14 DAY TRIAL // Firefox 79 is the most stable version of Mozilla’s browser, and it goes without saying that it’s also the recommended build for those who want to experience the best the app has to offer right now, along with the best security (as this update includes several security fixes too).
On the desktop, the new Firefox release brings goodies for Windows users, as WebRender becomes available for more devices with Intel and AMD GPUs, as well for those living in Germany, with more Pocket recommendations to show on the new tab page.
As far as Mac users are concerned, this doesn’t seem to be a massive release when it comes to new features, and if anything, important improvements are only available under the hood.
But as it turns out, one of these changes is also causing a weird bug in Firefox 79 on macOS.
One of my colleagues told me earlier this week that after updating to Firefox 79, the browser feels terribly slow and occasionally freezes all of a sudden before it returns to normal working conditions.
The bigger problem is that the whole thing happens regularly, so technically, Firefox 79 freezes intermittently for a reason that couldn’t be determined.
Here’s what we tried to deal with the whole thing, all to no avail:
- Removing extensions one by one to determine if an add-on is the culprit
- Clearing all browser data
- Reinstalling Firefox 79
- Rebooting the device several times
Worth mentioning is that everything appears to work just fine in other browsers running on the same device, so at first glance, it’s all caused by the latest version of Firefox.
While the issue doesn’t seem to be too widespread for now, I’m seeing similar reports on reddit too, with a bunch of users claiming that Firefox also freezes on their MacBooks.
“Firefox keeps hanging up and I don't know why. I'll type something in my email, or on social media, or in a search engine, and after a few words Firefox will freeze for 5-10 seconds,” one user explains. “It won't register my keystrokes or anything. But if I move my mouse when Firefox decides to respond, it'll click on whatever is underneath my mouse. Not what I originally clicked on. And the FF task manager doesn't register anything large. Basically, when I try to do something, Firefox will freeze.”
Others have confirmed these problems on their Macs, and someone says running Firefox in safe mode appears to deal with the whole thing, only that the browsing speed is very slow as if there’s something wrong with the Internet connection.
For the time being, there’s no fix that does the magic for everybody, and bringing Firefox to the full working condition could actually come down to removing the browser and all its data and just starting from scratch. Of course, there’s no guarantee that everything would return to normal after that, so if you’re ready to go for such a radical approach, I suggest you create a backup before anything else, so at least you won’t be losing your data.
The good news is that it won’t be long until Mozilla rolls out a new Firefox version. As per the company’s new release schedule, major Firefox updates are published every four weeks, as compared to six before this new approach came into effect. This means that the next update is Firefox 80, which is projected to go live on all supported platforms on August 25. In other words, the update should be here in a couple of weeks for everybody, so it remains to be seen if a fix for this issue is included.