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 Doesn't Close and Is Incessant Memory Hog

more options

Unistalled 3.6.3 for the apparent delay loop of say 3 seconds between typing in a url and getting to the actual location, then happening again when the page loads.

Also, firefox from 3.5 - 3.6.3 goes off in some 50 meg at a time memory expansion, particularly with browser games such as DarkOrbit. This goes and goes until there is a constant disk swapping, and with 4 gigs of ram and Window XP this is just absolutely terrible performance. I am currently using 3.5.9 since that doesn't have the lag to url entry and website loading issue that started with 3.6.

Now I understand a memory leak is claimed to have been fixed, however, I don't see it, and it seems more like a band-aid of some delay loop was inserted in the 3.6.x code instead of an actual fix, an actual rewriting of the code causing the problem.

Could someone actually test firefox prior to it being released to the public, in a setting where memory leaks are being reviewed? I mean the idea this has been going on since version 3.5 is just amazing, with patch after patch actually not fixing anything and instead transferring the issue somewhere else. It's disgusting really. Maybe Firefox should quit while ahead since they appear unable to be responsive enough to compete with Microsoft or Google.

I Pray 3.6.4 actually adresses this issue but am not willing to jeopardize my bookmarks to beta test it, as that seems a more proper role of the so called programmers who are supposedly coding a fix. But maybe they don't trust themselves enough to know if their code works, and figure it takes popular opinion to say it works and get them off-the-hook for being responsible for their code.

Sick and tired of this, and I've brought this up more than once, since 3.5.3, only to be ignored apparently. If you go to the option to make a feature suggestion in the automated forum system, it tell you the developers don't even look at the forums. MAYBE THAT EXPLAINS WHY THIS ISSUE HASN'T BEEN FIXED.

Crash ID(s)

None, have to use Task Manager to close firefox

Unistalled 3.6.3 for the apparent delay loop of say 3 seconds between typing in a url and getting to the actual location, then happening again when the page loads. Also, firefox from 3.5 - 3.6.3 goes off in some 50 meg at a time memory expansion, particularly with browser games such as DarkOrbit. This goes and goes until there is a constant disk swapping, and with 4 gigs of ram and Window XP this is just absolutely terrible performance. I am currently using 3.5.9 since that doesn't have the lag to url entry and website loading issue that started with 3.6. Now I understand a memory leak is claimed to have been fixed, however, I don't see it, and it seems more like a band-aid of some delay loop was inserted in the 3.6.x code instead of an actual fix, an actual rewriting of the code causing the problem. Could someone actually test firefox prior to it being released to the public, in a setting where memory leaks are being reviewed? I mean the idea this has been going on since version 3.5 is just amazing, with patch after patch actually not fixing anything and instead transferring the issue somewhere else. It's disgusting really. Maybe Firefox should quit while ahead since they appear unable to be responsive enough to compete with Microsoft or Google. I Pray 3.6.4 actually adresses this issue but am not willing to jeopardize my bookmarks to beta test it, as that seems a more proper role of the so called programmers who are supposedly coding a fix. But maybe they don't trust themselves enough to know if their code works, and figure it takes popular opinion to say it works and get them off-the-hook for being responsible for their code. Sick and tired of this, and I've brought this up more than once, since 3.5.3, only to be ignored apparently. If you go to the option to make a feature suggestion in the automated forum system, it tell you the developers don't even look at the forums. MAYBE THAT EXPLAINS WHY THIS ISSUE HASN'T BEEN FIXED. == Crash ID(s) == None, have to use Task Manager to close firefox

All Replies (3)

more options

For ALL my WIndows PCs (XP, Vista, 7) both 32 & 64-bit versions:

Memory (via Processes category of Task Mgr). starts our at less than 100K. But over time (less than a 24-hr period) grows to 1 to 1.5 G in size (causing my graphs on my 2-monitor laptop to finally fail).

As long as I hourly kill Firefox 3.63 (including its process) and restart, I have no problem.

The 'growth' occurs whether I am actively using Firefox, or simply leave it running 'overnight.'

more options

same issue here. hits 1.2 to 1.6 Gb or RAM usage even if its simply left at the home page. requires me to use task manager to close the firefox.exe that continues to grow in memory usage. until it crashes

started using chrome because of this. even tried disabling all addons, I will let you know how that goes

more options

This is insane. The automatic update to Firefox 3.6 ATE ALL MY OLD BOOKMARKS. I have hundreds specific to work training, finance, personal. WHERE THE H ARE THEY FIREFOX?!!

I am done with their crap.