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

Firefox 3.6.8 and memory issues

  • 9 replies
  • 71 have this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by Unicorn

more options

After the last update to 3.6.6, I disabled plugin-container per the instructions given on the forum, and my RAM problems went away. However, after the automatic update to 3.6.8, the memory problems came back, with memory usage going up to 92%. I downgraded to 3.6.4, and turned plugin-container off again; while memory usage is currently at 84%, it is not as low as it was before the upgrade to 3.6.8. (79-80%) (There is very little difference in the websites being opened on the various tabs.)

This happened

Every time Firefox opened

== I upgraded to 3.6.8

After the last update to 3.6.6, I disabled plugin-container per the instructions given on the forum, and my RAM problems went away. However, after the automatic update to 3.6.8, the memory problems came back, with memory usage going up to 92%. I downgraded to 3.6.4, and turned plugin-container off again; while memory usage is currently at 84%, it is not as low as it was before the upgrade to 3.6.8. (79-80%) (There is very little difference in the websites being opened on the various tabs.) == This happened == Every time Firefox opened == I upgraded to 3.6.8

All Replies (9)

more options

I have very high cpu usage with sites that use flash aswell and i have 4gb ram its only happened since the new firefox update happened this week. Please fix it fast. I am using windows 7 home premium.

more options

Highly annoying!!! Please fix ASAP I'm thinking about to switching to Chrome. I hope that doesn't have to happen

more options

I am using Firefox on a Mac. Always while opening Firefox, the window freezes. After some time waiting, I can continue for several seconds. The CPU usage also grows. Now, I've uninstalled Firefox and writing this article through Google Chrome, although I hated it (because of privacy issues).Web pages are loading a bit slower than firefox- but it is stable and doesn't annoy me.

more options

Rebooted system, and 3.6.4 was using about 88% of mem, and causing Windows to give warnings about low memory. Will downgrade to 3.5.10 to see if memory situation improves.

more options

I have 3.6.8 and cpu goes as high as 92% and become unusable. Have found no solution, except to go back to IE8. This last few versions are not usable. Flickr, and facebook, start to become slow to the point it might take 3 to 5 minutes for a page to load, CPU usage is above 92%. Please fix ASAP. I have always loved Firefox since the beginning, but chrome, and even IE8 is looking better if you want to be online more than just a few minutes.

more options

ffs guys. It's a free browser. It's cool. We love it. But can we do something about memory issues? Almost every release has huge memory leaks.

How about halving the release points and focus on memory issues for the other half of the time. I am a long time user since way back in the day and it seems to me that instead of trying to release so many versions, we should be focused more fixing the current release.

I say put a moratorium on new features until bloat can be fixed. These experiences are starting to give me a hardon for IE again.

Screw new features. I can deal with plain old tabs like they are. I don't need more bells and whistles. This browser has been kicking ass and taking names for a loonnnggggg time. We don't need more bloat. Keep the security fixes coming but everything else can wait. Take a breath. Stop and smell the roses for a few weeks.

more options

It seems that I had started Firefox (3.6.4) too soon, before the system had settled down. I am currently running 3.6.6 and memory usage has been ok, about the same before I upgraded to 3.6.8. I don't plan on trying 3.6.8 again though.2

more options

Using 3.6.8, seeing memory usage back to older amounts (~300K in absolutely no time). Have AFOM running. Seems to be associated with 'private browsing' as memory usage is stable, but then balloons during/after 'private browsing' session. If low- or no-graphics pages are visited during private session, then impact is small, but medium- to high-graphics have a high impact.

more options

I disabled the add-on "Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.1" and my problems went away.