If you need to troubleshoot Firefox (or your add-ons) on Windows, Mac, or Linux, you can restart the browser from within the app without losing any of your open tabs. Here’s how.
First, open Mozilla Firefox. In the address bar, type about:profiles and press Enter (or Return on Mac).
On the “About Profiles” page that opens, locate the box labeled “Restart” in the upper right corner. To restart the browser while keeping all your tabs open, click “Restart normally”.
Firefox will close and restart as if you had selected “Quit” or “Quit Firefox” from the main Firefox menu. However, Firefox will reopen all of your tabs after it restarts.
RELATED: How to close all Firefox windows at once
If you need to troubleshoot add-on issues instead, review the about:profiles and click on “Restart with add-ons disabled”.
After clicking, you will see a pop-up warning dialog about opening Firefox in troubleshooting mode. Here you will find two options.
Clicking “Refresh Firefox” gives you the option to refresh Firefox, which removes your add-ons and restores Firefox to a default state. This is a drastic measure that we only recommend as a last resort. You will lose your add-ons and configuration.
If not, you can simply temporarily disable your extensions and customizations using Troubleshoot Mode. Nothing will be permanently deleted or changed. To do this, click “Open”.
Firefox will close and restart with your customizations and add-ons disabled. To re-enable them, close all Firefox windows and restart the application, or revisit about:profiles and click “Restart normally”.
Good luck and happy browsing!