3 Easy Ways to Reset Firefox to Its Default Settings

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 28 Mar 2016

Refreshing Mozilla’s Firefox web browser will reset all the settings to their default values and will remove all add-ons, extensions and themes. Essential information like passwords, bookmarks, browsing history, cookies, auto-fill information and personal dictionaries will not be removed though.

You will want to refresh Firefox if the browser isn’t working properly and you’re experiencing some sort of problem, or if you just want to start fresh. No matter the reason, here are 3 easy ways to refresh the Firefox web browser and reset it to its default settings.

1. From the Help menu.

Click the Menu button from the upper right hand corner and then click the question mark.



Select Troubleshooting Information from the menu that shows up.



The Troubleshooting Information page will show up. In the right hand corner there’s a section that says “give Firefox a tune-up". Go ahead and click on Refresh Firefox. Confirm that you want to refresh Firefox and you’re done.



By default, Firefox does not show the File Menu (nor does it show the Bookmarks Toolbar). If you took my advice and enabled the File Menu, you can just click on Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> and then Refresh Firefox.




2. From the Awesome Bar

If you’re a Firefox fan, then you know that the URL or address bar is called the Awesome Bar. You might also know that you can access lots of “about” pages from the Awesome Bar.

I want to point out that if you type about:support in the Awesome Bar, Firefox will bring up the Troubleshooting Information page which lets you refresh the browser.




3. From the Refresh Firefox button

Visit Mozilla’s Refresh Firefox support article and click the Refresh Firefox button. A prompt will show up and ask you if you really want to perform the task.




That’s it. Those are the three ways you can access the Refresh Firefox feature and reset the browser to its default settings.


Bonus: how to reset Chrome

Things are a bit easier if you want to reset Google’s Chrome web browser. Just go to Settings, scroll down and click on Show Advanced Settings, and then scroll down to find Reset Settings at the bottom of the page.





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