Closed Bug 1303187 Opened 8 years ago Closed 8 years ago

Tiny piece of Firefox sometimes remains in memory and can prevent Shutdown

Categories

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect)

Product:
Toolkit
Component:
Startup and Profile System
Version:
48 Branch
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED WORKSFORME

People

(Reporter: dannyfox, Unassigned)

References

Details

Attachments

(5 files)

FIrefox Remnant (and others) while FF running
182.08 KB, image/jpeg
Details
FIrefox Remnant (and others) after FF stopped
159.73 KB, image/jpeg
Details
Firefox Remnants while Running (16 tabs)
617.88 KB, image/jpeg
Details
Troubleshooting Information (at time of testing)
63.87 KB, application/pdf
Details
About Plugins (at time of testing)
62.59 KB, application/pdf
Details 
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:48.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/48.0
Build ID: 20160823121617

Steps to reproduce:

Run FF, browse, and quit.  Repeat.
[Sometimes the problem manifests, sometimes not.]

Seemed to happen only once in a blue moon since a similar problem was partially resolved back around FF36/37/38.  No rhyme or reason.
Seems to be happening regularly since about FF46.  Today running FF48.0.2.

Run in Safe Mode only tries to prove a negative, since the piece usually does not appear anyway.

Similar to my Bug 1137329, except there is NO measurable hit on resources (but stays in upper part of Task Manager list when tracked by CPU time).  I was asked by Mayne Mery to report if it happened again -- Bug 1137329 did not recur at the time.


Actual results:

SOMETIMES a tiny piece of FF remains in memory after quitting.  Windows Task Manager showed six this morning (452k, 488k, 2524k, 736k, 460k, and one other of a few kb).  Usually only one or two, but I've seen as many as 9 or 10 while checking on other stuff.

Usually I can relaunch FF at will without problems, either explicitly from button/icon or implicitly from email link or clicking .HTM file -- and I'll often have private and normal windows open at the same time (possibly each with multiple tabs) without incident.

But occasionally, I get this popup from FF if I launch with no FF screens open (ie- quit some time ago, then try to launch new):
    "Firefox is already running but is not responding.
    The old Firefox browser must be closed to open a new window."
When I click OK, the new closes the old pieces and starts up normally.

When my Norton AV or Windows Update wants to shut down, they tell me Firefox is running and they can't proceed until it stops.  I have to End-Task every occurrence of FF currently in memory.


Expected results:

Firefox should totally vacate memory when quit.

I used to think tiny stub was for quick re-launch, but I was corrected by David Major in Bug 1553824 (Comment 87):
"The intended behavior is the opposite of that. We don't want an old FF sticking around because it can interfere with the next time you launch it. If FF takes too long to shut down, we'll assume it's stuck forever, and we'll force it to crash, just to get it out of the way."
What happens if you disable e10s?
Please posts your comments online in the bug report.

On 9/16/2016 8:45 AM, Dan Pernokis - Bugzilla/TB/FF wrote:
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1303187
> 
> 
> Hi Wayne...
> Please explain:  What are "e10s"?  Extensions?
> 
> Of course, now that I've reported the issue, since yesterday I haven't yet seen any more stubs remaining -- without making any changes, except perhaps not running/quitting FF as much as usual.  (I'm presuming that, if a stub remains, it will stay long-term and be seen in Task Manager hours later as part of a cluster.)
> Thanks...
> -dan-

e10s is electrolysis.
how to disable - https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+disable+electrolysis&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
Under about:config, the string "browser.tabs.remote.autostart" is set to boolean FALSE.
Under about:support, the Microprocess Windows says "0/3 (Disabled)".

I've never explicitly changed these -- they are as installed or as tinkered by whatever updates might do.

Still haven't seen any more residual pieces since reporting yesterday.
At 11:35am EDT on 16-Sep-2016, I quit FF with 4 tabs open.  A remnant of 2936kb remained.  I then started and quit another window -- the 2936k stub remained.  Later, the stub was 2932k and later still it was 2928.  (Not sure if this was same stub, decreasing -- or new stubs, replacing.)

Later on 16-Sep-2016 (5:56 pm), after quitting FF, there were two remnants:  2836kb (new?) and 2928kb (previous?) -- I think Task Manager puts tasks in chronological order when names match.  Had been    watching some video clips and listening to some audio clips.  I end-task'd both stubs to clear the decks.

Checked occasionally over the weekend, with no additional stubs seen (including up to now) -- but not much FF activity done either.
Firefox: 48.0.2, Build ID: 20160823121617
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:48.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/48.0

Hi Dan,

I have tested this issue on the latest Firefox (48.0.2) release, but I could not reproduce it. The browser always was successfully closed. I have started the browser and navigated on multiple websites and then closed the browser, more then 20 times and I have not encountered any problem. Also, I have checked the Task Manager, but there was nothing suspicious.

Can you please retest this on the latest Firefox (48.0.2) release using a new clean Firefox profile to eliminate custom settings as a possible cause (https://goo.gl/PNe90E) and report back the results?
Flags: needinfo?(dannyfox)
@cosmin...

I have been "testing" FF 48.0.2 since I reported this bug on 15-Sep-2016, but noting happened for awhile until the instances above occurred.  FYI, a few hours prior to filing this bug report, I updated Adobe Flash to v22.0.0.209 ("22.0 r0").  Over the past months, I have had many "Script" failures on a few regular sites that also run Flash ads, etc.  (I've also had a handful of Flash crashes.) I have seen neither since this Flash upgrade.

In any case, I am now running FF 49:
>> Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:49.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/49.0

I updated to FF 49 yesterday morning, and have had no remnants until this morning: I had ONE instance of FF remaining (3008kb) a short time ago.  I have now set up a "clean" profile and tested using the same sites as previously.  I end-task'd the existing remnant.  Up to now I've seen no remnants on this clean profile, but I can report exactly one remnant so far on FF49.

I often visit XE.COM to check exchange rates of Euros vs CAD.  (Under the "CAD" column, click rate in the "1 Eur" row, about 1.4xxx).  This causes a popup window with a real-time graph of past 24hrs.  Leave this running, it will refresh every minute or so.  *** Sometimes this loops automatically, sometimes it waits, but in any case I suspect this is one of the causes -- it happened this morning.

I was logged in to my website hosting service at REBEL.CA -- this was running in a private window concurrent with XE (above).  Note that there was the remnant this morning, but I have been in and out of this area dozens of times in the past week without seeing any remnants.

I also click to various articles (from a daily newsletter in TB email) at Mother Earth Living.  For example:
>> http://www.motherearthliving.com/healthy-home/green-homes/chefs-delight-zmfz15jazhou.aspx
I click and watch the slideshow of photos (using prev/next arrows).  These pages all use Flash ads and have often caused the "script" failures while scrolling through.  But strangely they haven't issued any newsletters since 16-Sep, so no visits to them until this morning, where clicking on previous links all worked without script failures and without leaving remnants.

I will post again as soon as anything happens, and in any case later to let you know if nothing happens. :)
Flags: needinfo?(dannyfox)
The aforementioned Mother Earth Living just sent their latest newsletter.  I clicked on each of the links in the email and viewed all articles (at least Page 1), and viewed each of the slide shows therein.  Midway through, I went to their Contact-Us form to report a glitch in some of their text (NOT a technical problem).  When I quit FF, there was a remnant (3012kb).

I re-clicked one of the links, then re-clicked the Contact-Us page.  I did not fill it out but pressed SUBMIT, then quit FF.  The remnant of 3012kb remained, but changed to 3004kb.  I can't tell whether this is the previous remnant (changed), or a new remnant (replacing the old).

NOTE:  I am running FF 49.0 on the NEW CLEAN profile.  No modifications, no settings changes, no extensions active.  
Correction to FLASH:  It is v23.0.0.162 ("23.0 r0") -- I quoted the replaced version above -- and has been running since its update 15-Sep-2016.


CLICK THIS FOR A TYPICAL ARTICLE FROM THE NEWSLETTER LINK:
http://www.motherearthliving.com/health-and-wellness/natural-healing-bitter-is-better-befriending-the-bitter-herbs.aspx?newsletter=1&spot=image&utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MEL%20HW%20eNews%2020.09.16&utm_term=MEL_HW_eNews&_wcsid=13A5EDDD2A34C1D75BFCF1C4C1B5647F6AA884BC5F9066DF

CLICK ON "SLIDE SHOW" WHICH GOES TO THIS LINK (slideshow=1 varies upward as you progress through):
http://www.motherearthliving.com/health-and-wellness/natural-healing-bitter-is-better-befriending-the-bitter-herbs.aspx?slideshow=1

CLICK ON "CONTACT US" TO GET THE FORM:
http://www.motherearthliving.com/help/contact-by-email

Then QUIT AND CHECK TASK MANAGER...
Just after midnight here on 26-Sep-2016 (12:16 am), I had been logged in to my hosting service at REBEL.CA in a private window, checking various statistics for some of my websites, and running under my original FF profile.  When I quit, there was a 3136kb remnant.  I'm pretty sure there were no FF runs prior, because I've usually checked before starting or after quitting.

Due to a totally unrelated issue with MS Windows Explorer shortly after, it was necessary to reboot my PC (shutdown, pause, power-on/reboot).  The FF remnant obviously disappeared.

Then I logged back in to my hosting service about 12:30 am and checked stats for additional websites (ie- exactly the same procedures as previously), but this time using the new/clean profile.  I quit at 1:49 am and there were no remnants.

This does not prove that the problem only exists under the old profile -- I have run FF under both, doing exactly the same thing -- sometimes a remnant remains, sometimes it doesn't.

One more thing...
With a remnant present, FF still starts as usual -- always.  So far I haven't seen the popup saying FF is already running.
Hi Dan,

Thanks for all information. I have retested this issue, using the provided websites from comment 7. I have follow the steps more then 10 time, but every time after I close the browser, no processes was displayed in Task Manager and the browser started without any errors.

However, I am assigning a component to this issue in order to involve the development team and get an opinion on this. I oscillate between "Toolkit: Startup and Profile System" and "DOM: Content Process". I am assigning the "Toolkit: Startup and Profile System" component, because from what I understand, the "Firefox is already running but is not responding..." error is displayed after the browser is closed and restarted after a few seconds. But, it seems that this message is no longer displayed with a new clean profile, but the processes is still in Task Manager after the browser is closed.
Component: Untriaged → Startup and Profile System
Product: Firefox → Toolkit
See Also: → SilentStart
Thanks, Cosmin.  I was composing this note when your posting went up.  Today just now, I had two FF remnants, which led to a test which was repeatable at least once, and then won't again.

I had checked Task Manager every time I did something in FF -- much of my usual stuff, usually the new profile, no remnants.  I received another email newsletter from Mother Earth Living, so I checked for remnants before clicking on any of the articles -- there were none.  Then I started FF 49 in the new clean profile, so that each time I clicked an article, a new tab would open in this window.

I clicked each article (of five) in succession without closing tabs, and looked at the slide shows (2 of the 5).  Each click triggers an internal count at the site and then does a re-direct to the article.  When I quit, there were TWO remnants -- 3024kb and 3000kb).  With Task Manager running, I launched FF again and the 3024 swelled to 20-odd-kb, and dropped back to 3024 when I quit FF.  I End-Task'd both (I notice, it's actually End Process here), so all remnants are gone.

I re-launched FF with clean profile and quickly clicked through each article, then quit FF.  No slideshows this time, but no remnants either.  Then I repeated the sequence and viewed the slide shows.  One remnant (3036kb) was present when I quit.

[[ I was just about to retest (copied/pasted *this* bur report to NOTEPAD so I could close FF) -- and there was a 3028kb remnant from running Bugzilla -- never saw that in the past few weeks of explicit testing.  Ended it... ]]

I left Task Manager running -- I could see FF ramp up to 100-107kb, plus two instances of FlashPlayerPlugin as I ran through the articles and slide shows.  When I quit, NO remnants!  (Flash disappeared OK.)

So I retested the full sequence without Task Manager, and again NO remnants.  So much for repeatability -- it did repeat once, but not the next two times.  However, to be fair, when each article is clicked -- even the same article -- a new page is launched, with differing banner ads.  Likewise, running the slide show is a new page -- same basic text & layout, but different ads.

So that may be the key -- different ads may be triggered at different times and/or in different ways.  Your testing didn't catch the baddies, and eventually neither did mine this time.  It could be that my repetition coincidentally caught the same (or similar) faulty ads -- they do repeat them -- and then missed then all later.  (And perhaps two faulty ads caused the two remnants I reported at the outset of this comment.)


These URLs copied fully intact from the email newsletter go to FF tabs, then redirect to their respective pages ("clt" varies in each).  I doubt it is the redirect causing the issue because I've visited hundreds of times in the past without noticing remnants.

These five URL links from the email...
http://wc4.net/t?r=4327&c=588&l=32&ctl=4006:3FEBF0504856EF5EDA42668D0D6FAE280CD83620A56156C8&
http://wc4.net/t?r=4327&c=588&l=32&ctl=4009:3FEBF0504856EF5EDA42668D0D6FAE280CD83620A56156C8&
http://wc4.net/t?r=4327&c=588&l=32&ctl=400C:3FEBF0504856EF5EDA42668D0D6FAE280CD83620A56156C8&
http://wc4.net/t?r=4327&c=588&l=32&ctl=400F:3FEBF0504856EF5EDA42668D0D6FAE280CD83620A56156C8&
http://wc4.net/t?r=4327&c=588&l=32&ctl=4012:3FEBF0504856EF5EDA42668D0D6FAE280CD83620A56156C8&

...go to these five pages of articles (then optionally click slideshow on the page)
http://www.motherearthliving.com/vegetable-gardening/how-to-save-seeds-drying-seeds-for-storage?newsletter=1&spot=image&utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MEL%2520Weekly%2520eNews%252009.22.16&utm_term=MEL_Weekly_eNews&_wcsid=13A5EDDD2A34C1D7EDC6EF7AAFF92C678B9AC234CCDAB80A

http://www.motherearthliving.com/gardening/how-to-make-seed-balls?newsletter=1&spot=image&utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MEL%2520Weekly%2520eNews%252009.22.16&utm_term=MEL_Weekly_eNews&_wcsid=13A5EDDD2A34C1D7EDC6EF7AAFF92C678B9AC234CCDAB80A

http://www.motherearthliving.com/gardening/flax-growing-and-processing?newsletter=1&spot=image&utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MEL%2520Weekly%2520eNews%252009.22.16&utm_term=MEL_Weekly_eNews&_wcsid=13A5EDDD2A34C1D7EDC6EF7AAFF92C678B9AC234CCDAB80A

http://www.motherearthliving.com/food-and-recipes/recipes/smoky-white-bean-dip-ze0z1602zsgre?newsletter=1&spot=image&utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MEL%2520Weekly%2520eNews%252009.22.16&utm_term=MEL_Weekly_eNews&_wcsid=13A5EDDD2A34C1D7EDC6EF7AAFF92C678B9AC234CCDAB80A

http://www.motherearthliving.com/food-and-recipes/recipes/pickled-mustard-seeds-zmfz16sozolc?newsletter=1&spot=image&utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MEL%2520Weekly%2520eNews%252009.22.16&utm_term=MEL_Weekly_eNews&_wcsid=13A5EDDD2A34C1D7EDC6EF7AAFF92C678B9AC234CCDAB80A
@cosmin:

I am emailing you the original Mother Earth Living newsletter since I can't capture it for you any other way.  (All are essentially the same, except for the article links.

I run Thunderbird email, then click the links to launch FF.
Hi Cosmin...  re: Your comment #9

>> ...the "Firefox is already running but is not responding..." error is displayed 
>> after the browser is closed and restarted after a few seconds.

FYI, for at least the past year, and certainly since the FF 37 fiasco (where I learned stubs should not remain), I noticed that if FF is launched immediately after quitting (eg launch regular window, oops, close and launch private window), then sometimes a message would pop up saying FF is running and must be closed first.  Then on clicking OK, the new session would launch OK.  Observation with Task Manager running shows that FF takes a few seconds to vacate, so the popup would happen within this time frame, and then perhaps FF would be gone by the time I click OK.  I take this to be perfectly normal.

In any event, the remnants this time usually do not prevent FF from running, but they DO prevent system shutdown or restart (such as following Windows or Norton updates) -- hence the title of this bug.  But the one time documented above, a remnant was "not responding" which prevented FF from launching at all until I manually ended that instance.
I ran FF (new profile) all weekend, doing the usual things, without seeing a single remnant.

This morning, another newsletter from Mother Earth News arrived.  I checked for remnants - OK, none.  I clicked and looked at the five articles (the last as usual was an ad/story, but really no different than the others).  All had varying ads all over, and a submission form at the end.  Afterward I had a remnant of 3036kb.

I ended the remnant and repeated the sequence exactly, and got nothing this time.

Then I cleared history for "The Past 2 Hours", repeated the sequence exactly, and got a remnant of 3000kb.  I ended the remnant, cleared history for "The Past 2 Hours", repeated the sequence exactly, and got TWO remnants (3028 and 3036kb).  Then I ended the two remnants, cleared history for "The Past 2 Hours", repeated the sequence again, and got nothing.

I ran only the first two articles and got one remnant of 3012kb.

So this whole issue seems to be very hit-and-miss, but at least it's narrowed down a little.  I'm guessing that clearing history may be important, in that it forces more of the (presumably problematic) items to reload and thus makes it more likely to set off a trigger event.

@cosmin:  I'll email you the original newsletter directly so you have it.



Here are the five URLs from this morning's newsletter:

http://herbs.motherearthliving.com/yarrow-wonder-weed/?newsletter=1&spot=image&utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MEL%20HL%20eNews%2009.26.16&utm_term=MEL_HL_eNews&_wcsid=13A5EDDD2A34C1D753F3AAE3CA710CA823B54F5B6A12BA51


http://herbs.motherearthliving.com/3-diy-herbal-household-cleaners/?newsletter=1&spot=image&utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MEL%20HL%20eNews%2009.26.16&utm_term=MEL_HL_eNews&_wcsid=13A5EDDD2A34C1D753F3AAE3CA710CA823B54F5B6A12BA51


http://herbs.motherearthliving.com/visiting-our-herbal-roots/?newsletter=1&spot=image&utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MEL%20HL%20eNews%2009.26.16&utm_term=MEL_HL_eNews&_wcsid=13A5EDDD2A34C1D753F3AAE3CA710CA823B54F5B6A12BA51


http://herbs.motherearthliving.com/making-use-of-invasive-honeysuckle/?newsletter=1&spot=image&utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MEL%20HL%20eNews%2009.26.16&utm_term=MEL_HL_eNews&_wcsid=13A5EDDD2A34C1D753F3AAE3CA710CA823B54F5B6A12BA51


https://www.heirloomgardener.com/store/Offer/EHGENG9F?utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MEL%20HL%20eNews%2009.26.16&utm_term=MEL_HL_eNews&_wcsid=13A5EDDD2A34C1D753F3AAE3CA710CA823B54F5B6A12BA51#image
Firefox: 49.0.1, Build ID: 20160922113459
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:49.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/49.0

Hi Dan,

I have retested this issue on latest Firefox (49.0.1) using the provided links from comment 13. I have opened all 5 links in different tabs, then I cleared my history "The past 1 hour". I have noticed that after I have cleared my history, I got two "FlashPlayerPlugin_23_0_0_162.exe" and two "plugin-container.exe" processes in Task Manager. But after I closed the browser, all this processes was killed. 

Can you please try to make a screen shot, or maybe a screen recording with the issue? This link can help you https://screencast-o-matic.com/home.
FF Version: 49.0.1     Build ID: 20160922113459 
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:49.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/49.0

Hi Cosmin...

So looks like we're running the same FF.  Mine auto-updated on 24-Sep-2016 at 12:12:47 am (presumably local EDT) according to the update log.  I was not aware -- I usually update manually (on-demand), but of course the new/clean profile has its defaults, and auto-update is one of them.

I have never seen any FlashPlayerPlugin remnants.  Any time I've seen FPP, it was always the full-size instance(s) and always disappeared when FF quit, as per my Comment #10:
>> I left Task Manager running -- I could see FF ramp up to 100-107kb, plus two instances of 
>> FlashPlayerPlugin as I ran through the articles and slide shows.  When I quit, NO remnants!
>> (Flash disappeared OK.)

I can't say about plugin-container -- never looked that far down the list (alphabetical, FF and FPP are adjacent or very close) and don't recall seeing the list "jump" very much.

I'll see what I can do about documenting the testing process.  Thanks for the S-O-M link (could be useful for other things here too).

Meanwhile, no further remnants since last report, but then again I haven't run the Mother Earth Living articles and, although I've run XE.com several times, I haven't left it running/refreshing for more than a minute or two.
Running slide show from Mother Earth Living newsletter article.  FF new stub (3020kb), FF main, 2x FlashPlayerPlugin, and 2x plugin-container.
After running slide show from Mother Earth Living newsletter article, after quitting (closing) FF.  FF stub (3020kb) remains, all others gone OK (FF main, 2x FlashPlayerPlugin, and 2x plugin-container).
I have checked periodically for the past few days -- no remnants.  But I also haven't viewed Mother Earth Living articles nor have I left XE.com exchange rates running with refresh.

I checked a few times this morning (nothing).  Then a few minutes ago, I clicked on two articles from the latest MEL (I ran the slideshow on the first one).  When I loaded Task Manager, there were two FF instances (3020kb + main), two FlashPlayerPlugins, and two plugin-containers.  The main FF block was over 100K-kb, fluctuating up and down every few seconds.  See screen cap "running".  [Note that, for unrelated reasons, I had flushed history (Last Two Hours) shortly before this session.]

When I closed FF ("Close multiple tabs? - OK"), the Flash and container plugins quit immediately as did the main FF.  The small (3020kb) stub remained as a remnant.  See screen cap "stopped".

I cleared history (Last Two Hours) and repeated the operation as exactly as I could.  Of course it would not repeat -- only the 3020kb remnant remained (unchanged -- sometimes such as remnant would vary down 4kb or 2x 4kb).  It still remains right now, plus the main FF module running *this* page.


The two MEL links (originals in newsletter):
http://wc4.net/t?r=4327&c=631&l=34&ctl=431C:3FEBF0504856EF5E1C9CC6A447B19DEE0CD83620A56156C8&
http://wc4.net/t?r=4327&c=631&l=34&ctl=4324:3FEBF0504856EF5E1C9CC6A447B19DEE0CD83620A56156C8&


Redirected MEL links (first two articles):
http://www.motherearthliving.com/health-and-wellness/build-better-bones-zmez15jfzhou?newsletter=1&spot=image&utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MEL%20HW%20eNews%2009.27.16&utm_term=MEL_HW_eNews&_wcsid=13A5EDDD2A34C1D7ECDDB77A8CF602308C7B6FF6F54B981C

http://www.motherearthliving.com/health-and-wellness/supplement-calcium-with-herbal-tea?newsletter=1&spot=headline&utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MEL%20HW%20eNews%2009.27.16&utm_term=MEL_HW_eNews&_wcsid=13A5EDDD2A34C1D7ECDDB77A8CF602308C7B6FF6F54B981C


@cosmin:  I'll email you the original newsletter as usual so you have it.
Just for clarity -- perhaps the "remaining" remnant was the same piece reloaded/overwritten...
>> I cleared history (Last Two Hours) and repeated the operation as exactly as I could.  Of course it
>> would not repeat -- only the 3020kb remnant remained (unchanged -- sometimes such as remnant would
>> vary down 4kb or 2x 4kb).  It still remains right now, plus the main FF module running *this* page.

I first started Task Manager this time (with the intention of ending the 3020kb stub still remaining).  I observed FF start up, plus 2x FlashPlayerPlugin and 2x plugin-container.  I was on the FF Start Page (default for my new/clean profile) at the time.  I ended the 3020kb remnant (so nothing was there), cleared history as usual, and closed FF.

Then as I started FF (always defaulting to the FF Start Page), FF main loaded, plus only 1x plugin-container.  I quit and restarted FF several times -- each time the same: FF main + 1x plugin (no Flash).

Finally, I closed FF and started again from the Mother Earth Living links, same process as Comment #18.  I got main FF, 2x FlashPlayerPlugin, and 2x plugin-container -- and NO remnant-to-be.  When I closed FF, everything disappeared normally, with no remnant.  So again the remnant is not easily repeatable.

Despite this last test, I still can't say for sure that a remnant is not reloaded/overwritten.  This time, looks like not -- it never changed size, and never came back (which just says it's not repeatable).  Whereas I have seen a remnant decrease in size by 4kb once or twice after quitting and reloading FF before stabilizing and remaining -- see Comment #4.
I had another remnant today, and upon investigation I discovered a semi-repeatable sequence.  I had two tabs open when I clicked the following link.  I suddenly had a remnant appear.  I've found that repeatedly opening and closing this link sometimes causes a remnant to remain.

This link launches FF from the Mother Earth Living newsletter and redirects to one of the articles. 
>> http://wc4.net/t?r=4327&c=644&l=32&ctl=44AF:3FEBF0504856EF5E8BBE90CDC7000A140CD83620A56156C8&

With Task Manager running, it showed the main FF piece launched and running.  When I re-clicked the link to launch it in a second tab, I observed a 3000kb stub start and quit moments later.  I closed that tab and re-clicked: Stub appeared and disappear.  I closed and re-clicked again: This time a stub appeared BUT DID NOT DISAPPEAR!

I've tried a few close and re-clicks -- sometimes I get a remnant, sometimes not.  (I did end the remnant and flush history between sequences.)
@Cosmin... 

I re-tested again tonight using the same article as Comment #20 and got another remnant.  I'll forward you the newsletter by email, with this comment for reference.

Click the first article to launch FF and wait for the page to load (I usually scroll to the bottom too, in case something doesn't load until it is required on-screen).  The click again to launch in a new tab.  And again a few more times if necessary...  I got main FF to start (with 1x plugin-container.  Second tab, I got 2x AdobeFlashPlayer and another 1x (total 2x) plugin-container, with FF main.  Third tab I got a brief stub which disappeared (all other plugins remained).  Fourth tab I got a quick stub about 1260(?) kb, which quickly jumped to 3004kb and remained after I closed FF (multiple tabs? - OK).  So maybe you can catch the same.

(And just to confirm:  I was running FF 49.0.1 - build 20160922113459 - on the new/clean profile.)
@Cosmin... 

More testing today using one MEL newsletter (in Thunderbird) and its articles.  I started Task Manager to confirm no remnants, then just clicked on various articles, allowing a little time for each page (tab) to load, but not necessarily fully.  Scrolling the pages was not necessary.

It seems there is something that often (not always) triggers a secondary FF stub to load (29xx to 31xx kb) and unload a few seconds later.  But occasionally one of these does NOT unload, and it will remain forever until ended by Task Mgr.  By multiple clicking articles, I got four stubs which all became remnants when I closed FF. 

Somewhere along the way (second or third article), suddenly two FlashPlayerPlugins started (two sizes) which then lived (unchanged in size, I think) until FF was closed.  There was one instance of plugin-container when FF first starts, and a second one appears when the FPPlugins start.  Likewise they live until FF is closed.

And THEN I terminated all remnants and did it all again at random.  Still got stubs that briefly appeared but also occasionally had one, two, three that became remnants.  So the process is now definitely repeatable on demand with multiple instances of the problem.

(To confirm:  I was still running FF 49.0.1 - build 20160922113459 - on the new/clean profile.)
Clarification:
>> By multiple clicking articles, I got four stubs...

I clicked multiple articles (there were five in the newsletter), but I also re-clicked on most articles so there were multiple instances running.  There was ONE FF window with a dozen or more tabs, all started and triggered by clicks on links in a Thunderbird email (the newsletter).
Hi Dan,

I have retested this issue, but I could not reproduce it. The only strange behavior is that if I set the Firefox to "Show my windows and tabs from last time" option, after I open a few articles from Mother Earth and click on a slideshow, I can notice in Task Manager one "firefox.exe" two "FlashPlayerPlugin_23_0_0_162.exe" and two "plugin-container.exe" processes in Task Manager. But after I closed the browser, all this processes was killed. 

Dan, are you sure that you don't have any configurations? Also, It will be helpful if we could get an about:support information. To do that, go to about:support, then hit "Copy text to clipboard" and paste it in a ".txt" file.
First click, selection window (~19,xxx kb) and one small stub that appeared and disappeared seconds later.  This time, I ran up to 16 tabs.  There was one FF main (124,264 kb) and 5 stubs (~30xx kb).  Along the way there were 2x FlashPlayerPlugin and 2x Plugin-Container.
Yesterday a Norton update wanted to install its toolbar and I said yes, then realized I was running my clean profile.  Since I thought I had proven the problem, I deleted the profile.  Today I created a new/clean profile ("firefox.exe -p") with whatever defaults it uses.  I made no changes other than to specify its name and uncheck the box so I could select the profile.  Then I started Task Manager and ran the tests. 

@cosmin: FYI, I used to the most recent newsletter from Mother Earth Living which I sent you yesterday and repeatedly clicked on the first article ("Growing and Cooking Root Vegetables").

First Time:  I clicked the article, FF started with the profile selection window.  TM showed the FF selector (19,692 kb) and a stub (3036 kb).  When I selected the clean profile, the main FF ramped up to ~101,xxx kb and one plugin-container started up.  I immediately quit FF, and the 3036 kb stub remained as a remnant.  So the remnant was already destined-to-be *before* even loading the page!  I left the remnant and tried again.

Second Time:  First click, selection window, page came up, one remnant (3092 kb) came up.  Eventually I had 12 tabs in the FF main window, with two stubs (the original 3036 unchanged and the new 3092 from this time).  

Third Time:  I ended the stubs and started fresh.  First click, selection window (~19,xxx kb) and one small stub that appeared and disappeared seconds later.  This time, I ran up to 16 tabs.  There was one FF main (124,264 kb) and 5 stubs (~30xx kb).  Along the way there were 2x FlashPlayerPlugin and 2x Plugin-Container.  I did a screen cap for you (Comment #25).

>> See attachment:  FirefoxRemnants_20161005.jpg

When I quit FF, the five stubs remained as remnants, FPP & Plugin-Container disappeared.  I then quit Task Manager and captured the FF system info per your request.  (Later I resumed TM to check on remnants.  All five remained but had shrunk to ~11xx kb...  Strange.)
Looks like there is stuff active that I thought was disabled.  I followed instructions for creating a new/clean profile and made no changes to anything.  I selected and ran the clean profile to print these, exactly as I had done for the actual testing.
>> See attachment:  TroubleshootingInformation_20161005.pdf

Refer to my Comment #3 regarding E10s which, at the time, was true and I had no reason to suspect the settings had changed.  Today, there is a NEW setting called "browser.tabs.remote.autostart2" set to boolean TRUE ("user set"), and Microprocess Windows says "1/1 (Enabled)".  I did not knowingly set or change any of these settings.  However, there was an automatic upgrade from 49.0 to 49.0.1 since Comment 3.
Further to Comment 28 (got truncated)...

Keep in mind I'm using Mother earth Living newsletter because it coveniently causes remnants.  But I did get one today (above) before tha page even loaded (Comment 26), and I had one once while running *this* (Bugzilla) page (middle of Comment 10).
I had something strange happen yesterday.  I hadn't checked Task Manager for a few days, and I was just looking at the last of 9 articles from 2 MEL newsletters.  I started Task Manager at the point and there were NO remnants or potential remnants (the newly appearing pieces that remain when FF is closed).  Only the main FF program, sitting at about 700,000kb with nine tabs open in one window (perhaps ten -- I also had had XE.com running at one point, may or may not have been closed at this point).

When I closed FF (Multiple tabs? OK), the window was gone from the screen the moment it was closed -- exactly normal.  But the main piece remained in memory for about a minute, AND it kept incrementing in size to well over 800 before it quietly disappeared.  Really strange behaviour -- don't recall ever seeing that before for any program.  No additional programs appeared in memory AFAIK (in TM, I was viewing current processes only, not "all users").

(BTW, I'm now running my usual profile and not the "clean" one, but when the problem shows, it shows either way.)
I have been running FF 49.0.1 for some time, using my original configuration and visiting my usual sites.  I checked Task Manager only occasionally, but I have not seen any remnants since last reported.

Today I started TM and monitored an entire cycle of Mother Earth Living.  On almost every article (always a new tab in the current window), a second FF instance would fire up immediately at 1420 kb, then disappear shortly afterward.  Previously, one or more of these would become remnants, but it seems they all quit on their own shortly after starting.  There would be two instances of Flash too.  (At one point, I closed all tabs one-by-one, leaving only one article (one tab) which I read end-to-end -- five pages -- during which time the Flash pieces disappeared completely for awhile, then started up again when a Flash ad appeared.)  Meanwhile, as more tabs were opened, the main FF piece would cycle up into 400K-600K kb as usual and as expected, then decrease as tabs were closed.

Yesterday and last night, I had instances of a bad script -- once in Thunderbird and later in FF.  These did not leave any FF stubs either.

So I am no longer able to see, let alone reproduce, FF remnants.  The conclusion could be that FF 49.0.1 had fixed the issue, or that recent updates to Flash and/or Norton Security (Norton Toolbar) are better behaved.

I will report again if I see a repeat of the issue, but I guess for now it is resolved (works-for-me).
Thank you Dan, I'm sorry we haven't had more engineering time to investigate this. I will resolve this and I do think it's likely that either Firefox or Norton updates were related to fixing this for you.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 8 years ago
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
FYI, I updated to FF 49.0.2 in the past few days -- not without a few little glitches in the update process here (duly reported), which led to a few reversions to 4901 and repeated updates to 4902 for debugging.  As part of that process, I watched for but saw no FF remnants.

But then just now, I happened into Task Manager on another purpose and noticed TWO remnants (3046 kb each).  I had run Mother Earth Living newsletter articles again this morning -- but I have done it for awhile with none.  Sorry I can't pin it down more than that, except to guess that perhaps MEL is once again running something that proves problematic for FF.

I also got a "bad script" on something a few days ago.  Not saying it's related -- don't even know what it was, and I think I've rebooted since -- but I hadn't seen these for awhile either.

I'll post again if I get something more definitive.
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.

Attachment

General

Creator:
Created:
Updated:
Size: