Restart Waterfox

Waterfox includes a Restart command that closes and starts the browser again. You can show or hide the command, require confirmation and optionally rebuild Waterfox’s startup caches during the restart.

Restart Waterfox from the menu

• On Windows and Linux, open the Waterfox menu and select Restart near the bottom of the menu.
• On macOS, open the File menu and select Restart.

If confirmation is enabled, select the confirmation button to continue. Waterfox then attempts to close and restart normally.

Change restart settings

1. Click the Waterfox menu button and select Settings.
2. Select Tabs and browsing.
3. Find Waterfox tabs, then open Restarting.

The available controls are:

• Show a restart entry in the menus is on by default. Turn it off to remove the Restart command.
• Ask for confirmation before restarting is on by default. Turn it off to restart as soon as you select the command.
• Clear the startup cache when restarting is off by default. Turn it on when you need Waterfox to rebuild cached startup data on the next launch.

What clearing the startup cache does

When Clear the startup cache when restarting is enabled, the Restart command marks Waterfox’s startup caches as invalid before the browser closes. On the next start, Waterfox re-registers internal components and recreates fast-load data. That start can take longer than usual.

This option does not clear the web content cache, cookies, history, saved logins or other website data. It only applies when you use Waterfox’s Restart command. A normal quit followed by manually opening Waterfox does not trigger this option.

Because the setting stays enabled, each later use of the Restart command also rebuilds the startup caches until you turn it off.