How to Reduce Memory Usage in Firefox
While Mozilla Firefox is a multi-process and secure browser with fast and minimum memory usage, there could be times when it starts hogging up the memory and eventually crashes. In case you are also noticing an increase in memory usage, you have landed on the right page. Read this article to learn a few methods to identify the reason and solution for high memory usage in Firefox. If you own a Windows machine, you can use the Windows Task Manager to recognize memory hogs.
Restart Firefox
Keeping the Firefox window On for a long time leads to more usage. To avoid this, you should keep restarting the browser after a certain period. Don’t worry about the windows and tabs that you were working on; you can always save them so that the next time you open the browser window, you will pick up from where you left. Below are the steps to configure Firefox to save previous sessions.
Step 1: Start by navigating to the menu and click “Options,” followed by “General.”
Step 2: Find and click on the option named “Restore the previous session” under the Startup tab.
Step 3: Exit the preferences window.
Also, note that the above action will not log you out of the websites that had signed into before you closed the browser window. That means if anyone else uses your PC for browsing after, you might get access to your accounts.
Update Firefox
While Firefox is designed to update itself automatically, you can do it manually if you want to. Although the updated version improves the browser performance, you need to restart Firefox to download the updates. Follow the steps below:
Step 1. Start by clicking on the hamburger menu at the upper-right, then click “Help (?),” followed by “About Firefox.”
Step 2. This action will make Firefox look for updates and download them automatically.
Step 3. After the updates are downloaded, restart Firefox to finally update it.
In case any problem occurs while downloading the update and it is unable to launch, you can try to use the Mozilla website to download and install the updated version of Firefox again.
Disable Extensions and Themes
The extensions or themes that consume a huge amount of resources end up using more memory than usual. Therefore, it is always a good idea to check on such extensions and themes, as they might be hogging the browser resources.
You can start Firefox in the Safe Mode to check the memory consumption and CPU usage. Running Firefox in the Safe Mode disables the extensions and themes, so if you notice improvements, you have the culprit. You can run Firefox in the Safe Mode by clicking on “Menu > Help > Restart with Add-ons disabled.” If disabling the add-ons didn’t help solve the issue, it is probably caused by plugins or preference settings, as these run actively even in the Safe Mode.
Check Adobe Flash Player
Another possible cause of high memory usage could be the Adobe Flash Player plugin if you have it installed on your PC. To check that, open a web page having a Flash video, then right-click on the player to select Settings. This will bring up the settings window, here, click on the icon under the display panel, and ensure that the option named “Enable hardware acceleration” has been checked.
Another tool that might help you ease the memory consumption and CPU usage is the Firefox hardware acceleration. To turn this On, go to the menu, then click “Options” followed by “General.” Here, make sure the box named “Use recommended performance” is unchecked, and the one named “Use recommended performance” is checked.
Delete the Corrupt Website Settings File
The file named “content-prefs-sqlite” saved with your profile on Firefox has the settings for every website. And if this file is corrupted, it can lead to increased CPU usage. Therefore, you need to delete this file. Here is how:
Step 1: Start by navigating to the menu window and click “Help,” followed by “Troubleshooting Information.” This will open a new tab.
Step 2: In this window, open the tab named “Application Basics,” then select “Open Folder.”
Step 3: Here, go to the menu and click on the Exit button, followed by the “content-prefs.sqlite” file to delete it.
Now, when you restart Firefox, the profile folder will be created automatically.
We hope this article helped you identify the cause for increased memory usage and reduce it using the methods explained above.
