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Wow Firefox startup is slow

B

bozeefus

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 18, 2008
70
0
I don't know if you guys experience this but the initial loading time (first startup) for Firefox is amazingly slow. It takes me 7 bounces at least.

What about you guys? Is this normal? I remember at one point, the startup time was only 3 bounces. I miss that :(

It's only the first time loading FF that is slow such as right after turning on my Macbook; the other times afterwards are extremely fast (one bounce at the most).
 
Yes, Firefox takes that long to start up for me as well. I guess that's just how FF is - it's not integrated with the OS so it has to load many elements on first start, that stay loaded. Safari starts up so quickly because it's integrated.
 
Wow Firefox startup is slow

It's slow on my PC (about like Mac) running Win XP. My son says the same thing on Win Vista.
 
It is slow, as threads at the Firefox forums attest. Fortunately on Mac's the "X" button doesn't exit the program, so I only have to start Firefox once after each reboot. The rest of the time it resides nicely in my dock waiting for me to call upon its services.
 
For a comparative speed experience, try Camino. It comes from the same stable as FFox, and it is f-a-s-t. Sure, it doesn't have the add-ons, but if you can do without them, and without something like auto-scroll, then Camino is highly recommended.
 
hughvane said:
For a comparative speed experience, try Camino. It comes from the same stable as FFox, and it is f-a-s-t. Sure, it doesn't have the add-ons, but if you can do without them, and without something like auto-scroll, then Camino is highly recommended.
Click to expand...

Just my opinion but if you can do without the addons just use Safari. :D

Extensions are the one and only reason I use Firefox. The more extensions you have installed, the slower the initial startup is going to be. You can speed things up a bit by disabling the automatic check for addon updates in preferences if you don't mind doing it manually.
 
SaSaSushi said:
Just my opinion but if you can do without the addons just use Safari. :D

Extensions are the one and only reason I use Firefox. The more extensions you have installed, the slower the initial startup is going to be. You can speed things up a bit by disabling the automatic check for addon updates in preferences if you don't mind doing it manually.
Click to expand...

yes yes yes. the only reason (reasons actually) why i use firefox instead of safari are:

1. add-ons! adblock plus works wonders
2. smart URL finding feature when you are typing a link
 
WOT, NoScript

Why use FF over Safari? For me it is Web Of Trust and NoScript add-ons. Macs will not be immune to the nasties forever, folks. Safari? Numerous security issues of late, plus it just doesn't work as well for my purposes. For example, you can't right click a picture on the web and view its pixels and file size ("properties" in FF) before you save it.
 
jive turkey said:
It is slow, as threads at the Firefox forums attest. Fortunately on Mac's the "X" button doesn't exit the program, so I only have to start Firefox once after each reboot. The rest of the time it resides nicely in my dock waiting for me to call upon its services.
Click to expand...
That's fine until the infamous FF memory leaks eat up all available memory and your computer slows to a crawl. In my experience I have to restart FF at least every few days.
 
Speed up Firefox to fix slow response

Firefox seems to collect a lot of data that affects the speed of the application, especially startup and shutdown, in the user profile.

I found that backing up my profile then deleting and restoring the backup speeds up Firefox remarkably.

Start Firefox. Back up your information using Bookmarks-->Organize Bookmarks. Select All Bookmarks then go to the third icon to the right on the toolbar (looks like a star) then select Backup. Save your backup file to a location on your machine (like the desktop or a folder). Exit Firefox.

Then go to -/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles (where - is your home directory) and delete your profile and Profiles.ini file. (Note that I am using OSx 10.5.6, and Firefox 3.0.7, earlier versions may store the profile in -/Library/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/<profile folder>).

Restart Firefox and go to Bookmarks-->Organize Bookmarks. Select All Bookmarks then go to the third icon to the right on the toolbar (looks like a star) then select Restore. Restore your backup file from the location you saved it on your machine (like the desktop or a folder).
 
danny_w said:
That's fine until the infamous FF memory leaks eat up all available memory and your computer slows to a crawl. In my experience I have to restart FF at least every few days.
Click to expand...

infamous firefox memory leak consume less memory than any other browser on any platform for any surfing longer than 1 hr or two.

whats your point then? if firefox's memory consumption makes u unhappy. I can't imaging any browser out there can meet your need in this regard.
 
deleting profile and restore bookmarks works

thanks jwmcucumber, that worked great. used to take about 20 seconds to startup, even worse when i just turned the computer on and other things were loading. now it bounces once or twice on the dock and is open.

only problem is you have to reinstall addons
 
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