Could my MacBook Air be slowed down by having many tab groups?
My Macbook Air (M1, 2020) has be moving slowly recently. I wondered if how I'm using Firefox could be contributing. I typically have two Firefox browser windows open, with 5 or 6 tab groups each with several tabs.
In addition and more specifically, I'm wondering if closing (collapsing) a tab group means those tabs won't be contributing to my computer's CPU load. Thank you.
All Replies (3)
No, just collapsing a group that otherwise has active running tabs won't unload them. You can however do that manually per tab, right clicking on it, and selecting "Unload Tab".
You can see what content is tolling your machine in Task Manager - see whether tabs or extensions are slowing down Firefox and then try lowering the memory footprint via Unload tabs to reduce system memory usage in Firefox or the internal Unload inactive tabs to save system memory in Firefox
You can also try to follow Fix Firefox using too much memory or CPU resources that has this section "Use additional troubleshooting tools" › "Firefox tools" that shows how to use the "Minimize memory usage" functionality of about:memory
jbr - thanks for your reply and the links to info.
You said: "You can also try to follow "Fix Firefox using too much memory or CPU resources" that has this section "Use additional troubleshooting tools" › "Firefox tools" that shows how to use the "Minimize memory usage" functionality of about:memory"
I went to that page and the Firefox tools section, but it didn't give instructions for how to use the "Minimize memory usage" functionality. It mentioned a Minimize memory usage button and directed to "about:memory." But I clicked on the link to go to the about:memory page (https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/performance/memory/about_colon_memory.html) but there I couldn't find anything referring to "minimize memory usage," even using cmd+F to search for the word minimize.
So I don't know where to find the button or how to use this feature. Can you provide more instructions for that?
Thank you.
That's an internal page and expects some level of familiarity with the steps necessary to access similar maintenance surfaces. It's mentioned in the technical article:
At the moment of interest (e.g. once Firefox’s memory usage has gotten high) open a new tab and type “about:memory” into the address bar and hit “Enter”.
That page will have the button mentioned earlier.
Does it mean you didn't find either unloading or monitoring the tabs' resource consumption sufficient?
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