How do I stop Firefox from using so much memory? The easiest solution is to update Firefox to the latest version. The issue is commonly triggered by corrupted data or too much cache. If that doesn’t solve the problem, disable all the extensions and then change browser.cache.disk.capacity value. Having too much cache, though, isn’t good for your machine’s speed. When you’ve got several years’ worth of cache and browsing history stored, your browser spends more time digging for data to load up every time you open a website. Check WebContent process (under Linux over 100% of CPU), close one tab, then close the second tab. Firefox should switch to an existing tab. It does, but spinner spins indefintely when trying to access any of the existing tabs (i.e. Not part of the test case). Firefox needs to be killed to relieve resources and make it usable again.
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Firefox sometimes uses more memory (RAM) than it should. This can make Firefox slower, and in extreme cases, it can even make Firefox crash. This article describes how to make Firefox use less memory. Depending on your operating system, you can review and monitor memory usage through specific tools.
Table of Contents
- Updating Firefox to the latest version
- Extensions and themes
- Disabling memory consuming extensions and themes
- Hiding intrusive content
- Checking Firefox hardware acceleration
- Restarting Firefox
- Using fewer tabs
- Other applications using up memory
- Memory troubleshooting tools
- Add RAM to your computer
The latest Firefox version includes improvements about memory usage. Update Firefox to the latest version.
Disabling memory consuming extensions and themes
Extensions and themes can cause Firefox to use more memory than it normally would.
To determine if an extension or theme is causing Firefox to use too much memory, start Firefox in Safe Mode and observe its memory usage. In Safe Mode, extensions and themes are disabled, so if you notice a significant improvement, you can try disabling or uninstalling extensions.
- For more information on starting Firefox in Safe Mode and on how to find which extension or theme is causing your problem, see Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems.
Hiding intrusive content
Many web pages have content you don't really need that uses memory to display. To prevent automatic loading of unwanted Flash content, use the 'Ask to Activate' setting in the Add-ons Manager Plugins panel. See the Set Adobe Flash to 'click to play' on Firefox article for details.
Some extensions allow you to block such unnecessary content; for example:
- uBlock Origin allows you to hide ads on websites.
- NoScript allows you to selectively enable and disable all scripts running on websites.
Checking Flash hardware acceleration
For certain plugins that play videos such as Flash, the content rendering in full screen can be accelerated by hardware. It eases memory usage in case of a dedicated graphics card memory.
- Navigate to a page that shows a Flash video.
- Hold down the Ctrl key while you click on the video player and click Settings… in the context menu. The Adobe Flash Player Settings screen will open.
- Click on the icon at the bottom-left of the Adobe Flash Player Settings window to open the Display panel.
- Check Enable hardware acceleration is selected.
- Click to close the Adobe Flash Player Settings Window.
Firefox hardware acceleration eases memory usage in case of a dedicated graphics card memory.
- Check that hardware acceleration is turned on and that your graphics drivers are up-to-date.
Firefox's memory usage may increase if it's left open for long periods of time. A workaround for this is to periodically restart Firefox. You can configure Firefox to save your tabs and windows so that when you start it again, you can start where you left off. See Restore previous session - Configure when Firefox shows your most recent tabs and windows for details.
Each tab requires Firefox to store a web page in memory. If you frequently have more than 100 tabs open, consider using a more lightweight mechanism to keep track of pages to read and things to do, such as:
- Bookmarks. Hint: 'Bookmark All Tabs' will bookmark a set of tabs.
- To-do list applications.
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Having many applications running simultaneously may cause your computer to run slowly and other applications to as well. By closing down some of the unnecessary applications, memory usage will be reduced.
- Firefox:
- The about:memory page allows you to troubleshoot finely specific issues about memory (for instance, caused by a website, an extension, a theme) and sometimes its button may help you instantly reduce memory usage. For guidance on use of about:memory visit about:memory
- RAMBack lets you flush many of Firefox's caches, allowing you to distinguish caching from leaking.
Even if you're not a C++ programmer, you can try your hand at some of the tools and tips Firefox developers use to debug leaks.
If you exhausted all tips in the previous sections and your memory usage is still close to the maximum, maybe it's time for you to add more memory to your computer. RAM is cheap and will provide a huge performance boost.
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If you have any questions, come by the Help Desk at Hardman & Jacobs Undergraduate Learning Center Room 105, call 646-1840, or email us at help@nmsu.edu.
The Memory tool lets you take a snapshot of the current tab's memory heap. It then provides a number of views of the heap that can show you which objects account for memory usage and exactly where in your code you are allocating memory.
The basics
Analyzing snapshots
The Tree map view is new in Firefox 48, and the Dominators view is new in Firefox 46.
Once you've taken a snapshot, there are three main views the Memory tool provides:
- the Tree map view shows memory usage as a treemap.
- the Aggregate view shows memory usage as a table of allocated types.
- the Dominators view shows the 'retained size' of objects: that is, the size of objects plus the size of other objects that they keep alive through references.
If you've opted to record allocation stacks for the snapshot, the Aggregate and Dominators views can show you exactly where in your code allocations are happening.
Concepts
Example pages
Examples used in the Memory tool documentation.