FIX: Mozilla Firefox Hangs When Clicking Inside the Address Bar

Many Firefox users are facing browser hanging and not responding issue while clicking on the address bar. Whenever the user clicks inside the address bar or URL bar in Firefox, the browser hangs and doesn’t respond to any user’s input. This article will help you in fixing the issue and making the address bar working again.

PROBLEM SYMPTOM: Firefox Hangs While Selecting the Address Bar

This issue is mainly present in Firefox latest version 125.0. The problem occurs when a user clicks inside the address bar to type something. As soon as the user activates the address bar, Firefox becomes not responding. Even if the user waits for a few minutes, the web browser doesn’t respond and the spinning wheel mouse cursor keeps displaying over the browser window.

If the user clicks on the address bar or other areas inside Firefox, the default application not responding error box of Windows OS appears and Firefox closes or crashes.

So basically the user is required to kill or terminate the existing Firefox process and launch Firefox again to be able to use it again.

PROBLEM REASON: Clipboard Suggest Feature in Address Bar is the Culprit

Firefox has acknowledged the browser hanging issue officially. Actually Firefox newer versions come with a new clipboard suggestion feature introduced for the address bar. It allows the user to paste a copied URL from the clipboard to the address bar so that the user can navigate to the website quickly and easily.

This new clipboard suggest feature is causing annoying hanging issue to many Firefox users. The issue has been mentioned as unresolved on the official Firefox 125.0.3 release notes page at Mozilla website.

PROBLEM SOLUTION: Disable Clipboard Suggestion Feature in Mozilla Firefox

If you are also encountering Firefox hanging issue, you can fix the issue immediately by turning off the new clipboard suggestion feature.

Following steps will help you in disabling clipboard suggest feature in Firefox and fixing browser hanging issue:

STEP 1: Open Firefox Settings page by clicking on the main Firefox Menu (3-lines Hamburger menu icon) present at the right-side end of the toolbar and selecting Settings option. Alternatively, you can direct option Settings page using about:preferences command in address bar.

STEP 2: In left-side pane, click on “Search” tab and in right-side pane, you’ll see “Address Bar – Firefox Suggest” section.

STEP 3: Now disable or turn off the “Clipboard” checkbox.

That’s it. As soon as you disable the clipboard suggest feature, Firefox should start working again. You can try to restart the web browser to take effects.

TIP: Disable Clipboard Suggest Feature Using About:Config Page in Firefox

Advanced users can also use about:config page to disable clipboard suggest feature as mentioned below:

STEP 1: Open Mozilla Firefox and type about:config in the address bar and press Enter. It’ll show you a warning message, click on “Accept the Risk and Continue” button. It’ll open Firefox’s hidden secret advanced configuration page i.e. about:config page.

STEP 2: Now type clipboard inside the preference search box and look for following preference:

STEP 3: The preference is set to True by default which means clipboard suggestions are enabled in Firefox. Double-click on the preference and it’ll change its value to False. Alternatively, you can click on the Toggle icon given next to the preference name to modify it.

PS: If you want to get rid of all kinds of suggestions and promotions from the Firefox address bar, following article will help you:

Disable All Kind of Suggestions in Mozilla Firefox Address Bar

Also Check:

Disable Rich Search Suggestions with Thumbnails in Firefox Address bar

[Tip] Enable or Disable Search Terms Display in Firefox Address bar