EXCESSIVE MEMORY HOGGING BY PLUG-IN CONTAINER.EXE

''Duplicate post, continue here - [https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/794119]''
I have recently noticed (last 1-2 Firefox Updates) that plug-in container.exe is hogging a lot of memory 307.7K - disabling plug-ins does NOT reduce this use - ANY PLUG-INS I SHOULD REMOVE??? OR 1) is this normal, 2) any suggestions to reduce if NOT normal??? Thank you!!!

Disable the new plugin crash protection (Out of Process Plugins or OOPP) feature in Firefox 3.6.4 (and later versions) by going to [http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config about:config] (check the link for details) and then toggle the individual dom.ipc.plugins.enabled. preferences to false.
-type '''about:config''' in the URL/address/location bar and press the Enter key
-if you see a warning, accept it (promise to be careful)
-Filter = dom.ipc
-on any set to true, double-click to set to false
-restart Firefox
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npctrl.dll (Microsoft Silverlight)
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npqtplugin.dll (Apple QuickTime)
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npswf32.dll (Adobe Flash)
Note: The dom.ipc.plugins.enabled preference should already be set to "false", by default. This preference covers all other plugins not specified by an individual filename.
If you are only having a problem with a specific plugin, such as the Adobe Flash Player plugin, just disable that one preference.
See: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Plugin-container_and_out-of-process_plugins#Disabling_crash_protection
Also see:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=1929497
http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2010/06/firefox-3-6-4-now-available/
http://benjamin.smedbergs.us/blog/2010-03-03/firefox-safe-from-plugin-crashes/

Similar Messages

Firefox crashes with error msg: plug-in container exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. Mod name: Mozallac.dl

Firefox crashes with error messages: plug-in container exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. Details: Mod User 32.0.3.5379 Mod Name: mozallac.dl
Why does this constantly occur?

'''[https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-using-safe-mode Start Firefox in Safe Mode]''' {web link}
While you are in safe mode;
Type '''about:preferences'''<Enter> in the address bar
Select '''Advanced > General.'''
Look for and turn off '''Use Hardware Acceleration'''.
Poke around safe web sites. Are there any problems?
Then restart.

I have just downloaded Firefox 8.0 and I am STILL getting plug-in container.exe crashes! Is anyone planning to fix this problem? EVER?

EVERY time I go to Yahoo.com, and quite often when I go to other sites, I get the following error message from Firefox:
''''''plugin-container.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.'''''
I know I'm not the only one who has had this problem as I've seen other questions about it. The only suggestions offered are to go to an EARLIER version of Firefox. Why wasn't this problem addressed in version 7? And why has it been ignored yet again in version 8?

Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.
See "Basic Troubleshooting: Make a new profile":
* https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Basic+Troubleshooting#w_8-make-a-new-profile
There may be extensions and plugins installed by default in a new profile, so check that in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions & Plugins" in case there are still problems.
If that new profile works then you can transfer some files from the old profile to that new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.
See:
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox
See:
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_crashes
* https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Firefox+crashes
If you have submitted Breakpad crash reports then post the IDs of one or more Breakpad crash reports (bp-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx). You can find the IDs of the submitted crash reports on the about:crashes page. You can open the about:crashes page via the location bar, like you open a website.
See:
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Breakpad (Mozilla Crash Reporter)
* https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Mozilla+Crash+Reporter
* https://developer.mozilla.org/en/How_to_get_a_stacktrace_for_a_bug_report

Norton removed mozilla's file, plug-in-container.exe, as infected; mozilla now crashes when opened and is unusable

I tried to update Mozilla as instructed (from 3.6.16 to 4). Download was interrupted because Norton AntiVirus located a Mozilla program file it determined was infected. That file was "plugin-container.exe " WS Reputation.1. Norton removed the file. I am unable to open Mozilla or any program (everytime I go to use my e-mail, www.juno.com, the system crashes and I have to end juno and mozilla.) Please help - I am otherwise reduced to IE!
S.E.Evans

That's a false positive from Norton.
Download and re-install Firefox 3.6.16 over your current installation, this time don't let Norton delete that file.

Plugin-container.exe

Since this morning, plug-in container.exe has not started (yay!), and I'm not having any problems at all.
Web navigation has been fast and sweet, and for the first time in YEARS my Firefox memory usage has remained in the 74,000-78,000 range, no wild explosions of 150,000+ CPU, no freezing, no pages that stop loading and refuse to refresh, etc, nothing but sweet sailing.
Has plugin-container finally been exterminated, or is this a strange (and welcome...) glitch?

I wanted to add that I spend thousands of dollars with the companies that I like, so I'm not a cheap guy. So if you don't get any money from me, you must be doing something wrong. Perhaps a $20/year browser would be better than a FREE (magic word, naht!) browser? Sometimes I keep on spending with a company that I don't like or which does not give back much to me in exchange for my money in terms of quality of goods or services and I end up with a half-finished product that I must finish myself. Some smart guy in the past said that in the future the entire world will become one LAZY PLACE. This is happening now. Low quality goods coupled with supposedly low prices and the I-work-1-hour-a-day attitudes = LAZYSTAN. So, because they got not much competition in the area where I live I will, for a while, stay with one company as their "loyal" customer, but as soon as there is competition with same quality of goods I will vote with my feet. So even those monopolists mistreating us your loyal customers, be careful how you treat us, always treat your customer with respect same as you would treat your Mother and Father (most of you). Why all this ANGER in the U.S. consumers? Because they've been mistreated so many times that they gave up BEING POLITE. Another side of the medal is that U.S. consumers due to competition they've become "tolerant" of some low prices of some industries and they expect a lot, but don't let that encourage you monopolists to raise your prices as you quickly will end up filing bankruptcy.
Regards,
Ex-FF user, switched to Chrome, but still open to sometimes use FF, when the right winds blow.

Firefox 13.0.1 is a complete memory hog

I selected auto update with Firefox. Until now, this has not been a problem. Lately my computer has been running so slow. I believe it has something to do with the plugin-container file. Why do I need this to run? I'm not a programmer, and I don't have admin privileges on my work computer anyway. Even if I did, I wouldn't want to go through all of the solutions that I see. Additionally, all of the solutions that I see are for versions 3 and 4. I find it hard to believe that no new solutions have come with the new upgrades.
Maybe it's time to find a new browser. :-(

How to disable extensions, Personas, and plugins
Disabling an add-on will turn it off without removing it:
1. At the top of the Firefox window, click on the Firefox button (Tools
menu in Windows XP), and then click Add-ons. The Add-ons Manager
tab will open.
2. In the Add-ons Manager tab, select the Extensions or Appearance or
Plugins panel.
3. Select the add-on you wish to disable.
4. Click the Disable button.
5. Click Restart now if it pops up. Your tabs will be saved and restored
after the restart.
To re-enable the add-on, find it in the list of Add-ons and click Enable, then restart Firefox.
If you had a Administrator account you could left click onto the task bar and select the Task Manager and Kill the Process there but it would be safer following the instructions above supplied by Firefox.
I opened my Task Manager and found these
two plugin-container.exe running within Firefox.
I have no problem with the speed of my browser,
in-fact Firefox blows away the compatition comparing
searching speeds with DSL and I have only a 2GB HD on this
old computer.
It sounds like you need to download and use regularly,
CCleaner and Defraggler at: www.piriform.com/CCleaner,
www.piriform.com/Defraggler
Excellent Maintenance Software for Free...
plugin-container.exe
Process ID 3872
User- User Account
Domain- Computers name
Path C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugin-container.exe
Memory Usage 1.98 MB
Peak Memory Usage 26 MB
plugin-container.exe
Process ID 3772
User - User Account
Domain- Computers name
Path C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugin-container.exe
Memory Usage 49 MB
Peak Memory Usage 288 MB
Good Luck, Later
“Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.”

Sometimes a plugin-container.exe instance starts hogging a ton of memory -- I would like to know which plugin is running inside that plugin-container without having to one-by-one disable the plugins. Which process called plugin-container.exe?

As described above, I have several instances of plugin-container.exe running, which is OK. It would make me feel safer to know which plugins are running inside each of these, since I would be better able to know whether there is malware running inside one of them, or which website might have made the process start hogging memory.
I am a power user, I usually have 80-100 tabs open, and of course it is hard to track the website or plugin down without having to waste a lot of time.
Could you provide in future releases this information?
Is it already available under one of the about: pages (e.g. config, plugins, memory, etc?)

Thanks Efreak! 
Maybe I was not clear. I usually have 4-5 plugin-container.exe processes running. I know now that the large one that hogs is the Adobe Flash player, but, for example I don't know which plug-in initiated the other plugin-container.exe instances. 
One of them actually says "googletalkplugin.exe" if you dig deep, which is OK. At least I know why the plugin-container.exe was started. But there are other instances that are just there and there is no way to figure out which plug-in initiated it. 
This would of course also help figure out if it is really the Adobe Flash plug in that is hogging all the memory, OR even if within Firefox in the about: pages one could figure out which TABS are using which plug-ins.
Like that you could freely choose to terminate the process directly, or close the TAB. 
1) What I am looking for is a way to determine which plug-in is running under which instance of plugin-container.exe 
2) Additionally it would be great to have a summary of which TABS are using which plugins (e.g. in the about:plugins page or yet another about: page)
 
Thank you

FF15 hangs whenever plugin-container.exe is loaded in memory

I need help. Since at least in v14 and now v15, FF hangs becoming unresponsive whenever plugin-container.exe is loaded in memory, as monitored with Process Explorer of SysInternals. This happens in FF with all plugins manually disabled and with no extensions, loaded in either "normal" or safe mode, even after having reset it to default state in about:support. (The unresponsiveness is not absolute, since every some 90 seconds there is a brief refresh of the screen as indicated by an acknowledging screen change due to a prior click or mouse motion. (In this quasi-frozen condition, FF slowly ramps up its memory usage while plugin-container keeps alternating between two smaller vales in Process Explorer.) After some 15-20+ minutes, plugin-container unloads itself and FF starts responding again. If I then visit a page that triggers the loading of plugin-container, the described problem develops once more. Blocking the loading of plugin-container (e.g.,renaming or moving it out or blocking it with the firewall) hangs FF. The solution for FF 3.6.6 for dom.ipc in about:config does not work in these versions.
Ironically, the Mozilla support page about "Firefox crashes when loading certain pages" (http://goo.gl/i02Xz) is a page that loads automatically plugin-container and hangs my machine, so I had to enter the forums by selecting a different problem.
This occurs in a Windows-7 machine with sufficient memory (1025 MB physical, 1025 MB virtual) and a lean configuration (monitored and enforced with Autoruns and Process Explorer), which runs very well other browsers such as Chrome, Opera o IE9. I have been using FF since its v2 and would hate to switch permanently to a different browser. Any informed advice on how to fix the problem (or disable the plugin- container in a working manner) would be much appreciated. TIA.

Solved by blocking the loading of Plugin Container . . .
Searching in the bugzilla.mozilla.org site for text or attachments on bugs related to dom.ipc.plugins...., I encountered several references to a Windows environment variable MOZ_DISABLE_OOP_PLUGINS, for example in the patch at http://goo.gl/jYJKL. I then added this variable to the Windows 7 system environment of my machine setting it to 1. It works : FF15 no longer loads plugin container (and therefore does not hang) when visiting web pages that before froze the browser.NB : As I discovered shortly thereafter in googling this environment variable, this method of blocking the loading of plugin container was already reported 3 weeks ago by big_v in the Mozilla support forum, http://goo.gl/v7prA. Chapeau.

How do I disable the plugin-container.exe? It is eating a lot of memory.

When my computer slows down, I open the task manager and it tells me that the plugin-container.exe is using upwards of 79k in memory. Is there a way that I can disable it? What are the consequences of doing so and are there any other remedies for this exorbitant use of memory by that program?

Do not confuse extensions and plugins. 
Extensions (Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) add extra functionality (features) to Firefox. 
Plugins (Tools > Add-ons > Plugins) make it possible to handle specific data (files) served by websites like media files and Flash content.

Plugin-container.exe takes over and uses 100% of my CPU locking me out and leaving my PC non-functioning. Is this a bug, or a memory leak, in the Firefox software? Can anything be done to fix this problem?

In looking at Windows Task Manager I found that plugin-container.exe was taking over 100% of my CPU and my system was frozen. Is this a memory leak or other bug?

Thank you! I have been having problems with Adobe Flash since downloading the new 11.1 version. I will download it again and reinstall it, hopefully that will correct the problem.

Why do I have to run the plug-in container in my processes constantly in this version? It takes up too much memory!

The earlier version of Firefox did not run this plug-in container. Every time I would remove it from my processes it would kill videos etc. But, it was all fine in the older version of Firefox, so why the change? So I chose not to update Firefox. Then, the other day, I saw that is was automatically downloading and I turned off my computer because it wouldn't stop and I didn't give permission. When I got home I could not use Firefox and it took me hours to figure out how to get the internet back. Then I got Firefox back and this stupid process is running again. It takes up too much memory. I don't like a bunch of extra processes running like that. So, why can't I just use the old version? Is this process absolutely necessary?

In the past the memory usage would end up as part of the Firefox program. Now with OOPP you can see it as a separate process and that makes it more noticeable.
You can disable OOP if you want. 
See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Plugin-container_and_out-of-process_plugins
Your above posted system details show outdated plugin(s) with known security and stability risks.
# Shockwave Flash 10.0 r42
# Next Generation Java Plug-in 1.6.0_18 for Mozilla browsers
Update the [[Java]] plugin to the latest version.
*http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp (Java Platform: Download JRE)
Update the [[Managing the Flash plugin|Flash]] plugin to the latest version.
*http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/
I don't know if these three with different copyright dates are all needed:
# Version 0.9.17, copyright 2008-2010 Veetle Inchttp://www.veetle.com/
# Version 0.9.17, Copyright 2006-2009 Veetle Inchttp://www.veetle.com/
# Version 0.9.17, copyright 2006-2010 Veetle Inchttp://www.veetle.com/

Plug-container.exe *32 keeps locking up firefox 3.6.8 on windows 7 x64

I have fresh reinstall of my notebook. Running W7 x64 Ultimate. Installed FF 3.6.8 x32 since x64 is not avaliable yet. Also downloaded latest version of Flash 10.1.82.76. I have noticed as soon as I open page with flash, FF will freeze in 99% of cases. Killing plug-container.exe from task manager actually makes FF working again
Any idea ?

It's possible that you are having a problem with some Firefox add-on that is hindering your Firefox's normal behavior. Have you tried disabling all add-ons (just to check), to see if Firefox goes back to normal?
Whenever you have a problem with Firefox, whatever it is, you should make sure it's not caused by one (or more than one) of your installed add-ons, be it an extension, a theme or a plugin. To do that easily and cleanly, run Firefox in [http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Safe+Mode safe mode] (don't forget to select ''Disable all add-ons'' when you start safe mode). If the problem disappears, you know it's from an add-on. Disable them all in normal mode, and enable them one at a time until you find the source of the problem. See [http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes this article] for information about troubleshooting extensions and themes and [https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Troubleshooting+plugins this one] for plugins.
If you need support for one of your add-ons, you'll have to contact its author.
If the problem does not disappear when all add-ons are disabled, please tell me, so we can work from there. Please have no fear of following my instructions to the line, as all can be easily undone.

Alerts from Norton re high memory usage by plugin-container.exe

Running Firefox 3.6.13 on Windows XP Pro Service Pack 3. The details from Norton are as follows:
1. Program Path C:\program files\Mozilla firefox\plugin-container.exe
2. Program Description - Plugin Container for Firefox
3. Memory - 1,676 MB used
4. Disk Write Activity - 10 MB (total for this process)
5. File Origin - Source File = updater.exe, File Created: firefox.exe,updater.exe,plugin-container.exe

Probably the alerts are nothing to worry about, and you may wish to suppress that particular alert.
On a couple of old spec legacy machines I recently switched. Partly because of economics, and partly because , of the two, Norton can perform better (in my opinion) on legacy machines.
The first thing I did notice was that Norton does pulse updates and background tasks very frequently (configurations can be changed) by default, and flags up quite a number of alerts.
The Norton (NIS) 'Insight' facility will be flagging up firefox plugin container.exe. It can be configured to suppress the alerts from firefox plugin container, but unless disabled will probably just flag up another busy process or application. It is not flagging it up because it is a known security problem, merely because of the amount of activity.
I imagine the alerts are when you are playing videos, probably with FlashPlayer, and may well depend on the resolution/quality of the videos.
If you think the results are unusual or unexpected see:
*[[High memory usage]]
*[[Firefox consumes a lot of CPU resources]]
PS not sure what is happening with this post are some phrases unacceptable eg alternative expressions about economics; one paragraph was behaving oddly in preview resorted to manually adding break tags to keep it within the container.

When will you get rid of the resource hog, "Plugin-Container.exe"

Plugin-container-exe has a memory leak. When you go in and out of numerous web sites, it consumes more and more and more memory and turns my computer into a dog. Since the inclusion of the plugin-container, explorer is now a better browser.
== This happened ==
Every time Firefox opened
== The last update that included plugin-container.

Are you serious that this is your "solution"? I did as you suggested -- changed the flags to "false" -- and now I restared Firefox with a mere 10 tabs open (no videos; just a few text pages, gmail, yahoo finance, barrons.com) and Firefox is consuming 1.1 gb of RAM. What's the reason behind this? It looks like whatever resources were being swallowed by plugin-container.exe are now being swallowed by Firefox itself, so that doesn't solve the problem.
Is Firefox a good idea taken too far? When it began, the Firefox project was a fast, nimble browser. Is it now too bloated and convoluted to be of any use? Is it a victim of its success?

Why does plugin-container.exe hog so much cpu usage?

When FF is running with some application (ie flash or maybe shockwave) or some type of embedded function, the cpu usage for plugin-container is generally between 60 and 80 percent. This causes extreme lag and reduced functionallity. Quite frankly it is extremely annoying to have things run so slowly.

Somehow this bug came up on my radar yesterday later in the day: the first two comments indicate different plugins, and the third refers to the Acrobat plugin:
<blockquote>This seems to happen if Adobe Reader is used for displaying PDF documents (pdfjs.disabled set to true and Preferences > Applications > PDF to "Adobe Reader (in Firefox)"). Opening two tabs displaying PDFs and closing one crashes the other one. Was able to reproduce with Firefox 36.0.1 and Adobe Reader plugin "Adobe Acrobat 11.0.10.32". When I tried to reproduce it later again in the same profile (or on Nightly and Beta), the tab didn't crash.</blockquote>
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1113190
Sounds like your issue, but it's puzzling that they got a tab to crash and in your case only plugin-container.exe crashed.

EXCESSIVE MEMORY HOGGING BY PLUG-IN CONTAINER.EXE

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