There are a lot of possible reasons for Firefox to use more memory and/or to fail to release it on some systems. But just sitting still with no activity, it's strange to keep using more and more memory. Did you see this article and are any of its suggestions useful?

• Firefox uses too much memory or CPU resources - How to fix

Thank you for your response and for the link. I used the link that you posted and found out that the problem probably lies within the program itself. It uses a 4GB address space and occupies 46% of that pretty quickly in setting up to run. I read the warning not to leave Firefox open for long periods of time, "if you have issues with it using too much memory." That implies that Mozilla knows about the issue, but aren't doing anything to solve it. The latter conclusion is based on both the volume of complaints on this topic and the fact that the problem has persisted over at least the last five versions. Mozilla's work around solution was to keep opening and closing the program. A very unsatisfactory solution. I will simply stop using it as the default browser. Fortunately Google has solved the memory issues with Chrome so that has become a useful browser and Microsoft has a new browser that may be useful, if MS finally has their act together.

Mozilla is constantly working on reducing Firefox's memory footprint, but, at the same time, adding new features, so that might be a wash.

I think it's unfair to say that the multi-page article only has one suggestion in it. You might want to test with add-ons minimized to see whether you notice any difference. That would involve the following: set less important plugins to Never Activate, then restart in Firefox's Safe Mode to test with extensions and hardware acceleration disabled. To do that:

Open the Add-ons page using either:

• Ctrl+Shift+a
• "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Plugins. On the right side, set all plugins you can live without for 24 hours to "Never Activate". I suspect that would be everything except Adobe Acrobat, Shockwave Flash and Silverlight.

Then to get into Firefox's Safe Mode:

If Firefox is not running: Hold down the Shift key when starting Firefox.

If Firefox is running: You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
• Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

and OK the restart.

Both scenarios: A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).

Any difference in memory consumption for a similar pattern of browsing? I'm particularly interested in the quiet background consumption of memory. Does that stop in Safe Mode? Maybe leave it overnight like this as a test.

Based on the information you provided, I went into the Add-ons Manager, reviewed the plug-ins that were active and those whose status was ask to activate. On a hunch I deactivated the Java deployment toolkit 8.0.400.25 (previous status was "ask to activate)." Then I updated my add-ons. I couldn't update the Flash 1.3.0.208, so I deactivated the RealNetworks(tm) RealDownloader PepperFlashVideoShim Plug-in (32 bit) 1.3.0.208. Firefox now seems to be behaving better, although still picking up additional memory at a greatly reduced pace (370 - 400MB vs 1.5GB shortly after startup). Thank you for your help.

jscher2000 said

Mozilla is constantly working on reducing Firefox's memory footprint, but, at the same time, adding new features, so that might be a wash. I think it's unfair to say that the multi-page article only has one suggestion in it. You might want to test with add-ons minimized to see whether you notice any difference. That would involve the following: set less important plugins to Never Activate, then restart in Firefox's Safe Mode to test with extensions and hardware acceleration disabled. To do that:

REALLY?

i mean what constant working on reducing memory footprint when u release new versions all the time stating fixes well the memory problem has not been addressed because it keeps getting worse! when i start ff it uses anywhere [from beginning to idle] 580mb to over a 1 sometimes more than 1 gb of memory! this is not just a factor of memory usage but it also destroys your systems ram modules by over usage constant freezing while not letting go of any processes! this is not just a memory leak but also causing hardware deterioration causing end of life cycle much earlier than projected it also wears on cpu usage when its using over 75% and more have seen it at 100% cpu usage! NOW TELL ME THEY ARE CONSTANTLY WORKING ON THE MEMORY PROBLEM``~ really? it did use to be a nice browser functionality ease of use BUT NOW? i'm getting where my typing isn't showing up when i type copy paste isn't working lately, the mouse just less than an hour ago the mouse wouldn't even move couldn't see it on page its utterly bull chit! and another thing received a nice virus from one of the apps/extensions that firefox so cautiously scrutinizes for malicious code, well not so and firefox is not being as careful as they should be took me weeks to as a matter of fact over a month later the "mookie" virus cookie kept reappearing, which is distributed by cookies and many many users have these occurrences documented which u can do a search for it, but it came from a translator app u so willingly provided in ur app store ... say WAT ,,,yea ....ff has slacked off on its baby 'project' and over the years it has been neglected and bypassed to trying to keep customers by showing 'fixes' new updates ... not happening its getting worse and NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED BEFORE NEW RELEASES!!!!

ADVICE THAT SHOULD BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY AND TO THE DEVELOPERS SHOULD BE to fix what is wrong because in the future it could hold a very dimming conclusion by way of law suits due to the degradation of hardware! ...that could really hurt! ya know what i mean!'

just saying and saying it loud!!

Hi Southern Belle, if you want assistance with your performance issues, please start a new question with your system information. You can use the following link, scroll down past the suggestions to continue submitting your question: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/new/desktop/fix-problems

If you want to report a policy violation in an Add-on, you can send an email to amo-editors@mozilla.org.