Windows 10 reached EOS (end of support) on October 14, 2025. For more information, see this article.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

New Firefox backup feature backing up way too frequently

  • 1 reply
  • 0 have this problem
  • Last reply by hsohaney

Joey
Joey
more options

Hi everyone.

Basically when the browser is (I think) idle while watching YouTube, FF is constantly backing up (the timestamp in the backup file name keeps getting updated). From the settings page I thought it once every 24 hours. I noticed from higher than normal CPU usage impacting FF and the Windows search indexer. Which reverted to normal once I disabled the backup.

I checked the about config:

  • browser.backup.scheduled.minimum-time-between-backups-seconds

Is set to 24 hours (86400 seconds)

But I also noticed:

  • browser.backup.scheduled.idle-threshold-seconds

Is set to 15 seconds(!). Is that what I think it is? Back up whenever there's a 15 sec idle window, regardless of the minimum? Can I safely make that 86400 seconds too, or does it do something else entirely?

Many thanks in advance.

Hi everyone. Basically when the browser is (I think) idle while watching YouTube, FF is constantly backing up (the timestamp in the backup file name keeps getting updated). From the settings page I thought it once every 24 hours. I noticed from higher than normal CPU usage impacting FF and the Windows search indexer. Which reverted to normal once I disabled the backup. I checked the about config: * browser.backup.scheduled.minimum-time-between-backups-seconds Is set to 24 hours (86400 seconds) But I also noticed: * browser.backup.scheduled.idle-threshold-seconds Is set to 15 seconds(!). Is that what I think it is? Back up whenever there's a 15 sec idle window, regardless of the minimum? Can I safely make that 86400 seconds too, or does it do something else entirely? Many thanks in advance.

Modified by Joey

All Replies (1)

hsohaney
hsohaney Mozilla Staff
more options

Hey! Thanks for reporting this, let’s try to debug it.

  1. browser.backup.scheduled.idle-threshold-seconds should not be edited. This setting doesn’t create backups; it only checks whether a backup needs to be created (i.e., whether there’s a reason to run a backup).
  2. Do you have any extensions that can do any of the following?
  • Clear history or site data
  • Modify form data storage
  • Change permissions
  • Modify cookies
  • Change preferences

Anytime one of these changes occurs, we request a new backup to be created when the browser is idle (regardless of the 24-hour buffer). This is done to prevent data loss.

Modified by hsohaney

Ask a question

You must log in to your account to reply to posts. Please start a new question, if you do not have an account yet.