Massive memory leak
115.8.0esr (64-bit)
This newest release has a massive memory leak. I know it's Firefox, because I look at the system monitor, and there are even more entries for firefox.com running than usual. The first one on the top of the list is the biggest resource hog, and the next one is second. All the rest have something going on, but smaller. Looking at performance in the Windows Task Manager, under performance, the memory usage goes up. Right now, it's 5.35Gb of 16Gb. At worst, several days ago, it was at 12Gb. When I force close Firefox, the memory and usage goes way, way down, to a usable level.
I wrote last night. "Ed" someone got back to me, didn't quote my message, and said he was from another department. I DID EXACTLY THE SAME THING AS LAST NIGHT. I hit the blue button, which took me here, and he advised me to do today, which brought me here, AGAIN.
If this, again, goes to "restoring access to Mozilla accounts and subscription services such as Mozilla VPN", please be professional and forward it to the right department, possibly with my message quoted, as this is the second time I'm creating it, and only have my memory on which to fall back for the first time. The logical topic is "Fix slowness, crashing, error messages, and other problems".
At the same time, other releases have had big memory leaks, and they seem to get patched quickly.
Thank you again.
All Replies (9)
Firefox has a built-in process manager page at about:processes (you can type or paste that in the address bar and press Enter to load it). This page should show you which processes/tabs are the biggest memory hogs, which may allow you to reduce the load more selectively than completely closing Firefox.
In recent versions of Firefox, Shift+Esc opens that tab, but I don't know about your version.
If about:processes cannot account for all of the processes listed in the Windows 7 Task Manager -- you can add the Process ID column to be sure of which one is which across the two dialogs -- that can sometimes indicate malware using a hidden instance of Firefox.
you can add the Process ID column to be sure of which one is which across the two dialogs - First, tried to bold this. All I saw were 3 quote marks.
In any case, I don't know how to add the Process Id column. I don't even know if that is for FireFox, or Windows Task Manager. In the About Processes window, the settings button on the far right, next to CPU, does nothing, at all. No response to click. Right click on the top bar (with Name on it) just gives generic web page options.
I'm not an especially dumb guy, but I'm lost here.
-- that can sometimes indicate malware using a hidden instance of Firefox.
Norton has been pretty good to me.
In the Windows 7 Task Manager, Processes tab, I think you can right-click any column heading to get a column chooser. (It's also available from one of the menus.) That allows adding a Process ID (PID?) column. Then you would be able to match between the Windows Task Manager list and the Firefox Task Manager list.
If you see a process in the Windows Task Manager that a resource hog, you can find that process in Firefox's Task Manager using Find (Ctrl+F, then the Process ID). This should identify what tabs/sites are the culprit. Or it could be an internal process like media decoding.
Apollyon48 said
In the About Processes window, the settings button on the far right, next to CPU, does nothing, at all. No response to click.
That's just a column heading for the Actions column. The only action I'm aware of is to close a tab. An X will appear if you hover that column next to a tab.
Many thanks for explaining to me without being demeaning.
Looks like FireFox is the resource hog. I'll run the deep clean on Norton and see if that picks up anything.
I'll keep you updated. Thanks again.
Norton deep cleaner didn't find anything. So, my workaround is don't open any more windows than I have to, and, generally, stay off a browser on my computer.
Anything more you got, I'm listening!
Your screenshots do not show anything out of the ordinary.
You can reduce the number of processes per site by changing dom.ipc.processCount.webIsolated to 1 in about:config.
You may want to install an extension like Auto Tab Discard to automatically unload older tabs.
Then this release has a major memory leak. It's not a new thing for FireFox. Maybe a patch will patch it.
Thanks to all.
Firefox is consuming about 2Gb ram with 16 opened tabs. I never had that before in last 10 years. This version(123.0.1) should be leaking. The only explanation!
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