Solving Firefox Memory Leak Problems - Step by Step Guide
April 6th, 2006
Technorati Tags: firefox, firefox browser, memory leak problems, mozilla, PC hacks
I know most Firefox users out there are frustrated with memory leak problems, ie very high memory usage by Firefox browser. I had this problem too, so not to worry as you are not alone. For me, I would consider anything above 100MB of memory usage by Firefox as a problem, but it really depends on how much total memory you have, really (may not be a problem for those with 1GB of RAM, but I’ve only got 512MB of RAM).
What’s the cause? One word: extensions. The basic Firefox browser without any extensions has no such problem. But it is the extensions that make us love Firefox so much, isn’t it? Therefore, the first step is to identify which extension has problems.
Step 1: Identify the problematic extension.
Here’s a list of problematic extension published by MozillaZine. Really good, as they provide workarounds/solutions on whether you should ditch the extension until the problem is solved or get another similar but less problematic extension.
Step 2: Remove/Disable/Substitute the problematic extension.
Follow the workaround as provided in Step 1. Uninstall or disable all problematic extensions and see if there’s any improvement on the memory usage. If you love the problematic extension so much that you can’t let it go (or wait until the problem is fixed in newer versions), I guess you have to bear with the memory leak.
Step 3: Reduce memory usage when you minimise Firefox.
I have tried this before but it didn’t work until I have uninstalled all of the problematic extensions so I’m putting this as Step 3. Basically, this step will result in a sharp decrease in memory usage when you minimise Firefox’s window to the taskbar, and with a reduced memory usage when you maximise it again. Here are the steps:
1. Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in “about:config” (without the inverted commas) and then press “Enter”.
2. “Right Click” in the page and select New -> Boolean.
3. In the box that pops up enter “config.trim_on_minimize” (without the inverted commas) and press “Enter”.
4. Select “True” and then press “Enter” again.
5. Restart Firefox.
6. Open several tabs and load some websites. Observe the memory usage before minimise and after minimise.
If you notice a sharp decrease in memory usage by Firefox after minimising, there you go, you’ve succeeded! 
Conclusion:
Don’t ditch Firefox just because of the memory leak problems, ditch the problematic extensions instead! Do remember, you gotta let go some of your favourite extensions if you want to solve this memory leak problems. Happy surfing…on Firefox! 
References:
- Reducing Your Memory Usage in Firefox by Cybernet News
- This May Help Your Firefox Memory Leak by Cybernet News
- Problematic Extensions by MozillaZine
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18 comments on “Solving Firefox Memory Leak Problems - Step by Step Guide”
01
Cool! but the config.trim_on_minimize only works on Windows…
02
Sorry, LcF.. cos I don’t have a Mac and didn’t know that Step 3 doesn’t work for Mac..
Thanks for pointing out!
But on a Mac, I guess Step 1 and 2 is good enough?
03
That’s odd. Firefox never takes up more than 60mb of RAM and I have like 5-6 tabs open at all times. Before this, I was using 1.5 and it was eating up 150mb RAM. Now at 1.5.0.1, it just takes up about less than half.
04
shweet, even though i’ve got 1gb of ram, it’s good to reduce wastage.
05
Dear Edrei, it’s the extension that cause the memory leak. So if yours never go above 60mb of RAM, then I believe your extensions are all good. Or maybe you didn’t install any extensions at all?
Thanks for visiting!
Dear Serge Norguard, your avatar is so cuteee!
06
Pretty nice tip you got there. It just so happens that I went to the same Firefox article regarding memory leaks, and promptly got rid of SessionSaver (and use TabMixPlus for its session management). I’ve already gotten rid of FasterFox a few months back after 1-2 second pauses happening too frequently.
The clear-memory-on-minimize trick is going to come in handy.
Thanks.
07
No problem, Bernie.
08
Oh I installed a shitload of extensions, but yeah I think all of them are good cause I keep them up to date. However, I do use SessionSaver and FasterFox with no problems. They must have fixed them because I haven’t experience “DLL Hell”, not since 1.5.
09
Wait a sec, “dll hell” was for Gaim. Ooops, completely wrong bug. I was too busy messing around with Gaim prior to this and I got confused. My bad.
10
LOL! No worries, Edrei.
11
Thanks for that tip. Have a few extentions running that I couldn’t do without but the config trick really did the, well, the trick.
Found you through my BlinkList watchlist. Will check back later.
12
No problem, Napfisk. Am glad that the trick works for you.
13
Nice work man, all the above tweaks are working nice on windows.. enjoy surfing.
14
Wow big change from 95 k down to about 5k!! And even less when its minimized and all the crap is cleaned out (cookies, history and such) I also have CCleaner, that gets rid of more stuff too. ^;^
15
Vince, enjoy!
darkocean, you don’t need any extra software to clean up cookies, history, temporary files…just click Ctrl+Shift+Del in Firefox!
Hope that helps.
16
[…] One of our readers mentioned about CCleaner in his/her comment on our “Solving Firefox Memory Leak Problems” article. Curious me went to find out more about that software and it turned out to be pretty nifty! […]
17
Thanks for putting things so nicely into perspective.
18
[…] Poking around the Web, there are a lot of reports of memory leaks in Firefox but what causes them and if they even exist is contested. I’ve decided to follow some advice at simplehelp.net and set Firefox’s browser.cache.memory.capacity setting to 18432. I’ll let you all know what happens
. […]
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