Firefox is extremely slow to *begin* loading a page
Hi all, I really love Firefox on the desktop, and its the only browser I want to use on mobile as well, but it is unuseable.
Loading the application is fast, that works fine. It when I go to load a page, that I have to wait 5-10 seconds for anything to happen. This is *not* network related. I tested this by opening a local file on my phone. Firefox opens quickly, but shows the spinner for around 6 seconds before displaying the content. It's the same for remote pages. I enter a url, and again I have to wait. Once It is past the first delay, the loading bar shows up and the page downloads and renders quickly.
There is something going on between application load and the actual download and render of the page that is taking a really long time. It's driving me nuts. Any ideas?
I am running firefox 27 on Android 4.2.2 on an HTC One X. Thanks!
Chosen solution
Taking 10 seconds is not normal for Firefox for Android. It is a symptom of Adblock Plus. It is currently known that APB will cause multi-second startup times.
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hello WD-42, is this only happening the first time after you've started the app or is this delay occurring for every site, that you are loading during a session ?
It only happens after loading the app. For example I just opened firefox now and it took about 10 seconds for the "about firefox" screen to come up, I guess it was just updated to 27.
Subsequent page loads are fine. But if the app is backgrounded or restarted the delay comes back.
This is annoying because my main use case for the browser on the phone is to do a quick google search on something and maybe look at 1 or 2 pages. That lag takes about half the time of the process.
Thanks for the response. I'll do whatever I can to help.
ok, in this case i fear that this delay is immanent to the architecture of the app and there isn't really a way around that. as far as i understand it, the "awesome-screen" of firefox on android is done in native code, so that's why it starts up fairly quickly. however in the meanwhile the browser's rendering engine, networking components etc. are loaded up in the background, which will take a bit of time until they are ready (and that's probably the delay that you're registering) - as far as i know that's also the reason why it isn't possible to set a custom homepage in firefox on android...
I see. That is unfortunate. Thank you for your help.
Chosen Solution
Taking 10 seconds is not normal for Firefox for Android. It is a symptom of Adblock Plus. It is currently known that APB will cause multi-second startup times.
oh, thanks for clarifying kbrosnan!
Wow. That was it. Now I feel silly. Should have checked my extensions. Good call!