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Very high memory usage with Yahoo Mail

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  • 3 have this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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After using Yahoo Mail for an hour or so my memory usage increases to a very high level.

Just now, after reading and deleting about 50 e-mails (newsletters etc.) I noticed Firefox 17 running slowly and checked the memory usage in Windows Task Manager (I am using XP) and it was 1.2 Gb. My older laptop only has 2 Gb of RAM. Yahoo Mail was the only thing open at the time.

I never notice this problem with Gmail which I mainly use. However I use Yahoo Mail for quite a few newsletters etc. that are less important and which I only check once a week or so.

I found the following bug report about 3 years old which almost exactly describes my problem. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=506771

But this report involves a much earlier Firefox version, and at the end it seems to say that the problem was fixed. However it well describes my current issue with Firefox 17, especially the continual increase in memory while using the up/down arrow keys to scroll through Yahoo e-mails.

Is this normal to have to shut down and reopen Firefox every hour or so to clean out the memory? For some reason I only notice this when using Yahoo Mail. After using many other sites and having multiple tabs open for several hours I rarely reach that kind of memory usage. About the highest I've seen with other sites after a couple of hours is 600 Kb which is roughly when I start notice slower response times.

After using Yahoo Mail for an hour or so my memory usage increases to a very high level. Just now, after reading and deleting about 50 e-mails (newsletters etc.) I noticed Firefox 17 running slowly and checked the memory usage in Windows Task Manager (I am using XP) and it was 1.2 Gb. My older laptop only has 2 Gb of RAM. Yahoo Mail was the only thing open at the time. I never notice this problem with Gmail which I mainly use. However I use Yahoo Mail for quite a few newsletters etc. that are less important and which I only check once a week or so. I found the following bug report about 3 years old which almost exactly describes my problem. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=506771 But this report involves a much earlier Firefox version, and at the end it seems to say that the problem was fixed. However it well describes my current issue with Firefox 17, especially the continual increase in memory while using the up/down arrow keys to scroll through Yahoo e-mails. Is this normal to have to shut down and reopen Firefox every hour or so to clean out the memory? For some reason I only notice this when using Yahoo Mail. After using many other sites and having multiple tabs open for several hours I rarely reach that kind of memory usage. About the highest I've seen with other sites after a couple of hours is 600 Kb which is roughly when I start notice slower response times.

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The Reset Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its factory default state while saving your essential information. Note: This will cause you to lose any Extensions, Open websites, and some Preferences.

To Reset Firefox do the following:

  1. Go to Firefox > Help > Troubleshooting Information.
  2. Click the "Reset Firefox" button.
  3. Firefox will close and reset. After Firefox is done, it will show a window with the information that is imported. Click Finish.
  4. Firefox will open with all factory defaults applied.


Further information can be found in the Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings article.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

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See also:

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do not click the Reset button on the Safe mode start window or otherwise make changes.