Can we get an option to have Firefox unload tab contents after the tab hasn't been visited in a while?
Its October 2015 now and I'm on the latest non-beta version of Firefox. I use Windows 8.1 64bit
Nothing has changed about the bane of Firefox browsing: It eventually gets up to 2.3 GB and crashes.
Its not a plugin or specific site, No. You can be on websites with no special coding, no audio/video/3D. As soon as it hits 2.3 GB RAM use, it crashes.
Crashing is bad, because: 1) you may loose your set of tabs on restart 2) you may loose a post or email you spend a long time writing 3) all your tabs will get reloaded indiscriminately and eat bandwidth
Now:
- if that's a limitation of some code in Firefox, maybe that code could be fixed, but maybe that's (too) hard to do. - you used to be able to force windows to give applications more RAM, but that seems to be removed since 64Bit Windows? - in the meantime, we just need the ability to have Firefox shed some memory, either automatic or manually.
2 possibilities seem plausible:
- After a tab hasn't been visited for x hours, Firefox can automatically unload its contents and keep only the URL. - Manually, you get a new option instead of "close all tabs to the right" the option would be "unload all tabs to the right"
Now, by all logic, Firefox should now drop back from the dreaded 2.3GB and we can keep going without leaking memory till death, yes?
All Replies (9)
Gotta love it when line feeds are discarded randomly and there's no 'edit' button...
Interesting, I can edit the reply but not the original post.
Actually: are Firefox tabs you close even being unloaded from memory?
It doesn't seem like that.
Modified by n13l5
Reading further in the Google results, it seems they have a 64bit beta for windows, but they do some screwy analysis of their own to determine of that user should get a 64bit download instead of giving people a choice...
I read some lengthy dev discussions on how to determine who gets 64bit.
Sorry, but I don't like people trying to decide for me what I install..
While I can understand that they must do that for those who can barely operate their computer systems, there should always be an option for people who know what they're doing somewhere.
I've spent the last 30 minutes finding the official 64Bit download from Mozilla, but the only place I can find anything is third party sites, content farms like Softtonic etc.
Several thoughts:
(1) For Windows, there are only test versions of 64-bit Firefox. It isn't quite ready for prime time yet. Nothing personal.
(2) Are you getting a crash with the Mozilla crash reporter, or what I see: sluggishness, black tab, can't switch windows without lengthy delays. Even then I usually can shut down normally using this key sequence once Firefox becomes even marginally responsive:
alt f x
If you are submitting crash reports: Please check the support article "Firefox crashes - asking for support" for steps to get those crash report IDs from the about:crashes page, and then post some of the recent ones here.
(3) I saw an extension that closes inactive tabs, but I haven't tried it myself: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/autoclose-tabs/
(4) Firefox does tend to retain a lot in memory, for example to make it quick to use the Back button, but I don't know whether page content is retained for closed tabs. You could try keeping the about:memory page open in a tab and using the "Free memory" buttons. I haven't noticed much difference when I try it, maybe 50MB, which suggests there isn't much waste under ordinary circumstances.
jscher2000 said
Several thoughts: (1) For Windows, there are only test versions of 64-bit Firefox. It isn't quite ready for prime time yet. Nothing personal.Thank you much for the info and suggestions!
I just downloaded the 64-bit version from somewhere else. My particular use case may give me a more satisfactory experience than 32-bit Firefox, which only I can judge. So always worth a test - what Mozilla thinks doesn't really factor - they also thought it was a great idea to keep changing the interface till I got sick of the unending interruptions to my work-flow and defected to Pale Moon for several years.
(2) At 2.3 GB RAM use (as reported by Task Manager) it just fails to draw its window and becomes somewhere between mostly and completely unresponsive. Its like clockwork. If you click the "x", you get a Windows message saying Firefox isn't responding and if you want to wait or close it. If I let it just sit there, it will eventually just crash silently with neither error message nor an offer to send a crash report.
Apparently, nobody could add some code, that recognizes when RAM usage is nearing the limit and then just purge stuff intelligently (like dropping all data from well-aged tabs, only keeping the respective URLs)
Why is FF not smart enough to give you a warning: "Firefox just passed 2GB in RAM usage: we are unable to handle reaching the cap gracefully, so we suggest reducing the number of open tabs and restarting Firefox to avoid a crash"
(3) I don't want an addon that knows nothing of my work to CLOSE tabs, I have them open for a reason. However, purging the loaded pages, where the page would have to reload when I go back to that tab would make a hell of a lot of sense.
(4) You'd think with over a decade in the making, Firefox would be smart enough to know when its coming up to the limit and actively choose to retain less memory, to avoid suicide at 2.3 GB.
It doesn't even have to count its own memory, it can just ask Task manager. If it hits 2GB, it should just purge 500MB from whatever tabs haven't been looked at the longest. - They could precede the purge with a prompt, - They could give you a right click menu item on tabs to "purge content from all tabs that have not been visited in 1, 2, 4, 8, 24, whatever hours. - and of course, if they notice some other place to shrink its footprint, perfect.
.
I mean, finally, Window is stable enough to not need to reboot for months. But here we still are with Firefox unable to run longer than a few hours without fatally wounding itself. (not talking about addons killing firefox, this is self inflicted, as it happens exactly the same with all addons disabled.)
Since you have a passion for this subject, perhaps you can keep track of (or check history around) what kinds of content are causing the huge memory consumption. If it's Facebook, I'm pretty sure that is a known problem, but assuming it's something else, perhaps someone can tweak Firefox around it. It's beyond the scope of what we can help with here in support.
To submit suggestions, you can try one of the following:
- Feedback site: https://input.mozilla.org/feedback
- Applicable mailing list: https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo
- Bug tracking system: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/
You appear to be running a 64 bit Palemoon version that is based upon Firefox 31 ESR.
Does it make a difference if you install the current 32 bit Firefox 41 release?
Make sure to create a separate profile, so make sure not to start Firefox after the installation finishes.
jscher2000 said
Since you have a passion for this subject, perhaps you can keep track of (or check history around) what kinds of content are causing the huge memory consumption. If it's Facebook, I'm pretty sure that is a known problem, but assuming it's something else, perhaps someone can tweak Firefox around it. It's beyond the scope of what we can help with here in support. To submit suggestions, you can try one of the following:
- Feedback site: https://input.mozilla.org/feedback
- Applicable mailing list: https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo
- Bug tracking system: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/
Thanks!
I've installed the 64Bit nightly version of Firefox. Its interesting. It has some sluggishness to it occasionally, but that doesn't bother me. it also sometimes will blank out the page as you scroll up and down, but that too is easy enough to get over.
My first test was to load an ungodly amount of tabs to see how far I could push it how fast.
Well, after 3 days, its still running, but its starting to go unresponsive for periods of a few minutes now.
When I first checked its memory footprint on the first day, it was at less than 600k, at a point where FF 32Bit would have died twice already.
I didn't see the plug-in container that day...
Today, 3 days later, its at 666 MB, but the plugin container is at 2.7 GB
I wish I knew what that container is containing and why I can't just flush it. It would be so cool if you could just flush it and Firefox would just load it again when you go to the tab. I haven't dared to hit "end task" just on the plugin container for fear of catastrophic data corruption :)
Either way, where, as a heavy tab user (100 tabs easy, at least once I hit 1000 tabs in some older browser, can't remember what version.) I'd have FF32 crash on me twice a day, FF64 merely gets occasionally tardy after 3 days.
A big improvement in my book. Whatever minor things they still fix will be icing on the cake. I don't need it to be perfect, I just need it to not crash.
cor-el said
You appear to be running a 64 bit Palemoon version that is based upon Firefox 31 ESR. Does it make a difference if you install the current 32 bit Firefox 41 release? Make sure to create a separate profile, so make sure not to start Firefox after the installation finishes.
I don't think my Palemoon is 64 bit..?? If it is, I sure didn't know.
But I also have Developer Edition of Current Firefox and 32Bit version of Current Firefox and just installed 64Bit nightlys, which has put a lid on the crashing.
Palemoon is crashing just the same as FF, I just had it to avoid some of the more annoying UI changes in FF.
But right now, I'll put up with whatever UI if its just not crashing from a few hundred tabs open.
And no, I'm not using Facebook, that's for people with too much time on their hands. I do have a load of google search pages open and amazon and youtube. Flash is not allowed to start on its own, and instead of starting flash in youtube, I usually just download the video and play it with VLC, avoiding the whole stupid Flash thing. Not running Flash doesn't stop the memory rising till crash at 2.3 GB though.
Note that there is an official Firefox 42.0 64 bit release for Windows.