Since early August, visitors to online retailer Amazon.com have been complaining about the website causing Firefox or Safari to crash on Mac and Windows with some instances being bad enough to cause a Blue Screen of Death (BSoD). The company has not yet responded to the complaints that continue to pile up on the Amazon feedback forum, Firefox’s bug tracker, and the Apple support forums.
One solution is to avoid Amazon’s main page and instead use a light version at www.amazon.com/access. (Clear your cookies to return to the full site.) Different tags for Chrome and IE allow those browsers to access the site. Switching browsers is one work-around. You might also be able to use the Firefox NoScript extension to block ssl-images-amazon script though that might negatively impact the site behavior but at least it won’t crash. In Safari, you can go to Preferences, Security and uncheck Enable JavaScript. It seems Safari on iOS is even impacted. Others are indicating that the browser and ATI graphics hardware combination as the reason for the more severe crashes.
The issue seemed to begin August 6th and has since garnered hundreds of ‘me too’ posts on the forums of the different organizations impacted (Amazon, Apple, and Mozilla). Twitter users have also chimed in to report their experience. We will reach out to Amazon for comment and update the post accordingly. (No response yet.)
Whoa… @amazon's pop up thing is making both my browser (@firefox & #safari) crash… guess y'all don't want my money …
— Naked Highway (@nakedhighway) August 7, 2015
Amazon home page has ko'd firefox and demanded dry restart 3 times now.
— patrick hayden (@paghxt) August 6, 2015
Ok there has to be something up with amazon – it's refusing to load properly on my phone, safari, and firefox
— Julia R (@julia_richards) August 24, 2015
Wow, Amazon just kills Firefox. It just hangs and stutters. I cannot browse that website using Firefox. What. The. Hell.
— Daniel Carvalho (@daniel_carvalho) August 12, 2015
Hey, @amazon your site is slowing @firefox to a crawl. Tried disabling extensions. Didn't work. Can you fix that please? Thanks.
— R█████ H███ ??? (@rdhill316) August 10, 2015
@AmazonHelp What's a fix for Firefox crashing with Amazon site only?
2 days now, impossible. Thank you— margaret (@Margrz) August 7, 2015
I really wonder if anyone at @amazon has tried to use their site on Firefox/Mac.
— Rob Peck (@codelemur) July 26, 2015
Anyone else notice #FireFox and #Amazon not playing nicely? Dragging, and lagging, and being a PITA?
— Kate Bringe (@DarkAthena) August 6, 2015
I blamed Firefox for 2 days that my computer keeps freezing, but turns out it's only on #Amazon! Just spins merrily along. @amazon
— Donna Barstow (@cartooness) August 12, 2015
@amazon your website has frozen my Mac twice. Using Firefox. Latest OSX updates.
— I support radicals. (@CitizenDino) August 7, 2015
Amazon crashing Safari today. Had to force shut down. (Apple Support Communities) http://t.co/TVgvsSB3wR – Firefox also; JavaScript issue
— Tim Chemacki (@spaceguy) August 8, 2015
@AmazonHelp Amazon's website has gotten so bloated that it hangs up Firefox. At the point where I don't want to buy from y'all anymore. 🙁
— Dee Cook ☕️ (@addlepated) August 14, 2015
Correction – @amazon, please fix your issues with @firefox! https://t.co/FGIL55tLF5
— Sean (@pxpunx) August 9, 2015
Hey @amazon your homepage keeps locking up my MBP w/ Safari or Firefox. Can't force quit. I'm not alone: https://t.co/UXnNmeHXGe Fix this.
— Ray Thomas (@Butch_Magnolia) August 26, 2015
Help! Navigating to @amazon home page has frozen my computer twice. @APPLEOFFIClAL @firefox pic.twitter.com/8dCqsj6s4S
— Cari H. (@CariHawthorne) August 19, 2015
amazon and twitter both trying extremely hard to crash firefox
— a buzzed poltergeist (@bamfzagoon) August 2, 2015