Firefox 1.5 memory leak (Windows)

[wazoo]

I've tried out the past few versions of the firefox browser and I do love it.

Unfortunately on my 2 machines, it ploughs through memory like a pig. If I leave (ANY) tabs open for any stretch of time, the task manager reports that it's chewing up 200+ MB!

I've checked the mozilla support forums, but they seem to be unwilling to even acknowledge there's a problem. Some seem helpfull and others seem to just attack anyone who reports this issue (unfortunately).

I'm not looking to blame anyone or get into a IE vs. FX thread. I just want to know if there's a way to curb this extensive memory leaking.

I've tried getting into the about:config and created the
browser.cache.memory.capacity key and that doesn't seem to affect it at all.
(documented here: http://fusion94.org/archives/2005/07/firefox_memory.html)

I'm running the latest 1.5 release and installed it fresh on both of my XP machines.

Any ideas guys?

[erkokite]

check this out: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1327586/posts

[Reedbeta]

He says he has already tried that, and it doesn't work.

I hadn't noticed this before, but you are right, Firefox 1.5 is taking up more memory than it should (about 70MB at the moment...I noticed 50 earlier today).

I have set the browser.cache.memory.capacity and after restarting Firefox it seems to work. Note that if you have a large number of tabs open, the images and content for those tabs WILL be cached in memory regardless of what you set the capacity value to. However, after closing a couple of tabs the memory usage goes back down to the limit I set (32MB).

Note also that the cache memory isn't the only memory used by Firefox, so you will probably not see the usage stay strictly under some limit, but fluctuate around it.

[wazoo]

He says he has already tried that, and it doesn't work.

I hadn't noticed this before, but you are right, Firefox 1.5 is taking up more memory than it should (about 70MB at the moment...I noticed 50 earlier today).

I have set the browser.cache.memory.capacity and after restarting Firefox it seems to work. Note that if you have a large number of tabs open, the images and content for those tabs WILL be cached in memory regardless of what you set the capacity value to. However, after closing a couple of tabs the memory usage goes back down to the limit I set (32MB).

Note also that the cache memory isn't the only memory used by Firefox, so you will probably not see the usage stay strictly under some limit, but fluctuate around it.

I came up with the same theory about the current tab content overriding this value...

I get the feeling it's a "soft limit" which firefox strives to cap out at, but if you've got numerous tabs open then it seems to cache it.

I did find a few blogs or posts for using the Adblock extension for the browser. Most of the memory leaking problems seem to stem from any flash content. Not sure if it's the way the browser deals with the flash plugin or if it's a memory bug within flash itself under firefox, and I couldn't tell if this was plugged in the 1.5 release.

Anyways this *seems* to have helped my performance / leaking somewhat...

@Reedbeta maybe give that a shot if you're still seeing your memory pile up in the task manager. :)

hth,

[PnP Bios]

Ugh, I have seen this discussed over and over and over again. FF does not have a memory leak. Yes, it uses a lot of memory, but what you see in the task manager is not entirely accurate. Ok, it's not accurate at all. Firefox is trying to allocate memory the same way on windows as it does on linux. It takes a huge freaking chunk of it, and gives it up only when it has to, such as when another program needs some, or it gets minimized. I doubt you are having any performance issues, and you are probably just watching the task manager a little too much.

[coelurus]

Firefox eats loads of memory in Linux, the hdd starts churning after Firefox has been used for a very long time. I use Opera atm but I'm gonna go back as fast as I can :)