firefox downloads like crazy after startup (hundreds of megs)
After starting up firefox it often immediately starts to download hundreds of megs at max speed for no apparent reason, clogging my network. I've got a lot of tabs open, some youtube too, but after startup those aren't loaded yet, they only load after being clicked on, so they can't be the culprit.
I'm using ff 22.0 on linux. My addons: adblock plus download helper downthemall firegestures flashblock flashgot noscript reloadevery tab auto reload tabgroups manager
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I had to terminate ff since it wouldnt stop downloading, I did this after 20 min of non-stop dl'ing at my max bandwidth of 16Mbps.. so that would be ~2 GB downloaded..
After I closed and reopened it, it behaved normally, ie no download at all.
luggy trɔe
The following suggestion is from the thread Firefox unwanted downloads and bandwidth use. Try changing the following setting in Flashgot:
FlashGot > Options > Downloads > uncheck "autostart downloads"
As for how to get to that before all the downloading, you could try starting up Firefox to a blank page and then after making the change use History > Restore Previous Session to get your previous tabs. I'm pretty sure you won't lose your tabs, but I can't guarantee it.
In Windows, you can start Firefox to a blank tab using Start > Run > firefox.exe "about:blank" but I don't know how you do that on Linux.
To back up your sessionstore.js and sessionstore.bak files, you can copy them from your profile folder to a safe location. See: Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data.
Sometimes a problem with Firefox may be a result of malware installed on your computer, that you may not be aware of.
You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:
- Microsoft Safety Scanner
- MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware
- TDSSKiller - AntiRootkit Utility
- Hitman Pro
- ESET Online Scanner
Microsoft Security Essentials is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista/XP if you don't already have one.
Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.
Please report back soon.
You suggested a bunch of Windows programs, I wrote that I use Linux. Further, the "eternal downloading problem" is not listed in the symptoms list of the "further information" that you linked. I appreciate that you chimed it, but please do not just spam threads with copy/paste, but read what the person who asked a question actually wrote, thanks.
I apologize.
You can try some of the anti-virus programs listed on this Wikipedia article.
Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.
See "Creating a profile":
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Profile_issues
If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from an existing profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over the problem.
Thanks guys, I didn't have anyhting in the flashgot queue but I disabled the setting anyway and I also disabled these addons in general:
adblock plus (after the shady business behind it has been exposed it was time to get rid of it anyway), download helper, downthemall, reloadevery, tab auto reload.
So I only have left: firegestures, flashblock, flashgot, noscript, tabgroups manager.
The problem has not surfaced anymore since then. :)