Cannot browse Amazon without freezing & extreme slowness.
This only happens at Amazon. Once I find an item, scrolling up and down , the page sticks or freezes. The entire computer (any other tab, as well as Tools) froze continuously every time I visited Amazon. The only way to escape this mess was closing w/Task Manager. Online, this is a not a new issue with Amazon. It's not only Firefox, either. Complaints go back two years. Amazon is very willing to help; they have not been able to, so far.
In March, Amazon said it's a cache problem: 1. force reload to ensure that you are looking at a fresh copy of the page, and not the version stored in your cache. 2. clear your cache.
I did the obvious, as suggested. I then checked many FF troubleshooting suggestions, which I followed. I lowered the memory cache from inside about:config, although in Tools > Options, it was still set at 350MB. - I just lowered that from Tools today. - (Are browser cache and memory cache the same things?) I had blocked all Amazon cookies. I changed browser cache settings - I think Mozilla suggested four places.
Six weeks later, same results. Slow to not moving at all. Amazon said, "The problem you're encountering on your visits to our website may be related to bookmarks that your browser is generating after using one of our search tools." "Go to Amazon from our secure site https://" "Don't use forward and back buttons."
See - they assume I'm searching and going forward and back, which is not really the case. You get seventeen results and go down the page. That's where my issues are. They also assume I'm starting from a logged in position, which is not the case 99% of the time. Don't know if this is important, but it's more accurate.
I have had HTTPS Everywhere installed since last year or earlier. Even logging in at their secure site, once you hit search, the resulting pages begin with HTTP.
One issue was cleared. Something fixed the entire computer freezing issue, so I don't have to close using Task Manager. Scrolling up and down is nearly impossible, still.
FF 37.0.1 installed. To my security addons, I added RAMBack, which hasn't made a difference in relation to this issue. Can I remove it now?
The settings below are all USER SET - the others are at default. Thank you for your help. browser.cache.check_doc_frequency - 1 " check_disk.capacity = 139264
" disk.smart_size.enabled - False
" disk.smart_size.first_run = False " disk.smart_size.use_old_max = False " disk.smart_size_cached_value = 358400 " frequency_experiment - 1 browser.cache.frequency_experiment = 1 browser.cache.memory.enable = True browser.cache.disk.capacity = 139264 browser.cache.disk.enable = True
All Replies (8)
You mentioned in another thread that no one responded to this question and I apologize for that.
(Amazon was slow for me today for no apparent reason, with the throbber/spinner on the tab going constantly while I was trying to scroll down the page. Maybe they changed something? Even more ads?)
Some sites do not support HTTP for all pages. HTTPS Everywhere can be useful, but not for Amazon product pages.
The memory cache and the disk cache are used for different things, and if the problems are limited to one site, I doubt that changing those sizes will really make much difference on one site.
Next time you're shopping, could you try using Firefox's Network Monitor on the site? To open that, you can use either:
- Ctrl+Shift+k and then when the web console opens, click Network along the top edge
- "3-bar" menu button > Developer > Network
- Tools menu > Web Developer > Network
When you load an Amazon page in the tab above the Network Monitor, it should start filling with URLs of all the various bits and pieces of a page. On the right side will be timing bars showing a little bit of information about how long the page takes to load and whether the time was spent waiting for the server, etc. If you notice some especially slow things, such as ad servers or something else, you might make a note or take a screenshot. There probably are ways to block them.
Dammit! I opened the Monitor again, to see if I could follow your instructions the second time - and I DELETED my post.
Oh, well. Good to hear from you, JScher2000. As I probably said, I can and will NOT go to Amazon until I can search it from FF, without being utterly frustrated. However, I would run the Monitor - let's get to the bottom of this ASAP.
Step 2 - the 3-bar menu - you mean the three parallel lines like the FF (and everybody else who adopted it) menu? I didn't see a menu the 1st or 2nd try. Can't move to Step 3 without it.
As far as what is the most annoying about using Amazon - I will tell you now that I scroll down from top to bottom and the page doesn't move. I can gently roll the middle wheel up or down and the page isn't moving with me. I think that's the worst. Look forward to your instructions.
O, and for years I could shop Amazon - or I could jump off Search and check out one specific item. Then one day I couldn't. You mean the buffering - circle? I use Adblock - never see or receive ads... Maybe today is the beginning of the end for you.
Thank you, JScher 2000.
BTW, HTTPS was an Amazon suggestion.
Trying to help you help me, but I understand your reaction. Once you land, the first click takes you off HTTPS.
Later!
You can't force Amazon to use HTTPS for product pages, it will always redirect. The site only allows HTTPS for account pages or payment.
Back to the Network Monitor: each of the bullets is a different way to start it up, so you only need one of those to work. The monitor is open in the lower part of the current tab. Then you can load a new page into that tab and watch the monitor.
Yes, I realize that about HTTPS.
I neglected to read the word "either."
Do you want me to interpret the monitor or send the data? I have no idea what information is useful - it's too technical for me. Please provide more detail.
Thank you.
If you look at the colored bars on the right side, the long ones indicate slower loads. That's pretty much the information I was interested in. When I do the same test. the problem doesn't seem to be any particular bit of content in the page, just that there is way too much going on with the page. I have attached a screen shot from after the page settled down. A bit later, it started pulling in more content! And this is with some ad servers scripts blocked, so there would have been more.
Every time I post something and check it before I send it (like looking at my screenshot), I lose my reply. ++++++++ I was at Amazon several times to do research for you and didn't run into a problem, but I wasn't really shopping. Today I was also at a website that froze the page, froze the Net Monitor - it didn't even open, and froze me when moving from one tab to another. I had to ctrl + alt + delete out. I tried it again - same thing. I thought maybe I should report the page to DuckDuckGo, which I probably should do - and then I came here while recovering from that page. The screenshot from here is not indicative of the trouble I have at Mozilla Support, but it might be interesting.
Who can/will interpret the data and conclude why Amazon (and a few other pages now) are behaving terribly when using Firefox? What more can I do to help?
Thank you.
Sorry about the image preview: I've made that mistake enough times now that I right-click > Open Link in a New Tab to check images.
Orange sections in the bars indicates that Firefox has sent a connection request and is waiting to get that set up. Those seem unusually long if that is the only support page loading, because by default Firefox will make up to six connections to the same server, and the longer orange bars indicating a wait usually appears starting with the seventh request if there isn't a problem.
I use NoScript, and I normally do not unblock ad servers unless necessary. If I unblock the amazon-adsystem server, then I also get 60-120 second lockups on Amazon. Maybe they are making up for lost time?
Actually, now Firefox is freezing up regularly, time to restart. (Over 2.2 GB of memory in use, so this is about the time...)