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High data use/download

andrew.wiewel
andrew.wiewel
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Hi. Over the past few days my Firefox 104.0.2 (64-bit) has gone haywire. I still use Win7 but have it locked down pretty tightly and get security updates through the ESU program.

If I open Firefox with six pinned news and weather tabs (as I have been doing for years), 0.8-1 GB of data are downloaded within a matter of minutes. Opening a new webpage (e.g., CNN.com, but it doesn't seem to matter what webpage I open) will immediately download another 0.1-0.25 GB of data. As far as I can tell there is no end to this behavior. Each new webpage causes a large download.

Opening a new Firefox session without pinned or open tabs is better, but still downloads around 0.1 GB of data at the outset. Each opened webpage prompts the same 0.1-0.25 GB download outlined above.

I have a network monitor on my desktop so I am confident that this behavior wasn't happening until a couple days ago. Previously my total daily download would be 1-2 GB, which included work-at-home activities, 30-60 minutes of watching Youtube videos (480p), and often a couple hours of listening to classical music (144p) on Youtube.

Yesterday I did a full virus and malware scan of my computer and nothing was found. Outside of Firefox my computer seems to be operating normally.

Hi. Over the past few days my Firefox 104.0.2 (64-bit) has gone haywire. I still use Win7 but have it locked down pretty tightly and get security updates through the ESU program. If I open Firefox with six pinned news and weather tabs (as I have been doing for years), 0.8-1 GB of data are downloaded within a matter of minutes. Opening a new webpage (e.g., CNN.com, but it doesn't seem to matter what webpage I open) will immediately download another 0.1-0.25 GB of data. As far as I can tell there is no end to this behavior. Each new webpage causes a large download. Opening a new Firefox session without pinned or open tabs is better, but still downloads around 0.1 GB of data at the outset. Each opened webpage prompts the same 0.1-0.25 GB download outlined above. I have a network monitor on my desktop so I am confident that this behavior wasn't happening until a couple days ago. Previously my total daily download would be 1-2 GB, which included work-at-home activities, 30-60 minutes of watching Youtube videos (480p), and often a couple hours of listening to classical music (144p) on Youtube. Yesterday I did a full virus and malware scan of my computer and nothing was found. Outside of Firefox my computer seems to be operating normally.

All Replies (1)

andrew.wiewel
andrew.wiewel Question owner
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Hi again.

As soon as I posted the message above I realized I left out some useful information.

1) I have tried to uninstall/reinstall Firefox and that hasn't changed the behavior described in my first post.

2) Extensions used: Disable HTML5 Autoplay DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials Google Scholar Button Honey Privacy Badger uBlock Origin Webmail Ad Blocker

3) We have two other computers in our household, both with Win8.1 and updated Firefox, which are not displaying the behavior I'm asking about.

Thanks.