Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Cuireadh an snáithe seo sa chartlann. Cuir ceist nua má tá cabhair uait.

Firefox uses all my memory with 30/40 tabs open but only reads 200mb total in about:performance

  • 1 freagra
  • 1 leis an bhfadhb seo
  • 5 views
  • Freagra is déanaí ó cor-el

more options

Hi all,

Every day for the past month or two, Firefox has been gradually using up memory until my computer freezes and I have to restart the program. I'll admit I can have 80 or 90 tabs open sometimes, but using chrome on my laptop this really isn't a problem in the way of memory.

Firefox on the other hand will gradually open more processes and use up to 11gb of memory before I have to close it. I've checked the built-in performance graph (image attached) and it doesn't show any of my tabs using anywhere near that amount of memory. However, when I open the Windows Task Manager (image also attached) Firefox is using a baffling amount of system resources.

I can't simply close a few tabs, either. If I close all but three tabs the memory usage will hardly drop, only when I fully restart the program does it return to a 'normal' state for a while.

Would appreciate any help anybody can provide.

Thanks.

Hi all, Every day for the past month or two, Firefox has been gradually using up memory until my computer freezes and I have to restart the program. I'll admit I can have 80 or 90 tabs open sometimes, but using chrome on my laptop this really isn't a problem in the way of memory. Firefox on the other hand will gradually open more processes and use up to 11gb of memory before I have to close it. I've checked the built-in performance graph (image attached) and it doesn't show any of my tabs using anywhere near that amount of memory. However, when I open the Windows Task Manager (image also attached) Firefox is using a baffling amount of system resources. I can't simply close a few tabs, either. If I close all but three tabs the memory usage will hardly drop, only when I fully restart the program does it return to a 'normal' state for a while. Would appreciate any help anybody can provide. Thanks.
Attached screenshots

All Replies (1)

more options

Start Firefox in Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of the extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) or if hardware acceleration or userChrome.css is causing the problem.

  • switch to the DEFAULT theme: "3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Themes
  • do NOT click the "Refresh Firefox" button on the Troubleshoot Mode start window

See also: