digg

Facebook Connect Join Digg About

Sick of Firefox's Memory Leaks? Help Fix it!

squarefree.com — "David Baron recently wrote a tool that testers can use to help reduce memory leaks in Firefox. With this tool, you can find out what leaks you encounter during your normal browsing patterns and report useful bugs when you encounter leaks."

Who dugg this? Made popular Feb 8, 2006

Digg DudeWhat is Digg?

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Digg surfaces the best stuff as submitted and voted on by the community. Take the Tour to learn more.

56 Comments

show profanity settings
expand all
  • jbno, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4If I switch to a proprietary browser, like Opera, MSIE, or Netscape, I'd give up my software freedom. Thus switching to any non-Free Software browser is not attractive.

    Firefox is Free Software--software that users have the freedom to inspect, run, share, and modify at any time for any reason. Whether you're a programmer or not is not the issue here (that would be confusing ability with freedom). Think of freedom of speech--freedom of speech doesn't make everyone a great speaker but it is important to be able to say what you want, even express political views that are unpopular or incompatible with one's peers or government. Free software lets you retain control over your computer, not become dependent on a proprietor (also known as being dependent on a monopoly). You can't predict what things you'll want any program to do or what bugs will need to be fixed. You need to be able to change the programs to meet your needs, and you need to be able to share the improved program with others to help your community. And this can be done commercially, as the basis of a business, all without denying users their freedom.

    I encourage the widespread use of Firefox because it is Free Software, not because it's so capable, extensible, and fast. The features are nice, but other browsers offer comparable features. However software is increasingly important in society, and Free Software shows us that we don't have to let push us toward a dog-eat-dog jungle where keeping users helpless and separated is the norm.
  • kalphegor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3type about:config in address bar
    then set
    browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers=0
    browser.cache.memory.enable=false

    I have 50-80MB with 10 tabs opened, 4 extensions, 1 custom theme
  • cbenard, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Not dugg because of stupid blog link that is just a link to the story. Real link:
    http://dbaron.org/log/2006-01#e20060110a
  • MystaMax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The more and more I use FF the more it becomes relevant to fix. I'm sitting at 200 megs right now thats being used by FF and I just started it maybe 15 minutes ago. Its a good thing I've got 2gigs of RAM. I don't think these memory leaks are holding me back from doing anything with FF. But, it makes you wonder how much improvement is in the works for FF. Personally, no other browser competes, but I have them all install for web development purposes.
  • tadelste, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3But what if I don't find Opera as functional?
  • FubarHRD, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I had a problem with FF 1.5 eating loads of memory (1.5GB.. yes as in gigabytes) of memory in one instance, after a couple of hours of use. I didn't notice it right away, since I have 3GB of ram.

    The way I got rid of the problem, was to uninstall all instances of Sun's Java and download/install the latest version. Now the worst case I see is about 200Mb used.
  • usergentoo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2dont seem to have a problem in linux with it must be a microsoft thing
  • ViperDaimao, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@skyshock, I believe he meant free as in speech, not free as in beer.
  • lament, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1memory leak progress:

    http://www.squarefree.com/2006/02/04/memory-leak-progress/
  • john72carter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1if you want my help you have to make it easy for me.
    1) direct link to "debug version" of firefox, that i can download and run
    2) direct link to pl or java version of debug tool, that i can down load.
    3) bullet point instructions on what to do with my memdump

    I cant see the wood for the trees in the main link above.

    please help me help you.
  • Giever, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@skyshock21
    "software that users have the freedom to inspect, run, share, and modify at any time for any reason."
    He didn't mean free as in cost, he meant it is free to change.
  • JoshuaH, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This tool also works well.
    http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/tools/leaky/leaky.html
  • awa64, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6Alternatively, you could just use Opera.
  • whiteghetto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I cannot visit certain sites after running the "about:config" fixes mentioned above
  • DogzOfWar, on 10/12/2007, -8/+9"I'm really sick of morons censoring whatever they don't like on Digg. awa64 said, "Alternatively, you could just use Opera." The comment was censored by some moron. "


    I didn't censor that comment, but i would have. The topic at hand is memory leaks in firefox. A useful comment would have compared Opera, IE and FireFox and how they store cached images in memory. But that wasn't the comment. His comment of "Use Opera" doesn't add anything to the dialog. One of the criticisms of digg is how great the stories are, but how lame the comments can be.

    Now ironically enough, I hope you all mod my comment "Off Topic" because again, it has nothing to do with FireFox memory leaks.
  • Mesach, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"type about:config in address bar
    then set
    browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers=0
    browser.cache.memory.enable=false

    I have 50-80MB with 10 tabs opened, 4 extensions, 1 custom theme"


    I make these changes and now Google.com doesnt come up, neither does google.com/ig and Digg does not display properly back to the black bars on the ajax stuff.

    Any other suggestions?
  • ddhr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This site says to go to "about:config", create a new boolean value called "config.trim_on_minimize", and set it equal to "true". Whenever you minimize Firefox, the memory usage will go down considerably. Mozilla knows about the problem and agrees with this solution. I tried it and it worked.

    http://ddhr.org/2006/01/11/firefox-memory-leak/
  • illynova, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Umm... unless Opera's improved significantly since version 8, it leaks memory as much (if not worse) then FF.

    Try leaving it on a few days. Try using it. Doesn't respond? Whoops. About the only browser thats fairly good is Internet Explorer, and thats only because each window (I believe) allocates meomry and when closed Windows will free all memory.
  • ramsinks.com, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What is the issue with everybody?
    Memory leaks? Um.. with 1000's of PC's - we have no issues..

    I think it's "user error".
    Or stop trying to install 100's of extenstions.
  • therippa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Things seem to have gotten worse since I installed 1.5.0.1 on my machines yesterday. Firefox is using 292mb with only 5 tabs open.

    I would love to help find the leaks, but having to run a development build with pl in the background is asking a lot of me. If they made this an extension I would run it in a heartbeat, but for now I will forego memory space for stability.
  • JackDoyle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0My FF 1.5.0.1 seems to use tons of ram nowadays, too. Mine was at more than 200MB the other day only a few minutes after I started it up. No extensions other than AdBlock and the integrated ones for reporting problems, etc.

    I had two tabs open.

    500MB of ram on this laptop. :(
  • modena330, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Yes!! I am sick of it...Firefox is a great browser...I was hoping that the #1 improvement for 1.5 was to solve that problem...Mozilla please make it the #1 improvement for version 2.0!!!
  • DJFMA, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0People.... the more memory you have in your system the more memory firefox is going to use. There is an option in the config you can set to stop it from going above set number. Most people by default dont touch that number, so firefox automatically determines based on how much RAM you have to use.

    Granted, there is still a leak, but it's not as bad as people are putting it out to be.
  • solarpowered, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What kind of language would allow "memory leaks"? ;)
  • therippa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@ascheinberg

    That's a good idea. I'm going to run my gmail through (ugh) IE for the rest of the day and see if that helps.
  • elroy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i like them. i've got memory to spare, but the leaks make the haters waste keystrokes on the DIGG.
  • gamekid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"type about:config in address bar
    then set
    browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers=0
    browser.cache.memory.enable=false

    I have 50-80MB with 10 tabs opened, 4 extensions, 1 custom theme"

    In computer speak: Leakage over. Pwn4ge=very yes.
  • shiftless, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I love Firefox and I hope these memory leaks are fixed as much as they can be.

    The memory leaks only bother me when everyone else complains about them!
  • dynamx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1turn off adblock and watch how much memory that saves.
  • ascheinberg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Things seem to have gotten worse since I installed 1.5.0.1 on my machines yesterday. Firefox is using 292mb with only 5 tabs open.

    Sadly, this guy is SO right. Now that I upgraded to 1.5.0.1, it runs like a champ on my Mac, but my Windows install at work is terrible! I open up my favorite 5 tabs in the morning, and throughout the day it gets progressively less responsive, until at about 5 PM it's at 350 MEGABYTES. That is simply not suitable for use.

    Has anyone looked into whether this is truly a Gmail unused xmlhttpreq() issue? I read somewhere that it's leaving a Gmail window open that causes these problems. Is there any truth in that?
  • harshbarj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I have yet to see a memory problem in firefox. The most I have seen used yet is ~100mb and that was with 20+ windows opened.
  • therippa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@dynamx

    That is simply not an option
  • Jetfire, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Sorry, No extention add and FireFox will still hit 200 MB+ on a fresh installed Win XP. My main problem with 1.5 is I now get pop-ups again.
  • DigeratiPrime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i have 6 extensions enabled (All-in-One Sidebar, Compact Menu, DownthemAll!, NoScript, TabMixPlus), 6 tabs of different sites open for about an hour, and firefox.exe with 54,804kb of ram. seems fine here.
  • harshbarj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0^^ And btw I don't use any extensions or plugins.
  • manfesto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I must be the lucky one that hasn't been experiencing these memory leaks on any of my computers (and believe me, I by all means should - 32 extensions on my Windows box and 20 on my iBook, the ScribbliesKids theme, and at any given time 5-15 tabs open) - I don't normally close Firefox (meaning it stays open for DAYS at a time) and on either machine RAM usage tops out at 80 MBs (except the time I middle clicked a live bookmark and launched about twenty videos - and even then, closing all of the tabs brought memory usage down from 300 MBs to 90).

    I would personally love to help this project (though these memory leaks don't affect me personally, they seem to be the number one complaint about Firefox here on Digg), but I can't force memory leaks on my system.

    I would be interested, though, to see if these memory leaks are present in a fresh (no extensions or themes) install of FF 1.5.0.1 - I know they've fixed two internal memory leaks in this release, so if a clean install stays sane in its memory usage, then maybe it really does just boil down to the extensions. Working from a fresh install, one could install extensions one by one to pick out those causing memory leaks, and maybe get on those extension developers to fix their code.
  • rogerv, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Poor memory management is why I won't consider Mozilla XUL to build internal business apps with but will use Java Webstart Swing applications instead. With Java JVM and .NET CLR I can build desktop applications that run 24/7 - my user base keeps these apps running around the clock. Web-based apps are unable to run that way because the heap fragments, etc. Browsers have pathetic memory management - even FireFox.
  • digdugdig, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0illynova:
    I'm using Opera exclusively on my Fedora Core box and although I've had the browser open for weeks at a time, I've never experienced any memory leaks, even with 15-20 tabs open. This is the stable 8.5 version. Stop spreading FUD about Opera. Firefox is broken. It needs to be fixed. Ok?
  • pathfinder2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'm using Opera now (9.0TP). I want to use Firefox but it cause my machine to heat up, why I dont know??
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"@skyshock, I believe he meant free as in speech, not free as in beer."

    I never really got this reference. 'Splain it. You mean like what Giever said, freedom to alter, not freedom from cost?
  • markdav, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Some of the posts seem to suggest that it's just the Windows version that leaks memory? Is this true or will using more extensions contribute to this (I have 20 extns - mostly web dev stuff, adblock, pdfdownload, gestures, tabx, etc)?

    I've been using Opera recently and will probably stick with it if the memory problems are fixed.
  • hax0r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I found the Fasterfox extension to be a major memory leaker.. I have now turned off the option "Enable Enhanced Prefecting" (uncheck it) and now my Firefox is much more stable... also I have updated all of my extensions and taken out greasemonkey and a couple of others (gmail notifier, etc.) and now Firefox is much more stable. I think people blame firefox when it's the fault of the extensions and having 10 windows with 20 tabs open each.
  • OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It is definitely certain extensions that are causing the severe memory leaks. Firefox has some others, but not that are unacceptable. If they will all be fixed, good, but the offending extension authors are going to have to fix their extensions. Maybe some sort of extension certification tool is needed.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0^ First, digg is starting to get already a fancy Java application :)
    And i agree opera is always using more memory than firefox.
    I tired the new version yesterday and it was even slower than firefox!
    Opera has only the powerful interface and the many feautres but firefox beats that with its extensions. If you don't have a feautre, program it!
  • euth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Umm... unless Opera's improved significantly since version 8, it leaks memory as much (if not worse) then FF."

    This is exactly what I've experienced. Don't get me wrong, I like Opera a lot. I'm using Opera to post right now. But the claim that it uses less memory than Firefox just isn't true.

    Last night Opera was using over 100mb of memory with only two tabs open (each tab had digg loaded, not some fancy Java applications).
  • bacon_skoda, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I remember one version I had that climbed and climbed until 180MB, then crash.
    Happens every time. I had 512MB total.
    Don't know if this still happens in the newer versions
  • diGGerDON, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Uhhh... Just use Opera???
  • tmanns, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I used to have Fire Fox open all of the time on my iMac, even when the machine would suspend.

    I noticed that my iMac would freeze up when trying to start from suspend mode. When I stopped using Fire Fox the problems went away. I am now using Opera 8.5 and going to give Opera 9 TP a go.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2since yesterday, now and still using Opera

    i'd like to help, i have before with FF, just don't have the energy
  • abuser, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0That's very cute, but I have other things to do.
    Why not (for example): "Use Opera (it's nearly as good but doesn't leak memory) until they fix Firefox!"

    It doesn't make any difference if I "support" Opera and help _them_ fix their bugs - the both browsers are free and it doesn't really matter which one we help (and, by the way, let's remember that most of community effort that went into Mozilla was wasted since FF was basically written from scratch).

    Browsers are also relatively easily interchangeable so it does make sense to switch to whatever browser is less annoying for particular task or less buggy at one particular time and switch to some other, improved browser when it becomes better than others.

  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 56 of 56 discussions

  • Add a Comment

    Login or register to comment!
    Or, sign-in super fast with your Facebook account ...


© Digg Inc. 2009 — Content created and posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain | Terms of Use Updated | Privacy Policy
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.