Firefox is consuming way too much memory. Indication of malware?
In an effort to understand why Firefox uses so much memory I've installed both the about: addons-memory2016 tool and the Tab Data add-on. My add-ons seem to be consuming just over 100 Mb of memory. The total of all open tabs is about 341 Mb. Between the two that's ~441 Mb of memory yet Task Manager indicates that Firefox is consuming well above twice that. How is this possible? I hasten to add that Firefox hasn't been open long and I haven't yet opened and closed very many tabs so can what's in cache possibly explain this difference? I'm a huge fan of Firefox and have supported its continued development and hope to continue to use it in the future, but this inordinate drawdown of memory is growing intolerable. Thank you for any help you may give.
All Replies (6)
Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web Link} by holding down the <Shift>
(Mac=Options) key, and then starting Firefox.
A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh).
Is the problem still there?
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-slow-how-make-it-faster
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-uses-too-many-cpu-resources-how-fix
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-hangs-or-not-responding
Thank you FredMcD for your reply I've done as you suggested. With eleven tabs open in Safe Mode Firefox is using according to Task Manager just about 700 Mb. Seven of those eleven tabs are still the initial page the tab opened to while the other four have seen links followed, etc. Does 700 Mb seem reasonable? I'm going to restart with the add-ons enabled and try to 'refresh' Firefox.
Other suggestions are welcome?
Actually, I'm not going to 'Refresh' Firefox since I see now that it removes add-ons and extensions. I will do so if there's a good diagnostic reason to do so.
While 'refresh' can help, it also causes problems.
Did you check the links I posted?
Start your Computer in safe mode with networking. Then start Firefox. Try Safe websites. Is the problem still there?
Regarding the links you recommended I will/am doing the following;
Though I don't have any of the stated symptoms such as redirected searches, unwanted toolbars, etc indicative of malware I'm running a full scan with Windows Defender. Afterward, I'll run a full scan with the free version of Malwarebytes.
I'm installing No-Script.
As for the second of your three links my Firefox doesn't seem to be consuming much CPU capacity. The problem seems limited to excess memory use. The third link you recommended will take some time to work through. I've checked that my plugins and extensions are updated. Later I'll see about additional measures I can take from the third link you recommended.
BTW, with about twenty tabs open I'm using just about one Gb of memory.
Anyone else have any suggestions for how to remedy this problem of excess memory use.?
With five tabs open I'm using 900 Mb. It was nearly 1,400 with nine tabs open and I started to get the dreaded Not Responding message. There must be a solution. I don't want to go to Chrome but this can't continue.
I'll run malware screens again.