Firefox won't launch after updating macOS unless booting the MBP in safe mode

Question

Level 1

4 points

Firefox won't launch after updating macOS unless booting the MBP in safe mode

Hi everyone,

I recently updated my macOS to Ventura 13.6.9 along with updating to the newest Firefox Nightly; now whenever I try to launch Firefox, it just hangs and will never load the start page. If I give it about 5-10 minutes, it will eventually load the favorites bar, and then when I click into the address bar to type, it hangs again. If I give it another few minutes, I can type but hitting enter/return, nothing happens.

If I restart my MBP and hold shift to boot into safe mode, Firefox loads perfectly fine with no issues or hangs at all. I'm just not sure what is different that would be causing it to hang when booting into regular mode?

I saved the Apple crash report to see if that's any help for diagnosing the issue, here's a link to the .txt file - https://file.io/ZRVgd3A8jzoA (sorry, it was too large to attach to this post).

I did see that some troubleshooting threads said to use an app called EtreCheck to run a diagnostic report, so I did one while in regular boot mode and one while in safe mode (when Firefox runs perfectly fine) to see if someone could compare/contrast to help drill down on the issue.

EtreCheck Report (regular boot)

EtreCheck Report (safe mode)

If there's anything else I can provide that would help, please let me know!

Thanks all!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 13.6

Posted on Aug 12, 2024 11:24 AM

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Answer 1

MartinR

Level 7

21,769 points

Aug 12, 2024 12:02 PM in response to nsherouse

These problems need to be addressed immediately. If you did not knowingly disable these things, let us know. If you disabled them yourself, re-enable them.

System Integrity Protection disabled - System Integrity Protection is disabled.
Security updates disabled - Security updates are disabled.
Apple security disabled - Apple security software is disabled.

Also, your SSD is almost full (reading ~87% full). That is too much. Find a way to remove at least 100GB-150GB data, preferably more.

Other things you may want to clean up:

Silverlight 5.1.41212.0 is very old. AFAIK it is 32-bit software and shouldn't even be showing up on your system. MS discontinued support for Silverlight years ago.
You have Java plugins installed.
You have numerous apps & plugins that I have never heard of; they may or may not be things you want to keep. Research required.

Regarding Firefox, I suggest removing it, empty trash, restart your Mac, then reinstall. See if that fixes the problem.

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Answer 2

g_wolfman

Level 4

2,206 points

Aug 12, 2024 7:18 PM in response to nsherouse

Firefox could probably be trashed and reinstalled. You could also try launching it when in safe mode and triggering a refresh (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-add-ons-and-settings) that will reset it, remove extensions and default all the settings.

Now...your computer is a mess:

SIP, security and updates are disabled;
You are running Paragon and Tuxera NTFS software (they probably conflict with each other);
You are running Parallels and Virtualbox (not necessarily incompatible - but why run Virtualbox if you can afford to pay for Parallels or VMWare?);
You have a lot of old software - 612 apps, of which 171 are x86 only (32-bit and will never launch) and 68 are unsigned (maybe sketchy, but probably just old from before Apple required developer notarization).
Your Adobe software is old - maybe out of date - pre-Creative Cloud (or DRM-hacked?)
Geocomply Player Location Check - Not sure what it might be doing under the hood at a low level.
Lot of MTLCompilerService RAM usage - which is passing data to the GPU...rendering video?
Java and Silverlight in 2024...

Anyway, not sure what you are using the computer for (the combination of things suggests some combo of gaming, game/video production and/or crypto/gambling), but regardless, I'd suggest a major cleanup is probably overdue.

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