Has Firefox been really slow for anyone else?

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

I’ve been using the Firefox browser for years. I love it; love the add ons. However, I have been noticing a terrible slowdown with it lately. Pages take a long time to load, scrolling is jerky or hangs, and the worst : You Tube videos stutter every 20 seconds or so.

I have been noticing these problems on both my iMac and on my Windows Vista laptop so I can pretty much rule out a computer problem since it happens on both computers. I put Google Chrome on my laptop and while using Safari on my Mac I have not experienced problems - Chrome and Safari run smooth as silk. The problem happens when using Firefox.

I’m fine with using Chrome and Safari, but I have become hopelessly dependent on the Firefox add ons. AdBlock plus, Greasemonkey, Bug Me Not, one that expands Facebook photos on rollover so I don’t have to click on them to view the full size photo, etc.

Is anyone else having problems? Does having too many add ons create problems? I’m using the latest version on both my computers and it might be slow since the latest update, I’m not sure.

#2

Have you updated AVG lately? 9.0’s LinkScanner slows FF to a crawl.

#3

And, FWIW, Safari too.

#4

I don’t use AVG on my Mac. I do have it on my laptop, but disabled the links scanner part when someone posted about it.

#5

A few years ago, on this board, someone named a Firefox file that keeps some kind of history, and grows without bound. Deleting it was safe (it just recreated), and it stopped Firefox from bogging down. Don’t remember the file though. It was in the user’s personal settings.

#6

ZenBeam has it. The bigger the personal history file, the slower FF will run because it has to load all the entries in it every time you want to enter in a URL.

Press Ctrl+Shift+Del or Tools>Clear Recent History

ETA: Clear all history, not just a couple hours worth.

#7

I think this has been fixed in FF 3.5.

#8

I think the default history retention period is something like 90 days. I’ve reduced this to 21 days and Firefox seems a lot snappier. It also doesn’t take literally minutes to close like it used to, and launches faster too.
I have been running 3.5 for a while, so I’m not sure the fundamental problem has been fixed. Didn’t they start using SQLlite to store stuff like history, with FF3? My hunch is that these problems started then.

#9

The Chrome Beta supports add-ons. I’m using it now with ad-block, flash block, Stumble-Upon, and what not.

#10

Hey LOUNE, can you tell me how to add the add-ons to Chrome? I’m using it, and like it, but can’t find the tools to do so in its minimalist UI. Help a gal out?

#11

I was having HUGE slowdown problems for months, even in other applications when FF was running. Then I upgraded to FF 3.5.3, and the problem went away.

#12

Oh man, thanks for that. I’ve been having slow issues as well and had recently updated to 9.0.

#13

I’ve done the suggestions in this thread and while it seems to be scrolling and loading much better, videos are still lagging every 20 seconds or so. Maybe it’s something on my Mac doing some sort of operation ever 20 seconds, but I’ll be darned if I can figure what’s doing it. :mad:

#14

First, make sure you have the Beta version of Chrome. That’s here. Hereis the website for exensions. It’s hard to find because there are other aggregators on the list of search hits before you actually get to Google’s which is really odd.

I’m currently running Ad Thwart, IE Tab, Google Translate, StumbleUpon, AdBlock, Beautify Facebook, Send From Gmail, OneNumber, and FlashBlock.

If you get lost, send me a PM. That way, I can be confused with you.

#15

Streaming videos? It’s almost certain a bandwidth issue. Comcast instituted some new throttling policies which suck donkey dick and that’s probably the issue.

#16

Get and run CCleaner (free). I find that usually solves many problems. If nothing else it narrows down what might be wrong and is simple (and fast) to use.

If it ends up taking awhile and deletes a large amount from your internet cache that is likely your problem.

NOTE: It can wipe out saved passwords in your browser so if that is important to you be sure that (and whatever else you like) is deselected before running (Firefox is under applications separate from what it deletes in Explorer so be sure you are ticking the right boxes).

#17

I do have Comcast. But, when I open the same videos in Safari, they are smooth with no lagging.

I think that’s for Windows. But I’ve heard it’s great for cleaning stuff.
I must have something going on between Mac & Firefox. Maybe I’ll try Chrome on this Mac, too.

#18

Ever since I started using the persona add ons its been slow for me.

I’m trying to decided whether to get rid of persona or switch to Google Chrome.

#19

Oh, thank you, thank you! I did this and Firefox, which has been annoyingly sluggish lately, is way zippier now.

#20

How do I turn this off?