How to Determine which Firefox Add-ons are Using the Most Memory
I love Firefox for its add-ons. I have a lot of them installed, which obviously increases memory use. But it seems that some add-ons are better than others in that department. Does anyone know a way to figure out approximately how much memory each add-on is using? Obviously, I could disable them all and try them one at a time, but I'm hoping for an easier way...
I usually deal with Firefox memory issues by installing two different Firefox'es on my computer. The first one is the default Firefox and the other is portable Firefox.
I install all the addons I am ever going to use on the portable Firefox (FF) I install the addons which are used almost daily on the default Firefox.
This way I can use the addon just by switching over to the portable Firefox.
If this is not the solution you are looking for then try these addons
AFOM - AFOM recovers Memory Leakage within the Firefox application. (Windows only)
NOTE: This add-on has been removed by its author.CacheViewer - Allows searching and sorting memory and disk cache files.
CacheViewer is discontinued please use CacheViewer Continued.
EDIT: I tried it, and it shows all the files used by Firefox in the cache which eat up precious memory.bosskey - Add Boss Key, Minimize/Close to tray and memory auto cleaning to Firefox.
RAMBack - RAMBack will cause Firefox to issue an internal notification to free up memory that is otherwise held for performance purposes.
There's an extension called Leak Monitor that monitors add-ons for a certain type of memory leak...not exactly what you're looking for, but it's a start!
Only slightly less tedious:
- Check memory usage of Firefox + all plugins.
- Disable them all & check memory usage - difference is due to plugins.
- Enable half a dozen (say), check memory usage.
- If the increase is not too great repeat with the next batch.
- If the increase is a large proportion of the usage then disable that batch and check each one individually.
- Repeat until all plugins added.
Obviously this is probably a non starter if you have lots of plugins.
Searching for more information on those plugins might tell you something as well.