Github fails to load in FF (Indefinite loading)

[majora2007]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Other

Body

Github on Firefox constantly gets stuck into this state (every month or so recently). The css never loads. Clearing site data does not fix. Once it gets in this state, all Github pages fail to load css and indefinitely load.

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[maheerCodes]

hey @majora2007 👋 .
that screenshot shows exactly whats happening ,,,the page structure / content loaded but the css never did,leaving everything unstyled(plain text ,broken layout, no theming). since clearing site data doesnt fix it and it recurs monthly,,,thats a meaningful clue .
a few firefox-specific things worth checking since this seems tied to your browser rather than github itself :

• firefox's http cache vs site data are different things ,,,"clear site data" mainly clears cookies/localstorage/indexeddb, not necessarily the disk cache where css files get cached.try going to about:preferences#privacy -> scroll to cached web content->clear now specifically ,,,thats a diffferent cache layer than "site data" .
• check about:config for network.http.use-cache and similar caching prefs ,,, if anything got set to an unusual value(sometimes from an extension or about:config tweak)it can cause stale /broken cache behavior site-wide.
• since this happens "every month or so" specifically ,,,that cadence is suspicious ,,,worth checking if you have any extension that periodically clears something(privacy/cache-cleaning extensions sometimes have scheduled clears that partially wipe css cache butt not other site data, causing exactly this kind of half-broken state),
• try firefox's troubleshoot mode (help -> more troubleshooting information ->restart with addons disabled)next time it happens,,if github loads fine with extensions disabled,that confirms an extension is the culprit rather than firefox/ github itself.

worth checking the firefox version too,,,,,if a specific ff update lines up with when this started happening, that'd point to a firefox-side regression rather than anything github changed🩷🩷 .

[majora2007]

I updated my FF to 152.0.1 and it fixed itself. Just seems to happen from time to time on different machines where the CSS never loads, which made me think it might be on Github's side.

[maheerCodes]

hey @majora2007 👋.
good to hear the ff update resolved it ,,,152.0.1 fixing it lines up exactly with what id suspected ,,, a firefox regression in how it handles css disk cache,probably introduced in an earlier version and patched in this update. the"different machines,same pattern"detail also makes sense now ,,,if those machines were alll running the same firefox version range when it happened , the update would fix all of them.

if this is resolved for you now,,,,,,mind marking it as answered? helps others searching for the same firefox / github css issue know that updating firefox is the fix 💙