Memory Leak when Minimized
Categories
(Firefox :: Performance, defect)
Tracking
()
People
(Reporter: shadowalker01, Unassigned)
Details
Attachments
(6 files)
Event Viewer: Low Virtual Memory
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:141.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/141.0
Steps to reproduce:
Closed and restarted Firefox while having Task Manager open to view memory usage. Had Firefox in a normal viewing manner, then minimized for a bit then brought back to normal size, multiple times. In the video provided, I even tested with Firefox in Troubleshoot mode to make sure all add-ons and extensions were disabled. Same results.
I have been having random programs crash on me for a couple of weeks now. I think this may be the cause, for when I look into Event Viewer, a common problem that shows up is Running Out of Virtual Memory and the like when these various crashes occur. Firefox is my main browser and having it open and minimized is a usual thing when I'm working on various things / gaming so I can quickly access it / look things up.
Actual results:
When in a normal viewing position, the Memory Usage stays fairly stable, slightly more will be used if you open another tab and such, the expected.
When the window is Minimized, Memory Usage keeps creeping up. From some tests I ran, it seems to creep up with more tabs opened or of you have multiple windows open with multiple tabs.
When you un-Minimize them, the Memory Usage drops back down, and if you Minimize them again, it starts creeping back up.
Expected results:
No Memory Leak / Memory Creep should happen when minimized.
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Comment 1•4 months ago
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If you believe that there is a memory leak, then please check the about:memory page which allows you to troubleshoot specific issues relating to memory, and please attach its data here.
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Comment 2•4 months ago
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(In reply to Andre Klapper from comment #1)
If you believe that there is a memory leak, then please check the
about:memorypage which allows you to troubleshoot specific issues relating to memory, and please attach its data here.
I did as suggested but am encountering a problem. From what I saw of the available tools and checking online is that I can only get snapshots of the particular moment when I run the tool, not set it to record a log over a time frame. This won't seem to work for this issue since I have to minimize the window for the problem to occur. And of course, once I do that, I can't actually activate the tool for it to get a shot of that particular moment and once I bring it back up, it dumps memory.
Which can be seen in the video provided. I have also been using Resource Monitor for the past few days and concentrated on watching the "Commit Charge" graph in the Memory tab since a lot of the crashes I was having seemed to pertain to running out of virtual memory. I have seen the same behavior with the virtual memory getting eaten up when FF is minimized then the usage immediately dropping once I un-minimize it. Since I have been monitoring the situation and not letting it get maxed out by keeping FF minimized for to long of a period, I have not been having the random crashes.
Is there a way for me to use Firefox's built in utilities to capture its memory usage over a period over time, especially while it is minimized and brought back up so I can submit it to this thread? If so, please instruct on how to do this and I will submit the findings. Thank you.
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Comment 3•4 months ago
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@Andrew Klapper(In reply to Andre Klapper from comment #1)
If you believe that there is a memory leak, then please check the
about:memorypage which allows you to troubleshoot specific issues relating to memory, and please attach its data here.
To go along with the other reply, I have also looked into creating a report with Performance Monitor, I would need to know which memory fields would be of most interest to the dev's to get them a report (I have tried playing around with the fields), which follow the same pattern of memory being eaten up while FF is minimized, but of course, it only shows memory getting used up, not showing who is doing the eating and what part of the program. But when I do these runs, I have pretty much everything else shut down and place FF into Troubleshooting mode.
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Comment 4•4 months ago
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Update: Just got another random crash due to not enough virtual memory. In this scenario, the only things I had running were Firefox and Thunderbird.
2 windows of Firefox, 1 on my main screen (about 3 tabs open), and another window on my 2nd screen (1 tab open). Both maximized, but the one on the 2nd screen was not in focus, Thunderbird was maximized over it. Computer became unresponsive for a moment, seems like explorer crashed, when it became responsive again, my desktop icons were missing and the orientation of the screens became backwards so I had to move the mouse in the opposite direction to get it over to the other screen. Once I did a restart, my screen orientation was back to normal and my desktop icons were back.
I did use this as a way to try and capture about:memory dumps for the dev's though, I am not well versed enough to really do anything with the data contained within them. I have also included screenshots.
the evnt.png is just the event viewer of when this most current incident happened showing how it ran out of virtual memory and what was using it all.
After the restart, I set up the same scenario to capture the above mentioned dumps and also had resource monitor running to get a graphical image. 2 Firefox windows, the one on the main screen 3 tabs (the same ones I had before) and 1 window with 1 tab on the 2nd screen, and Thunderbird Maximized over it. I let it run for a while letting the virtual memory fill up and grabbed a screenshot of the resource monitor and the Commit Charge graph (1.Resmon.ong) and then did a dump (1.memory-report.json.gz). I then brought the Firefox window on the 2nd screen to the top and grabbed another screenshot of Resource Monitor (2.Resmon.png) to show how the memory usage dropped and did another memory dump from Firefox (2.memory-report.json.gz).
Hopefully this can help figure out what is going on.
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Comment 5•4 months ago
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See comment from 8/21/2025 for context of this image.
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Comment 6•4 months ago
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See comment from 8/21/2025 for context of this image.
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Comment 7•4 months ago
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See comment from 8/21/2025 for context of this image.
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Comment 8•4 months ago
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See comment from 8/21/2025 for context of this image.
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Comment 9•4 months ago
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See comment from 8/21/2025 for context of this image.
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Comment 10•4 months ago
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I believe I may have found out what the problem is. I haven't tested the Windows Store version of FF, I use the 64bit install client. It seems to stem from using animated gifs as custom backgrounds. I have not tested with static gifs.
On a new tab -> Customize -> upload image, set an animated gif for the background.
This is when the memory leak / creep occurs when FF is minimized / set in a background state with other apps full screened over it. Yet, a "new tab" doesn't even have to be opened for this to occur. One can have multiple tabs open to various pages and no "new tabs" open and the creep will occur, just as long as an animated gif is set.
I switched to a static jpg and there is no creep / leak. I was hoping others could verify this on their systems as well. Is this as intended or just some oversight as to how FF is handling animated gifs and the background?
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Comment 11•4 months ago
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Thanks shadowwalker01! This sounds like it's probably a dupe of bug 1976603 then.
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