All browsers nowadays aim to make your browsing experience faster. Browsers rely on the cache to speed up the pages loading process thus it may take a few to a lot of resources just to make it more convenient to its users which may result in some minor or even major inconvenience.100% Ram or CPU usage, Slow loading a page or it may not load at all. Firefox is no exception to such issues so here are a few tips that may fix those inconveniences.
Table of Contents
RESTART YOUR COMPUTER
The first is to restart your computer. It’s one way to check if it is a browser issue or a system unit issue. That way we can narrow it down making troubleshooting easier. If the problem persists, we proceed with which page is taking all the resources.
END TASK, FIREFOX TASK MANAGER
To check, open the firefox task manager by opening the menu icon and clicking more tools. There should be an option that says Task manager, click it and a tab will open to see all the tabs that are currently open and it will show which tab is taking the system’s memory and CPU and how much they are taking. There are so many pages and websites that steal resources through their pop-ups and advertisements so it would be best to close unnecessary tabs.
CLEAR CACHE
The cache may load your pages faster but it’s recommended to clear your cache once in a while so it won’t take up much space on our system’s memory. Updating firefox is also something you should do once in a while as well. Not only it provides more security and fix bugs, but it also improves the browser’s performance as well.
DISABLING EXTENSIONS & THEMES
Disable all unnecessary extensions and themes. Firefox has features that improve customizability, tools for your productivity, and even aesthetics that would suit your taste. Personalizing your browser could increase your productivity but it’s also the reason that could slow it down. The more extensions you install the more it will take resources like RAM and CPU from the system.
SESSION HISTORY
Session history may seem similar to cache to speed up your browsing experience. The key difference is, session history saves up your most recently visited web pages and firefox can save up to 50 or more which would eat up the system’s memory as well. You can decrease the capacity to free up some space by typing on your browser “about:config”. You will be prompted with caution before proceeding. Click Accept the risk and continue and type “browser.sessionhistory.max_entries” in the search bar. Click on the edit button then enter a lower number like 20 and click ok. restart Firefox for it to effect.
DISABLE HARDWARE ACCELERATION
If the resources are still high using the browser, we proceed to the more technical side by disabling the hardware acceleration. You can also use the memory tool, that way you can further utilize the browser’s memory utilization.
If the tips above are still not enough, we can further troubleshoot the browser by going into safe mode and making all extensions, themes, and custom settings disabled in the meantime to further narrow down what the issue is. To go to safe mode, type “about:support” and click “troubleshoot Mode…”. Firefox will require you to restart the browser, Click Restart. Use your browser while monitoring your system’s resources noting the tabs, extensions, themes, and custom settings that were enabled on normal mode. If nothing has changed to the browser’s resource usage after all these tips, It would be best to reset and refresh the browser. You may lose your previous custom settings but you won’t lose user data and it will revert back to the default optimal performance setting.
