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I'm dealing with a computer on which Firefox has recently stopped displaying any websites. It will just load any URL for a few seconds and then give up and stop doing anything, no matter how many times it's refreshed.

I found out that the Duck Duck Go browser was recently installed, and I think that was when it stopped working, and it was running in the background when I tried Firefox, though I didn't realize that at the time.

So then I closed the Duck Duck Go browser, and closed and reopened Firefox, and it still won't work.

So I suspect that maybe Duck Duck Go is supplying some sort of firewall or something to suppress anything else from accessing the Internet, though that would imply that it's still running independently when the Duck Duck Go browser is closed (or else I didn't have it completely closed, and there's still something else running residually).

Or else it has nothing to do with the Firefox problems, and is just a coincidence. Does anyone know how to solve this problem?
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They shouldn't impact each other. What error message do you get? Watch the bottom for any hints also.

Try disabling DNS Prefetching, or my favorite option, profile change; start with firefox.exe -P, create a new profile and see if that works. Might be a faulty config or some extension.

If you want a more privacy version in the same family then I can warmly recommend LibreWolf.
Well I'll try those the next time I'm on that computer, but I don't understand what changed, or why it's not working now and it was before. I was told that the Duck Duck Go browser was just recently installed, and that seems to be the only thing that changed since Firefox was working. So that's the reason I suspected it.
Post edited November 28, 2024 by HeresMyAccount
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HeresMyAccount: Well I'll try those the next time I'm on that computer, but I don't understand what changed, or why it's not working now and it was before. I was told that the Duck Duck Go browser was just recently installed, and that seems to be the only thing that changed since Firefox was working. So that's the reason I suspected it.
On android duckduckgo has app tracking prevention (some kind of vpn sorcery). I think on PC (at least the beta / experimental version) may have more features.
Can't help more than that but I dont think you're crazy on this issue at least.
So are you saying that just installing it can cause incompatibilities for other browsers?
Let's try opening Firefox with a new profile and see what happens. about:support is a good place to start, or about:profiles and start with addons disabled. See if that leads anywhere.
I'll try it as soon as I get the chance.

EDIT: But I'm not familiar with profiles, per se, and the person who uses that computer has a lot of cookies, accounts, short cuts, etc. Will it affect them?
Post edited November 28, 2024 by HeresMyAccount
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HeresMyAccount: I'll try it as soon as I get the chance.

EDIT: But I'm not familiar with profiles, per se, and the person who uses that computer has a lot of cookies, accounts, short cuts, etc. Will it affect them?
Not at all. The profile can be thought of as a second (or third) user. If you figure out what's wrong, you can switch them back to their original profile. (Just make sure to write it down or back up their stuff beforehand.)
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HeresMyAccount: I'm dealing with a computer on which Firefox has recently stopped displaying any websites. It will just load any URL for a few seconds and then give up and stop doing anything, no matter how many times it's refreshed.

I found out that the Duck Duck Go browser was recently installed, and I think that was when it stopped working, and it was running in the background when I tried Firefox, though I didn't realize that at the time.

So then I closed the Duck Duck Go browser, and closed and reopened Firefox, and it still won't work.

So I suspect that maybe Duck Duck Go is supplying some sort of firewall or something to suppress anything else from accessing the Internet, though that would imply that it's still running independently when the Duck Duck Go browser is closed (or else I didn't have it completely closed, and there's still something else running residually).

Or else it has nothing to do with the Firefox problems, and is just a coincidence. Does anyone know how to solve this problem?
Uninstall DuckDuckGo browser and see if that fixes your problem. Use Geek uninstaller to make sure you get everything.
I changed from DDG to SearXNG months ago .
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dnovraD: Not at all. The profile can be thought of as a second (or third) user. If you figure out what's wrong, you can switch them back to their original profile. (Just make sure to write it down or back up their stuff beforehand.)
I might be misunderstanding you, but if it won't affect any of that, then why would I need the caution about backing it up?
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dnovraD: Not at all. The profile can be thought of as a second (or third) user. If you figure out what's wrong, you can switch them back to their original profile. (Just make sure to write it down or back up their stuff beforehand.)
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HeresMyAccount: I might be misunderstanding you, but if it won't affect any of that, then why would I need the caution about backing it up?
Security wise, just like plugin out power cord when you fumble around in the computer or just to upgrade GPU or RAM.

It won't directly affect it, no, however:

A profile, just like on Windows or Linux or most other operative systems (including many apps) has everything that belongs to that user and everything the user chooses to change. I like to think of it like another box of my clothes. I have one for winter and one for summer. But these boxes aren't reinforced so if the winter really kicks in the plastic gets really brittle, same happens when constant hot-cold air affects it over multiple years.

I digress of course, but it's generally just a good habit to always take backup no matter what you do. Anything can fail and corruption happens more often than not actually. Or as I sometimes say - big boys don't take backup, they cry.

You don't have to, that's up to you.
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HeresMyAccount: I might be misunderstanding you, but if it won't affect any of that, then why would I need the caution about backing it up?
As a precaution, in case there's a fumble or wipeout. The profile names are very nonindicative; appearing more as a UUID. You'd at least want to record which profile was theirs.
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Oriza-Triznyák: I changed from DDG to SearXNG months ago .
While this wasn't actually about the search engine, I thank you for the reminder. Since DDG change their back-end engine to, was it MS Bing, some time ago, results haven't been the same again. They've actually been way worse and limited.

EDIT: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/duckduckgo-browser-allows-microsoft-trackers-due-to-search-agreement/
Post edited November 28, 2024 by sanscript
Well the thing is that if I end up changing the profile, wouldn't that cause the stuff associated with the first profile to become irrelevant, and I'd have to recreate it all anyway? And how would I back up all of the stuff? I'm not familiar with what files I'd need or where they're kept (I don't personally use cookies or save any history or bookmarks or anything with my browser, so I'm not really familiar with how that stuff is done, since I don't care about it, for myself, but this is for someone else).