Firefox Community Forum

Ubuntu - I use the SNAP version of Firefox - I generally have lots of tabs open but only use 5 or so of them and it's generally fine.... but when I am closing Firefox, it USES like 100% of the CPU and ALL of the RAM and ALL of the SWAP memory when closing.

This locks up the computer.

Sometimes it doesn't quite go all the way but I can watch it all happen in real time, using Task Manager - and that shows a solidwall of all resources occouring, when the close Firefox is run.

I am told by research via ChatGPT that this is a very real problem with the SNAP version and it's best to change to the Debian version, copy all the bookmarks etc., across and then uninstall the SNAP version.

It's rather disconcerting to have Linux crash because of this one app locking it up and frequently.

Chat GPT:

Is there a problem with Firefox Snap Version closing and using all the resources while doing so, which results in locking up the computer?

You're definitely not imagining it—there have been reports of Firefox's Snap version consuming excessive system resources (CPU, memory) and even causing lockups or hangs, particularly during closure. Here's what’s going on and how to mitigate it:

What’s Happening with Firefox Snap?

2. Browser Hangs or Locks the System on Close

On Linux (especially Ubuntu), users have reported that closing Firefox can lead to it hanging in memory, sometimes unresponsive and still consuming resources.
Super User
Ask Ubuntu
A stark example from Reddit illustrates the severity:
“About 50% of the time I open Firefox, it'll reach 100% CPU usage in about 30 seconds… PC completely unusable unless I shutdown.”
Reddit

3. Known Wayland Sway Bug

On Wayland/Sway setups, reloading Sway while Firefox is open can trigger intense logging, causing high CPU use and an enormous syslog.
Fix: Set MOZ_DISABLE_WAYLAND_PROXY=1, or upgrade to FF 125 where the issue is addressed.
Reddit+1

Alternative Approach

Many users, particularly on Ubuntu, opt out of Snap completely in favor of the .deb package or PPA builds. These alternatives often avoid these specific issues. Ask Ubuntu Reddit

Thoughts? Solutions?

Thanks in advance.

I booted the computer this AM and firefox is acting up. I can go to my email accounts (2), but I can't open an email. Both act like this. They will open with MS Edge and all other functions seem to work on the computer except for firefox.

I tried searching for a solution using duckduckgo and google, many of the links wouldn't open and some that did, just loaded re-loaded, but never finished. Pulldown menus, where they ask a question and click to see the anwer, don't work. They are frozen. Can see the cursor highlight the menus, however it will not allow any interaction with them.

I restarted the computer, there was an update, and I had it update. No change with firefox. I reinstalled firefox. No change. For the moment, I'm out of ideas. Anyone have any thoguhts about this, please help. Thanks in advance. Ken

I have Firefox (always updated to the latest version) and I have noticed a memory leak that EATS up RAM. I have 1 tab open, playing a set spotify playlist. within 24 hours of rebooting the machine, Firefox has swallowed 7gb of my Memory as shown in Activity Monitor/Memory Pressure. I've been having this issue for some time, updates to MACos make no difference either. NO other program does this. I've tested the same playlist in other browsers, Chrome, Safari, uses 1gb, brave/opera uses less than 500mb and they've been open for over a week. This memory leak is a bug in Firefox. I've seen it before (other software, mainly on Windows) but never like this on a Mac......How do I escalate this?

Is there a way to have Firefox start with all, or all but the first tab unloaded?

My Firefox starts with about 100 tabs open and many of these now have ads running which makes Firefox very slow. It seems to take ages and ages for all the tabs to load.

Maybe if all the tabs were unloaded when I start Firefox it would be quicker to get up and running??

I'm running Windows 11 on a desktop with an i5 CPU and 32 GB of RAM.

Any help much appreciated.

Hello! Today I stuck with problem in my system: after minor package update, hardware acceleration was broke. In past, I stuck with same problem after total pc upgrade (AMD -> NVIDIA GPU, another might be unnecesary), and somehow I fixed it, but i dont remember what exactly fixed it. Can someone please help me turn hardware acceleration on this time? My searching the key arround didn`t helped, but i found in about:support line which notes that firefox unrecognized my videocard etc. My specs: kernel: 6.17.1-zen1-1-zen driver: nvidia-dkms-580.95.05-1 videocard: GTX 1080 TI DE: gnome 49 with Wayland

Tips that ive tried: Tried to make all as wrote in archwiki Tried to install an nvidia vaapi implementor Made some random steps from internet, without effect(maybe thats why hardware acceleration doesent work??)

theres also about:support page attached

I have been using Firefox for many, many years. As of late I find it is constantly slowing or freezing and when I check with taskmanager I find Firefox has opened and is running as many as 85 processes. I have tried the recommended methods of limiting it...but the performance options do not provide the ability to limit processes as set out in the instructions....and changing the browser.tabs.remote.autostart to false also did not work. If I can't fix this, I will have to stop using Firefox. I am using version 144.0

I have been using Firefox for many, many years. As of late I find it is constantly slowing or freezing and when I check with taskmanager I find Firefox has opened and is running as many as 85 processes. I have tried the recommended methods of limiting it...but the performance options do not provide the ability to limit processes as set out in the instructions....and changing the browser.tabs.remote.autostart to false also did not work. If I can't fix this, I will have to stop using Firefox. I am using version 144.0

Hi, after latest update just now, the browsers uses up to 45gb of ram within a few minutes! Not sure what it is, I am on MACOS Sequia Version 15.6.1 (24G90) macbook pro M1

I am a Cacti developer and we are considering switching from FontAwesome Web Fonts to Tabler Web Fonts. However, on Firefox for Windows only, we are having a major slowdown when using the Tabler SVG based webfonts. The page load is first stalled by Firefox apparently loading all the Web Fonts, which would appear normal with any browser (though exceedingly slow on Firefox for some reason).

However, once the page is loaded, when going off tab to another browser tab, and then back to the Firefox tab that includes the Tabler webfonts, there is a 3 second delay before the tab switches. When we enable the performance analyzer, we find that the delay is almost 100% Reflow of the page, even though the page is static as this point (no changes) from the last time it was activated.

We do not have this issue on Firefox for Linux, MS Edge or any other Chromium browser, only Firefox on Windows. I'm using the latest version 134. Should I be opening a bug?

I normally use Firefox Developer Edition, version 127 because any later version always freezes my whole computer (probably because I'm using a 15-year old PC). Recently all my extensions became disabled. I'm now also unable to install any extension because it says "Installation aborted because the add-on appears to be corrupt". I found some instructions on Mozilla website about deleting compatibility.ini and extensions folder, but it didn't solve the issue. Now I'm stuck and confused as I suspect some of the extension files that should be in my Profile folder may not be there.

The simplest solution in this case would be to use the "Refresh Firefox" option which resets everything to default settings, but every time I do it my computer freezes until rebooted. Uninstalling and reinstalling manually is also not the way to go, because it retains all the settings.

I've tried installing the standard Firefox browser (v. 119) alongside the Developer Edition but the same issue is there as well.

I'm looking for an alternative way to get a clean Firefox install, so I can fix my extensions.

Additional info: - Your system specs? Windows 10 64-bit, 4 GB RAM, Pentium Dual-core, no GPU - Hardware acceleration? Disabled. - Using any mods? Yes, two. Geckium for Firefox, which always works fine. The recent issue started when I played around with Revert8Plus, but it initially worked without issues.