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

Periodic CPU spikes (>200%) in Firefox Nightly/Beta using macOS High Sierra

  • 5 replies
  • 8 have this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by mxmz

more options

Periodically Firefox freezes (every 20-30 minutes or so) and I can see in the Activity Monitor that the CPU usage during that time is more than 200%. It lasts 2-3 minutes after which the usage becomes normal again. I've tried safe mode, removing profile folder and switching to Firefox Beta but the issue still persists.

This issue started appearing just yesterday and everything was working fine before.

OS: macOS High Sierra 10.13

Periodically Firefox freezes (every 20-30 minutes or so) and I can see in the Activity Monitor that the CPU usage during that time is more than 200%. It lasts 2-3 minutes after which the usage becomes normal again. I've tried safe mode, removing profile folder and switching to Firefox Beta but the issue still persists. This issue started appearing just yesterday and everything was working fine before. OS: macOS High Sierra 10.13

Chosen solution

Since you are running ?? and now talking about Beta's ver ?? you should probably tick the boxes to send info to Mozilla so that we can fix these issues. It also sends more info than you just gave to Support (me). Working with next to nothing is loads of fun.

Since have changed browsers....where to start on what....... So for next time your having issues tick the boxes to send stuff to us, crash another time or 2. Please if not do that then stay on the same browser that has the issue and send the browser version # please.

I just had a spike myself on 56.0.1 as it must have just updated. Using over 350megs of ram. I rebooted and am fine.

Ok... please copy/paste this into the address bar about:studies then enter and see if you are enrolled in any. If you are enrolled in a user interface experiment, it should be listed on this page and there should be a way to uninstall/remove or to opt out.

I have no idea where to begin. How about you Uninstall Firefox and get a Full Version Installer and then let's try again. https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (5)

more options

Is there a way to debug this?

more options

Chosen Solution

Since you are running ?? and now talking about Beta's ver ?? you should probably tick the boxes to send info to Mozilla so that we can fix these issues. It also sends more info than you just gave to Support (me). Working with next to nothing is loads of fun.

Since have changed browsers....where to start on what....... So for next time your having issues tick the boxes to send stuff to us, crash another time or 2. Please if not do that then stay on the same browser that has the issue and send the browser version # please.

I just had a spike myself on 56.0.1 as it must have just updated. Using over 350megs of ram. I rebooted and am fine.

Ok... please copy/paste this into the address bar about:studies then enter and see if you are enrolled in any. If you are enrolled in a user interface experiment, it should be listed on this page and there should be a way to uninstall/remove or to opt out.

I have no idea where to begin. How about you Uninstall Firefox and get a Full Version Installer and then let's try again. https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/

Modified by Shadow110

more options

Thanks Pkshadow,

I am running 58.0a1 (2017-10-15) and I tried the latest Beta as well. I am not enrolled in any experiments. I've tried a fresh install and the issues still persist. I'll try to remove the profile and reinstall Firefox again and this time not going to sync up my account and see what happens.

The browser doesn't crash, it just freezes up and after a few minutes it is fine, so I haven't seen any crash report options.

I am happy to try to figure out the issues myself so if there is an option to somehow debug it — let me know.

Cheers

Modified by mxmz

more options

If run into a crash or maybe there is a report in that, have a look : https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-crashes-asking-support

more options

Hm, I haven't seen the freezes today at all since I reinstalled Firefox again (removed the profile folder and downloaded a new Firefox Nightly). I guess some settings got corrupted?