How in the Tech

Diagnose Firefox Problems with Safe Mode

By Adam Myers ⋅ November 4, 2008 ⋅ Tags: Firefox

Because of the extensive add-ons, extensions, and other customization available to Firefox it is not uncommon to go full tilt and introduce some instability with your Firefox profile. I’ve spoken before on how to use multiple profiles when testing out new Firefox add-ons and while I still stand by that opinion, I realize it may be a bit too much overhead for us all to bother with. A faulty extension could bring your whole browser down and at times, it can be a tricky thing to track down and fix – even when you know which extension is at fault. A more drastic approach is to just create a new profile but that introduces a lot of work to get back up to speed. A safer approach is to start Firefox in safe mode, not unlike the same feature available in Windows.

Bring up the Windows run dialog with Windows Key + R and type firefox -safe-mode.

The resulting dialog box not only allows Firefox to start in its version of safe mode, it also gives us a few more options to reign in our problems. In safe mode, Firefox will not load any themes, add-ons, and toolbar customizations. Be warned, Disable all add-ons is temporary for the current session of Firefox while the last four options are permanent and more drastic. Once in Firefox you can safely remove or disable the last add-on installed. If you continue to have problems you may have no other choice but to continue with the remaining options available in the Firefox Safe Mode dialog below.