Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See "Basic Troubleshooting: Make a new profile":

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Basic+Troubleshooting#w_8-make-a-new-profile

There may be extensions and plugins installed by default in a new profile, so check that in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions & Plugins" in case there are still problems.

If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from the old profile to that new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.

See:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox

You can also try to click the button at the bottom of the about:memory page to see if that reduces the current memory usage.

Hi, I'm a Firefox developer. We know there are still many causes of high memory use that can affect Firefox. We're working on fixing them one by one, and we are measuring and documenting our progress to make sure that it is working.

If you're interested in the technical details, you can follow along here: https://blog.mozilla.org/nnethercote/category/memshrink/

I'd be very interested to know whether the latest pre-release builds from http://nightly.mozilla.org/ improve Firefox's performance on your machine. You can also email me at mbrubeck (at) mozilla.com if you'd like help taking a closer look at your specific memory problems to try to narrow down the cause.

I could say "me ten" but what would that prove? The most annoying thing for me is loss of the mouse scroll wheel function after a bit of browsing. Tthere seems to be one forum I visit regularly that's more prone to causing this than others. I've posted about this specific problem in another thrad and the only suggestions were to get rid of add-ons (I really don't use any) and get Windows updates.

I'm tired of fooling with it. It's just a tool, not a lifestyle, and I want to go back to a version that worked smoothly on this computer. If I install Version 6.0 or 7.0, will it find all my bookmarks and passwords or will I have to go fishing for those files?

If you'd like a version of Firefox that changes less often but is still updated to keep it secure, you might want to try try Firefox ESR (currently on version 10.0):

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/faq/

You can downgrade to Firefox 10.0 ESR and it will automatically continue to use your current bookmarks and passwords. (Of course it's always good to back up your data regularly just to be safe.)

Older versions of Firefox before 10.0 ESR have known security bugs and I wouldn't recommend using them.

Thanks for the pointer to 10.0 ESR. I've been using it for a couple of hours, including on the "killer" forum, and it seems to have resolved my problem with the scroll wheel.

If I'm missing any fabulous new features by taking this "downgrade" I sure don't know what they are. I'm a simple user.

Maybe next week . . . .

From the home page of the link you posted: "Rizonesoft merged with Datum, South Africa. Datum will continue to develop all freeware acquired from Rizonesoft and will even bring back other discontinued stuff. We need to re-brand, update and optimize everything, so if you could please be patient while we finish these tasks. Everything should be available for download again by 19 May 2012, Saturday."

I spoke too soon about Firefox 10 solving the problem. Now it just takes longer before the scroll wheel goes away. I really which someone would come up with an actual explanation of the problem, though (tell me how I can help) rather than just suggesting Band-Aids. I'm going to make a point of jotting down the type of memory this computer uses (it's several years and a million generations old), but maybe the next time I'm at Ye Olde Memory Shoppe I can find a way to bring it from 1 to 2 GB of RAM.

[Later] OK, I found what seems to be the latest version of Firemin on CNET and tried it. The scroll still quits after a while.

If the scroll problem occurred with other applications, I could blame something going on with this particular computer (I don't use Firefox enough on other computers here to test it there) but it just seems like there's something that THIS computer with the Firefoxes later than 3.something (where I was before I had this problem) just doesn't like.

I guess I'll just continue to live with it.

I encountered this after the memory leak was mentioned as pat of a slowdown issue with an add-on that has been in use as long as I've been using Firefox (All-in one sidebar -AIOS). After a relatively short length of time under both Firefox 11 and 12 it starts to slow down. Sub menus take more than a second to show up when the parent menu is clicked, links take more than a second to activate, pages don't load as quickly. (I have a 30Mbps downstream internet connection that I test regularly, and consistently shows between 25 and 30MBps speeds from multiple sites throughout the US. It's NOT my download speed.)

In looking for explanations I saw at least one mention of a memory Leak.

So I decided to test this for myself. I first removed AIOS, then re-started Firefox and just left it running. I did nothing except minimize and restore it a few times. About an hour later the memory used by FF had gone from a reasonable 42K or so, to over 200K.

I tested again after uninstalling ALL my add-ons and plug ins. The same thing happened again.

This is NOT simply high memory use. Which I interpret as a particular tasks or process using more memory than it maybe should.

This is quite clearly a memory leak. Nothing was being executed, nothing was running with Firefox, and no pages were loaded during this time. But he use memory just steadily grew.

This is clearly a new issues since I did NOT have this problem when I was using Firefox 8. If I can find an install of that I'm going back to it.

If not I'll settle for the ESR mentioned here. If nothing else it seems to have a slower leak.

I never did like the new version number / rapid release schedule. Mostly because growing version numbers at that rate made no real sense to me as a developer myself. But also because speed of release for new features should not be the target but quality. I think we can see that this has clearly fallen by the wayside.

I only wish I thought there was a viable alternative.

I have FF 12 and Win7 64bit 4 gig ram.For what it is worth,I have been experiencing major physical memory problems (ram frequently pegged at 97%) which I had attributed to FF.However,I recently found a post on a forum blaming Smartware software (for My Book external backup drive) as a memory hog.When I removed this software,my ram is now rarely above 40%,and the computer runs like it did when new.

Hi,

Although the memory leak problem appears to have begun with the release of Firefox 12, it is actually not Firefox that is causing the problem. The problem is your friend and mine, Sun Java, whose concept of a "next-generation plug in" appears to be lag your computer to all hell.

Go to your control panel, double click Java, and review your settings. There is an option "Enable the next-generation java plug-in". Make sure you uncheck that. This fixed my firefox memory problem (similar to those problems posted) immediately. You must disable the plug in through Java, it will override Firefox settings. I would like to end this by saying I have always hated Java, and regret that it is 2012 and that it is still in use.

I've changed that setting and still, as soon as I hit that PreSonus forum web page. the scroll wheel goes dead.

I'm beginning to think that it's something unique to this particular computer, as I don't have the problem on other computers with about the same amount of memory and CPU horsepower. Of course there are some differences in installed software.

Could be this mouse. I'll have to get another one and try it with the standard Microsoft driver. I've been hanging on to the mouse I have on this computer because it feels really comfortable and its driver magnifies, something my feeble eyes really need, when the scroll wheel (3rd button equivalent) is pressed.

In Windows 7,open Task Manager>Performance tab>Resource Monitor>Memory>Commit tab (click to invert order). This shows in order of size what processes are using the most resources-it's how I found what was eating all my physical memory.In my case,once I got rid of the Smartware software,my problem was gone.

Does this Java related "fix" ruin or turn off Java usage in Firefox 12, or does it just "disconnect" a probably faulty part of Java ?

<< Although the memory leak problem appears to have begun with the release of Firefox 12, it is actually not Firefox that is causing the problem. The problem is your friend and mine, Sun Java, whose concept of a "next-generation plug in" appears to be lag your computer to all hell.

Go to your control panel, double click Java, and review your settings. There is an option "Enable the next-generation java plug-in". Make sure you uncheck that. This fixed my firefox memory problem (similar to those problems posted) immediately. You must disable the plug in through Java, it will override Firefox settings. I would like to end this by saying I have always hated Java, and regret that it is 2012 and that it is still in use. >>

Does this Java related "fix" ruin or turn off Java usage in Firefox 12, or does it just "disconnect" a probably faulty part of Java ?

Hi, disabling this option has had no effect on my web browsing experience, other than

1.) halving the memory usage by firefox.exe 2.) prevent firefox.exe process from still running after I have closed all firefox windows and tabs

this gets to my nerves !!!!

i cant type (it also takes to long to go to the end of a line or to delete some letters with backspace), i cant scroll, it even takes to long to change tabs..... i can't do anything any more, without feeling the need to punch my screen out of the room !!!!

i am gonna switch to another browser till this gets solved !!

sorry mozilla staff but it's not fun, not even close to convenient to use ff any more... :(

We are still getting people adding their "Me too" votes to this thread, but we aren't getting much information. Are the people with memory issues trying the steps detailed by Cor-el at the top of the page? These steps fix a number of problems and I think this thread has become about more than just one specific root cause ;) Please give those steps a try!

It may be too soon to know for sure, but I think that my problem, loss of the mouse scroll wheel in web pages after visiting one or two particular web sites and browsing a while, is not a memory leak issue. I removed the IBM mouse driver (and mouse) and installed a store brand mouse using the standard Windows XP mouse driver. This hasn't hung up yet in a couple of days of use.

If I have a memory leak problem, I don't think I've encountered the result of it yet. The program (currently using 10.0.4 ESR) seems to be stable, no crashes, no hangups, and, hooray! no mouse scroll wheel problems.

I miss the "center button magnifies" function with the IBM mouse driver (this also works with the generic mouse when the IBM driver is loaded) but I'd rather lose that function than lose the scroll wheel and have to quit and restart Firefox to get it back.

I think it's because when Firefox was an underdog the programmers used quality coding to deliver an excellent product, now that they have millions upon millions of users they have gotten sloppy in order to appease mass culture. They need to stop doing this and go back to high quality coding. Its the coding in Firefox 2 and 3 that got them the attention they now have, but its the coding in Firefox 12 that will give them the attention IE6 had.

I also had this issue - my FF 12 went to over 1.2 GB of memory usage with 5 tabs - and was fixed by migrating to FF 13 beta.

Disabling the next-generation Java Plug-in did not work for me.

Maybe it is related with the new memory management, but FF 13 beta is using less memory than FF 12.

Hello,

As it seems to me that this topic is getting some attention, I felt that I must put my feedback in here too. I have attached my system info in the image with it.

Currently I am using 2 different versions of firefox. Firefox 7.0.1 & Firefox 3(latest available upgrade). I have 2 different versions of Opera too(Opera proper & Opera Next). I don't have Java installed(I don't install it until utmost necessity & usually remove it when not needed).With the mentioned browsers I usually browse plenty of sites & I have to run all of them simultaneously most of the time! I remember to keep open about 25 tabs in firefox(ver 7) while the other browsers were at work too. I never experienced any crash or system hang/s with these(unless there were any specific javascript or, flash issue/s).

But whenever I tried to upgrade my firefox(I am trying since the very beginning & have tried every released stable version), it seems my memory usage with the firefox goes above 1gb within no time & makes it crash every few minutes. Obviously it stays good for a longer period of time when lesser tabs are open. but it still crashes. With firefox 12, I even deleted everything & tried with a fresh new profile & everything afresh! It didn't help either & same issue kept popping up! Today I tried the version 13 too(upgraded normally) & it didn't prove any better. My windows 7 is always up to date.

I hope it gets fixed soon. I created this account solely to reply here. I really wish I could upgrade my firefox & use it as I am using my current version.

Thanks.