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Firefox Slow Loading - Disgraceful

  • 8 replies
  • 2 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Potterd123

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I love Firefox but it has a market share of just around 7% and is even lower than Edge (which is terrible IMO). Chrome has the most users at around 65%.

Although Firefox is a much better browser, the perception for many is that Chrome is better due to much faster browser loading. I have Chrome and Firefox installed on Windows 11 with the same extensions and Chrome loads my home page in 2 sec whereas Firefox takes 7 sec to load. Even after deleting all cookies, cache and web history, Firefox still takes 7 sec to load my home page.

It's great to prioritize security, flexibility etc and I love these aspects of Firefox, but by not doing something to improve the awful loading times, you are leaving users with the impression that Firefox is inferior and LOSING the browser battle.

I love Firefox but it has a market share of just around 7% and is even lower than Edge (which is terrible IMO). Chrome has the most users at around 65%. Although Firefox is a much better browser, the perception for many is that Chrome is better due to much faster browser loading. I have Chrome and Firefox installed on Windows 11 with the same extensions and Chrome loads my home page in 2 sec whereas Firefox takes 7 sec to load. Even after deleting all cookies, cache and web history, Firefox still takes 7 sec to load my home page. It's great to prioritize security, flexibility etc and I love these aspects of Firefox, but by not doing something to improve the awful loading times, you are leaving users with the impression that Firefox is inferior and LOSING the browser battle.

All Replies (8)

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Remember Firefox is a non-profit user created supported and created Browser and doesn't have the corporate funding Edge and Chrome has. I don't experience slow down with the Browser. So unless there is steps that others can replicate the issue this comes down to either Add-on issue or corrupted Browser or ISP slow internet access or security software causing slowdown. So as you see there are many factors that affect a Browser and how it works. So unless there is specific instants that others the diagnosis or replicate the issue there nothing more that anyone can do.

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I have both Chrome and Firefox installed with the same extensions and the same home page specified. All other variables are identical as they are running on the same copy of Windows 11, using the same security software etc. I have also tested after removing all cached elements and it does not reduce the loading time.

Chrome displays my home page in 2 sec and Firefox takes 7 sec. I understand from your post that you have tested this and the loading time is identical, so I would appreciate if you can confirm that. I would appreciate if anyone else has tested this.

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If one is going to make such a test the system needs to be a clean install of just the O/S and Browser and nothing else on the same system or identical computer setups - if they want to test browser access times to verify the process.

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With all due respect, this is not a correct statement - It is just necessary to have all conditions identical except for the browsers to measure the difference between loading times. In my test, Firefox actually has an advantage due to the fact that the test includes deleting all browser history and other cached items.

My interest in raising this issue is that there is a tendency to conclude that the browser with the faster loading times is the better browser because we are programmed to believe that faster is better. And this is unfortunate since Firefox is a very good browser and functions well after the initial loading.

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Block unneeded content. Content you don't need such as ads or tracking scripts can significantly slow down page loading. Firefox's built-in content-blocking feature can make the pages load faster by preventing third-party trackers from loading. See Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox for desktop for details.

Greetings, Jimmy

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In case anyone is monitoring this issue or has some info:

The problem is that initial loading of my normal home page takes less than 2 sec to load with Chrome and 7-8 sec to load with Firefox.

I tested this by creating a new profile and providing the only update which is to specify my normal home page. No other settings updates were made. With this new profile, the home page loads in 2sec, just like Chrome, but after about 15 min, the initial load time changes back to the 7-8 sec.

So what happens to Firefox after around 15 min ? I don't know but there are a couple of tmpaddon files created in my temp folder at about this time and these are normally associated with plugins (which there were none added for this test by me). Firefox seems to be doing something in the background which is destroying initial load times for the home page.

Any thoughts on this will be appreciated. If you are interested in this problem and have some time, it is very easy to test this by creating a new profile with Firefox Profile Manager.

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So that we can look into this further:

What is the webpage you are using as your home page?

Which add-ons do you have installed?

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Hello and thank you for responding to my issue !

I use a customized landing page from Protopage.com and Chrome always loads this page in around 1 sec whereas Firefox takes 6-7 sec, but for the 1st 20 min after a new Firefox Profile is created, Firefox loads this page in around 1 sec, just like Chrome. After around 20 min the page reverts to the 6-7 sec load time. I am testing with no extensions and the only setting that is changed after the profile is created is for the home page url.

For my latest test I used www.google.com instead of my normal landing page as follows:

1) Created new Firefox profile at 1:40pm and updated the home page to www.google.com 2) There is a short video of the Firefox launch attached which was generated at 1:46pm 3) I launched Firefox several times between 1:40pm and 2:05pm but around 2:05pm the page load changed to 6-7 sec 4) There is a 2nd short video of the Firefox launch attached which was generated at 2:05pm 5) tmpaddon and tmpaddon-1 files appeared in my Windows Temp folder at 2:06pm and I have noticed in the past that these two files seem to appear around the time that the Firefox load times become extended 6) I have attached a screenshot of the Temp folder with the property list displayed for the file tmpaddon

That's it. I would be happy to answer any questions or do additional testing. I love Firefox and have been a user forever but the initial load times are annoying when Chrome is always able to load anything in around 1 sec.

Since this forum doesn't seem to support video links, I have created a Dropbox link for the attachments referenced above.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/aohonb696jdmh29/AACjKgkkn1Tap6In6cIpTWrja?dl=0