Skip to content
Waterfox
Blog

Fix problems that cause images to not show

This article explains how to fix problems with images on websites, such as PNG, GIF, and JPG still images, as well as animated file formats such as animated GIF. If you are experiencing difficulty downloading or viewing images in Waterfox, follow the troubleshooting instructions below.

Clear cookies and cache

Sometimes problems loading websites can be fixed by clearing the cookies and cache.

  1. Click the menu button menu button to open the menu panel.
  2. Click History and select Clear Recent History…
  3. In the Time Range to clear: drop-down, select Everything.
  4. Below the drop-down menu, select both Cookies and Cache. Make sure other items you want to keep are not selected.
  5. Click OK.

Security software

Some Internet security software (including antivirus and anti-spyware programs, firewalls, privacy programs, and others) may identify and block certain images as web bugs or may prevent images from animating. Check the settings for your Internet security program to make sure it allows images to load.

Extensions

Extensions are add-ons that add or modify Waterfox features. See the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Waterfox problems article for instructions on how to disable or uninstall extensions that may cause images not to load in Waterfox.

Images load but look wrong

If images on websites load, but don’t look right or don’t look the way they do in other browsers:

  • If you are using any sort of web accelerator software, disable it and see if images load properly. For more information, see the documentation that came with the software.
  • If the image area shows text or some form of gibberish, it’s most likely caused by a misconfigured web server. Contact the website and tell them about the problem.

Other reasons why images may not load

  • The site that displays the images may be down or experiencing difficulties. To verify, try loading the site from a different computer or browser.

  • Some pathnames to images contain backslashes (e.g. example.com\MyImage.jpg). In browsers other than Internet Explorer, these pathnames do not load. If you see that the image’s URL contains a backslash, contact the site’s webmaster about the issue.

  • You may have modified one of your Waterfox preference settings which is causing images not to show. You can either reset all preferences or else try the following:

Warning: Changing advanced preferences can affect Waterfox’s stability and security. This is recommended for advanced users only.

  1. Type about:config in the address bar and press Enter. A warning page may appear. Click Accept the Risk and Continue to go to the about:config page.
  2. Find browser.display.document_color_use in the list of preferences. Its value should be set to 0 by default.
  3. Click Reset Fx71aboutconfig-ResetButton if its value is other than 0.

Images still do not load correctly

If you have tried all of the solutions in this article and images or animations still don’t load correctly then try these solutions:

Based on information from Images or animations do not load (mozillaZine KB)