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Memory leak caused by Google Hangouts?

  • 3 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 13 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

spicy_indian
spicy_indian

I keep a few GMail windows pinned in Firefox, and a few weeks ago I noticed that Firefox memory usage keeps climbing until it has consumed 11 GB of my 16 GB RAM. At this point GMail or even the entire browser slows to a crawl until I close the window.

I believe that I have pinned the problem down to Google Hangouts - when I sign out of chat in every GMail window and refresh the page, memory consumption drops quickly to under 2 GB.

I can reproduce this behavior with different types of Google hangouts, with calls enabled and disabled, and on accounts with and without Google Voice (phone calls still do not work anyway). I can also reproduce this problem after resetting Firefox, and starting without plugins. I have also "Prevent[ed] accessibility services from accessing your browser." in settings.

Any chance someone can reproduce this, or provide a fix?

I keep a few GMail windows pinned in Firefox, and a few weeks ago I noticed that Firefox memory usage keeps climbing until it has consumed 11 GB of my 16 GB RAM. At this point GMail or even the entire browser slows to a crawl until I close the window. I believe that I have pinned the problem down to Google Hangouts - when I sign out of chat in every GMail window and refresh the page, memory consumption drops quickly to under 2 GB. I can reproduce this behavior with different types of Google hangouts, with calls enabled and disabled, and on accounts with and without Google Voice (phone calls still do not work anyway). I can also reproduce this problem after resetting Firefox, and starting without plugins. I have also "Prevent[ed] accessibility services from accessing your browser." in settings. Any chance someone can reproduce this, or provide a fix?

All Replies (3)

Shadow110
Shadow110

Hi, can your reproduce it in Safe Mode ? SAFE MODE

In Firefox Safe mode these changes are effective:

  • all extensions are disabled (about:addons)
  • default theme is used (no persona)
  • userChrome.css and userContent.css are ignored (chrome folder)
  • default toolbar layout is used (file: localstore-safe.rdf)
  • Javascript JIT compilers are disabled (prefs: javascript.options.*jit)
  • hardware acceleration is disabled (Options > Advanced > General)
  • plugins are not affected
  • preferences are not affected

TEST''''is issue still there ?

spicy_indian
spicy_indian Question owner

Pkshadow said

Hi, can your reproduce it in Safe Mode ? SAFE MODE In Firefox Safe mode these changes are effective:
  • all extensions are disabled (about:addons)
  • default theme is used (no persona)
  • userChrome.css and userContent.css are ignored (chrome folder)
  • default toolbar layout is used (file: localstore-safe.rdf)
  • Javascript JIT compilers are disabled (prefs: javascript.options.*jit)
  • hardware acceleration is disabled (Options > Advanced > General)
  • plugins are not affected
  • preferences are not affected
TEST''''is issue still there ?

Memory over 20 minutes seems to stabilize at 1.5 GB. How should I proceed from here?

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator

You can try to use the about:memory page to see what is using up that much memory.

You can try to modify multi-process settings to see if this has effect.

  • set number of content processes to 1 if it is currently set to a higher value (4)
    Options/Preferences -> General -> Performance
    remove checkmark: [ ] "Use recommended performance settings"
  • disable multi-process windows in Firefox

You can disable multi-process windows in Firefox by setting this pref to false on the about:config page.

  • browser.tabs.remote.autostart = false

Note that the previously used opt-in pref browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2 is no longer supported in Firefox 58+ and can be reset via the right-click context menu to the default value.

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I accept the risk!" to continue.