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Firefox won't release memory of closed tabs, what can I do?

bartgrantham
bartgrantham
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I've been experiencing a great deal of instability with FF for a couple months now and have finally started to figure out the source of the problem.

By checking out about:memory I've determined that FF is not releasing the memory from closed tabs. I see at least 15 compartments corresponding to tabs I've looked at and have closed at least an hour ago. Trying GC, CC, and "Minimize memory usage" all are ineffective.

Perhaps it's a plugin? I've disabled all plugins except flash. And as for add-ons, I'm running flashblocker, adblock pro, and have firebug and colorzilla installed.

I've been experiencing a great deal of instability with FF for a couple months now and have finally started to figure out the source of the problem. By checking out about:memory I've determined that FF is not releasing the memory from closed tabs. I see at least 15 compartments corresponding to tabs I've looked at and have closed at least an hour ago. Trying GC, CC, and "Minimize memory usage" all are ineffective. Perhaps it's a plugin? I've disabled all plugins except flash. And as for add-ons, I'm running flashblocker, adblock pro, and have firebug and colorzilla installed.

Chosen solution

Some add-ons are are known to cause problems like this; you can try running with add-ons disabled to see if they are the cause of the problem.

Firefox 15 will include a fix that prevents one of the main ways that add-ons and other code can leak memory from closed tabs. You can test a Firefox 15 pre-release build today to see if it fixes your problem: https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/aurora/

This page links to some technical details about the fix: http://blog.mozilla.org/nnethercote/2012/05/15/additional-update-on-leaky-add-ons/

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All Replies (2)

Matt Brubeck
Matt Brubeck
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Chosen Solution

Some add-ons are are known to cause problems like this; you can try running with add-ons disabled to see if they are the cause of the problem.

Firefox 15 will include a fix that prevents one of the main ways that add-ons and other code can leak memory from closed tabs. You can test a Firefox 15 pre-release build today to see if it fixes your problem: https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/aurora/

This page links to some technical details about the fix: http://blog.mozilla.org/nnethercote/2012/05/15/additional-update-on-leaky-add-ons/

bartgrantham
bartgrantham Question owner
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Thanks for the insight. I'll investigate my add-ons and see if I can find the culprit.