All of a sudden Firefox is eating up gigabytes of memory and then crashing

Like the title says.

It's becoming annoying. I've got 8gb on my machine, and FF is going up to like 6+gb, until Windows yells "uncle" and FF crashes. Haven't added any new extensions (I don't think. will double check)

I still don't like Chrome enough to switch over completely.

Though Mozilla really bit the big one on their recently released "Quantum" version 57.

Try updating to the newest version (mine is 58.0.1), maybe it's a bug that they've fixed.

db, mine was having fits too, until something updated (don't remember whether FF or Windows, sorry, or possibly clearing 350MB from a cache of ??).  Worth a try.  It was a bad week or so, so you have my sympathy!

 I'm on 58.0.2. Maybe it's a bug they introduced.   

ril said:

Try updating to the newest version (mine is 58.0.1), maybe it's a bug that they've fixed.

In that case, maybe you can roll back to a version that worked?  (and maybe I'll skip the next update to avoid similar probs). Agree about Quantum, I miss all the customization of the older versions.

If you're using Windows, try reloading Windows. That helps a lot of problems.

"reloading" Windows? Re-installing?

No Firefox issues I can comment on (Im using an old version!) -- but this past 10 day - 2 weeks, I've had a lot of glitches with apps (software) on the Win10 pc.  They're all resolved as soon as I install the latest Windows updates -- there seem to have been quite a few.

drummerboy said:

"reloading" Windows? Re-installing?

Yes. How long has it been since you (or the manufacturer) have/has done it?

The computer is a couple of years old.

No way am I re-installing Windows. Not to resolve a browser problem.

Tom_Reingold said:

drummerboy said:

"reloading" Windows? Re-installing?

Yes. How long has it been since you (or the manufacturer) have/has done it?

drummerboy said:

The computer is a couple of years old.

No way am I re-installing Windows. Not to resolve a browser problem.

The fact that reloading helps is a bad sign of the quality of Windows. The fact that it's a pain to do so is another. Sorry, but that's how I see it. I prefer Mac and Linux.

I started a new job recently, and I have a workplace-issued Windows system. Not sure I can stick with it. I might ask for a Mac. I don't know if I'll get it. I might end up bringing in my own. They are a lot less work to keep running well, overall.

A person who gets the most out of a Windows system is very handy at reloading it. Ick.

well, I just installed a massive Windows update, which has solved my problem for me.

Now, Firefox no longer works at all. It just freezes up. Now I have to switch browsers. Thank you Microsoft and Mozilla.

But after a reboot, everything seems fine now.

Son of a b.....

"Son of a b....."

Says it all.  Seems as though we are all depending on the kindness of... ****ing computer systems?  

mjc said:

"Son of a b....."

Says it all.  Seems as though we are all depending on the kindness of... ****ing computer systems?  

Which is weird since drummerboy and I are computer professionals.

I'm at a new job (yay!), and I have a work-issued computer. It runs Windows 10. I haven't used Windows in a few years, and it's very uncomfortable. I could run Linux, but I don't want to. I probably could get a Mac or bring one in, but I'm trying to get used to what most people around here use. It's painful.

Tom (and db), I almost edited to exclude people who actually know what they're doing from my "we" but went for brevity.  No offense taken, I hope?

Oh none at all. It's kind of funny when we computer people get frustrated at our computers.

to be fair, sometimes us "computer people" tend to overload or push our machines. I've got 4 different flavors of database servers running on one of my pc's right now. (I'd have 5 if Sybase had figured out, after 20+ years, how to write a Windows installation program that works the first time.) But it hasn't choked yet. Fingers crossed.

But I can frequently be heard having some choice words with my computers.

Tom_Reingold said:

Oh none at all. It's kind of funny when we computer people get frustrated at our computers.