topic Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time in Discussions

Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

lcfreitasf — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 17:29:12 GMT

As per title. Randomly, after some time, the address bar and tabs no longer respond to clicks. You have to close the browser and open again. It keeps happening though. I don't know if this is related, but this never happened before and started happening some time after the most recent update.

118.0.1 (64 bit) - OS Ubuntu 20.04

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

lcfreitasf — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 17:30:57 GMT

I forgot to add: pages displayed work as normal (except that you can't change the tab). Minimize, Maximize and Close buttons also work as normal.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

hluaces_sketch — Mon, 05 May 2025 11:54:10 GMT

Same thing here.

Essentially, I can't click:

- address bar
- the "star" icon
- forward, back and refresh buttons
- all extensions
- minimize, maximize and close buttons
- any button

I'm using:

- Ubuntu 24
- Firefox 138.0.1, as provided by the official apt repo

List of extensions:

- 1password
- joplin web clipper
- kagi search
- simple tab groups
- ublock origin

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

hluaces_sketch — Mon, 05 May 2025 11:54:51 GMT

Note I have several firefox windows open. This seems to only happen on one of them (the first that I've opened).

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

birdi — Tue, 06 May 2025 09:14:45 GMT

Hi! Happening to me as well, you are the only other person I've found with the same issue. I believe the original post is about a slightly different issue.

I am on 138.1.1(-1), on EndeavourOS and my list of extensions is as follows:
- uBlock Origin
- Bitwarden
- BetterTTV
- Plasma Integration

Really annoying issue because it's not consistently repeatable, I can't test what could be causing it. This has been happening for about a week now.

At least your post tells me it's not specific to Arch/EndeavourOS, KDE Plasma or my extensions (except maybe uBlock Origin, doubt it).

Please let me know if you find anything. Also probably should make a proper post about this, for more visibility.

EDIT:
Found a matching bugzilla entry
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1964372

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

hluaces_sketch — Tue, 06 May 2025 10:21:30 GMT

Hey there! thanks for letting me know, although it really does seem like the same issue to me.

I've read the bugzilla entry you've linked, and while it looks similar, the video attached to it is not showing the same behavior as my case. When it happens to me, the interface does not respond at all: I can't close tabs, select the address bar, click on icons, and so on. Note how the clip shows how tabs can actually be interacted with (e.g.: the user is closing them) and how they react somehow to the user inputs by displaying tooltips and thumbnails, which they didn't do in my case.

Is your case the same?

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

MALWARE — Tue, 06 May 2025 11:58:44 GMT

Same for me. Arch Linux, Firefox 138. Cant click on address bar, on menu, on extension icons, back, refresh buttons. Can switch tabs, but can't close them. Only restart helps.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

birdi — Wed, 07 May 2025 00:01:03 GMT

I just got the bug again and managed to test a few things. After some persistent clicking, dragging tabs around, and resizing/fullscreening the window, I was somehow able to unstuck the address bar without needing to restart. In the Bugzilla video, the user also couldn't close tabs at first, until it suddenly started working again. I forgot to check the tooltips this time (I'm always in the middle of something when this happens).

I think this might be different from the original post in this thread, since they mention not being able to switch tabs, whereas I’ve always been able to. Also it's from two years ago. Still, it’s probably a similar underlying issue.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

birdi — Wed, 07 May 2025 10:55:46 GMT

Found some more bugzilla issues which seem related:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1961060
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1964500
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1964617
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1955112 (might include more than one issue)

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

frankuster — Thu, 08 May 2025 13:43:44 GMT

Same issue on Arch, Mozilla Firefox 138.0.1. Address bar is unresponsive, so are extensions, the burger menu etc. Bookmarks can be clicked, and tabs can be closed by middle clicking them but not by closing them with the x button. Opening a new tab lets you access the address bar once (it's already selected). A really frustrating bug

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

datdutch — Fri, 09 May 2025 06:24:56 GMT

Also affected. Home button and downloads dropdown can still be clicked everything else is unresponsive. also cant close tabs clicking the button but I can still switch between tabs

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

birdi — Sat, 10 May 2025 18:30:21 GMT

After reading some of the bugzilla issues and getting this bug again a few times, I've noticed that simply rearranging tabs by dragging will unlock the address bar and buttons again. I've tested it twice now and it has worked instantly both times. So while we wait for a fix, this might be a good solution. Certainly a lot less annoying than restarting the whole browser.

Meanwhile I've gotten plenty of other issues, PiP randomly popping up when switching streams on twitch, a few weird hangs and new tab backgrounds being blank when the computer is rebooted (I've had to click the "Reset to default" button, restart the browser and then set the background again.)

Also the new custom backgrounds flicker when you interact with anything. I know this is not the place for these reports but just wanted to say that 138 has felt pretty rough as a whole.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

Forwat — Sun, 11 May 2025 15:24:20 GMT

I have the same issue on fedora, you fix work thanks

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

greylander — Tue, 13 May 2025 01:08:13 GMT

I am experiencing this too. firefox on a very recent insall of Kubuntu 25.04. 138.0.1 (64bit).

This is the snap distribution of firefox. I'm using extensions darkreader, Enhancer for Youtube, uBlock origin, and youtube column customizer. But I don't think it's the extensions.

My guess is the problem is something to do with snap & apparmor.

Going to change my firefox to the deb version and see if that helps.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

hluaces_sketch — Tue, 13 May 2025 11:07:37 GMT

I've always been using the deb package, so I doubt that snap is the culprit in this particular problem.

I've just had another hang and what Birdi suggested works: by rearranging the tabs the UI got unstuck.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

Arkevorkhat — Thu, 15 May 2025 01:55:45 GMT

Also experiencing this issue. Running Firefox 138 on Arch Linux, installed using pacman from the official arch repos. Generally occurs after I've had more than a couple tabs open for more than an hour. Only fix currently is to close all open windows and start a new session.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

Zhenyapav — Thu, 15 May 2025 07:11:14 GMT

Also experienced this, Arch Linux, Librewolf (firefox fork), both from AUR and Flatpak. Rearranging tabs helps

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

Maicon — Thu, 15 May 2025 11:08:49 GMT

Same problem with Firefox 138 on Fedora 42 (Flatpak or RPM) on Wayland.

On X11 is ok.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

DragoonAethis — Sat, 17 May 2025 13:08:58 GMT

One more "me too" on Arch (138.0.3 from official repos) with KDE on Wayland. Happened a few times over the last week or so, restarting helps.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

gcad — Sat, 17 May 2025 15:15:32 GMT

Same issue with Firefox 138.0.1 for Fedora, on Fedora 41.

The temporary fix of dragging the tabs around did work, though.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

kkjdroid — Sun, 18 May 2025 05:11:05 GMT

Same issue, KDE neon Noble, Firefox 138.0.3 deb, more extensions than I care to list. Dragging tabs does work as a workaround.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

hugoameln — Mon, 19 May 2025 18:47:04 GMT

I have this on librewolf (a firefox fork) 138.0.4-1 as well. I am on fedora 42 KDE

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

greylander — Mon, 19 May 2025 20:33:51 GMT

There may be other causes of firefox hanging. Though in my troubleshooting of this it was mentioned firefox can end up later updating to the snap version after you've installed the deb version, unless you take some steps to prevent that from happening.

The apparmor issue is very noticable and switching to deb version or otherwise disabling apparmor from messing with firefox (put it in "complain" mode for firefox, for example) solved my lagging issues. I never tested the "move tabs around" workaround to see if that would get it unstuck.

Currently I just use brave(chromium) & librewolf(mozzilloid) and avoid the mainstream browsers. I've also removed snap entirely from my Kubuntu system. I'm tempted to completely rip apparmor out as well.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

cippo1987 — Thu, 22 May 2025 12:41:46 GMT

Same problem here with Ubuntu 24.10, 138.0.1 (64-bit) using SNAP. All the menu and address bar are blocked.
The problem goes away if i rearrange the tab.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

augustineps — Fri, 23 May 2025 06:06:15 GMT

that just worked instantly. THANKS. I was managing with Ctrl+L all this while for the taskbar whenever it went wrong

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

heinzA1 — Fri, 23 May 2025 10:19:54 GMT

Same here. Happens also in the private mode.

Running Firefox 138.0.4, 64bit, deb-version.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

Alr888 — Fri, 23 May 2025 15:22:19 GMT

The same issue, I have 138.0.4, kubuntu 25.04. My fix restart firefox, very annoying.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

yonseca — Sat, 24 May 2025 18:47:06 GMT

Same issue here. Firefox 138.04, up-to-date Arch Linux, Gnome Shell 48.1.

Before restarting I try to focus the address bar with control-L, then navigate with tab/shift+tab and enter.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

tetsuo — Mon, 26 May 2025 09:45:43 GMT

Same here. Firefox for Fedora 138.0.1 (Fedora 6.14.6-200.fc41.x86_64)

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

runlevel0 — Mon, 26 May 2025 12:04:07 GMT

Same here. Deb package, official Ubuntu.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

runlevel0 — Mon, 26 May 2025 12:06:19 GMT

KDE Neon.
No Apparmour, same issue.

I do suspect the Plasma add-on.

It would be nice to know if all the people reporting this issue are using KDE?

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

runlevel0 — Mon, 26 May 2025 12:08:11 GMT

Hmm, not the Plasma addon then???

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

Daskye — Mon, 26 May 2025 16:21:55 GMT

Same, problem goes away if I re-arrange tabs. In Zen browser (firefox fork)

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

gamerwepx19 — Mon, 26 May 2025 22:30:28 GMT

Yes re-arraning works. But this thread started on 2023 2 years later and still same problem. And its linux (arch) specific because in my windows boot , it works fine there

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

Daskye — Mon, 26 May 2025 22:35:39 GMT

Interesting, I'm also using Arch

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

birdi — Tue, 27 May 2025 20:29:32 GMT

Still happening in 139.0

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

nobkd — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 14:46:24 GMT

Same issue on my end. I'm on FF 138.0.4, Fedora 42 KDE
Happened 2 times in the last week. Saw another person with the same issue.
Re-arranging tabs solves it for me too.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

idontbyte — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 08:52:42 GMT

Same issue for me, happens every day.
Arch Linux, 139.0.1 (64-bit)

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

Marcos4 — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 22:52:16 GMT

It keeps happening to me 2 to 3 times each session since the first day I started using a new OS.

I use these extensions: UBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Unhook, Tampermonkey, ClearURLs, I still don't care about cookies, FastForward and Reddit Enhancement Suit.

Bazzite 42 (FROM Fedora Silverblue), Mozila Flatpak - 1.0 version 139.0.1 (64-bits)

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

RichardStubbs — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 13:45:21 GMT

THANK YOU FOR THE MOVE A TAB AROUND FIX (Ubuntu deb package)

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

maidlinux — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 03:59:37 GMT

Same issue:

As mention by previous comments looks like is Wayland related, as Firefox is unable to track if a tab was detached or so.

Reproducible under:

Fedora 42
GNOME 48 ( Wayland )

As a workaround you can just simply drag ( detach ) any tab from the frozen Firefox session, then attach it again to to browser.

Hopefully this will be fix soon

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

ChenMeng — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 08:43:51 GMT

139.0.4 still same bug, move a tab fix this temporarily.

www-client/firefox-bin, Gentoo, KDE Plasma 6.3.5 Wayland

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

jaanjah — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 19:22:59 GMT

Having same issue here.

139.0.1 (64-bit) Firefox for NixOS

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

p4tchw0rk — Sun, 15 Jun 2025 17:27:12 GMT

I have the same issue on fedora 42

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

RileyMeta — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 01:53:12 GMT

What extensions are you guys running? I'm running Ublock-Origin, looks like a few others are too...

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

Rares — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 12:34:26 GMT

Also affected. Dragging the window around doesn't help but restarting firefox does.

I'm on Ubuntu 22.04, default firefox install that comes with Ubuntu, ThinkBook ThinkBook 16 G7 IML.
Is this an Intel iGPU issue? I never ran into this problem on an AMD system, or on a system with an nvidia dGPU. I have an Intel Ultra 7 155H.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

Maxw — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 23:49:55 GMT

Just posting saying I have been having the same issue on a recent Pop! OS install. - Bookmarks bar remaining interactive with mouseovers and clicking available, however everything in the address bar row becomes unresponsive, and I'm able to close tabs with middle click.

OS: Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS x86_64
Host: MS-7B89 1.0
Kernel: 6.12.10-76061203-generic

Firefox Browser 140.0.4 (64-bit)
No change with or without running extensions
Also occurs in private browsing windows
Only appears to affect an individual window of Firefox, as I've been freely able to use a different Firefox window with it's own set of tabs with no issue, whilst having another window and its own set of tabs having the issue.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

KettLovahr — Sat, 02 Aug 2025 17:11:28 GMT

Been having this issue for a few months, NixOS. The tab rearranging seems to work.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

seriosbrad — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 21:33:52 GMT

For what it's worth, you don't actually need to re-arrange a tab completely, you can just nudge one of them enough to move slightly which is enough to fix it. Either way this is super annoying.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

MotionIII — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 15:58:19 GMT

This exact bug just happened to me except I'm on Windows 11, which is very confusing because everyone on this thread seems to be on Linux.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

seriosbrad — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 16:17:29 GMT

Oh yeah, I can also confirm it happens on Windows 11.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

Sirvaleen — Sat, 23 Aug 2025 18:06:38 GMT

Same since a few days and on Windows 10 here. Thanks to the guy with the tab-moving fix !

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

Rares — Sat, 23 Aug 2025 20:14:26 GMT

Idk what to tell you guys, but for me the bug stopped happening. It's been like a week since it last happened.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

Jersey — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 16:52:27 GMT

Started happening to me in version 142.0

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

BirdApparatus — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 21:44:13 GMT

This started happening to me with 142.0 as well. I'm on Windows 10 and use Dark Reader, uBlock Origin, and Privacy Badger.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

asdasdasdasdas — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 11:53:47 GMT

nearly 2 years later and this still isn't fixed btw, I just migrated to Mozilla from Chrome and this issue is INFURIATING.

A small fix is just to just un-tab them and then re-tab (drag the tab out of the list of tabs into its own window, then drag it back) but this only works sometimes.

And another small fix I found for this is to CTRL + B to hide bookmarks then CTRL + B to bring them back, seems to fix it as well.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

dchcs — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 15:55:43 GMT

Started getting this issue on Firefox 142.0 and Firefox Developer Edition 143.0b3 on different Windows 11 computers.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

jd5 — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 07:42:04 GMT

Solve 2025:

click on + sign for "new tab" and select all tabs but left that "new tab" and drag down side, your that selected window with multi tab will be free and clickable each on addressbar

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

jd5 — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 07:45:22 GMT

click on + sign for "new tab" and select all tabs but left that "new tab" and drag down side, your that selected window with multi tab will be free and clickable each on addressbar

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

Sushi1808 — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 18:02:18 GMT

I have the same issue with Firefox 142.0 on Windows 11, re-arranging the tabs seems to work.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

jd5 — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 14:07:30 GMT

click on + sign for "new tab" and select all tabs but left that "new tab" and drag down side, your that selected window with multi tab will be free and clickable each on addressbar

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

Kaoruko — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 17:00:30 GMT

I'm getting a slightly different version of this issue, running firefox 143 on kubuntu 24.04 LTS. I get the frozen address bar and uncloseable tabs, but I'm also unable to re-arrange my tabs at all, and trying to do breaks the tab to the point that only restarting the browser will fix it.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

doomnonius — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 23:43:35 GMT

I am having the exact same problem, Firefox 143.0.4 (and 144), Ubuntu 24.04, KDE, Wayland. Moving tabs around just makes the tab I tried to move uninteractable, and if I try to move a bunch of tabs they also start stacking on top of each other and on top of tabs that still work, and the only solution is to restart the window. I usually have a couple windows open, and when the problem starts it happens in both windows, and if I just restart one window it'll immediately happen again. Usually when I restart both windows the problem doesn't occur again immediately.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

Kaoruko — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 12:25:36 GMT

Yes I get the issue with the tabs stacking bizarrely too. I find it happens most often if I try to click into firefox from another window and immediately move a tab, but it still happens while directly using firefox as well.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

STONEFYI — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 06:39:01 GMT

Yeah KDE plasma here, firefox addres bar goes non response all the time I'm switching to brave until it's resolved. it's miserable right now. will try to downgrade back to the good firefox without all the tab stuff.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

RPS1 — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 07:03:02 GMT

Not sure what fixed it but it is no longer happening to me on Ubuntu 22.04. I didn't do any manual fixes so an upgrade package must have fixed it

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

STONEFYI — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:30:13 GMT

#me too. Same same.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

olekspickle — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 11:39:52 GMT

Same here.
using flatpak version of mozilla. The whole top part of the browser is not interactable at all.
It becomes like this around 10 minutes after relaunch.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

olekspickle — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 11:41:21 GMT

forgot to mention that it is on 148

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

bebr117 — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 19:17:02 GMT

Similar issue for me. After a few minutes, address bar and forward/back buttons become unclickable. Tabs are clickable, but undraggable, so I can't do the dragging fix; basically everything else between the bookmarks bar and the top of the screen is unusable. Started happening right when I switched KDE Plasma from X11 to Wayland...

Linux Mint + KDE Plasma (Wayland) running Firefox 148.0.2

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

bebr117 — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 19:49:49 GMT

I can consistently reproduce the issue by doing the following:

Open multiple tabs. With Firefox in fullscreen, switch focus to a different program. Switch focus back to Firefox by clicking on the currently active tab and attempting to drag it. The dragging fails, other tabs cannot be dragged, and the address bar (and other buttons in that row) becomes unresponsive.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

STONEFYI — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 20:48:14 GMT

I was installing KDE Plasma on top of mint. When I uninstalled and moved to KDE Neon fresh install it wasn't a problem anymore. If you installed it on top of mint after realizing it was a better display pack, just ditch mint and go to Neon. It's a little more of a progressive build so things occasionally break, but overall it's a better overall product than Mint.

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

bebr117 — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 15:13:58 GMT

Issue has not occurred again since switching back to X11

Re: Address bar and tabs not clickable after running Firefox for some time

cwagner — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 14:08:27 GMT

Same problem here using librewolf (firefox fork, Version 149.0-1) since last update.

Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS, Gnone 46, Wayland