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I keep having windows like this pop up, fairly randomly, since I updated to Firefox 17, on Windows 7.

It happens randomly with between 1 to 4 popups at once, though I can cause it to happen manually by reloading Facebook or gmail (interestingly, this behavior doesn't happen with Google reader or Google plus).

I'd like to do two things here. Firstly, have some way of actually telling what's causing this rather than try reloading tabs at random. Secondly, stop this from happening, either by fixing the issue or by suppressing these messages.

So how do I track down and eliminate this issue?

EDIT: I've installed the extension list dumper addon, to get a list of extensions that are installed.

Application: Firefox 17.0 (20121119183901) Operating System: WINNT (x86-msvc)

  • Adblock Plus 2.2
  • App Button Color 1.0
  • AutoProxy 0.4b2.2011041023
  • British English Dictionary 1.19.1
  • Extension List Dumper 1.15.2
  • Greasemonkey 1.5
  • Mozilla Labs: Prospector - OneLiner 2
  • Social Fixer 6.603
  • UI Fixer 1.4.4
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    The first thing to do would be to disable all add-ons. There's a convenient button in the Help menu to do that.
    – Bob
    Nov 23, 2012 at 5:16
  • seems to work. now re-enabling them one by one to see.
    – Journeyman Geek
    Nov 23, 2012 at 5:25
  • Looks like it was social fixer - mind posting that as an answer with more detail?
    – Journeyman Geek
    Nov 23, 2012 at 5:27

1 Answer 1

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Problems with Firefox are often caused by bugs in add-ons and plugins. This is even more likely just after a Firefox update, where API and engine changes may cause previously working extensions to break, or expose previously ignored errors.


  1. The first course of action when Firefox is crashing or throwing errors, especially across a range of sites, is to start Firefox in Safe Mode. Note that this is not Windows' Safe Mode, but a startup mode of Firefox which disables all extensions.

    If the error is on one site only (and is not causing crashes), it may be some script on the site itself - in which case it would be worth reporting to the site admins. I recommend you still follow the rest of this process, to determine if an extension is conflicting with something on the site.

    To do so, go to the Help menu and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled..., then select Start in Safe Mode in the dialog box that comes up.

  2. See if you can reproduce the error in Safe Mode. If you cannot, go to step 3. If you can, go to step 4.

  3. If you can reproduce the error in Safe Mode, the next course of action is to restart Firefox in normal mode (do this by simply closing and reopening Firefox). Disable all extensions, and reenable them one at a time (you may have to restart Firefox after disabling/enabling) until the error reappears. Once you have narrowed down one extension (note that some errors can be caused by a conflict between multiple extensions, so it may be worth disabling all but the one you suspect), you should go report the bug to the extension developer - and stop using it for now.

  4. If, on the other hand, you encounter the same error in Firefox's Safe Mode, you should file a bug report on the Mozilla website - please search to see if the bug already exists. Remember to include the steps to reproduce the bug, and a description of the bug and how it deviates from expected behaviour.


Another thing you can do is temporarily revert to an older version of Firefox, and hope the next version fixes it or while waiting for your reported bug to be fixed (if you followed the above steps).

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