https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/update-firefox-latest-version 47

Please give us details of the problem.

It appears to be the same problems that people were complaining about years ago, I looked up some YouTube videos on the subject, some were 5+ years ago.

The problem is that there is/are memory leaks that makes Firefox take up more and more RAM over time on the PC until it is taking up over 1GB, and this persists despite closing all other tabs. It happens fastest when using Youtube (only takes about 20-30 minutes), but is not limited to that website.

I have "fixed" it using the third party add-on Memory Fox Next. But this of course isn't fixing the underlying problem in the Firefox software code itself.

I'm running this on Windows 7 Professional, on a Intel Celeron Laptop, 2GB RAM, 32-bit operating system.

If you are talking about Memory Fox Next, there are user complaints listed on the add-on page.

rbabaoye When you want to suggest a web service or add-on, you should include their links. This makes it easier to find.

Yes I could add a link, but I think people can do as I did and type a name into Google if they want to find an add-on. That is my take on it.

Secondly I don't believe I complained about Memory Fox Next at all, it is Firefox that has the memory leaks. Memory Fox Next seems to be working fine.

Hi rbabaoye, Sorry you are having problems. Firefox should be pretty good at handling memory and garbage collection now. There was a specific project to fix memory leaks, but as far as I know that has been wound up as successful. Unfortunately memory leaks are very difficult to track down and troubleshoot.

Some memory leaks will be caused by addons or websites rather than being a direct fault of Firefox.

If you run Firefox in its safe mode, with no plugins active (No need to use Flashplayer on YouTube) and have only one YouTube tab, and no other tabs o Windows open, do you still see a memory leak ? If you do see a memory leak in such circumstances:

• Roughly how fast does the memory usage increase ?
  • I note you report using a 2GB laptop, so over 1GB Firefox use, will be quite a lot of your RAM.
• What sort of value do you see after say 1/2 an hour and 3 hours ?
• Do you see similar problems on other YouTube pages ?
  Or is it only one or a few pages that have problems.
  • Please give links to a couple of bad YouTube pages

Please confirm that you have now updated to a supported FX47 as suggested in Fred's post above.

I can confirm that I just upgraded to FX47 but still yet to test out the leak issue again. I wasn't feeling confident since I had previously upgraded with no improvement.

But now I will test out FX47 without the garbage collect add-on, and try the other recommendations and report what happens.

So the first test I have done is 20 minutes of my normal browsing routine. Watching a youtube video while opening another tab to look up information going from page to page on the second tab. Sometimes opening up more tabs. Ultimately closing those tabs, leaving one or two for about the last ten minutes, one of which the YouTube video still playing. In the picture there are two tabs, however, closing the second tab has very little effect on the total memory allocation.

In the image I attached the memory usage is over 1GB after 20 minutes of this surfing activity. Now, about ten minutes later after pausing the Youtube video and allowing the garbage collection to catch up, it has stabilized at around 830,000. But I cannot browse quickly if memory wants to accumulate so quickly.

As you mentioned my RAM is little, only 2GB total. Perhaps others are experiencing the same issue but since they have more RAM don't notice the hit nearly as much. I posted a screenshot.

Moreover I noticed the add-on I tried obliterates that memory leak, and in fact makes my browser more memory efficient than IE or Chrome. What a difference. It just seems strange though if a simple add-on can do this then why can't Firefox alone do this?

Thanks for the replies. Have you got a link to the problem YouTube videos ? I have a Windows 7 install and I will see if I can reproduce the issue.

You may find it interesting to look at

• Firefox uses too much memory or CPU resources - How to fix

Note Firefox does have a tool to reduce memory: a button within "about:memory". The about memory reports also show exactly where memory is being used. If there is a true memory leak the reports will identify it.

RamBack Does not seem to have any documentation. And all it has as a home page seems to be the addons page itself:

• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/ramback/

RamBack apparently clears Firefox caches. Whether or not it clears any more than you can yourself clear from the Firefox menu I do not know, I have not tried to use RamBack yet.

• How to clear the Firefox cache

Also note you may look at the Firefox cache details by keying into the address bar about:cache

What you are seeing may be increases in memory use due to caching, rather than any memory leak. Caching is usually expected to increase performance, rather than decrease performance, although it does not always work out that way.

One thing you could keep an eye on is whether Windows is using its pagefile. Look in the task mangers performance tab to check that. If Windows resorts to paging things will slow down dramatically. Have you thought about increasing the RAM on the laptop ?