Open Bug 1722060 Opened 3 years ago Updated 8 months ago

Leaving Firefox open for a few hours makes it use 51 gigs of RAM

Categories

(Core :: Graphics, defect, P3)

Firefox 90
defect

Tracking

()

Performance Impact low

People

(Reporter: dresdenfriar, Unassigned)

Details

(Keywords: memory-footprint, perf:resource-use)

Attachments

(2 files, 1 obsolete file)

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:90.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/90.0

Steps to reproduce:

I had 4 tabs open on Firefox, and they were all minimized. I shut my laptop screen and went on with my life. When I come back and unlock my Mac, I get a warning that 100% of my RAM is being used. It tells me that Firefox is eating up 51 gigs of RAM from my computer that only has 8.

On an M1 Mac running the latest version of MacOS:

  • Open a few tabs (This happened to me with 4 and 5 open on two separate occasions)
  • Shut the screen and leave it be for a few hours, or until the computer is locked and requires a password.
  • Unlock the computer, and start using it.
  • The problem doesn't always happen instantly, and it usually takes a few seconds to a few minutes of using the computer for the warning to show up. You also may be able to open Activity Monitor, and look for Firefox's usage.

I have had it happen when Firefox is the only app open, and when I have one or two others open. This has only started happening recently, and in the past I was able to leave many tabs open for days with nothing happening.

Actual results:

A warning appears telling me that my computer has run out of available RAM, and that Firefox is trying to use about 51 gigs of it. Normally my computer should notify me well before it gets to 51 gigs, so my feeling is that it happens rather quickly. If I try to dismiss the notification it lets me, and I was able to close one of the tabs, but the warning continuously keeps coming back.

Expected results:

I should have just opened my computer and not gotten that message, and been able to use it without RAM overuse.

Computer specs:
2020 M1 MacBook Air 8G RAM
Running - MacOS Big Sur 11.5

It isn't a problem with Big Sur 11.5 because the error happened before it was released, and I have had the error also happen with the new OS. So it is a problem with both, for my computer at least.

Component: Untriaged → Performance
Product: Firefox → Core

Thanks for reporting this problem! If this occurs again, could you please save and attach a memory report? This would be very helpful to identify where the problem is. You can do this by going to about:memory, and clicking "measure and save" and then attaching the output.

Could you also please try setting accessibility.force_disabled to 1 in about:config. We've recently learned of a memory leak in this area, and if this fixes the problem that would be very helpful information.

Thanks!

Severity: -- → S3
Flags: needinfo?(dresdenfriar)
Priority: -- → P3

It seems to happen when I leave multiple tabs minimized. It has only done it so far when windows are minimized. I got the memory report, and added it as an attached file to the bug report.

Flags: needinfo?(dresdenfriar)
Attached file memory-report.json.gz

This is all images inside graphics from the looks of the memory report.

The Performance Priority Calculator has determined this bug's performance priority to be P3. If you'd like to request re-triage, you can reset the Performance flag to "?" or needinfo the triage sheriff.

Platforms: macOS
[x] Causes severe resource usage

Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Performance Impact: --- → low
Component: Performance → Graphics
Ever confirmed: true
Attachment #9383587 - Attachment is obsolete: true
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