1531744 - Slack memory usage grows over 1gb

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Web Compatibility :: Site Reports, defect, P3)

Description

[Stuart Philp :sphilp]

Attachment: Screen Shot 2019-02-28 at 11.35.54 AM.png

Possibly related to bug 1426248. I noticed in about:performance and then in about:memory that Slack sometimes skyrockets in it's memory usage.

When the tab is relatively new, Slack uses around 100-150mb on my system (2018 mbp). I keep our Mozilla Slack running as a pinned tab basically 24/7. I'm unclear how to reproduce other than leave it open for several hours, but I've seen it over 1gb of memory a few times now. See the screenshot. Putting this in GC because of the size of the GC heap, may be unrelated :)

Let me know if there's anything more I can provide and I'll do that next time I notice the issue.

Comment 1

[Jon Coppeard (:jonco)]

(In reply to Stuart Philp :sphilp from comment #0)
Can you try clicking "Minimize memory usage" in about:memory when this happens? If the memory use is not reduce then it suggests it's a problem with slack.

Comment 2

[Paul Bone [:pbone]]

Slack has a reputation for very high memory usage in the browser. I believe this happens for other browsers too suggesting it's their leak/usage and not ours.

NI for Stuart to test the "Minimise memory usage" to see if that helps.

Comment 3

[Stuart Philp :sphilp]

Attachment: beforeminimize.png

Comment 4

[Stuart Philp :sphilp]

Attachment: afterminimize.png

Comment 5

[Stuart Philp :sphilp]

It's showing 4.24gb in about:performance and about 3gb in about:memory as of right now. I attempted "minimize memory usage" and it doesn't appear to have made too much of a difference, see before and after screenshots. Sounds like more of a partner/outreach thing.

Comment 6

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

We can find a contact, but do we have anything more actionable to report to them beyond "this site uses a lot of memory"?

Comment 7

[Stuart Philp :sphilp]

Do you have any suggestions Paul? If there is something useful I can do to hand over to slack let me know.

Comment 8

[Paul Bone [:pbone]]

There's a memory profiler within devtools, The UI is a little confusing I'll admit, but there may be some guides online about how to use it.

Because you did "Minimise" and nothing changed that means that it's not a GC thing: There's no way the GC can free memory if the program (slack) is holding references to it.

Comment 9

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The priority flag is not set for this bug.
:marco, could you have a look please?

Comment 10

[Marco Castelluccio [:marco]]

"External Softare Affecting Firefox" is for external native software injecting into Firefox.

Comment 11

[Andrew Creskey [:acreskey]]

Mike, this doesn't look like a bug in Firefox -- it appears to be leaks in the application that would affect all browsers.
Perhaps Slack can be notified of this?

Comment 12

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

Whoops, sorry for the delay. I've reached out to a contact at Slack trying to find the right person we can talk to.

Comment 13

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

I received a reply from my contact and they said that they've re-written the application in such a way that this shouldn't be happening anymore. Let's close.

Please re-open if this isn't the case.