Not really sure this is the correct forum to discuss Firefox policy however:

The philosophy of the rapid releases is; as I understand it; to release with hopefully well tested and proven changes and do this frequently, rather than plan large changes then hold up everything because one of them is more difficult to implement than expected.

I think unfortunately Mozilla Firefox underestimated the problem of keeping plugins and extensions compatible, although steps are in progress and some have been made with the intention of making this work better. See also

• http://blog.mozilla.com/futurereleases/2011/08/26/rapidity/

If you rollback, the recommendation would be to use 3.6 which is the latest other supported version. Changes between firefox 7 and 8 will not have been intended to create delays, but as it has only recently been released problems may not immediatly be apparent. Perhaps you can give more detail of the delays: when they occur and what you are doing and using when this happens.

hello again,

i can't precise WHEN the delays occur, because they occur somewhat frequently and randomly, also why can't say what i'm doing, cuz this also isn't specific, it can happen when i right-click back/fw buttons to browse history, or simply when i change tabs, etc..

only noticeable change which i also can't precise as the source of the problem is that the memory load went from ~120MbRAM in FF7 to ~200MbRAM in FF8.. but this shouldn't be a problem, because all the delay issues occur mostly with only FF open, WLM and a few other background apps.. with a 4gbRAM system this surely isn't the source.. surely the source is some process within FF that overloads the cpu.. and considering so far 5 more people complain of my problem, and my plugins loaded are fairly light and mostly the essential ones, i doubt the issue is focused on plugins..

Thank you for your response, and sorry for the delayed feedback (work's a bit*h!!).

Regards!

P.S. - i don't think u understood what i meant by rollback, i don't want to install a older version of FF, i want to "downdate/downgrade" to FF7 keeping everything (history/passwd/tabs/plugins) like i had before i had updated it to 8..

Downgrading

Firefox does try to retain passwords bookmarks settings etc when you change up or down versions. Firefox 3.6 is fairly compatible with firefox 8, there should be no problems with history, bookmarks, passwords etc. It is often possible to simply install one firefox version over the top of another, and because program folders and profile folders are separate, the information is retained. (Do NOT take any options to remove personal setting)

• see installing a previous version of firefox

Extensions are a bit more hit and miss, plugins may be even worse especially without increasing security risks, but again firefox will at least attempt to keep the plugins and extensions available.

Take care if you try to use the services of Windows System Restore to downgrade, it has a habit of breaking firefox.

Memory Use

As you say 200 or even 400Mb on a 4GB system is unlikely to be a problem. You could glance at:

• high memory usage

Also note if you go to about:memory by typing it into the location bar you will get info about what is using memory. (Note tooltips as you move mouse, and the buttons at the bottom)

CPU use See

• firefox consumes a lot of CPU resources
• and also general info firefox is slow

<rant> Despite testing unexpected problems do occur with each new release, maybe now there are specific Nightly, Aurora & Beta channels there will be an increase in the amount of real world testing done. I would even suggest using Beta channel for day to day browsing, it is fairly easy to drop back to the Release channel if there is a problem, the Betas are stable, and already well tested. If you find and report a problem on a Beta, there is a good chance it will get fixed before it gets onto the Release.

A recent example is the improved animated tabs, they were removed as a problematic change recently.

You mention five votes, that is miniscule. Threads or groups of threads often run in to 1000s of votes when problems occur. Having said that: Firefox 8 seems to have been having high crashing rates, and a high number of downgrades; firefox 7 and 8 both seem to have performance issues in some circumstances.

Thanx 4 u'r response.

Tomorrow i'll try to browse and test through all your recommendations, and hopefully i'll find a solution.. right now, it's bed time! :) i'll post back asap.

Regards!

I can verify that FF 8.0 does consume more memory usage than 7.0.1. I have the same number of add-ons and no update of any kind have been installed since I upgraded to 8.0. I used to use 300-400MB with 7.0.1 and now I am using 800-1GB with 8.0. Luckily I have enough memory with my laptop so it didn't cause any problems, but it'll be for those who does not have much memory installed. I sure hope Mozilla will look into this in the future FF releases.

silkphoenix,

I do not think fx8 is supposed to use twice the memory of fx7 in similar circumstances !?
and if that was known to happen it should have been investigated.

Have you considered installing fx7 & 8 and then using about:memory to see if you could determine the difference lies. Personally I tend to run fx 7 or 8 etc on an XP with less than 1GB ram available ! & do not recall fx8 using twice the memory of fx7.

Unfortunately as you no doubt understand Firefox's great advantage is all the extensions that it is able to use, the downside is untangling any problems caused by extensions. Am I able to presume that you do not see this doubling problem in safe mode ?

If you are able to demonstrate the memory requirements have doubled I think you have found a fault, and it would be worth you considering filing a bug about it.

John99 -- I already filed a bug report: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=702402

When I was in Safe Mode, my 8.0 used around 300MB only. So it is possible that some of the add-ons are causing the high memory usage when I am in the normal mode. In order to find out if the add-ons are really the culprit, I would have to disable each one of them, then check the processor and wait for a few minutes to see what is the memory usage. Since I have over 40 add-ons installed, I don't really have the time to do so. But if I can find the time, I will sure do that so we can get to the bottom of it. But as of now, I just have to live with the high memory usage till I can find time to check the add-ons.

Yes, you are correct. The reason I love FF is because the ability to use all the add-ons to enhance my on-line surfing experience. That's one of the reasons I haven't switched to Chrome yet which I do think, sorry to say, faster than FF because they don't have that many add-ons available, which in turn help their speed as well as memory usage.

I'll post an update whenever it is available. Thank you.

I thought firefox was slow as well. Here is the answer! 1. Backup your Bookmarks (Use MozBackup) 2. Do NOT backup Addons! 3. Make a list of Addons that you have installed. Yes, you must reinstall. 4. If you have Addons like Speed Dial, backup settings. 5. Use IObit Unistall Programs. Uninstall all traces of previous Firefox installations. 6. Install Firefox 8 7. Import Bookmarks with MozBackup restore 8. Re-install plugins 9. PROBLEM SOLVED!!!!

If you have been updating firefox for many versions, chances are there is some corruption that is causing the latest browser to run slow.

What I described above is a fresh install retaining all bookmarks & Addons.

It works!!!

Let me know how it works for you!

Take care all!

www.rp47.com

I thought firefox was slow as well. Here is the answer! 1. Backup your Bookmarks (Use MozBackup) 2. Do NOT backup Addons! 3. Make a list of Addons that you have installed. Yes, you must reinstall. 4. If you have Addons like Speed Dial, backup settings. 5. Use IObit Unistall Programs. Uninstall all traces of previous Firefox installations. 6. Install Firefox 8 7. Import Bookmarks with MozBackup restore 8. Re-install plugins 9. PROBLEM SOLVED!!!!

If you have been updating firefox for many versions, chances are there is some corruption that is causing the latest browser to run slow.

What I described above is a fresh install retaining all bookmarks & Addons.

It works!!!

Let me know how it works for you!

Take care all!

silkphoenix

Well done for filing the bug. I hope you persevere with that as you have already got developer attention, not just a triager, looking at what you said.

Did you note the comments about bisecting the add-ons list, it can speed up things instead of testing each one of 41 add-ons.

1. split into halves A with 20 add-ons and B with about 20 add-ons and test
2. if you find the problem in A20 split that if not go to B20 and test
3. take A10 (orB20) and test
4. continue splitting and testing

Ideally only one add-on is causing the problem, but it could be a combination or more than one. If you can at least get down to as far as saying you get massive differences with say three add-ons compared with safe mode the developers may well have enough information to test from that perspective themselves.

matrix23225,

I note you mention IObit uninstaller, which is apparently freeware, I am not sure if that will help or is necessary, the usually recommended method for a clean reinstall is to manually remove the programs folder.

• see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_%28Firefox%29#Clean_reinstall

The profile folder could also cause problems, although as you realise that will result in loss of more than just bookmarks; passwords and other settings will also then be lost. One thought I have is that manually copying the program and profiles folders (including all subfiles/folders) may help.

• it gives a possibility that you may restore the situation to what it was previously
• it allows you the possibiity of extracting info from the old profile
• IF the method does work and shows a massive improvement developers may possibly be interested in the results.
• see also
  • http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox
  • backing up your information

I must of course add that often problems are down to site use or add-ons, however firefox does get bugs and problems that get overlooked, even when those problems are frequently reported. It often takes a lot of effort from someone to try to show exactly where the problem lies, and be able to reliably reproduce a situation with and without the problem so that comparisons may be made and investigations carried out.

I notice a developers comment (bug702402#c15)

In our experience, when someone reports excessive memory usage and they have more than 10 add-ons installed, it's *always* one of the add-ons causing it.  Maybe you'll be the exception, but that explains why we're asking you to disable them first :)

matrix23225 and John99

Actually, I did do a clean install (well, kind of) of FF 8. I uninstall FF but kept my original profile, because I do not want to lose all of my settings since I have all the passwords/bookmarks, etc. Though I do have the backups (I do backups of my bookmarks/passwords at least once a month), but I have trust issues about backups at times. After I reinstall FF 8.0, it did not improve my memory usage. So it is a big possibility that either one or more of my add-ons are causing the problems. Of course, since I am not the only one have the memory usage problem, it will be coincidence that another users have some of the same add-ons as mine. Anyway, I'll try to find time to test my add-ons to see how it goes.

PS: I also did try to create a new Profile and copy my folders into it. The problem persists.

You can check the memory usage on the about:memory page.
You can open about:xxxx pages via the location bar like you open a website.

cor-el, I already did that and posted it into my bug report:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=702402

You can see a list of installed extensions on the Troubleshooting Information page.

• Help > Troubleshooting Information
• https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Using+the+Troubleshooting+Information+page

Windows XP with 1 gig RAM: Firefox in safemode using 90 to 121 mb but in regular mode it goes up to 400-450 mb with only two windows open. Thing I don't get is that (from the above comments) some users are seeing from 200 to 400 mb when in Safemode. Why is there this much difference from user to user. Like shouldn't Safemode use about the same amount of resources across all users?

No safe mode will not use the same amount of memory in all situations.

Just as one example remember safe mode does not disable plugins, many users and sites will have Flash Player, the Flash content of sites will vary a lot.

Going to about:memory by typing that into your location bar as if it was a web address at least helps explain how and why some of the memory is being used.

It appears silkphoenix at present has not the time available to continue providing information in the bug. (bug 702402 #c20) although a comment above suggests that could change at some time in the future: "Anyway, I'll try to find time to test my add-ons to see how it goes. "

This responses are for the most part too complex and I do not understand what it is being communicating in some cases... I am frustrated with the last upgrade and the problems it is causing in performance on my computer. My browser is integral to my work and computer function. I need help I can understand or i am going to have to abandon Firefox. I hope someone can provide a solution as the last version is using way too much memory and CPU usage. How can I go back one version without losing all my bookmarks, passwords etc. REALLY FRUSTRATED...

hi,

mhondros i make all your words my own. REALLY FRUSTRATED is absolutely right! This is a poor badly tested BETA version released as final, disregarding us, the users...

Is not as much that the answers complex, and they are, but the "POSSIBLE" solutions are complex, and demand from me a HUGE amount of time and effort into it (backups, installs, tests and more tests..). I'm not 15years old anymore, i'm 33! i want to solve the problem but don't have the time to do all this. I have a job, family, and frikin xmas at the door.. as much as i want to solve my problem i don't have hours to spare on it.

This is not the contributors fault, obviously, all of them here help us for free and give us their best, asking nothing in return.. I'm thankful for for them. but i really BLAME ff developers for releasing this 8 ridiculous version without proper testing.. it's ridiculous to upgrade to a version that consumes over 3x the memory and CPU without even a proper warning to users.. yes mhondros.. REALLY FRUSTRATED is what we feel.

regards!

@ mhondros

A suggestion you may wish to consider:

Downgrade to the supported firefox 3.6 (currently 3.6.24 iirc) but do NOT uninstall the current version or take any options to remove personal settings. Firefox does try; and usually succeeds, in retaining bookmarks and settings; when you move between Firefox versions.

Just to be on the safe side (it is good working practice anyway) back up your bookmarks manually before changing versions. See

• installing a previous version of firefox
• backing up and restoring bookmarks