Reset Your Firefox

Remember when a do-over was acceptable? You got to start with a clean slate and try again.

A do-over would come in handy in many real-world situations. Take Web browsing, for example. Over time, you acquire plugins that you may or may not have willingly downloaded, toolbars you don’t remember installing and more. These can slow down your browsing, cause annoying crashes and just make a big old mess.

Who has time to troubleshoot these things? It’s tedious, sometimes frustrating and often doesn’t fix the problem.

Note: This article doesn't apply to your version of Firefox. It requires the latest Firefox release version which can be downloaded from mozilla.org/firefox.

Firefox has a solution. It’s like hitting the reset button. Actually, it is a reset button. Go to your Firefox menu bar and select Help > Troubleshooting information. Click the “Reset Firefox” Button, confirm your action with the slide-down prompt and then click “Done” when Firefox lets you know it’s reset. How cool is that?

When you reset Firefox, you don’t have to start from scratch. Here’s what you’ll still have in your browser:

• Bookmarks
• Browsing history
• Passwords
• Cookies (you won’t be logged out of any sites you were logged in to before the reset)
• Web form auto-fill information

What won’t be in your browser anymore:

• Extensions and themes: although helpful, they can sometimes cause problems. Reinstalling them one at a time might point out the culprit. But regardless, you’ll need to reinstall them.
• The reset process will close all open websites. Bookmark sites before your reset and you’ll be able to return.
• Site-specific preferences, search engines, personal dictionary, download history, DOM storage, security certificate settings, security device settings, download actions, plugin MIME types, toolbar customizations and user styles are also not saved.

So the next time your Firefox seems sluggish — or crashes — give the reset button a try.

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