Firefox 2 Flash Bug on Mac OS X

There’s annoying bug with Firefox 2 on the Mac, documented here, that causes the browser to stop responding to the keyboard if there’s a Flash applet in the current or any other open Firefox browser window.

So if you’re using Firefox 2 on a Mac, and it seems to “freeze up” sometimes, this might be why.

I’ve found the only way to solve the problem for me, when it occurs, is to close all open Firefox browser windows, and then open a brand new window and pick up where I left off — it doesn’t seem to require a complete browser restart.

Comments

Cyn's picture
Cyn on November 19, 2006 - 01:07 Permalink

I downloaded and installed 2.0 but I was disappointed. I, too, was not impressed with the Flash Bug, but even more important, to me, were the various incompatabilites with my FF Extensions and Themes, ie: my fave theme, Whitehart. So I trashed it and reinstalled 1.5. All is well.

Peter (Lux)'s picture
Peter (Lux) on November 19, 2006 - 19:00 Permalink

The good side of this behaviour is that it has encouraged me to spend more time in Safari and Camino. While I still find myself missing a lot of Firefox features and plugins, the clean interface and faster page loading is kind of nice. By the time the bug gets sorted out I hope to have tailored my browser usage to utilize the best of each browser.

In the meantime, it is irritating. I do notice that compatibility issues on the extension side of things are getting adjusted quite quickly.

Bran's picture
Bran on November 20, 2006 - 00:43 Permalink

Ahh, this is a very insignificant bug, nothing to complain about, should be sorted out in no time.

bonaldi's picture
bonaldi on December 7, 2006 - 04:44 Permalink

It *is* a significant bug, and it is something to complain about. Because it stops your keyboard working! Also, there is no progress on fixing it. I fear it’s one of those “mac therefore ignore” things Firefox does so well.

The fix is easier than you think: just Apple-N Apple-W to open and close a new window fixes it.

Wiraone's picture
Wiraone on December 9, 2006 - 19:35 Permalink

I got my new MBP almost the same time the FF2 was lunched and was really excited to have it up and running. To my dismay (and as others too in this thread), FF2 has so many bugs in it and make me thrashed it and downloaded the previous good version of FF1.5 instead. I don’t think its only google toolbar since I don’t use it and the OS 10.4.8 was freshly installed on the MBP.. I do believe that FF2 is not ready for public use (especially not for us Mac users).