Firefox Stopped Working In Some Websites

Discussion in 'Gadgets & Tech Talk' started by John Brunner, Feb 13, 2024.

  1. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Firefox 122.0.1 suddenly stopped working in a bunch of websites. These sites are always open in tabs, and worked fine all day long until an hour or so ago.

    This site still works, as do a few others that are always open/Home Pages. But Yahoo Mail stopped working ("No Internet Connection"), and when I open up a new Tab I get the "Pocket" article recommendations, but none of those sites will open. I enter search terms and get auto-suggestions, but when I chose one it does not open a Search Results page (DuckDuckGo.) Other urls I type in (like my bank) do not open. There is no error message, but nothing happens. Edge works fine.

    I am scanning for Malware, but I don't think that Malware Bytes would not have let anything through, and it scans every day. I wasn't anywhere "unsafe." I cleared the browser Cache, and that did not help. I changed the Network Setting from Use System Proxy to No Proxy, per an FF article. I shut down my laptop last night, so it's working off of a fresh boot this morning.

    Has anyone here experienced this before? It's a new one to me.
     
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  2. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Did you recently upgrade Firefox? Seems like the add-ons and extensions often get fracked up when they do upgrades. I haven't had any problems yet, but I do have annoyances like I have to turn extensions off/on on certain websites. Oh, and the add blocker for youtube doesn't work any longer; I have to use u-Block Origin to get rid of ads in videos. Being on the internet is a lot of work nowadays. o_O
     
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  3. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Firefox has never upgraded in the middle of a session...it always happens when I start it up in the morning. I'm scanning with Windows Defender now, but don't expect any negative results.

    Firefox crashed a while ago, so I'm gonna wait until the scan is done before trying to open it. I think the only extensions I have are one that lets me download videos, and AdBlocker.
     
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  4. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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  5. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    Do you have other browsers and search engines you can use @John Brunner ?
     
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  6. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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  7. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I'm using Edge until my virus scan stops and I can reload Firefox. It's just that FF has my passwords and shortcuts on it.

    First World Problems.
     
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  8. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    You can load the FF browser on your phone from the App Store. That way you can have access to your passwords if you need them.
     
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  9. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Thanks for that. I already have it loaded on my phone, but have to synch the two to get the PWs over to the phone, right? I don't save all of my passwords on FF, but I do keep them all on a spreadsheet that's backed up on a USB stick.

    Defender found 2 threats: a Hijack virus and a Trojan. I have no idea how they got past the Defender and Malwarebytes or when they were installed, but Defender successfully removed them with a single click. I've gone through a manual Trojan/Malware removal process before and it's quite laborious. I'm disappointed that the 2 threats made their way in, but am impressed at how easily Defender cleaned them off.

    I'm back up & running on Firefox.
     
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  10. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Yes, you have to sync the two Firefox browsers so that all current data is shown on each device. Glad you got up and running. Is your Malwarebytes the premium edition? Very odd.
     
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  11. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Yes, it's Premium 4.6.8 ver. The definitions automatically updated this morning. And Malwarebytes scanned my system as "Clean," then Defender found the Trojan and the Hijack. In fact,it automatically scans my system every morning. So does Defender, but just a Quick Scan. Maybe I'll send Malwarebytes an email with details. And maybe I'll change my Defender settings to do a Full Scan every day.

    I wonder if those viruses have been lurking for a while and got installed when I decided to shut my system down overnight and restart it this morning (since I rarely do this.) But one would think that the restarts during WIN10 Updates would have the same install-the-lurker effect.

    It's been every bit of 15-20 years since I've had a virus on my system.
     
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  12. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    The only weird thing that's still happening is on this forum. When I Reply to a comment, my replies often remain in the Comment box as though they are still Drafts. I just had to clean up the last reply to you because when I clicked on Reply below your message, the system appended it to my previously posted Reply in this thread. That's been happening for several weeks. It does not always happen, but I've often used the Delete Draft function to clear out the "draft" comment I just posted, because it stopped self-clearing.
     
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    Last edited: Feb 13, 2024
  13. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Hmmm. Maybe clear your cache and cookies for SOC? Log off/on and see if that clears it.
     
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  14. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I already did when I was having the virus issue...I cleared everyone's cache. I wonder if it happens when I have the same thread open in two windows. The draft may be getting duplicated in both, but only clearing out in the one I actually posted the Reply in.

    Lemme test it.
     
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  15. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Yup. THAT's interesting.

    The Draft remained in the duplicate tab and cleared out in this one when I posted the comment, but when I went to Reply in this tab, the Draft text reappeared with the quoted comment.

    I'll have to make sure I don't open the same comment in 2 tabs. Funny, that's not happened before in the years I've been here. But I guess it kinda makes sense, being the same URL.
     
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