Windows Firefox v41.0..2 crashes when www.nytimes.com is loaded, effective 10Feb2016
Sometime after 3:00am this morning (US EST), there appears to have been a change at the nytimes main site, with the effect that version 41.0.2 of Firefox crashed and cannot be successfully restarted so long as www.nytimes.com remains in the restore list.
Even starting Firefox from scratch, with or without using Safe Mode, and entering this site as a target URL causes Firefox to fail.
Note that I am using 41.0.2 because of the long-standing, off-and-on/now-you-see-it-now-you-don't bug described in bugzilla thread https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=712763 . Currently there is no later version of Firefox I can use without having my FF window order randomized at start or restart time.
The failure occurs on both Win7 and Windows XP, and appears offhand to be memory exhaustion: on Win7 with 8GB of storage there is sufficient time to watch memory utilization continue to increase until there is (probably) no more to allocate. (On XP, with its less than 2GB of "processing storage," the error occurs much more rapidly.) The Win7 and XP machines have entirely different FF profiles and different extensions and plugins as well, although the latter isn't very interesting when Safe Mode makes no difference in behavior.
Any suggestions will be welcome. Given the history of the bug mentioned above, I would probably have better luck asking the New York Times to fix whatever they may have done, but without more information from me this plan isn't going to go very far.
Thanks, all
All Replies (4)
Sorry I don't think there is much practical help I can give you. If after reading all this you want to try any of the suggestions post back and I will give further information
Ok so my suggestions. First of all would it be a reasonable summary that there are three separate issues here
- Windows Firefox v41.0..2 crashes when www.nytimes.com is loaded, effective 10Feb2016
- Bug Bug 712763 - Loads saved windows in reverse order when starting, previous selected window becomes the first one.
- Some serious Memory leak & Crash
nytimes crash I would advise against using old versions of Firefox, but you are free to do so and no doubt realise the risks. Possibly you mitigate that by for instance having a well rehearsed bare metal recovery strategy or using a Virtual Machine. Bugs will only be investigated or actioned if they relate to the Firefox Current (or future ) Release. Why not install Firefox Release, using a custom install and its own profile. Or possibly even simpler install Developer Edition (nee Aurora) that by default installs in a separate location with its own profile. You will then be in a good position to troubleshoot problems without losing the beloved Fx41 [Another alternative (not official Mozilla policy, unless for troubleshooting) use ESR; it is secure, but for now based on Fx38]
Bug 712763 By itself this appears to be an inconvenience and something requireing modification to Firefox to improve it. Unfortunately looking at related bugs I suspect there is little chance of this being improved in the short term. We usually avoid adding direct links to bugs in this forum, in case it results in bug spam. Obviously you know how to find the bugs. So I note
- Bug 712763 - was resolved as fixed a couple of years ago and is no longer active.
- Bug 1235231 - Sessions restore windows in random order
Was never actually formally confirmed, and was opened against Fx43. - Seems possible any fix may depend on someone actioning old bugs
- (2014) Bug 1034534 - [Session Restore] Restore windows one by one
- (2007) Bug 372650 - session restore should restore windows to original virtual desktop
Memory leak & Crash Unfortunately memory leaks are notoriously difficult to troubleshoot. Troubleshooting will inevitably require using
- A supported or development release of Firefox
- A new clean profile (May use an additional or virtual clean profile) and have all plugins disabled. (Or all but any suspect one)
- One or only a very limited number of named websites.
Crashes should be easier, but of course if it is a memory related crash the above will apply. Not many people are interested in troubleshooting, but if you want more information and tips see
John -- thank you very much for your detailed response; all of it was both educational and useful for further (and, no doubt, future) problem determination. I understand entirely the issues with less-than-current FF versions.
As a sort of wrap-up and secondary summary, then, and in reverse order to your major points:
Memory leak: here I experimented only with versions 41.0.2, 41.0.1, and 43.0.1. On each of the two lower-numbered editions and a Firefox session with only a single window/single tab active, and nytimes.com as the url, Windows' Task Manager's Available Memory decreased nearly linearly, from 3.7GB (on an 8GB machine) to well below 500GB, followed by a Firefox crash report. With many more windows and tabs open, but without nytimes active, I could not provoke FF to fail.
Bugs: Agree entirely that bug reports and analysis are inappropriate here. I'll mention only that my aversion to a FF upgrade relates to the (potential) issue with restored windows appearing in an apparently random order. Say, with 20 or more open Firefox windows, many of which have a "display title" of nothing more than "Mozilla Firefox" (perhaps for an open pdf), it is not easy to locate the window to which I wish to switch. I can remember, roughly, where a target is in a fixed list of 20+ items, but when list order becomes unpredictable the only option is a manual search.
nytimes crash: many thanks for the pointer to the developer version. I wasn't aware of the possibility to run two copies of Firefox concurrently. Very, very helpful.
Finally, I am now convinced that the problem was due to an ugly interaction between nytimes.com and Firefox v41.0.1 and 41.0.2. Proof is indirect, but compelling -- while I was experimenting with a "regular" FF session at level 41.0.2 and nytimes open in the developer edition, I discovered around 5:30pm EST US that I couldn't reproduce the Firefox failure in -either- environment.
It seems highly likely that something functional in nytimes.com or in its page loading was changed twice in the last 24 hours. Once after 3:00am or so, and then again in the late afternoon.
As odd as all these results (and complaints) may be, I am grateful for your post, and will keep an archive copy of it .. for "just in case."
Glad you found my post helpful.
OK so comments on your last post.
When looking at Firefox memory usage it is probably better to look at the live results in Firefox's about:memory. Note that has the ability to generate log reports, and then to compare them, so for instance you can open a troublesome tab, generate a report, leave it a few minutes or many hours, generate one or more additional reports, then generate a diff report showing the difference between any of those reports. That will show where and what is eating your memory.
{From} about:memory is a special page within Firefox that lets you view, save, load, and diff detailed measurements of Firefox's memory usage.
I am not even in Windows at the moment but I opened a nytimes.com tab and did not see anything unusual happening. I will try to leave it for a few hours see if I get memory usage skyrocketing, and if so I will post back.
Possibly the issue is fixed on their site, or in a later version of Firefox, or it could be something specific to your setup.
I can remember, roughly, where a target is in a fixed list of 20+ items, but when list order becomes unpredictable the only option is a manual search.
Firefox makes it pretty simple to find open tabs just precede the entry in the address bar with a percent symbol and a space and enter the least possible unique info. For example to find this post try "% 185" or "% 10Feb"
- See Address bar autocomplete suggestions in Firefox_changing-results-on-the-fly
Some people keep hundreds of tabs open. Open tabs can be rather fragile and maybe resource hungry making use of bookmarks may be a better method of managing the majority of open tabs & sites.
- Use bookmark folders to organize your bookmarks
- Bookmark Tags - Categorize bookmarks to make them easy to find
I wasn't aware of the possibility to run two copies of Firefox concurrently. Very, very helpful.
This forum only supports use of multiple Profiles and multiple installs for troubleshooting purposes, and probably does not fully document use of Developer Edition but see
If you need help setting up custom installs or multiple profiles post back saying what the problems are and I will provide answers &/or further links about how to do this.
John, thanks once more for your support.
I spent some debugging time monitoring about:memory but then decided that given the direct correlation between activating nytimes.com and the rapid and large-slope decrease in Windows' available storage and consequent Firefox failure, there was more than a coincidence at work.
Should this symptom repeat itself for this or another site in the future, I will work more careful with about:memory to see what other useful information can be determined.
For now I have only a minor, partial regret that I didn't take the opportunity to see whether the FF crash occurred with version 44 and at another level earlier than 41.0.1. (I do know that window display order remains randomized at level 44, though.)
The information about tab location via address-bar "tricks" is also new to me, and has proved very useful just in the time since I read your post. Clearly it doesn't have quite the same usability effect -- for me -- as a fixed list of open windows, but it is handy nevertheless.
Educational post -- thanks once again.