How to fix Firefox 3 Memory Leak problem
Recently, I have very big problem with my Firefox browser. Few minutes after starting of Firefox application, my Firefox become too slow for surfing, all open applications freeze for two or three seconds after every my click. I noticed that Firefox.exe take up a big part of my computer memory. After reading several forums on the net, I find how to fix this “Firefox memory leak” problem.
Just follow these simple steps to get your Firefox memory usage under control. The solution was in ”about:config” Firefox hidden configuration options.
- Get the main configuration screen by putting “about:config” in the browser’s address bar.
- Right click on the page and choose New then Integer and create an integer called “browser.cache.memory.capacity”. Set it to a low number (I use 16384 – that means 15MB). This controls how many kilobytes of memory are used for the browser’s cache.
- In the Filter of “about:config” page (top of the page) put “browser.cache.disk.capacity”. Set “browser.cache.disk.capacity” (right click – Modify) to between 5000 or 15000 (I use 15000). For example: if you have 128MB to 512M use 5000, if you have 512BM to 1GB of RAM use 15000. This controls how many kilobytes of memory are used for the browser’s cache.
- Configure Firefox to swap memory to disk when minimized. In the Filter of “about:config” page (top of the page) put “config.trim_on_minimize”, Right click on the page and choose New then Boolean and create an boolean called “config.trim_on_minimize”. Set it to true. This mean – when you minimize the firefox window it will free up memory.
- In the Filter of “about:config” page (top of the page) put “network.prefetch-next”. Set “network.prefetch-next” to false. Network link prefetch will download all pages with the rel=”prefetch” tag, with false you avoid that downloading.
- In the Filter of “about:config” page (top of the page) put “browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers”. Set it to low number. I set it to 6. This controls how many pages of history are kept in the back/forward buttons.
Restart Firefox and that’s it! Now, your Firefox and your computer will be much faster and you are ready for faster surfing. Enjoy!
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This is very helpful. I’m trying them out one at a time – but so far looks like gradualand safe improvement. Thanks.
J.
thanks for these, I painstakingly did each, now when I minimize FF3, it drops in memory usage for about 5 sec., then flies back up where it was before minimizing.
Any help is so appreciated
[...] clue how I could have disabled this setting. I thought I might have disabled it while trying to fix firefox memory issue but that’s not the [...]
Thank you so much for putting this all together in one convenient place.
Bookmarked and saved, also sent this off to all my friends and family who use Firefox to help them alleviate the issues.
Thanks so much for this.
Cheers
this is nice to know, people had no idea what i was talking about when i told them of this problem.. shall try to fix it over the next few days. and report back, hopefully.
Really nice tutorial… thx
This is a bit misleading. This does not fix the memory leaks. It simply swaps the memory to disk which is helpful if you don’t have a lot of RAM.
Still…Good post.
I used this little guide to stop an annoying memory leak in adobe flash player that was causing my videos to slow down the longer I watched them, just watched 10 mins of HD flash with no reduction in framerate even when the system was using high amounts of resources. Thanks!
Super job. Running 3.6 on Win7 and memory usage was ridiculous (500 – 750 mb.) and pages were slow to change, videos jerky, etc. Now uses between 80-120mb. with 2 separate windows and 4 tabs open and a lot of flash content. Pretty slick! Thanks a lot!
Dave
Land Computer Service
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