Does anyone know of a sure fire way to stop Firefox from eating so
much memory?

I have turned off hardware acceleration in FF and am usually only
running 3-6 open tabs. I still keep getting low memory warnings and
Windows 7 will then close FF. When I have checked, only about 9GB of
memory out of 16 are being used. Maybe the problem lies with Windows
7, not FF?

Suggestions welcome!

>>>>>>>>>>jetjock<<<<<<<<<<

On 11/9/23 04:21 PM, this is what jetjock wrote:
> Does anyone know of a sure fire way to stop Firefox from eating so
> much memory?
>
> I have turned off hardware acceleration in FF and am usually only
> running 3-6 open tabs. I still keep getting low memory warnings and
> Windows 7 will then close FF. When I have checked, only about 9GB of
> memory out of 16 are being used. Maybe the problem lies with Windows
> 7, not FF?
>
> Suggestions welcome!
>
> >>>>>>>>>>jetjock<<<<<<<<<<
I'm on Linux and just launched 5 pages. I get 4.5G no matter what I make them do, scroll etc. The local enewspaper,
bing and 3 games. Only 26% of memory. I'd put money on Win 7 since no one is supporting it.
--
Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon
Al

Which versions and extensions?

jetjock <jetjock@unkown.com> wrote:
> Does anyone know of a sure fire way to stop Firefox from eating so
> much memory?

> I have turned off hardware acceleration in FF and am usually only
> running 3-6 open tabs. I still keep getting low memory warnings and
> Windows 7 will then close FF. When I have checked, only about 9GB of
> memory out of 16 are being used. Maybe the problem lies with Windows
> 7, not FF?

> Suggestions welcome!

> >>>>>>>>>>jetjock<<<<<<<<<<

--
"God's voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding." --Job 37:5. Slammy hump day with issues (fax, blood drawn with 3/4 shots 2 find the vein & get lab results [prediabetic level again], forgetting, etc.). :(
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

In article <uijkag$2cvbn$2@dont-email.me>, Big Al <Bears@invalid.com> wrote:
>On 11/9/23 04:21 PM, this is what jetjock wrote:
>> Does anyone know of a sure fire way to stop Firefox from eating so
>> much memory?
>>
>> I have turned off hardware acceleration in FF and am usually only
>> running 3-6 open tabs. I still keep getting low memory warnings and
>> Windows 7 will then close FF. When I have checked, only about 9GB of
>> memory out of 16 are being used. Maybe the problem lies with Windows
>> 7, not FF?
>>
>> Suggestions welcome!
>>
>> >>>>>>>>>>jetjock<<<<<<<<<<
>I'm on Linux and just launched 5 pages. I get 4.5G no matter what I
>make them do, scroll etc. The local enewspaper,
>bing and 3 games. Only 26% of memory. I'd put money on Win 7 since no
>one is supporting it.

On Linux Mint 20.3 (but it started around 19 or so), I have the same
problem with FF (any recent version). I need to close all instances of FF
every 24-36 hours or it consumes all my memory and all my swap, and
paralyses everything. Mint does not crash, but I can't do anything except
watch the System Monitor. Even killing all FF instances regularly is not
enough, because the swap file usage decreases only slightly overnight and
eventually it reaches 100% after a couple of weeks or so, at which point a
reboot is required.

It's definitely Firefox: no other browser does that (I mostly also use
Pale Moon and Brave, but tested Chromium and Vivaldi as well). Disabling
most extensions does not help but I do need to keep NoScript, AdBlock, and
a password manager.

Pierre
--
Pierre Jelenc
The Gigometer www.gigometer.com
The NYC Beer Guide www.nycbeer.org

On 11/9/23 10:12 PM, this is what Pierre Jelenc wrote:
> In article <uijkag$2cvbn$2@dont-email.me>, Big Al <Bears@invalid.com> wrote:
>> On 11/9/23 04:21 PM, this is what jetjock wrote:
>>> Does anyone know of a sure fire way to stop Firefox from eating so
>>> much memory?
>>>
>>> I have turned off hardware acceleration in FF and am usually only
>>> running 3-6 open tabs. I still keep getting low memory warnings and
>>> Windows 7 will then close FF. When I have checked, only about 9GB of
>>> memory out of 16 are being used. Maybe the problem lies with Windows
>>> 7, not FF?
>>>
>>> Suggestions welcome!
>>>
>>> >>>>>>>>>>jetjock<<<<<<<<<<
>> I'm on Linux and just launched 5 pages. I get 4.5G no matter what I
>> make them do, scroll etc. The local enewspaper,
>> bing and 3 games. Only 26% of memory. I'd put money on Win 7 since no
>> one is supporting it.
>
> On Linux Mint 20.3 (but it started around 19 or so), I have the same
> problem with FF (any recent version). I need to close all instances of FF
> every 24-36 hours or it consumes all my memory and all my swap, and
> paralyses everything. Mint does not crash, but I can't do anything except
> watch the System Monitor. Even killing all FF instances regularly is not
> enough, because the swap file usage decreases only slightly overnight and
> eventually it reaches 100% after a couple of weeks or so, at which point a
> reboot is required.
>
> It's definitely Firefox: no other browser does that (I mostly also use
> Pale Moon and Brave, but tested Chromium and Vivaldi as well). Disabling
> most extensions does not help but I do need to keep NoScript, AdBlock, and
> a password manager.
>
> Pierre
Sorry to hear. I don't run FF 'hours' on end. Maybe 3 at the most. So I'd never see your issue.
--
Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon
Al

On 11/9/23 7:12 PM, Pierre Jelenc wrote:
> In article <uijkag$2cvbn$2@dont-email.me>, Big Al <Bears@invalid.com> wrote:
>>On 11/9/23 04:21 PM, this is what jetjock wrote:
>>> Does anyone know of a sure fire way to stop Firefox from eating so
>>> much memory?
>>>
>>> I have turned off hardware acceleration in FF and am usually only
>>> running 3-6 open tabs. I still keep getting low memory warnings and
>>> Windows 7 will then close FF. When I have checked, only about 9GB of
>>> memory out of 16 are being used. Maybe the problem lies with Windows
>>> 7, not FF?
>>>
>>> Suggestions welcome!
>>>
>>> >>>>>>>>>>jetjock<<<<<<<<<<
>>I'm on Linux and just launched 5 pages. I get 4.5G no matter what I
>>make them do, scroll etc. The local enewspaper,
>>bing and 3 games. Only 26% of memory. I'd put money on Win 7 since no
>>one is supporting it.
>
> On Linux Mint 20.3 (but it started around 19 or so), I have the same
> problem with FF (any recent version).

Whenever something eats my CPU I blame some stupid web page that just
keeps churning. I run 'top' sorted by CPU % and kill the offending
process. Much less trouble than shutting down and restarting. It
happens more frequently with Chrome than with Firefox.

> I need to close all instances of FF
> every 24-36 hours or it consumes all my memory and all my swap, and
> paralyses everything. Mint does not crash, but I can't do anything except
> watch the System Monitor. Even killing all FF instances regularly is not
> enough, because the swap file usage decreases only slightly overnight and
> eventually it reaches 100% after a couple of weeks or so, at which point a
> reboot is required.

I shut my computer down when I go to bed. No reason not to.

> It's definitely Firefox: no other browser does that (I mostly also use
> Pale Moon and Brave, but tested Chromium and Vivaldi as well). Disabling
> most extensions does not help but I do need to keep NoScript, AdBlock, and
> a password manager.

For some reason FF (both #82 that I run and nightly that I run every
once in a while) doesn't see some reCaptchas, which is maddening.
Chrome always does, which is one of the few things that keeps it alive.

--
Cheers, Bev
"I've learned that you can keep puking long
after you think you're finished." -- SL

Am 09.11.23 um 22:21 schrieb jetjock:
> Does anyone know of a sure fire way to stop Firefox from eating so
> much memory?

No. An issue since TB exists. Chrome is not better btw. Browsers are
very RAM-hungry.

--
Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

Am 09.11.23 um 22:52 schrieb Big Al:
> On 11/9/23 04:21 PM, this is what jetjock wrote:
>> Does anyone know of a sure fire way to stop Firefox from eating so
>> much memory?
>>
>> I have turned off hardware acceleration in FF and am usually only
>> running 3-6 open tabs. I still keep getting low memory warnings and
>> Windows 7 will then close FF. When I have checked, only about 9GB of
>> memory out of 16 are being used. Maybe the problem lies with Windows
>> 7, not FF?
>>
>> Suggestions welcome!
>>
>> >>>>>>>>>>jetjock<<<<<<<<<<
> I'm on Linux and just launched 5 pages. I get 4.5G no matter what I make them do, scroll etc. The local enewspaper,
> bing and 3 games. Only 26% of memory. I'd put money on Win 7 since no one is supporting it.

Directly after opening without any prior activity 540 MB RAM on my Mac
mini 14.1.1 with version 119.

BTW: TB stands at over 800 MB.

Same on my Linux Mint on my Dell machine.

--
Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

Am 10.11.23 um 04:50 schrieb Big Al:
> On 11/9/23 10:12 PM, this is what Pierre Jelenc wrote:
>> It's definitely Firefox: no other browser does that (I mostly also use
>> Pale Moon and Brave, but tested Chromium and Vivaldi as well). Disabling
>> most extensions does not help but I do need to keep NoScript, AdBlock, and
>> a password manager.
>>
>> Pierre
> Sorry to hear. I don't run FF 'hours' on end. Maybe 3 at the most. So I'd never see your issue.

Can easily grow to more than 1.5 GB RAM.

And to Pierre: Chrome is even a bigger Monster with the same
capabilities and extensions etc.

--
Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

Am 10.11.23 um 06:37 schrieb Jörg Lorenz:
> Am 09.11.23 um 22:21 schrieb jetjock:
>> Does anyone know of a sure fire way to stop Firefox from eating so
>> much memory?
>
> No. An issue since TB exists. Chrome is not better btw. Browsers are
> very RAM-hungry.

FF of course.

--
Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

On 10/11/2023 08:21, jetjock wrote:
> Does anyone know of a sure fire way to stop Firefox from eating so
> much memory?
>
> I have turned off hardware acceleration in FF and am usually only
> running 3-6 open tabs. I still keep getting low memory warnings and
> Windows 7 will then close FF. When I have checked, only about 9GB of
> memory out of 16 are being used. Maybe the problem lies with Windows
> 7, not FF?
>
> Suggestions welcome!
>
> >>>>>>>>>>jetjock<<<<<<<<<<

Upgrade everything.

The latest FF on Win11 is perfectly cromulent.

If you won't upgrade, just put up with it.

Cheers,
Gary B-)

Am 09.11.23 um 22:21 schrieb jetjock:
> Does anyone know of a sure fire way to stop Firefox from eating so
> much memory?
>
> I have turned off hardware acceleration in FF and am usually only
> running 3-6 open tabs. I still keep getting low memory warnings and
> Windows 7 will then close FF. When I have checked, only about 9GB of
> memory out of 16 are being used. Maybe the problem lies with Windows
> 7, not FF?
>
> Suggestions welcome!
>
> >>>>>>>>>>jetjock<<<<<<<<<<

Windows 7? Seriously?
The minimum requirements are:

Firefox 119.0.1

Windows

Operating Systems (32-bit and 64-bit)

Windows 10 or later
Recommended Hardware

1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster compatible processor or System on a Chip (SoC)
1GB of RAM / 2GB of RAM for the 64-bit version
500MB of hard drive space

Try to get help in *alt.oldtimer*

--
Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

"jetjock" <jetjock@unkown.com> wrote

| Does anyone know of a sure fire way to stop Firefox from eating so
| much memory?
|

Have you tried disabling or minimzizing cache? I only
enable 10 MB cache. With today's speeds and almost
never receiving a 304 server response, cache is
outdated. Unlimited cache in IE used to slow Win9x to
molasses speed.

Also disable all prefetching. Install Noscript and block
the endless 3rd-party instances of jquery along with a
lot of spying. Also disable accessibility.autorefresh.

FF is a pig that's long overdue for a cleanup, but apparently
no one at Mozilla wants to do housekeeping. They only want
to work on jazzy new features. I suspect FF may also be just
using whatever it can get away with.

I'm currently on XP with
about 3.2 GB RAM available. Memory never gets low. I currently
have 1 FF and 5 New Moon instances open in separate windows.
FF is using 200MB RAM. NM is using 265MB for all five windows.
But all those instances are also just sitting there. No reloading
in the background. No videos running. No caching. No idiotic
prefetching. No ad images from domains in my HOSTS file. The
typical commercial webpage today may include 60+ CSS and
javascript files. The pages are incredibly bloated by automated
webpage code. You're not just loading a webpage. You're running
a medium-sized software program written in interpreted javascript.

On Thu, 09 Nov 2023 22:10:19 +0000, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:

>Which versions and extensions?
>
>jetjock <jetjock@unkown.com> wrote:
>> Does anyone know of a sure fire way to stop Firefox from eating so
>> much memory?
>
>> I have turned off hardware acceleration in FF and am usually only
>> running 3-6 open tabs. I still keep getting low memory warnings and
>> Windows 7 will then close FF. When I have checked, only about 9GB of
>> memory out of 16 are being used. Maybe the problem lies with Windows
>> 7, not FF?
>
>> Suggestions welcome!

Even though it was top posted, your question got me to look again at
extensions. There were a couple there I didn't know about (or remember
adding anyway). I disabled them and only kept uBlock Origin, Tab
Session Manager, RoboForm Password Manager and Firefox Color.

I'll let everyone know results tomorrow.

>>>>>>>>>>jetjock<<<<<<<<<<

On Fri, 10 Nov 2023 09:26:51 -0500, "Newyana2"
<Newyana2@invalid.nospam> wrote:

>"jetjock" <jetjock@unkown.com> wrote
>
>| Does anyone know of a sure fire way to stop Firefox from eating so
>| much memory?
>|
>
> Have you tried disabling or minimzizing cache? I only
>enable 10 MB cache. With today's speeds and almost
>never receiving a 304 server response, cache is
>outdated. Unlimited cache in IE used to slow Win9x to
>molasses speed.
>
> Also disable all prefetching. Install Noscript and block
>the endless 3rd-party instances of jquery along with a
>lot of spying. Also disable accessibility.autorefresh.
>
> FF is a pig that's long overdue for a cleanup, but apparently
>no one at Mozilla wants to do housekeeping. They only want
>to work on jazzy new features. I suspect FF may also be just
>using whatever it can get away with.
>
> I'm currently on XP with
>about 3.2 GB RAM available. Memory never gets low. I currently
>have 1 FF and 5 New Moon instances open in separate windows.
>FF is using 200MB RAM. NM is using 265MB for all five windows.
>But all those instances are also just sitting there. No reloading
>in the background. No videos running. No caching. No idiotic
>prefetching. No ad images from domains in my HOSTS file. The
>typical commercial webpage today may include 60+ CSS and
>javascript files. The pages are incredibly bloated by automated
>webpage code. You're not just loading a webpage. You're running
>a medium-sized software program written in interpreted javascript.
>
I am running Win 7 64 bit and FF 108.0.1 64 bit. See my reply to Ant
for what extensions I still have running. I already have a max cache
of 10 MB and I disabled prefetch when I installed Win 7 years ago. I
have been leery of using Noscript because I don't understand scripting
well enough to know what to disable and what to use. If what I have
done with extensions doesn't solve the problem, I will have to do some
studying I guess!

Thanks.

>>>>>>>>>>jetjock<<<<<<<<<<

Am 10.11.23 um 17:28 schrieb jetjock:
> I am running Win 7 64 bit and FF 108.0.1 64 bit.

And you are seriously asking for help?
Idiot.

--
Ave! Morituri te salutant!

"jetjock" <jetjock@unkown.com> wrote

| I am running Win 7 64 bit and FF 108.0.1 64 bit. See my reply to Ant
| for what extensions I still have running. I already have a max cache
| of 10 MB and I disabled prefetch when I installed Win 7 years ago.

So far, so good.

| I have been leery of using Noscript because I don't understand scripting
| well enough to know what to disable and what to use.

It's a bit of work, but you don't really need to know much.
If you go to a website and it works, you leave the script
disabled. At Netflix I enable 2 or 3 Netflix domains but not
googletagmanager. Usually a site that needs script will work
with just script from that domain. The problem sites are things
like retail stores where NoScript shows script from 6 sources,
you enable 4, then it shows 8 more... and it never ends.
The spying and shopping functionality involved is nuts.
But you don't need expertise. The worst that might happen is
that a site doesn't work, so you have to enable most or all
script.

| If what I have
| done with extensions doesn't solve the problem, I will have to do some
| studying I guess!
| Another option is to run process explorer from sysinternals
and see what's tying in. Though I'm looking at it now and it
doesn't show much that's suspicious. I have some extensions
but they all show onlu a few KB of RAM used. The only notable
load is 35+ MB used by xul.dll, which I think is their GUI library.

I'm assuming that FF takes the liberty of using extra if you have
free RAM, but I don't know what it would need it for on the scale
that you're seeing.

On Fri, 10 Nov 2023 18:09:37 +0100, Jörg Lorenz <hugybear@gmx.net>
wrote:

>Am 10.11.23 um 17:28 schrieb jetjock:
>> I am running Win 7 64 bit and FF 108.0.1 64 bit.
>
>And you are seriously asking for help?

yes, he does and why not?
Firefox is still supporting Win7!!
It's the extended support release version and the latest version is
now 115.4.0esr(64-bit)

>Idiot.

you should be more polite in newsgroups

On 11.11.23 09:31, lisa wrote:
> On Fri, 10 Nov 2023 18:09:37 +0100, Jörg Lorenz <hugybear@gmx.net>
> wrote:
>
>> Am 10.11.23 um 17:28 schrieb jetjock:
>>> I am running Win 7 64 bit and FF 108.0.1 64 bit.
>>
>> And you are seriously asking for help?
>
> yes, he does and why not?
> Firefox is still supporting Win7!!

No it isn't.

The minimum requirements are:

Firefox 119.0.1

Windows

Operating Systems (32-bit and 64-bit)

Windows 10 or later
Recommended Hardware

1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster compatible processor or System on a Chip (SoC)
1GB of RAM / 2GB of RAM for the 64-bit version
500MB of hard drive space

And we ceratinly won't discuss OSs and software that is not supported by
the amnufacturer for man many years.

--
Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

"lisa" <not.in.use@invalid.xor> wrote

| >Idiot.
| | you should be more polite in newsgroups

Just block him. This is one of the cranky types
who only comes here to attack others. He's been
doing it for years, offering nothing of value. He's
not going to stop. Perhaps he's got a domineering
wife or a demeaning job. Or maybe he's suffering
physical pain. Whatever it is, abusing others is part
of his daily routine.

On 11.11.23 14:57, Newyana2 wrote:
> "lisa" <not.in.use@invalid.xor> wrote
>
> | >Idiot.
> |
> | you should be more polite in newsgroups
>
> Just block him. This is one of the cranky types
> who only comes here to attack others. He's been
> doing it for years, offering nothing of value. He's
> not going to stop. Perhaps he's got a domineering
> wife or a demeaning job. Or maybe he's suffering
> physical pain. Whatever it is, abusing others is part
> of his daily routine.

This posting says a lot if not all about you. Didn't your Mom tell you
to leave such things?

--
"Gutta cavat lapidem" (Ovid)

Jorg Lorenz <hugybear@gmx.net> wrote:
>11.11.23 09:31, lisa wrote:
>>Fri, 10 Nov 2023 18:09:37 +0100, Jorg Lorenz <hugybear@gmx.net>:
>>>Am 10.11.23 um 17:28 schrieb jetjock:

>>>>I am running Win 7 64 bit and FF 108.0.1 64 bit.

>>>And you are seriously asking for help?

>>yes, he does and why not?
>>Firefox is still supporting Win7!!

>No it isn't.

Yes, it is, you blithering idiot. The O.P. is using the Extended
Support Release channel which still supports Windows 7. This is a
stable version that is still being supported. That's literally what
"Extended Support Release" means.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/108.0.1/system-requirements/

>. . .

>500MB of hard drive space

>And we ceratinly won't discuss OSs and software that is not supported by
>the amnufacturer for man many years.

There is no evidence that you contributed to the discussion. You just
ran your mouth as always.

[snip]

Just a related pointed that I'm running an older Mac (OS X 10.11)
with FF 78.15 and, after a couple of days, "something" happens
which slows the system to a crawl. To be honest, I haven't
done a full analysis, but simply, yes, have to perform a system
reboot every 72 hours.

This does NOT happen if I never activate FF.

--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

On Fri, 10 Nov 2023 12:52:39 -0500, "Newyana2"
<Newyana2@invalid.nospam> wrote:

>"jetjock" <jetjock@unkown.com> wrote
>
>| I am running Win 7 64 bit and FF 108.0.1 64 bit. See my reply to Ant
>| for what extensions I still have running. I already have a max cache
>| of 10 MB and I disabled prefetch when I installed Win 7 years ago.
>
>So far, so good.
>
>| I have been leery of using Noscript because I don't understand scripting
>| well enough to know what to disable and what to use.
>
> It's a bit of work, but you don't really need to know much.
>If you go to a website and it works, you leave the script
>disabled. At Netflix I enable 2 or 3 Netflix domains but not
>googletagmanager. Usually a site that needs script will work
>with just script from that domain. The problem sites are things
>like retail stores where NoScript shows script from 6 sources,
>you enable 4, then it shows 8 more... and it never ends.
>The spying and shopping functionality involved is nuts.
>But you don't need expertise. The worst that might happen is
>that a site doesn't work, so you have to enable most or all
>script.

Will hold off for a while. See below.
>
>| If what I have
>| done with extensions doesn't solve the problem, I will have to do some
>| studying I guess!
>|
> Another option is to run process explorer from sysinternals
>and see what's tying in. Though I'm looking at it now and it
>doesn't show much that's suspicious. I have some extensions
>but they all show onlu a few KB of RAM used. The only notable
>load is 35+ MB used by xul.dll, which I think is their GUI library.
>
> I'm assuming that FF takes the liberty of using extra if you have
>free RAM, but I don't know what it would need it for on the scale
>that you're seeing.

After I disabled extensions Empty Cache Button, Start Page, Tab
Mix-Links and The Camelizer, my memory use dropped down to between 4-5
GB and has stayed there. Decided to add them back one at a time to see
if I could identify the culprit. Well, surprise, surprise...they are
all back and memory use is still between 4-5 GB!! Go figure. Will keep
my eyes open and watch memory use for a while. If I get any more low
memory warnings, will try them one at a time to see if I can isolate
problem.

Thanks for the help!
>

>>>>>>>>>>jetjock<<<<<<<<<<

jetjock <jetjock@unkown.com> wrote:
> After I disabled extensions Empty Cache Button, Start Page, Tab
> Mix-Links and The Camelizer, my memory use dropped down to between 4-5
> GB and has stayed there. Decided to add them back one at a time to see
> if I could identify the culprit. Well, surprise, surprise...they are
> all back and memory use is still between 4-5 GB!! Go figure. Will keep
> my eyes open and watch memory use for a while. If I get any more low
> memory warnings, will try them one at a time to see if I can isolate
> problem.

It would be quicker to type about:performance in the URL bar and
look at the memory usage of the different components in that.

Also of use, but likely to cause information overload, is
about:memory, which also has buttons for forcing Firefox to clean
up memory allocations. about:processes also mentions memory usage,
but about:performance is probably more useful.

--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _# | Note: I won't see posts made from Google Groups |