All Common Browser Problems and How to Fix Them

Browsers have become an inseparable part of our daily routine. By now, most of us have a favorite browser, but even the best-featured one can face issues from time to time.

The good news is that modern browsers have tools to fix common browser problems. Don’t hate it, just fix it!

Sluggishness! Browser too slow problem

Sites load slowly or in some cases they do not fully load. Lack of speed is really a problem, especially if you are in a hurry. Let’s find out the cause and possible solutions.

A. First, identify if it’s not an Internet connection failure rather than a problem in the browser.

B. Do you have the most recent browser version? Check it out!

• Edge: Edge menu, then go to “Help & Feedback” and click “About Microsoft Edge”.
• Chrome: Chrome menu, look for “Help” and click “About Google Chrome”.
• Safari (macOS): Safari menu and click “About Safari”. 
• Firefox: Firefox menu, “Help” and click “About Firefox”.

C. Have you cleaned the cache recently? If you have full storage, it could be affecting the performance. Cleaning the cache could help, and it is also a good security practice.

• Edge: “Settings”, then “Privacy and Services”, “Choose What to clear”.
• Chrome: “Settings” and pick “Clear browsing data”.
• Safari: “Preferences”, then “Privacy” and “Manage Website Data”.
• Firefox: “Preferences”, “Privacy & Security” and “Clear Data”. 

D. How about an add-on? Some can really slow down the browser so let’s stop every add-on to see if the speed improves.

• Edge: “Extensions”. 
• Chrome: “More tools” and click “Extensions”.
• Safari: “Preferences”, “Extensions”.
• Firefox: “Tools”, “Add-ons”. 

E. If the above-mentioned solutions do not work, reset the browser. 

• Edge: click the three-dots icon, “Settings”, “Reset Settings”, “Restore settings to their default values” and confirm “Reset”. 
• Chrome: “Settings”, “Advanced”, “Reset Settings,” “Restore settings to their original defaults” and confirm “Reset Settings”. 
• Safari: “Safari”, “Reset Safari”, confirm “Reset” and re-open it.
• Firefox: Go to the address bar and write “about:support” or click on the three-line menu icon or the “Help” choice to reach the “Troubleshooting Information” site. There “Refresh Firefox” (“Reset Firefox” for older versions). Click “Finish” for the browser to re-open.

F. Your computer is too slow. Maybe you have too many applications running in the background. 

Windows users can open the “Task Manager” (right-click on the start menu icon that is located down on the left). Check the “Process” tab and see which process is taking up a lot of resources. End the task if you don’t need it now. If you really need all of them, it is time to update your computer. Updating just your RAM capacity might do the trick. 

MacOS users can open the “Activity Monitor” and stop the tasks from there. Go to “Finder” > “Dock” > “Applications” > “Utilities”> “Active Monitor”.

Ad chasing you or windows popping-up in your browser

Plenty of pop-up windows or the persistent repetitive ads are common problems that can be fixed in the following ways.

A. The excess of pop-up windows sometimes means that malware or adware keeps attacking your device. To detect it, do a thorough scan with some trustworthy antivirus software.

B. Sometimes you can solve these problems by cleaning the browser’s cached data. Just follow the already described process (Go back to Browser too slow? “C” choice). 

C. Clearing the cookies can also help in these cases. 

• Edge: “Settings”, “Clear browsing data”, pick “cookies and saved website data” and clear.
• Chrome: “Settings”, click on “Advanced”, “Clear browsing data”, “All cookies and site data” (you can clear all or choose a few). 
• Safari: “Preferences”, “Privacy”, “Manage Website Data” and click “Remove all”.
• Firefox: “Privacy”, “Clear your recent history”, pick “cookies” and clear. You can choose just some cookies or clear all by clicking “Everything”. 

An ad blocker can be useful in avoiding this problem. A trustworthy VPN that intercepts cookies from ad trackers is also a great option.

URL autofill suggestions that you don’t want

When you open pages, your browser saves this information. Later, it tries to help you by providing suggestions when you type in something, so you won’t need to write the complete domain of a site. If you don’t want to see one of these suggestions or all of them, you will need to delete the browser’s history.

• Edge:  Type in “edge://history/” in the address bar and press Enter. Search for the particular site (or multiple websites) you want to delete. 
• Chrome: Write down “chrome://history/” in your address bar and press Enter. There you can delete all of the history, removing all the suggestions or you can search for a specific site and delete it. 
• Safari: Go to the “History” tab. Then scroll down to “Clean History”. From there you can delete all of the browser’s history. If you want to clean just one site, click on the “Show All History” in the History tab, and find the one you want to delete. 
• Firefox: Click on the “library icon” that is located on the top right. Then navigate to “History” and press it. The next step is to select “Clear recent history”. From the next window, select just the “Time range to clean and Browsing & download history”. This will delete all the history for all sites. If you want to delete just one, again “library icon”, then “History”, and then “Show all history”. There you can search for the site you want to remove. 

Constant crashing of your browser

If your browser crashes constantly, the common cause could be an out of date browser version or problems in add-ons. Try the suggested alternatives in the Browser too slow? section (“B” and “D”). 

Some beta browser versions also cause crashing. If this is your case, the easiest solution is to change to a stable version.

Even hardware or software could cause this browser problem. So the best solution is to uninstall and reinstall devices and programs until you see a positive change. Yes, it could be annoying but also quite effective.

The browser’s homepage keeps changing by itself

If you see constant changes that don’t comply with your configuration, it could be a redirection from an add-on or malware. To fix it:

A. Run a security scan. 

B. If it’s not malware, then disable browser add-ons. Take a look at Browser too slow? section (“D”).

C. If the problem continues, reset the settings or uninstall/reinstall the browser and it should be fixed. See Browser too slow? section (”E”).

The browser can’t fully load images and videos

A. First, check if the Internet connection works properly. It can be its fault and not the browser’s.

B. Check the same website through a different device just to be sure the problem’s not in the site itself.

C. Frequently, browsers block pages or parts of them if they consider them unsafe. So it can be a security measure from your browser and not a failure. Browsers sometimes also skip media loading to load pages faster. Review image permissions for the site. 

• Edge: Write “edge://settings/content” in the address bar of the browser and press Enter. То see all types of content, allow the one you want. 
• Chrome: Type in “chrome://settings/content” in the browser’s address bar and press Enter. Then scroll down and you will see each content type. Allow the one you need. 
• Safari: “Preferences”, “Websites”, “Content Block” and allow from there.
• Firefox: go to the website’s identity button. “More information”, “Permission panel”, “Allow” loading images. 

D. If the problem is still there, try clearing the cookies (Ad chasing you or windows popping-up in your browser? “C”) and cache. Check third-party add-ons that could be affecting the site’s content displaying or uninstall/reinstall the browser (Browser to slow? “C”, “D”, “E”).

For issues about a specific image or video formats, animated content, etc. not loading or wrongly loaded, there are solutions available on every browser’s official site.

Autofill not working properly

There are 3 areas of autofill that you can normally store in your browser: username-password combinations, methods of payment for different sites, and addresses for registering and shipping. You might have saved the data incorrectly or you might have updated it with an error. You can go and fix it from the settings.

A. Chrome. You can find all of the Autofill settings inside the Advanced Settings menu, but you can also use one of the following shortcuts:

chrome://settings/passwords
chrome://settings/payments
chrome://settings/addresses

You should copy the path, paste it into the address bar, and press Enter.

Once in passwords, you can see each of them by clicking on the eye icon, next to the hidden password. You will get a message to put the password of the computer or the pin code. After that, you’ll be able to see it. If it is not correct, delete it and save the correct one. Do it by clicking the icon with 3 dots and then “Delete”.

Inside the “Payments”, you can add new payment methods and cards or manage the cards that you can see from before. You can also delete cards that you no longer use.

Addresses will be useful when registering on sites. You can add a complete address or edit addresses that you already have on the list.

If you have previously added your data incorrectly, you can edit the address by clicking on the 3-dot icon and selecting Edit.

B. Edge. For Microsoft Edge users, it works almost the same, the difference is at the beginning of the shortcuts. 

edge://settings/passwords
edge://settings/payments
edge://settings/addresses

When checking the passwords page, it will ask for the computer’s pin or password. When you write it down, you will see the password for the site you’d selected. Delete it if it is not correct. You could do it by first pressing the 3-point icon and then select “Delete”.

“Payments” will be the place where you can find your already saved payment methods or bank cards. You can add new if you don’t have (the Add button). You can also edit previously added cards by pressing the icon with 3 points and clicking on “Edit”.

C. Safari. Go to “Preferences” and select “AutoFill”. You will have the following options:

“Using information from my contacts”. This will give you contact information. Click on Edit to change.

“Usernames and passwords”. Here you can edit the combination of username and password if it is not already correct by clicking Edit.

“Credit cards”. See all your bank cards. Use Edit to change data.

“Other forms”. Other types of specific forms from web pages. Again with Edit, you can change old data. If you have problems with the login, click on the Saved Logins and there you can edit it.

D. Firefox. Login autofill is located in “Logins and Passwords” (3 dots menu > Options > Privacy & Security). You can select “Autofill logins and passwords” to enable or disable it. 

A bit under the Logins you can see the “Address autofill”. Again you can turn it on or off, add or edit previous addresses. 

“Credit card” information is once more located in “Privacy & Security”. The same options apply – add, remove edit, on or off. Firefox will save the bank card information without the CVV number and it will require the computer’s password anytime you edit and check this information.

We don’t recommend that you save any data inside your browser. Each data saved could be a potential security weakness. Try to remember your passwords or use another method like 2 factor verification for better security. Try not to save banking data, even if it is a hustle to work with different cards.

Content is blocked in my country

It is not exactly a problem of the browser, but there is a solution. 

You can use a VPN (virtual personal network). It redirects your traffic through remote servers that are located around the world. You can set the country you want. 

There are VPN applications for any popular OS. Start it before opening your browser and you will be able to visit region-restricted content. 

There are many providers, just check if they have servers in the locations you want. 

Conclusion

Most common browser problems can be fixed by you. Just take some minutes to identify the problems. 

Not having problems is even better, so practice some easy preventive maintenance: keep everything updated (OS, software, drivers, extensions…) and clear the browser’s cookies and cache regularly.