Firefox memory leak causing slow and stuttery performance
So recently my Firefox browser has been leaking memory like crazy going up to 1.7 GB in used RAM. It starts off fine when I first open it, but progressively gets worse over time, making scrolling a choppy and painful task. This started with version 28.0 but I've since upgraded to 29.0 and the problem persisted. I've done hours of research on the problem and have tried all the following solutions, to no avail:
- Turning off hardware acceleration/smooth scrolling/auto scrolling - Creating a new profile - Completely uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox - Running it in safe mode (still lagged, even in safe mode!)
Has anyone found any real solution to this problem?
All Replies (20)
Also it was memory leak still without any add-ons?
Yes all add-ons and extensions disabled, it was still memory leaking
You have tried reinstall Firefox?
Yes like I said I have already tried everything I've read online which includes:
- Turning off hardware acceleration/smooth scrolling/auto scrolling
- Creating a new profile
- Completely uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox
- Running it in safe mode (still lagged, even in safe mode!)
- Disabling all add-ons and extensions
and so far none have worked
Try out Firefox ESR release, it might help you. http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/all/
How will the ESR release help me with memory leaks?
This is a stable release especially for companies.
I see, the version for the ESR release is pretty outdated however and this feels more like a workaround than a fix.
Have any definite fixes been established for the memory leak, so that I can run the latest version of firefox with no problems?
Do you use many tab simultaneously?
Modified by zoli62
Hi,
A few weeks ago, I had the same problem with FF28.
Looking at Task Manager, FF was using way too much memory (close to 1Gb rather than the usual 0.5Gb or less), and when it exceeded my 2Gb, crash!
I tried the usual stuff (disk clean up, virus scans, etc.) including disabling add-ons & extensions -- no change -- still crashing.
So, I figured the easiest next step was to remove FF29 completely from my machine, including looking through ALL the files for any remnants of anything related to Mozilla or Firefox -- there were a couple of folders hanging around that weren't removed in the uninstall.
After a new install of FF28, all worked fine.
Yes I typically have 10-15 tabs open
As hard as it is to believe, the ESR progressively uses more and more memory just as the normal release. The performance suffers even more for the ESR.
And MisterBee, I've done the same thing by uninstalling FF and deleting all related folders and files from my computer before reinstalling it. Memory leak still remained.
Modified by fzieba
I have to deal with this, but the only fix I have found it to close Firefox and re-open it on a regular basis.
It managed to drag my PC to a a near halt and after closing Firefox it was fine.
It wasn't like this before and I'd rather have a fully functioning browser, than one that I constantly have to work around.
Anyone else able to solve this issue? Is Mozilla at least working on a fix for this?
Also, as typically reported, once the memory usage goes up to 2GB, the browser crashes.
Same thing here (Win7 Pro, 64 bit). Memory typically went up to some 1,7 GB, and the browser became unresponsive. When scrolling, all the tab could go black. However, the problem seems to be caused by Adblock Plus 2.6. Disabled it, and the memory consumption went back to norm.
I found this article a couple of days ago....
http://www.ghacks.net/2014/05/14/firefox-using-lots-memory-adblock-plus-may-reason/
About the time this was posted I was deal with something similar, but that has stopped. The only two things I can see that change were not changes to Firefox, but the installation of Visual C++ 2005 V8.0.56336, and GFWL. I do have adblock plus on Firefox.
Strange thing is, this kind of behavior only started with FF 28. With previous FF iterations AdBlock Plus and high memory usage was never an issue for me. Seems to me, now when a tab is closed, memory consumed by AdBlock Plus is not cleared. I could go down from 20 tabs to just 5, and FF (AdBlock?) was still hogging 1,7 GB. Only a restart brought it down.
I have the exact same issue for the past several versions of Firefox. I am now on Firefox 30. Task manager shows memory creeping up to 2.1 GB. Then everything gets real slow and sometimes hangs or crashes. I have 21 tabs open. System: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, 8GB installed RAM.
I just came across this at Mozilla support: Firefox uses too much memory (RAM) - How to fix
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-uses-too-much-memory-ram?esab=a&s=firefox+slow&r=0&as=s
I tried all the suggestions and it helped somewhat.
Also: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-hangs-or-not-responding#w_firefox-hangs-at-random-times