This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

What causes memory leaks?

  • 8 replies
  • 50 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by Red_Dawn

more options

I have had continued memory leaks, with firefox 29.0.1

I tried updating all extensions and plug-ins, I have tried making a new profile, this gave a base print of 90 MB, with only the addon tab, when i opend firefox this climbed to 190MB

my ram will usually spike within an hour of usage slowly climbing up from 255 MB (with 4 webpages) to up to 2000 MB at the moment I am running FF29 without shockwave and although the memory still spikes up to 385MB it seems to stabilize at that amount. with it only going up and down 30 MB when facebook updates. (running for 4 hours straight with no crashes or memory spikes) however like this I am unable to run shockwave content so I would like a solution to this problem. how can I watch shockwave content without the memory leak reapearing?

EDIT: it appears that if I watch videos on youtube the memory usage will still leak. (as if the content of the tab is saved somewhere after the tab is closed causing the memory to remain occupied) after watching 2 videos and closing the tab, the memory has stabilized at 460MB

EDIT: just visited kickass torrents, and my memory usage was spiked again by 30MB permanently, even after closing the tab again

I have had continued memory leaks, with firefox 29.0.1 I tried updating all extensions and plug-ins, I have tried making a new profile, this gave a base print of 90 MB, with only the addon tab, when i opend firefox this climbed to 190MB my ram will usually spike within an hour of usage slowly climbing up from 255 MB (with 4 webpages) to up to 2000 MB at the moment I am running FF29 without shockwave and although the memory still spikes up to 385MB it seems to stabilize at that amount. with it only going up and down 30 MB when facebook updates. (running for 4 hours straight with no crashes or memory spikes) however like this I am unable to run shockwave content so I would like a solution to this problem. how can I watch shockwave content without the memory leak reapearing? EDIT: it appears that if I watch videos on youtube the memory usage will still leak. (as if the content of the tab is saved somewhere after the tab is closed causing the memory to remain occupied) after watching 2 videos and closing the tab, the memory has stabilized at 460MB EDIT: just visited kickass torrents, and my memory usage was spiked again by 30MB permanently, even after closing the tab again

Modified by Red_Dawn

All Replies (8)

more options

Alot of things cause memory leaks, from addons, to webpages that may have a bug in them.

Could you post the non-personal troubleshooting information?

Please do the following:

  • For Firefox versions previous to 29.0: Click the Firefox button at the top left, then click the Help menu and select Troubleshooting Information from the submenu. If you don't have a Firefox button, click the Help menu at the top and select Troubleshooting Information from the menu.
  • For Firefox 29.0 and above: Click the menu button New Fx Menu, click help Help-29 and select Troubleshooting Information.

Now, a new tab containing your troubleshooting information should open.

  • At the top of the page, you should see a button that says "Copy text to clipboard". Click it.
  • Now, go back to your forum post and click inside the reply box. Press Ctrl+V to paste all the information you copied into the forum post.

If you need further information about the Troubleshooting information page, please read the article Use the Troubleshooting Information page to help fix Firefox issues.

You can also try Firefox Safe Mode to see if hardware acceleration or a addon is causing a leak.

Thanks in advance for your help!

more options

Toepassingsbasics


Naam: Firefox Versie: 29.0.1 Useragent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; rv:29.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/29.0

Crashrapporten van de afgelopen 3 dagen


Rapport-ID: bp-11e7120a-709a-4893-9790-c2d272140514 Verzonden: 3 dagen geleden

Alle crashrapporten (waaronder 23 crashes in behandeling in het gegeven tijdsbereik)

Extensies


Naam: Adblock Plus Versie: 2.6 Ingeschakeld: true ID: {d10d0bf8-f5b5-c8b4-a8b2-2b9879e08c5d}

Naam: Adblock Plus Pop-up Addon Versie: 0.9.1 Ingeschakeld: true ID: adblockpopups@jessehakanen.net

Naam: Flashblock Versie: 1.5.17 Ingeschakeld: true ID: {3d7eb24f-2740-49df-8937-200b1cc08f8a}

Naam: Norton Toolbar Versie: 2014.7.1.1 Ingeschakeld: true ID: {2D3F3651-74B9-4795-BDEC-6DA2F431CB62}

Naam: Tab Scope Versie: 1.5 Ingeschakeld: true ID: tabscope@xuldev.org

Naam: Troubleshooter Versie: 1.1a Ingeschakeld: true ID: troubleshooter@mozilla.org

Naam: YouTube to MP3 Versie: 1.2.3 Ingeschakeld: true ID: youtube2mp3@mondayx.de

Naam: British English Dictionary Versie: 1.19.1 Ingeschakeld: false ID: en-GB@dictionaries.addons.mozilla.org

Naam: Dictionary Switcher Versie: 1.3.3 Ingeschakeld: false ID: dictionary-switcher@design-noir.de

Naam: Norton Vulnerability Protection Versie: 12.2.0.5 - 1 Ingeschakeld: false ID: {BBDA0591-3099-440a-AA10-41764D9DB4DB}

Naam: Vuze Remote Versie: 10.30.1.502 Ingeschakeld: false ID: {ba14329e-9550-4989-b3f2-9732e92d17cc}

Belangrijke aangepaste voorkeuren


accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar: 0 browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400 browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400 browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion: 6 browser.search.useDBForOrder: true browser.sessionstore.upgradeBackup.latestBuildID: 20140506152807 browser.startup.homepage: https://www.google.nl/ browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID: 20140506152807 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone: 29.0.1 dom.mozApps.used: true dom.w3c_touch_events.expose: false extensions.lastAppVersion: 29.0.1 font.internaluseonly.changed: false gfx.direct2d.disabled: true gfx.direct3d.last_used_feature_level_idx: 0 gfx.direct3d.prefer_10_1: true layers.acceleration.disabled: true network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true places.database.lastMaintenance: 1400269555 places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858 plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types: application/pdf plugin.importedState: true plugin.state.np-mswmp: 2 plugin.state.np32dsw: 0 plugin.state.npconduitfirefoxplugin: 2 plugin.state.npdeployjava: 0 plugin.state.npfirefoxplugin: 2 plugin.state.nprpjplug: 0 privacy.clearOnShutdown.cookies: false privacy.clearOnShutdown.downloads: false privacy.clearOnShutdown.formdata: false privacy.clearOnShutdown.history: false privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs: true privacy.sanitize.promptOnSanitize: false privacy.sanitize.sanitizeOnShutdown: true privacy.sanitize.timeSpan: 0 security.csp.enable: false security.warn_viewing_mixed: false storage.vacuum.last.index: 1 storage.vacuum.last.places.sqlite: 1399654956

user.js-voorkeuren


Uw profielmap bevat een user.js-bestand, dat voorkeuren bevat die niet door Firefox zijn gemaakt.

Grafisch


Adapter-RAM: 2048 Adapterbeschrijving: AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series Adapterstuurprogramma’s: aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx32 aticfx32 aticfx32 atiumd64 atidxx64 atidxx64 atiumdag atidxx32 atidxx32 atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64 Datum stuurprogramma: 12-6-2013 Device-ID: 0x6819 DirectWrite ingeschakeld: false (6.3.9600.16384) GPU #2 actief: false GPU-versnelde vensters: 0/2 Basic Stuurprogrammaversie: 13.251.0.0 Vendor-ID: 0x1002 WebGL-renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0) windowLayerManagerRemote: false AzureCanvasBackend: skia AzureContentBackend: cairo AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0

JavaScript


Incrementele GC: true

Toegankelijkheid


Geactiveerd: false Toegankelijkheid voorkomen: 0

Bibliotheekversies


NSPR Verwachte minimale versie: 4.10.3 Gebruikte versie: 4.10.3

NSS Verwachte minimale versie: 3.16 Basic ECC Gebruikte versie: 3.16 Basic ECC

NSSSMIME Verwachte minimale versie: 3.16 Basic ECC Gebruikte versie: 3.16 Basic ECC

NSSSSL Verwachte minimale versie: 3.16 Basic ECC Gebruikte versie: 3.16 Basic ECC

NSSUTIL Verwachte minimale versie: 3.16 Gebruikte versie: 3.16

more options

it looks like user.js is currently active in Firefox. The user.js file is only present if you or other software has created this file and normally it wouldn't be there.

You can delete a possible user.js file and numbered prefs-##.js files and rename (or delete) the prefs.js file to reset all prefs to the default value including prefs set via user.js and prefs that are no longer supported in the current Firefox release. You can get to the profile folder below:

  • Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory > Show Folder

or

  • Go to about:support and click Show Folder next to Profile Directory.

more options

I have deleted them, should i now wait and see?

more options

memory still leaks, the fastest way to check that i use is to check the memory usage before testing (370 MB with 5 pages in 2 windows) then go to youtube, watch a movie , then close the tab and check the memory again (425MB)

more options

Did you ever try safe mode as I suggested at the end of my first response?

Note adblock plus can cause memory leaks in some pages and you can indivually disable it on such pages.

more options

not yet, I will try that next

more options

in safe mode the problem still occures, started with a baseprint of 246MB and I am now at 348MB just from opening and closing a couple of news feed sites.

might this be related to how FF is able to reopen closed tabs?