Why do we continually have to tolerate Firefox's ridiculous mem leak?

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

I've run into this problem but only on my work PC simply because I leave it on all the time and regularly have 5-6 instances of the browser with multiple tabs open on each. Problem is that, if you close those tabs down and close down the other instances, it doesn't clean up the memory it was using and just continues to keep it all allocated - so you end up with instance of the browser holding open the memory that all those other instances and tabs held.

It's pretty crap TBH and the only way I found to clear it was to close and re-open the browser. Not a major crisis but I agree with the OP in that it's something that should get fixed!

[Kirkburn]

I've run into this problem but only on my work PC simply because I leave it on all the time and regularly have 5-6 instances of the browser with multiple tabs open on each. Problem is that, if you close those tabs down and close down the other instances, it doesn't clean up the memory it was using and just continues to keep it all allocated - so you end up with instance of the browser holding open the memory that all those other instances and tabs held.

It's pretty crap TBH and the only way I found to clear it was to close and re-open the browser. Not a major crisis but I agree with the OP in that it's something that should get fixed!

To quote myself, in this thread.

Finally, you are never going to see a browser with tiny memory usage. It's just not possible. Rendering the various elements of a page, caching their contents and running code are very complex. Closing tabs won't release all the memory usage, because it will still cache stuff. It does not know that you will never go back to the site on that tab again.

It's not "broken". It's just that browsers can't mind read.

The allocation should be pretty low priority though, so it should be usable if needed.

[Growled Member]

It's not "broken". It's just that browsers can't mind read.

I believe it is broken because if you close tabs the memory should go back into the system to use. This is the way the Chrome and IE work.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

They use a completely different implementation of memory management that isn't comparable.

Also, using memory is much different to a leak.

[Kirkburn]

I believe it is broken because if you close tabs the memory should go back into the system to use. This is the way the Chrome and IE work.

Did you not read what I typed? Why should stuff be cached per tab?

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Dunno what's doing it, either switching to the 3.7 trunk builds or installing Memory Fox but my browsing is much more stable and memory usage seems to be declining to reasonable levels after heavy usage/closing tabs.

[PreKe]

Problem isn't % used of ram, it's when Fx starts using 500mb+ it gets really slow/sluggish for me.

And the total amount of RAM in your computer is?

The point is, the thread starter has nothing to complain about. 10% of 6 GB is nothing.

[Steven P. Administrators]

From my own experience I had major problems with Firefox using over 650MB per session with only 5 or 6 tabs open. I followed the advice here to start disabling add-ons to find the culprit and discovered it was the "video download helper" extension causing the issue. Even with Memory Fox installed it didn't matter.. I disabled both the video download helper and flash video downloader extensions and now its hovering around 60MB with Memory Fox active it even drops to 16MB.

My problem was that the interface and web pages started to become unresponsive with the video extensions, and they were the last I installed.

Thanks for the advice anyhow, maybe this helps someone else too.

[toadeater]

Problem isn't % used of ram, it's when Fx starts using 500mb+ it gets really slow/sluggish for me. Have to restart it. It seems it really struggles with flash/javascript for me.

Try this:

set user_pref("network.http.pipelining.firstrequest", false);

Google "http pipelining" and read up on why it can make pages seem sluggish.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

And the total amount of RAM in your computer is?

The point is, the thread starter has nothing to complain about. 10% of 6 GB is nothing.

Did you not read my sentence or something?

It's nothing to do with how much memory most of us have, I have 4GB, when an application like a brower is using 500mb-1GB+ it gets slow and sluggish.

[SMELTN]

My firefox at work. I use Twenty Ten addon/theme.. I have 4 tabs open and using Firefox 3.6

[Xilo]

I have another ANNOYING bug. If you put a computer to sleep (like closing the lid on a laptop), sometimes when you resume Firefox will use 100% of the CPU until you kill the thing with end process.

Edited January 11, 2010 by Xilo

[bradavon]

Chrome can grow large too.

When it grows over 200Mb I tend to close and re-open. I wouldn't let it grow to 600Mb. I do agree in principle though.

Not using add-ons isn't the answer, given that they're the main reason to use Firefox. "Out of the box" Chrome IMO is a better browser. When Chrome 4 is out officially and has most/all of the Firefox add-ons I use I'll likely switch to it permanently.

[daiv_]

i just checked my firefox and its usage is at 58mb.

ive never really seen it go much higher ethier :s

[mrk Reviews]

Pah,

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Did you not read my sentence or something?

It's nothing to do with how much memory most of us have, I have 4GB, when an application like a brower is using 500mb-1GB+ it gets slow and sluggish.

Why would it get slow and sluggish? That would depend on how much RAM the system has and how much is in use.

[yxz]

Why would it get slow and sluggish? That would depend on how much RAM the system has and how much is in use.

fragmented ram?

sarcasm?

[Kirkburn]

Pah,

<snip>

It happens, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's directly a Firefox issue. In that case, that looks like a runaway extension or plugin. Do you run many?

[Astra.Xtreme]

I have 11 tabs open, a few add-ons, I've had my browser running for about a day straight now, and it's at 191MB.

Firefox 3.5.7 under Win7 x64 if that even matters. Though I haven't had any memory leak issues since Firefox 3 was released.

My guess is that you have tabs running with constant Flash content, or some unfriendly add-on. I wouldn't be so quick to just point the finger at Firefox all together.

[Shadrack]

Firefox was at 240MB for me (this is with an IE-tab opened on a page). I bookmarked all my tabs, relaunched firefox, and then reopened all my previous tabs. From a relaunch with all the same tabs open it is at around 150MB. I'm not sure where the other 90MB went (cache, history?)... not sure I really care.

[Udedenkz]

/THREAD

[mrk Reviews]

It happens, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's directly a Firefox issue. In that case, that looks like a runaway extension or plugin. Do you run many?

Not a problem :p I just did it for the lols - loaded a rogan board image thread in a few tabs and soon enough 1-2gb of ram was used up.

It goes down to 100~ MB once those tabs are closed.

My point was in a loose way saying that FF is good at memory management even with my 27 extensions and Win7 aids this!

[Kirkburn]

<snip>

/THREAD

I utterly fail to see how that image ends the thread.

[Panda X]

Does no one know the difference between a cache and a leak?

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Does no one know the difference between a cache and a leak?

The lines were blurred long ago.

People apparently now consider using memory over some arbitrary amount only they know as a memory leak.