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firefox becoming slow after long usage

  • 6 replies
  • 21 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by dust180

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I have been using firefox for some 14 hours or so(too long, I know) and I noticed that it became slow.

Symptoms : Scrolling was not smooth on some websites, 3D view in developer tools was not smooth.

I closed firefox, waited for some time and then restarted it. Everything including scrolling, 3D view was fine. Is it a bug or is it maintainance problem?

I have been using firefox for some 14 hours or so(too long, I know) and I noticed that it became slow. Symptoms : Scrolling was not smooth on some websites, 3D view in developer tools was not smooth. I closed firefox, waited for some time and then restarted it. Everything including scrolling, 3D view was fine. Is it a bug or is it maintainance problem?

All Replies (6)

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Hello NitishChinta, try to clear both cookies and the cache from time to time(if of course you don't lose your work/view with the sites). Note: This will temporarily log you out of all sites you're logged in to. To clear cache and cookies do the following:

  1. Go to Firefox > History > Clear recent history or (if no Firefox button is shown) go to Tools > Clear recent history.
  2. Under "Time range to clear", select "Everything".
  3. Now, click the arrow next to Details to toggle the Details list active.
  4. From the details list, check Cache and Cookies and uncheck everything else.
  5. Now click the Clear now button.

Further information can be found in the Clear your cache, history and other personal information in Firefox article.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

Thank you.

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What is the memory usage of Firefox if you check that in the System Monitor and on the about:memory page in Firefox?

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window.

Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See "Creating a profile":

If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from an existing profile to the new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.

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@ Ideato

After reading your reply, I for some reason didn't want to check that because, if that is indeed found to be the cause, then it looks to be the defect of firefox that if you don't clear cookies and cache regularly, your product may become slow. This puts some negative impression in my mind and I don't want to test it.

@cor-el

I'll try this as I have to test for some 15 hours or so, I will take some 2 days to test it.

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This problem appears to be getting worse, and seems to be resulting in a fair few upgrades.. or are they downgrades.. something didn't work, it seems, and they're either throwing bandaid code at it or trying to remove it, why not just do it the normal way I don't know. All sounds suspicious to me. And with the googles all standing on the other side of the internet going "Crikey, check that out, he's a dirty sod!" who knows what clockwork ticks away behind the scenes...

I just want to google my porn and design new ways to take over the world at a reasonable speed and not have every page freeze as the png of my desktop is sent across the meadows by faceless men with broadbands up my blooper, to the farm for review, or as the snapshot of my system is scurried along to the sherriff of nettinghood.. how come it took the internet to go back to an age of robin hoood.. oh well, swings and roundabouts.

But is it too much to ask for? That I can do it without obvious interruption. Coh, you never got this with dialup. mind you, we ran the bulletin boards back in my day... none of this "Here, enjoy my cold iced tea, sit a while, get comfortable..." "Oi what you doing in my wallet?" "I gave you iced tea, it's only fair..."

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I have the same problem, and I was wondering if clearing the entire firefox personal folder (parameters by extend) would help...? I also tried the nightly with the new interface, but the problem was still there. I strongly reduced the amount of tabs and still. My computer is open 24-7 and Firefox is always running, so several times a day I have to close and reopen to get it responsive. The Ram is not an issue, I always have a lot free, but never really checked how much it takes, but I am pretty sure not much more than usual.

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I must pitch in aswell, it started several months ago (well more like half a year) for me, at that time I was running a Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 dual core with 8GB of DDR3 ram (and radeon HD6770), ive since upgraded to a A8-3870K quad core, 16GB of DDR3 ram (@1866mhz, stock supported by the processor's memory controller) with the HD6550D intergrated graphics borrowing 2GB from system ram for VRAM (almost as fast as the HD6770 I had so I didnt bother upgrading there, but for a short time I ran an HD7850 2GB card in here and same thing occured) and still have the same problem, so much so that I ended up switching to google chrome (I dont like it... but it doesnt freeze and get laggy like firefox after leaving it on for say all night, it normally does after about a week or 2 which is ok for me thats about the time I reboot anyway) So this problem is occurring on a more than capable machines! And 2 different architectures aswell! Ram isnt the problem, plugs arent either. While some programs have install plugins for firefox (example: VLC player) they are ALL disabled EXCEPT for Java (the main plugin, I disable the deployment toolkit one) and Flash player. Firefox will get extremely slow and laggy until either it crashes or windows deems it non-responsive and wants to close it. I also have firefox set to clear EVERYTHING when I close and reopen it so cookies and cache isnt the issue either. The only thing I do know is that during firefox's hissy fits, CPU usage jumps up on 1 core (since mines a quad, firefox.exe process uses 25% cpu usage which is 1 core constant until it starts responding, then does it again repeatedly until it finally just crashes), so I try to keep my web browsers running clean all the time, as far as plugins, cache and cookies go. I just tend to load them down with alot of tabs though, average between 10-20. I remember the time when I could leave firefox open for days or even weeks on end and have no problems! Wish that would come back and id be sold on firefox as my usual browser! As a plus would be faster page load times (make more use of the GPU like chrome does) but now im just being picky!