Firefox memory leak

At the end of my rope with Firefox now. I've tried using Chrome, but it's buggy as hell with some of my sites and logmein doesn't work well on it (I telecommute a lot). IE is pants as well, because... well, it's IE (no extensions, no bookmarks toolbar etc etc)
So - after much experimentation, and using Chrome/Firefox about 50/50 I've ditched Chrome altogether. However, I'm frustrated as all hell that Mozilla appear to be completely ignoring the obvious memory issues that have been plaguing FF for aeons now. 3.6 is unusable after about six hours - memory use constantly rises to around 380Mb, then maxes out one of my cores and the browser hangs completely. That's every signle version of 3.6 I've tried.
3.5.x is a little better - I generally get around 18-20 hours' use out of it before the browser hangs and I have to restart it. I need to leave multiple windows open for various monitoring systems - it's a major, major pain in the arse to have to restart it (especially since it takes about 30 seconds to close it down then kill the (inevitable) hung process in task manager then start everything up again.
I have tried leaving FF open overnight with anywhere from between one to five tabs/windows open - but every single time I check after they've been open about a day, sure as eggs is eggs FF has crashed. I've done all the usual crap (I wasted days if not weeks on it before I got so pisse doff I went over to Chrome) like disabling all add-ons, running FF in safe mode, checking all my plugins are up to date etc etc etc - none of this had any effect.
It's insane - I have the fastest PC I've ever used at home (quad core running at 2.6Gh, 12Gb RAM, Win 7 x64) yet I'm still using a browser that feels and performs like it was written in the stone age.
Since I see dozens of other threads around similar to this - often with boilerplate responses from Mozilla volunteers condescendingly telling people to disable their antivirus client or start stopping processes one-by-one to try and find something else to blame - I don't expect there will be any official assistance or advice, but has anyone else figured out a way to get FF to stay well-behaved after being open for an extended period of time?

Yep. My story with FF is exactly the same as yours. Tried everything. Nothing works. Consumes memory no matter what until it consumes so much it freezes.
Obviously the FF code developers don't have a clue about how to fix this fatal problem and/or don't care. They're too busy adding bells and whistles. FF is rapidly becoming unusable bloatware that sooner or later is going to simply stop working well enough for very many people to want to put up with it. Too bad, too. Because the addon infrastructure makes it a very valuable browser if the damn thing would actually work.

Similar Messages

Firefox memory leak, how to fix?

I've noticed i've been having memory leaks since quite a few versions before the latest one (33.1.1) and the problem still continues, i notice this more when i leave firefox open for awhile, sometimes only with youtube and couple of other "static" pages on, but i've got the same results without youtube.
Today i decided to ask the question, since i haven't seen any memory leak bugfixes in the recent changelogs and it becomes quite a problem to me because i leave it all day open and when it happens it forces me to restart (not really forces but i don't like having an 1.3GB process when i can have the same for 500~ ...)
I don't believe any of my extras are the reason for it, i've tested them over the pass'ed versions, removed a few, installed a few, always same problem.
All of this running WIndows 7 Ultimate 64-bits .
i've researched and found it's a "common" problem, but no really solution or expected bugfix soon or anything, i'm still to test it without any 3rd part extensions or plugins, but i don't (think) have any extensions that may cause this because like i said, i've changed them quite a few times.
Here is my extension list: http://i.imgur.com/Rk80ajU.png
Here is my plugin list: http://i.imgur.com/GBA0qgY.png
And here is a "Measure" report from "about:memory" : http://privatepaste.com/bcd17c1093
I just want to know why it leaks so badly, almost the double RAM it would normally use.
Currently i'm like 3 tabs with 1.25 GB (Private Set) used, when i close a few tabs, it keeps stable or even rising by a few mb.
I hope there's something useful with that report/my extensions|plugins.
Thanks for the reading.

I heard about that extension "problem" but, when i see on "about:addons-memory" from a third-party extension (that i can't remember but yo can see it in the link on OP, it only uses few megabytes (20~) , so, either it's a memory leak on the extension (if that's really the cause) a problem with my addon to view the extensions memory or a firefox one.
But i seriously don't expect that extension eats up all of this memory, but i will test it in a couple of days.

How can I fix the massive Firefox memory leak?

Firefox will use too much memory, causing it to hang or crash. FIX PLZ! Until a fix is released, anyone have a solution?
[http://i.imgur.com/QHHQo.png Here's an example of how much memory it's using.]

''KENNETHM [[#answer-699721|said]]''
<blockquote>
Hi Sashoto:
Since I am not a computer wiz I overlooked an important piece of info
I have WINDOWS 7 Home Edition NOT WINDOWS XP. Therefore I am thinking
that FIREFOX UPDATE 36 version should work with WINDOWS 7. Any new
recommendations for a solution to my problem? THANKS!
</blockquote>
Please follow these steps and let me know if these works:
* Open Windows Task Manager
* Click on Processes Tab
* Click on Show Processes from All Users
* You might be prompted for confirmation. Say yes or type the password.
* Search for firefox.exe or similar process
* Right click the process, and select End Process Tree
* Now open Computer > (C:) Drive > Program Files (x86) > Mozilla Firefox > Uninstall > helper.exe
* Run the un-installer
* Restart your PC
* Reinstall Mozilla Firefox

How do I report a major memory leak problem with Firefox 3.6.10 in WinXP?

After I installed Firefox 3.6.9 on a WinXP desktop, I occasionally had minor memory leak problems, reflected by getting "out of virtual memory" messages. I upgraded to 3.6.10 when notified that it was available and that it supposedly fixed stability problems. Ever since then, whenever I use Firefox, it starts out quick as a flash, but very rapidly slows down to a crawl, and has twice brought my system to a halt. IE does not cause this, nor any other program I use, but the execution speed of all programs slows as badly as Firefox. If I knew where to get older versions, I would back up to 3.6.9 or earlier. The situation now prevents me from using Firefox much at all.

Im running windows 7, Firefox 3.6.10 and before i updated to 3.6.10 my CPU never went above 10% with Firefox open. Now it can spike well above 50% and i have nothing different from when i had 3.6.9 to now when i have 3.6.10.
There is no evidence for me to suggest one of the additions i have is causing it, its all pointing to Firefox itself and the last update.

How can I address a memory leak problem with Firefox?

I have happily used Firefox for the past 7 years, and have rarely had difficulties. However, I am having some trouble now; Firefox (running 3.6.6) seems to have a memory leak on my machine. It's slower than what was discussed in other forum posts, but it still scales up slowly to multiple hundred MBs of Memory with very little CPU usage.
I have tried disabling add-ons and extensions, but this does not stop the problem. I have cleared my cache and other stored data, but that also does not help. Has anyone experienced a similar problem that might be able to help?
== This happened ==
Every time Firefox opened
== within last two weeks

Hi reble0708,
I have Java console disabled on my Firefox browser.Everything is working fine for me. There maybe other problem on your browser which is making PDF document faded and blurry. Can you post the link where you found the problem viewing the PDF document?
Btw, you can go to ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/ and select the previous version of Firefox from the given options. There's no need to uninstall Firefox before you downgrade to the previous version of it.But before new installation, backup your Firefox profile folder.
edit: replaced random unofficial download site link.

I am getting a memory leak that sometimes leads to an unresponsive Firefox, but does not crash per se.

Hello, For the last couple of months, I am having issues with one of my tabs or the program itself causing a memory leak. I was hoping that subsequent releases would fix the problem, but when I downloaded V.11 it did not help.
I use tab mix plus and at any time, usually have about 25 tabs open. Everything functioned okay for 8 or so months up until recently.
I am wondering if there is a way to try to track down what is causing the leak. If it is one of my open pages, i will get rid of it. I tried opening one page at a time from scratch, but could not find the issue. .
I always have flash block enabled to cut down on the website junk.
using OSX firefox v11.

Now, I'm not going to say it's an Add-On problem because from the research I've been doing on this problem for the last half hour shows that everyone has DIFFERENT add-ons, but everyone's having the SAME problem....
So I went through my add-ons and disabled them one by one, and the single add-on that has been giving me grief is the latest WOT add-on. So, I have Firefox 11 (so does my wife) and we both have the WOT add-on. But that's where the similarity ends... I have Windows 7 x64, she has Windows XP x86.... but she doesn't have the memory leak problem.
What I see is a sawtooth pattern over time. Memory goes up a little over 30+ seconds, then drops down. But over half an hour, the peaks of the sawtooth are larger, and it doesn't drop back down to the same level again - always a little more than before. And before you know it, FF is peaking at 1.5+GB, dropping down to 1.2GB... and FF is running very, very slowly.... excessive disk accesses (paging probably, though I apparently I still have 1.5 to 2.0 GB of free RAM). Killing FF frees it all up, and if I open FF again, it's back to using 250MB of RAM.
So, it's not the add-ons per se, but how they're interacting with FF (or the other way round).... most likely, it's this plug-in container they created to stop add-ons from taking FF with them when they crashed. Seems to have created more problems than it has solved..... would be great if you could choose not to use it....

Firefox has a memory leak and I need to update it, but I want to keep 3.5 because I don't like how the newest version of Firefox is set up.

My computer is running low on RAM, and when I look at what processes are using the most memory, firefox is the number one using between 28,000 to 93,000k, so I'm guessing that it has a memory leak.
And because of that memory leak I have to update firefox, however I really dislike the newest version of firefox and I'd prefer to stick with the version I have, which is 3.5.

Often the memory problems are not just from Firefox in isolation, but partly relating to all the extensions available for it and then the videos and animations it runs on media rich sites.
The first thing to do is to upgrade to firefox 3.6 which is at least a supported version (Maybe not for much longer)
* see [[updating firefox]]
Next version after 3.6 is 4, you should avoid that, it did have some memory problems, that were worse than 3,6 and firefox 4 is no longer secure or supported.
The techies at Firefox have been working on memory problems recently and have made many improvements, but some of these improvements are only seen in the trial versions of Firefox.
I would in fact suggest you upgrade to Firefox 5 the current release version (soon to be replaced with Firefox 6)
I am able to run Firefox v3.6 to v8 on legacy XPs with less than 1GB RAM. Firefox in itself is not necessarily very demanding in terms of RAM. I am not sure what the figures are you are quoting, or whether they are high. ( Note 1Gb is in the order of 1 000 000 k )
As for not liking the set-up of new versions of Firefox, there is quite abit that can be changed, maybe you would be able to configure it more to your liking with little effort.

Memory leak? Firefox won't load pages/open.

Ok, I believe there is a memory leak. I am surfing ok then a page wont load. I go to taskmgr and I show that one firefox has 104,990 K of memory. The rest have at most 3,000K. After the page won't load I close Firefox. It won't open. I have to turn on PC and unplug to get it to open again.

This issue can be caused by an extension or plugin that isn't working properly.
Start Firefox in [[Safe Mode]] to check if one of the add-ons is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Tools > Add-ons > Themes).
* Don't make any changes on the Safe mode start window.
See:
* [[Troubleshooting extensions and themes]]
* [[Troubleshooting plugins]]

FIrefox betrayed by its own "developers"? Memory Leak Work Around at Bottom

Firefox SUCKS memory and holds onto it. Try this test: Open it, leave ONE tab, open and sit back and and watch the damn thing crash.
Funny, as soon as the project people started getting so much money from Google that they had to restructure to avoid losing its non-profit status Firefox developed an insatiable thirst for RAM that has only gotten worse in the YEARS since. They won't fix the problem, they won't acknowledge the problem, the ignore every post about it . . . . So, is killing FF's user base the price for the continued Google money that they so quickly whored themselves out for? Has FF been run by Google these last few years? They certainly couldn't wreck any better.
Posted by Wahoo at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/939920
"Using ADD-ons to remove memory leak. Mozilla says to remove add-ons to fix leak. Firefox sucks memory. it always has and always will. Nobody wants to admit it exsists on the Mozilla side must less fix it. Firewalls , etc do not cause the leak. You can remove all your ad-ons and leave firefox open and it will suck memory. Every tab you open drains your memory and continues to climb without opening any more. You can then close all your tabs and Firefox will not release the memory. Just fix it guys, it cant be that difficult "
Posteby Onmicide at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/939920
"There is a way to stay on top of the memory usage:
Go to about:memory and scroll to the bottom. There are buttons there for garbage collection and minimizing memory usage. "

Please try this two minute test.
'''Create a new Firefox profile'''
A new profile will have your system-installed plugins (e.g., Flash) and extensions (e.g., security suite toolbars), but no themes, other extensions, or other customizations. It also should have completely fresh settings databases and a fresh cache folder.
Exit Firefox and start up in the Profile Manager using Start > search box (or Run):
firefox.exe -P
Any time you want to switch profiles, exit Firefox and return to this dialog.
You'll click the Create Profile button. I recommend using the default location suggested, and to avoid data loss, not re-using any existing folder. Then start Firefox in the new profile you created.
What happens with memory usage with the two default tabs open, or another tab of your choice?
When returning to the Profile Manager, you might be tempted to use the Delete Profile button. But... it's a bit too easy to accidentally delete your "real" profile, so I recommend resisting the temptation. If you do want to clean up later, I suggest making a backup of all your profiles first in case something were to go wrong.

When firefox crashes from a memory leak why can't you display the offending tab? Enhancement: a task manager like tab manager showing usage per tab / extension.

I typically keep many windows with several tabs open. It is possible that this causes more crashes since the number of pages multiplies any effect most users with less pages/tabs would experience. I have been having problems with Firefox crashing Using the windows task manager I have looked into this issue monitoring lots of variables. Bottom line the crash is caused by increasing memory usage possibly caused by the flash add on which is doing many IO reads on at least one offending page/tab. Could some sites be using flash to read from my disk without permission and there is a memory leak in either flash of the code the sites uses? I have searched the web for a task manager like add-on for Firefox tabs that would allow me to determine the offending page/tab/add-on/extension. It seems like a great idea which has not been implemented. Since I am a developer I would be happy to implement, but would like some guidance since my knowledge of your product is only at the user level.

There is currently about:memory page which is being actively developed. A "task manager"of sorts is also in the works AFAIK. If you want to help out, your best bet is to find the applicable bug in Bugzilla. If you have the coding skills I can help get you in touch with a mentor - just let me know.

There appears to be a MAJOR issue (hang/memory leak) in "about:home", also known as the Firefox Start Page, in Firefox 26.0 on Windows!

There appears to be a MAJOR issue (hang/memory leak) in "about:home", also known as the Firefox Start Page, in Firefox 26.0, on Windows!
observed on:
- Windows 7 x64 machine with 12GB RAM and high-performance CPU (core i7-920)
- Virtual Machine guest running WinXP SP3 (in Oracle VirtualBox) on the same machine
- Intel Atom D525 netbook with 4GB RAM, running Win7 x64
Neither of these machines are connected via Sync or anything like that. The Firefox instance on the VM is a fresh/clean install.
The problem:
- 100% cpu usage for 10 seconds, memory usage (PF usage in XP) goes up to 1.7GB
- if "about:home" is the Firefox Start Page, effectively it hangs the computer at Firefox startup for 10 seconds
- if "about:home" is NOT the Firefox Start Page, startup is fine - BUT if I press the "home" button on the toolbar it loads "about:home" which causes the same issue again

Thank you cor-el! Your suggestion has solved the problem on my WinXP VM which I was using to test, and I will soon confirm that it has also solved the problem on my primary Win7 desktop.
To recap:
- I set "browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl" to an empty string
OLD VALUE: https://snippets.mozilla.com/%STARTPAGE_VERSION%/%NAME%/%VERSION%/%APPBUILDID%/%BUILD_TARGET%/%LOCALE%/%CHANNEL%/%OS_VERSION%/%DISTRIBUTION%/%DISTRIBUTION_VERSION%/
NEW VALUE: (blank)
- I deleted the folder \storage\persistent\moz-safe-about+home under the Profile directory
Actual folder name on WINDOWS XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<PROFILENAME>\storage\persistent\moz-safe-about+home
However I have a concern that the '''OLD VALUE''' of "browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl" will creep back in, in a future update! Can you communicate this issue to someone on the development team?

Firefox 4.0.1 is using 130 - 160mb of memory on Win7 and I'm getting a memory low error. Is there a memory leak on Firefox

I start getting a memory low warning in Windows 7 and the task manager shows Firefox as 130mb peaking at 160mb. Surely this is much too high and I wondered if there was a creeping memory leak going on. I've disabled most add-ons

Sorry didn't noticed it was solved.

Firefox 6.0 has memory leak

Firefox 6.0 (release) has a memory leak.
Tested with 5 windows and 43 pages loaded and left overnight, it crashed after several hours. Able to fully repro this every time.
I left it for 10 mins after all pages loaded. I opened Task Manager and I can see the Memory (Private Working Set) increasing every few seconds.

Well I'm using 7 beta and my memory usage is just short of 600,000k with plugin container using another 220,000k. There is a massive problem with this!

Firefox 27 memory leak (/questions/978195)

I already did this, sorry , but now I include the automated information.....
More than 6GB in 3 hours (MacOSX 10.7.5, 16Gb RAM)
(No time personally to look at this but, I have tagged it as escalate)

I will make a quick comment, but am unlikely to get back to this again before the weekend.
First do not think we are ignoring this or saying it is not a problem. It is a case of it is something often difficult to pin down and must initially be checked and compared with Firefox in a clean configuration, and using memory figures from the Firefox's reporter about:memory.
If you can ramp up memory usage to 6GB in only 3 hours at least it should be relatively easy to demonstrate whether or not something prevents that from happening.
As a test please
*Make an new additional Firefox Profile,
*Run Firefox in Firefox's safe mode
*With all plugins disabled
* Look at memory use by using ''about:memory''
* Browse for a few hours, has the problem now disappeared ?
Instructions and discussions about this can be seen in thread
* ''Firefox 26 on OS X 10.9.1 still has huge memory usuage (leak) which leads to crash'' [/questions/981674]
*Thread mentioned in tile is <br />''Firefox 25 still has memory leaks'' [/questions/978195]

Firefox 21.0 on OS X 10.8.4 still has a memory leak that occurs with no Add ons, 1 tab and leads to 3GB of memory usage in 10 minutes.

While using Firefox 21.0 on OS X 10.8.4 with 4GB RAM, Firefox memory usage marches up and up until at 3GB (on my iMac) Firefox hangs and is 100% non-responsive and must be killed with Force Quit. It takes 10 minutes to occur.
No Add Ons
One tab

John99,
Unfortunately, the problem was WORSE in FF 22.0. I regressed to FF21.0 and shut off automatic updates. I may even go back to FF3.6, which is the last one where I didn't see this problem.
Thank you for trying but as a longstanding developer I know that pervasive memory leaks is a sign of a broken development process. Thank you for trying...

Firefox memory leak

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for