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Firefox takes a long time to close since a recent update and hogs memory.

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  • 12 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Darlenegoff

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Since one of the recent updates that started using plugin containers, Firefox takes a long time to close. If I try to go back it, it tells me it is still running. I liik in Task Manager and about seven plug-in container. exe's are running and I have turned off or disabled mostplugins and addons, even Quicktime. Firefox uses an obscene amount of RAM on my XP machine and has made it sluggish. I use XP SP3. This started after you added the plugin containers in one of the recent updates earlier in the year. For the features it offers me or doesn't offer me, rather, it uses way too much RAM and is too sluggish. And takes a very long time to close out when I close the browser. It uses about twice as much RAM as it used to.

Since one of the recent updates that started using plugin containers, Firefox takes a long time to close. If I try to go back it, it tells me it is still running. I liik in Task Manager and about seven plug-in container. exe's are running and I have turned off or disabled mostplugins and addons, even Quicktime. Firefox uses an obscene amount of RAM on my XP machine and has made it sluggish. I use XP SP3. This started after you added the plugin containers in one of the recent updates earlier in the year. For the features it offers me or doesn't offer me, rather, it uses way too much RAM and is too sluggish. And takes a very long time to close out when I close the browser. It uses about twice as much RAM as it used to.

Chosen solution

Upgrade your browser to Firefox 9 and check

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Chosen Solution

Upgrade your browser to Firefox 9 and check

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Use "Firefox/File > Exit" (Mac: "Firefox > Quit"; Linux: "File > Quit") to close Firefox if you are currently doing that by clicking the close X on the title bar.


See "Hang at exit":

See "Firefox hangs when you quit it":


Start Firefox in Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of the extensions or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox (Tools) > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes).

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Thanks. It got better for some reason after I posted my question. I will keep the suggestion in mind.

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Thanks. It got better for some reason after I posted my question. I will keep the suggestion in mind.