How can I prevent Firefox from shutting down to 5% when inactive?
My computer (running Win8, FF 22.0, just installed) is set for maximum performance, which means it enters sleep mode only when I tell it to. But recently FF 21.0 and 22.0 has started shutting down to 5% of its normal operating memory use after as little as 60 seconds or so of inactivity. Then when I try to use it, it will SLOWLY reload, sometimes taking as long as 5 minutes or more! This is a relatively new behavior and a basically intolerable one. I cannot find any setting under Tools that addresses this, and the right click on the icon upper left now only deals with resizing. I do not want to go back to IE and have never liked Chrome at all, so I would hate to leave FF but I simply cannot continue to wait several minutes do do everything.
Все ответы (19)
5% of what? Have you tried Firefox Reset? Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings
I would try defragmenting the hard-drive, and limit the amount of start-up programs. If you really want to avoid any problems with speed, and want everything to load quickly, and work great. I would recommend a Solid-state-drive. The best one on the market that you can buy is the Samsung 840 Pro. SSD Link
Buy it from Amazon or Newegg.
Microrobot, there is no need to buy an SSD to run Firefox quickly or well. Please keep your suggestions limited to things that really apply to the thread.
OK for clarification: I HAVE defragged the disk (actually hardly needed) and rechecked for malware (although my AVG software does an excellent job of preventing problems--I have literally had NO viruses in the several years I have used AVG, which is not a sneaky ad, just my experience). I also run a pretty lean setup with a minimum of programs and almost all of those from standard and reliable suppliers (well, MS not always, but we all know that). I started with computers in 1972 when paper tape readers were around, and for about 15 years had my own company furnishing turn-key systems for academics and small businesses, especially concerning DBMS systems. I certainly do NOT know everything, especially GUI and related matters, but I've tried my best to fix the problem before posting my question. My problem is a NEW one, arising in an environment that has changed almost not at all from when FF worked very well.
(I sent my answer before but apparently to the wrong place--sorry, new to this forum.) By 5% I mean that in this new catatonic mode it's going into, the kernel of residual memory is ca 4K, when the program normally uses about 250K with a small number of open windows. Then when I start to open a new window or go back to a previous one, it can take as long as 5 minutes before FF crawls back up to a useful memory level. I do typically have some other programs in use (Outlook, Quickbooks Accountant, and some Excel sheets, maybe a small Word doc or two) , but there is sufficient extra memory for the full normal complement FF uses to be available.
One more thing: as I said originally, the FF icon is NOT the former one with the dropdown arrow but a simple icon which allows only resizing, restore, etc.--no further functions are available. The other tab used to be there but has not been since the last upgrade or two to 21.0 and the current 22.0 just downloaded today.
Certain Firefox problems can be solved by performing a Clean reinstall. This means you remove Firefox program files and then reinstall Firefox. Please follow these steps:
Note: You might want to print these steps or view them in another browser.
- Download the latest Desktop version of Firefox from http://www.mozilla.org and save the setup file to your computer.
- After the download finishes, close all Firefox windows (click Exit from the Firefox or File menu).
- Delete the Firefox installation folder, which is located in one of these locations, by default:
- Windows:
- C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
- C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
- Mac: Delete Firefox from the Applications folder.
- Linux: If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it - see Install Firefox on Linux. If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder firefox in your home directory.
- Windows:
- Now, go ahead and reinstall Firefox:
- Double-click the downloaded installation file and go through the steps of the installation wizard.
- Once the wizard is finished, choose to directly open Firefox after clicking the Finish button.
Please report back to see if this helped you! If not, you may need to Reset Firefox Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings
I deleted the two folders (including a maintenance one you didn't mention), then reinstalled the program. The blessed thing loaded in a trice and 45 minutes later, without any activity on three windows on my end, the memory complement is where it should be! Thank you.
I still do not have the drop down tab on the upper left, just the round icon, but that seems to be a separate problem. Should I make this a new thread or just let it go and hope for the best in revision 22.0.1?
what do you mean drop down tab? can you take a screenshot?
You get the orange Firefox menu button when the menu bar is hidden.
- Firefox menu button > Options
- View > Toolbars (press F10 to display the menu bar)
- Right-click empty toolbar area
See also:
(Back after extended power outages). I have followed the instructions and the drop down tab is there but only when the menu bar is disabled. There are two problems with this: 1) I WANT the menu bar because I want those capabilities readily to hand and 2), as I've said repeatedly, the orange round icon DOES NOT produce the menu stuff, only the resizing, restoring choices. Also, pressing the ALT key as described by the FF documentation does nothing whatsoever. So, as far as I can tell, the program simply does not work the way the FF docs says it will. I am used to this kind of basic discrepancy from Microsoft but not from Firefox. I guess I can live with these -- err "features -- and now that the going catatonic on me within a minute or so has been fixed, I'll quit. But if anyone has a way of getting the program to work fully as claimed, I'd be happy for the news. In any case, thanks for all the help.
Are you meaning the Orange Firefox button? there is no way to have that when you have the menu bar open, it's one or the other because they provide duplicate functionality.
Supposedly only! As I've been saying from the beginning of this long thread, the round button simply has three choices "restore, minimize, close"--absolutely nothing else--rien, nada, nil, nicht. Nor does the ALT key do anything at all. The documentation SAYS there should be a menu there but there is not. (Otherwise I would have found it a couple weeks ago and obviated this whole thread!) I can live with the present situaton, but would be happier if it actually worked as promised.
huh? The Round Firefox button isn't a menu, and there is no documentation around it (please point to anything you see about that). There is a big orange button that says "Firefox" if you turn off the menu bar, which is a replacement for the menu bar.
At: “https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Menu+bar+is+missing Hidden menu bar:” the following appears. This reference was given in an earlier post here. My comments are added below inside << … >>>.
"If you're using Windows 7 or Windows Vista, you now have an orange Firefox button that takes the most common functions and puts them in one menu." <<THIS CLEARLY SAYS “ORANGE BUTTON” AND THAT BUTTON SHOWS ON THE SCREEN SHOT, BUT THIS ORANGE BUTTON DOES NOT DO ANYTHING BUT OFFER “RESTORE, MINIMIZE, CLOSE”>>
"To temporarily show the old style menus, just press the Alt key. "<<THIS DOES NOT WORK AT ALL>>
"• To have them shown all the time, right-click on an empty section of the Tab Strip and check Menu Bar in the pop-up menu. "
<<WHEN THE MENU BAR IS REMOVED, THERE IS A FIREFOX DROPDOWN MENU – NB NOT A BUTTON IN ANY NORMAL SENSE OF THAT WORD—BUT THE INVENTORY OF FUNCTIONS IS QUITE DIFFERENT FROM THE MENU BAR’S INVENTORY AND THEREFORE NOT THE EQUIVALENT AT ALL.>>
<<IT MAY WELL BE THAT THE WRITERS HERE ARE USING “BUTTON” IN A SLOPPY, IMPRECISE WAY (RATHER, IN TWO QUITE DIFFERENT WAYS) AND THE ORANGE ”BUTTON” THEY ARE REFERRING TO IS SOMETIMES IN FACT THE DROPDOWN MENU TAB, AND NOT THE ORANGE BUTTON AT ALL, EVEN THOUGH THEY WRITE “ORANGE BUTTON” AND DISPLAY A SCREEN SHOT WITH AN ORANGE BUTTON. IN ANY CASE NOTHING IN THIS WHOLE MESS IS ACCURATELY DESCRIBED.>>
Since you have a registration on this site, you should be able to click into the Discussion section of the article and propose additional or alternative language if you think it would help other users better understand the two different views. This is in the Editing Tools section on the left side of the article. Frankly, I don't know whether there is a good substitute for pictures in this case...
I'd be delighted to help--having written my first commercial program several decades ago and with three degrees in English I should be qualified. But in this case the pictures (e.g. of the orange button) simply do not go with the words attached, so the picture don't help.
You are misunderstanding that article. The Orange Firefox button is just that, a button that is orange and says Firefox. The Round Firefox icon is visible in the screenshot with the Menu bar, and gone in the one with the Firefox button, so not sure what the confusion is. Feel free to make changes to the article, but I think you are just over complicating something very simple.
"Buttons" are most usually round in their broadest dimension, although within limits, ovals, lozenges, and other variations are found. The page I cited says "button" and offers a picture of a round orange object 5mm in diameter on my screen. This orange thingy sure looks like a "button" to me. The dropdown menu bar, on the other hand, while it is orange to be sure, is 30mm long and 5mm high on the screen, or 600% longer than it is high, and is indisputably rectangular, not even remotely round anywhere. Very few people would seriously consider this a "button." Furthermore, most computer "buttons" are binary toggles, rather than multi-choice menu tabs (which look and perform quite differently, in the main). I'm not claiming that our terminology need to totally unambiguous and precise, but in this case the divergences between the description and the functions (or nonfunctions) are unacceptably major. However, I really don't want to worry this to death. I've more or less figured out what the writers were aiming at, where they were accurate and where they were simply wrong, So I'm getting on with my rapidly depleting life. I do appreciate the effort others have expended on my original problem.