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

Memory leak

  • 3 replies
  • 9 have this problem
  • 47 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

Hey everyone, I've looked in the help section and tried the suggested steps, turning off addons ect ect, but for the last few months firefox has just been leaking memory, It's using almost double what my games do and it appears to be getting worse with every update. Any suggestions on how to fix this? or do I just go back to chrome? Thanks

Hey everyone, I've looked in the help section and tried the suggested steps, turning off addons ect ect, but for the last few months firefox has just been leaking memory, It's using almost double what my games do and it appears to be getting worse with every update. Any suggestions on how to fix this? or do I just go back to chrome? Thanks
Attached screenshots

All Replies (3)

more options

Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link} by holding down the <Shift> (Mac=Options) key, and then starting Firefox.

A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Is the problem still there?


More than one process is normal for the current Firefox. http://www.ghacks.net/2016/07/22/multi-process-firefox/

Multi-process Firefox is codenamed "e10s". https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/multiprocess


Try to disable multi-process tabs in Firefox. You can disable multi-process tabs in Firefox by setting the related prefs to false on the about:config page.

browser.tabs.remote.autostart = false browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2 = false

http://www.ghacks.net/2016/07/22/multi-process-firefox/

Type about:config<enter> in the address bar. If a warning screen comes up, press the Be Careful button. At the top of the screen is a search bar.

more options

Hi, I did what you said, started in safe mode fine, wasn't long before it slowed right down and started draining resources. Thanks for trying, I give up Mozilla don't really seem to care about this problem despite the amount of people that are having it.

more options

You can try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.

  • Options/Preferences -> General: Performance
    remove checkmark: [ ] "Use recommended performance settings"
    "Use hardware acceleration when available"

You need to close and restart Firefox after toggling this setting.

You can check if there is an update for your graphics display driver and check for hardware acceleration related issues.


You can create a new profile to test if your current profile is causing the problem.

See "Creating a profile":

If the new profile works then you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.


Boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen or hold down the Shift key) to see if that has effect.