Firefox 104.0.2 fixes a crash, media playback and touch issues

Martin Brinkmann
Sep 6, 2022
Firefox
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25

Mozilla plans to release Firefox 104.0.2 to the Stable channel today. The new version of Firefox fixes an out-of-memory crash, video and audio playback issues, and issues when using touch-devices or a stylus.

Firefox 104.0.2 will be released later today. Most installations will be updated automatically, thanks to the browser's built-in updating functionality. Some users prefer to update manually instead. Firefox can be downloaded from the official Mozilla website once the new release is published.

Firefox 104.0.2

Firefox 104.0.2 addresses four non-security issues in earlier versions of Firefox. The first fixes a crash issue that has been affecting 32-bit builds on Windows since the release of Firefox 102.

According to the bug report on Mozilla's bug tracking site and the changed code in Firefox, it appears that the issue was caused by reporting data specs, which could be "arbitrarily long".  The issue is also fixed in an upcoming Firefox 102 ESR update.

Two of the issues fixed in Firefox 104.0.2 address video and playback issues in the browser. Both affected the playback of video and audio content in Firefox sometimes, according to Mozilla.

The issue occurred video and audio playback loaded via "a cross-origin frame src attribute" or with "Content-Security-Policy:sandbox".  Both issues prevented playback of media and had similar causes. Firefox reused responses from the initial document in both cases for optimization. While that worked well for many use cases, it prevented the playback of media. Firefox users should not experience the described issues anymore after installation of the new version on Stable or ESR.

The fourth and final issue addresses an issue that affected touch-device and stylus users. The bug prevented touch and stylus users from dragging the scrollbar on pages.

Firefox 104.0.2 is the second point release. Mozilla released Firefox 104 in late August, and pushed out Firefox 104.0.1 to address a playback issue on YouTube.

The next major stable version of Firefox is version 105. Mozilla plans to release it on September 20, 2022.

Now You: were you affected by any of the described issues?

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Firefox 104.0.2 fixes a crash, media playback and touch issues
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Firefox 105 fixes an out-of-memory crash, video and audio playback issues, and issues when using touch-devices or a stylus.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Anonymous said on September 7, 2022 at 9:03 am
    Reply

    Firefox still have problems with javascript heavy, infinite scrolling pages. It is no longer possible to ignore it. After 20 years, it’s time for a change…

    1. Anonymous said on September 8, 2022 at 8:49 am
      Reply

      Looks like I was able to solve the problem by removing all Registered Service Workers (about:serviceworkers), so I won’t have to look for a replacement for my main browser after all.

    2. owl said on September 8, 2022 at 1:55 am
      Reply

      @Anonymous,
      > Firefox still have problems with javascript heavy, infinite scrolling pages. It is no longer possible to ignore it. After 20 years, it’s time for a change…

      At “Firefox since version 91”, there are no such reports in the user forum.
      In particular, the performance and stability of Firefox from version 91 onward has been well received.
      (Firefox released version 91 with a completely revised program code. Therefore, earlier versions are referred to as “legacy” versions and are not backward compatible)

      What version of Firefox, and OS status, are you using?
      If you want to solve your problem, you may want to perform a root cause analysis (isolate the problem).

      If you are having problems using Firefox, it is important to
      It is important to isolate whether the problem is in the profile environment or not as part of troubleshooting.
      Also, if the version has been upgraded and there are specification changes, you should check the original behavior without any customization.

      1. owl said on September 8, 2022 at 2:45 am
        Reply

        You can create a new profile and check its operation by following the steps below.

        How to do this with Firefox running (usually this is the way to do it)
        1. Open the “Troubleshooting Information” page by selecting Menu > Help > Troubleshooting Information… to open the “Troubleshooting Information” page.
        2. Click the “about:profiles” link under Application Basic Information > Profiles to open the “About Profiles” page.
        3. Click the “Create New Profile” button. The “Create Profile Wizard” will start up. Create a profile with any name you wish, referring to the following.
        Creating a profile | Firefox Help
        https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles?redirectslug=profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles&redirectlocale=en-US#w_creating-a-profile
        4. Confirm that the profile you created is additionally displayed in the list.
        5. The profile currently in use will display the message, “This is a profile in use. It cannot be deleted.” is displayed in bold.
        If you see a “Set as default profile” button in the section for that profile, click it.
        This operation is necessary because of the current behavior that automatically switches the default profile when a profile is created.
        6. Click the “Launch profile in a separate process” button under the new profile.
        7. Firefox will start in a separate window with the new profile. Confirm the operation with only the minimum necessary settings (later mention).
        8. After checking the operation, close Firefox in a separate window. The original profile can still be used.
        Note. Confirm that the original profile is in default.

        How to do this from closed Firefox
        1. Start the Profile Manager with the following reference, create a profile, select it, and “Start Firefox”.
        Start the Profile Manager when Firefox is closed | Firefox Help
        https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles?redirectslug=profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles&redirectlocale=en-US#w_multiple-firefox-installations
        2. Check the operation with only the minimum necessary settings (later mention).
        3. After checking the operation, start the Profile Manager, select the original profile, make sure “Use this profile from now on” is checked, and “Start Firefox” or “Closed Firefox”.

        How to start Firefox with command line options
        When starting Firefox, the following command line options allow you to directly launch Firefox by specifying a profile in an arbitrary path.
        Code: -profile “Path of the profile folder”.
        (Reference: Firefox/CommandLineOptions – MozillaWiki
        https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/CommandLineOptions#Using_command_line_options)
        If there is no folder with the specified path, a new profile folder will be created at startup.

        [Important]
        use only the minimum necessary settings to check the behavior.
        The purpose of checking the behavior with a new profile is to reduce unnecessary uncertainties and see how Firefox behaves as much as possible.
        Therefore, please keep the following in mind.
        You will first see a “Welcome to Firefox” page and a “Start Initial Setup” button, but do not click this button and close the tab.
        Do not “Log in to Firefox. Depending on the synchronization settings, the settings and add-ons used in the original profile will be synchronized, and the new profile will be meaningless.
        First, perform confirmation without adding any add-ons or changing any options.
        After that, if there are any add-ons or settings that are essential for confirmation, set them one by one and confirm them.

        [Supplemental]
        The “How to do it from Firefox (running/closed)” is to add a profile using the Profile Manager, but of course you can also “delete” or “rename” a profile that is no longer needed.

        However, since it is very difficult to delete a profile by mistake, we have purposely omitted this in the above procedure.
        ?
        Be sure to back up your profile before performing such operations.
        Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles | Firefox Help
        https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles

        If you want to create a new profile, simply delete the entire contents of the profile folder.
        To open the profile folder, go to the “About Profiles” page and click on the “Open Folder” button in the “Root Folder” section of the profile to be checked.
        ?
        If you are familiar with computer operation, we recommend “How to start Firefox with command line options” and it is safe because it does not use the profile manager.
        If you have created a shortcut or launcher setting for the confirmation startup, all you need to do is delete the confirmation profile folder, and you can start with the initialization.

    3. Anonymous said on September 7, 2022 at 12:42 pm
      Reply

      I have no one of this problems. It’s just you.

  2. Rlandon said on September 6, 2022 at 3:53 pm
    Reply

    More features for mouse touchpad issues, and less for focuses in privacy and security

  3. Anonymous said on September 6, 2022 at 2:37 pm
    Reply

    I have a very irritating problem with FF.

    I have the habit of opening/using the tab with bookmarks to go to my usual sites.
    When I open a folder with bookmarks, it opens with the bookmarks and at the bottum of the screen a low window.
    When I click on a bookmark, the bottum window jumps to bigger height and the list of bookmarks jumps to another position. As a result I do not get the desired bookmark to open, however an other bookmark to open. This is highly irritating me.
    When I click for the second or more time in this boomark-folder, the bottum window stays big and I get my desired bookmarketed site.

    This bottum-window contains the information of a bookmarketed site, by which you can edit it.
    This bottum-window is far too big, it is a screen-space sploiler. On a 12″notebook hardly any bookmark-folder info is left. Also very irritating.

    Firefox, for gods sake, do something about this!!
    (And please why can Chrome browsers start up faily fast and FF not?)

    1. owl said on September 8, 2022 at 3:10 am
      Reply

      @Anonymous
      > I have a very irritating problem with FF………….

      Your problem is probably related to the “Proton UI”.

      While there are techniques such as setting that feature to “false” or replacing it with another “Lepton”, a quicker solution is to use “Floorp”.

      Floorp is based on the latest version of Firefox ESR.
      https://www.ghacks.net/2022/09/06/firefox-104-0-2-fixes-a-crash-media-playback-and-touch-issues/#comment-4547536
      Floorp offers a wide variety of Browser appearances (about:preferences).
      which the browser allows customization around tabs, like Vivaldi and Edge, and has been well received by users migrating from those browsers.

      1. owl said on September 8, 2022 at 3:22 am
        Reply

        Floorp can coexist with Firefox (no conflicts) because it generates its own Profile and manages them in its own Binary.
        Application Binary
        C:\Program Files\Ablaze Floorp\floorp.exe
        Profile Folder
        C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Floorp\Profiles\

    2. Anonymous said on September 6, 2022 at 11:05 pm
      Reply

      An additional info w.r.t. the jumping of the bookmark-list in the bookmarks-tab.

      In FF you have to double click on the bookmark to open it.

      If a folder in the bookmarks-tab is opened, and the list is scrolled down, at the first choosen bookmark in this folder, at the first click the bottum window enlarges and the list jumps, because of which the second click is at a different bookmark.

      The problem is the bottum-window, which is small at opening a bookmark-folder, but changes size when a bookmark is clicked on (the enlaged size is a waste of screen-surface which is specially a problem at small (low height) displays.)

    3. Haakon said on September 6, 2022 at 9:18 pm
      Reply

      “And please why can Chrome browsers start up faily fast and FF not?”

      My FF 104 and ESR 102 both open so fast I can’t even hit stopwatch buttons fast enough. Pretty close to an “eyeblink” or two.

      Try starting up in Troubleshooting mode. If that opens not fairly fast too, maybe a full uninstall/reinstall of FF is necessary.

      Good luck.

      1. Anonymous said on September 6, 2022 at 10:06 pm
        Reply

        @Haakon, thanks for your suggestion.

        I have to add that I changed the standard search engine to Startpage. Possible this very slow FF-starting is the punishment from Mozilla for this.

        What I hope mostly/firsly is that the mentioned “jumping” problem of the bookmarks-list will be solved.

        Is there a fork of FF (so a non-Chrome browser and capable of FF-extensions) which does not have these idiotic problems?

      2. Iron Heart said on September 7, 2022 at 7:33 am
        Reply

        > Is there a fork of FF (so a non-Chrome browser and capable of FF-extensions) which does not have these idiotic problems?

        Unless your Firefox installation got borked by you somehow, incompatibilities are also possible. If A Firefox reinstall does not fix it, then perhaps you should switch to something different.

  4. John G. said on September 6, 2022 at 12:20 pm
    Reply

    Firefox should become ESR definitely to stay away from high numbering crap that means nothing. No single problem here with FF 91 ESR since installed. Thanks for the article! :]

    1. Allwynd said on September 7, 2022 at 11:12 am
      Reply

      I think the numbering crap, as you describe it, started with Firefox 4 and they went on a mission to increase their version number faster than Chrome so they will one day catch up to Chrome and surpass them and have this small victory that Firefox is a bigger number than Chrome and in someone with extra chromosomes’ mind that makes Firefox better than Chrome.

      In reality both suck and only Chromium forks are good.

      I just hope this browser Flow with their own rendering engine soon comes to Windows.

      https://www.ekioh.com/flow-browser/

      https://www.fastcompany.com/90611677/flow-ekioh-web-browser-new-engine

      1. owl said on September 8, 2022 at 12:17 am
        Reply

        > I think the numbering crap, as you describe it,…..

        Firefox’s update (version) management system is based on “Rapid release” and “Extended Support Release (ESR)”.
        Rapid release: receives major updates every four weeks and minor updates such as crash fixes and security fixes as needed during those four weeks.
        Extended Support Release (ESR): receives major updates on average every 42 weeks with minor updates such as crash fixes, security fixes and policy updates as needed, but at least every four weeks.

        @Allwynd’s claims are simply delusional.

        > In reality both suck and only Chromium forks are good.

        Since he has mentioned before that he does not use Firefox, I don’t think he has any legitimate practical insight.
        After all, there are ten different people. In short, preference and values are diverse. The main thing is to try it out for yourself, without taking others’ word for it.

        I also use Chromium, but find Floorp to be far superior to them.
        Incidentally, Floorp developers “analyze and then evaluate the source for Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, and Opera” and apply it to the development of Floorp.
        To add to that, they (Floorp developers) were developing and supporting the “Chromium” browser until the end of last year (they understand all things Chromium).

      2. owl said on September 8, 2022 at 1:36 am
        Reply

        Sentence Correction:
        https://www.ghacks.net/2022/09/06/firefox-104-0-2-fixes-a-crash-media-playback-and-touch-issues/#comment-4547657
        Before correction,
        Incidentally, Floorp developers “analyze and then evaluate the source for Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, and Opera” and apply it to the development of Floorp.
        After correction,
        Incidentally, Floorp developers “analyze and then evaluate the source code for Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, and Opera” and apply it to the development of Floorp.

    2. owl said on September 6, 2022 at 1:26 pm
      Reply

      @John G,

      If you care in the slightest about Firefox, I recommend you try Floop (based on the latest version of Firefox ESR).

      Its developers are a group of (6) current high school students in Japan.
      They are friends who have been studying with “Uniant” or “VCborn” and are now using the results to support the development of browsers, search engines, etc.
      (10s) generationally unaware of other than Google and Microsoft.
      Then, they decided to independently develop the Chromium browser, but last year they learned about Firefox and ….. are a developer with the following background.
      Uniant · GitHub
      https://github.com/Uniant
      VCborn · GitHub
      https://github.com/VCborn

      Forked browsers “tend to be late in applying updates from upstream” and development support is often not encouraging, that’s why the “Floop” development team is aware of this and declares, real-time application of updates from upstream and act positive (responding to requests) user support.

      Floorp browser,
      https://www.ghacks.net/2022/08/23/firefox-104-analyze-a-websites-power-usage-and-ui-throttling/#comment-4546493
      https://www.ghacks.net/2022/08/30/firefox-104-0-1-fixes-youtube-playback-issues/#comment-4546952
      Frea Search,
      https://www.ghacks.net/2022/08/23/firefox-104-analyze-a-websites-power-usage-and-ui-throttling/#comment-4546664

      Give it a try if you like.
      Floorp: Source code for Floorp browser version 10 and above Firefox | GitHub – Floorp-Projects
      https://github.com/Floorp-Projects/Floorp

      1. John G. said on September 6, 2022 at 2:29 pm
        Reply

        @owl thanks for the useful information provided!

  5. Andy Prough said on September 6, 2022 at 11:51 am
    Reply

    One reason I’ve stopped using Firefox is because I get my video channels from RSS feeds now in my newsboat feed reader. You can use mpv to play a video from newsboat by adding a small macro to ~/.newsboat/config such as this:
    macro m set browser “mpv %u” ; open-in-browser ; set browser “links2 %u”

    Then you can start the video with the ‘,m’ [comma-m] key combination [or whichever letter you picked for your macro]. Works for yewtu.be and odysee.com channels and probably other platforms as well, I’m still trying them.

    1. Tom Hawack said on September 6, 2022 at 12:55 pm
      Reply

      @Andy Prough, FYI in case you didn’t know : ‘Feedbro’ extension for Firefox performs reading in-content videos included in RSS feeds. For instance handles YouTube RSSs perfectly, the video plays directly within the extension…

      Now You: were you affected by any of the described issues? No. Updated nevertheless.

      1. Andy Prough said on September 6, 2022 at 3:52 pm
        Reply

        @Tom Hawack

        Feedbro sounds pretty great Tom, next time I install Firefox I’ll try to check it out.

        What I like about the newsboat/mpv combination is that it never touches a browser engine. Newsboat is a command-line feed reader, and of course mpv is a multimedia program similar to VLC. So I can do most of my daily reading and daily video watching without ever opening a browser, using less memory and cpu and avoiding the privacy and security issues of the javascript-heavy webernet.

      2. Tom Hawack said on September 6, 2022 at 4:58 pm
        Reply

        @Andy Prough, I get it. It’s not what lacks in Firefox regarding RSS Videos but rather the newsboat/mpv combination. Sounds interesting. I use MPC-BE (Media Player Classic – Black Edition) but without any combination with a feed reader. What you do is use the newsboat feed reader via a command-line and transfer the results to MPV if I understand correctly. Direct, smart. I like the idea.

      3. owl said on September 6, 2022 at 11:58 pm
        Reply

        @Andy Prough,
        > So I can do most of my daily reading and daily video watching without ever opening a browser, using less memory and cpu and avoiding the privacy and security issues of the javascript-heavy webernet.

        I share those values too.
        The “specific references” in your threads (@Andy Prough and @Tom Hawack) are helpful. Thanks to both of you.

  6. owl said on September 6, 2022 at 10:45 am
    Reply

    Now You: were you affected by any of the described issues?

    At this time, there have been no reports of issues with Firefox 102.x in the user community (forums.mozillazine.jp); as far as Firefox is concerned, the only topics from the users are “how to change the font to your liking (bold, dark)” and “how to organize bookmarks”, which so tranquil and uneventful.

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