan.
Folks at Mozilla better work out FF3s shortcomings before they really start losing their loyal users.
August 4th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Yes its enoying me, im thinking of going bk to firefox 2 untill this mess is sorted out.
I hope i just never have to go bk to IE7
August 17th, 2008 at 2:05 am
I’m using FF 3.01 and it DOES crash a LOT!
What’s amazing is that it crashes in very simpleeveryday tasks visiting harmless sites, with no apparent reason.
Updates need to be a bit quicker else I’ll switch back to FF2.
August 23rd, 2008 at 7:03 am
FF crashes daily on my Mac. I know at least 5 times a day. And I dare not ever go to Myspace (it has never worked). But sometimes just when I stumble simple pages (ie. Yahoo!) FF crashes. I’ve cursed it so much. I just need a better option, or maybe just go back to v.2 because I like FF, but sick and tired of v.3 crashing. I’m beyond my limit.
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:10 am
Its crashing like anything. FIREFOX is the NEW EXPLORER! - I love firefox, and firefox 3 has some great features, but I haven’t been able to shut it down properly without a crash.
On top of that, has anyone else noticed that the “go” button from the address bar has been removed? now you need to press enter all the time and cant drag and drop addy’s to the address box and press go with the mouse. Pain in the arse when your reading stuff on the bed and away from the keyboard. Going to bed with the mouse wasn’t a hassle, i don’t want to wake up with a keyboard for my pillow though!
September 5th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
The crashing is just too much. I had to like start FF3 about 10 times before it started. Its a bloody mess - owww why did i download the up-date - everything was going so smoothly with the last version.
Well sod it you guys Im going to give Opera 9.52 a go for a month or two until this tripe is actually functioning.
September 10th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Yes, it crashes a lot, but is still my browser of choice. Hopefully they will implement a Chrome-like behaviour of closing only the active tab in a crash.
JackA, I always thought the go button was stupid as you type a URL and click enter to go there. I never tried the drag URL to address bar thing you mentioned until now, but if you do, an arrow will appear next to the URL and you can click it to go to that page
September 12th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Firefox 3.0.1 crashes on me about 5 to 10 times per day. Using Vista Home Premium. I’m a web developer doing lots of ajax, flash and shockwave. Never had any crashes EVER with FF2 but FF3 is so buggy it kills me. Hmm what browser to try next?
September 17th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Yep, I just tested Firefox 3 and Vista with a proprietary browser plugin and it crashes every time. Only FF3 & Vista, no other combination. When I disable the plugin, it stops crashing. Back to FF2 for me…
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:02 am
Yes, Firefox 3 is crashing an enormous amount. Especially from Gmail and Youtube and Facebook. So it’s related to more complex sites I think that use AJAX.
Pretty bad timing for Firefox because this opens the door for people to switch to Chrome or go back to the latest MSIE.
Am on XP. Firefox crashing about once every 20 minutes.