# Firefox for Mac - Getting slow and buggy???



## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

Is it just me or is Firefox for Mac getting to be a piece of junk? It seems like I need to Force Quit it once a day or it just slows to a crawl. Video streams are jumpy and it beach balls all the time.

What is everyone else using on their Mac?


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## prozone1 (Sep 22, 2007)

Same here


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## bobnielsen (Jun 29, 2006)

Yup.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Yeah... that's why I never know where the problem is... my ISP, Firefox, or a specific Web site. To be fair, though... I'm mostly running on my older Mac that only had 4GB of RAM. I need to try on my other Mac and see if the experience is any better.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

I use Safari and Chrome for the most part, and no problems. But I also don't keep extra windows or tabs open.


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

Laxguy said:


> But I also don't keep extra windows or tabs open.


See I do. I keep about 4 work related tabs open all the time and it never used to be a problem.



Stewart Vernon said:


> I'm mostly running on my older Mac that only had 4GB of RAM. I need to try on my other Mac and see if the experience is any better.


Last year I upgraded my iMac from 8GB to 16 when I noticed my Memory Pressure was always in the Yellow. Once I upgraded it had not been a problem until recently.

I do have Chrome installed, but moving bookmarks and user/passwords over just seem like a huge PITA.


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

Herdfan said:


> See I do. I keep about 4 work related tabs open all the time and it never used to be a problem.
> 
> Last year I upgraded my iMac from 8GB to 16 when I noticed my Memory Pressure was always in the Yellow. Once I upgraded it had not been a problem until recently.
> 
> I do have Chrome installed, but moving bookmarks and user/passwords over just seem like a huge PITA.


I installed Chrome just to be able to see it on the screen and help a friend that uses it.
I feel certain that Chrome has the ability to import all bookmarks from IE or Fire Fox.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

I mostly use my older 2008 iMac which is maxed out at 4GB. I know it causes me troubles in drawing programs and on complicated Web sites. I have another newer 2009 iMac that I inherited that is maxed out at 16GB of RAM. I should be using that one more... but I dread the migration of data over to it... so I've been dragging my feet on the move. I suspect it will help some of the sluggishness I experience... but I'm also kind of accustomed to the slowness by now.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Stewart-

If you wipe the newer Mac (reformat), you can then use migration assistant to bring in everything from the older computer, bit for bit. Easy! Or you can roll it in from a backup, but you have to wipe the drive to start over.


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

Laxguy said:


> Stewart-
> 
> If you wipe the newer Mac (reformat), you can then use migration assistant to bring in everything from the older computer, bit for bit. Easy! Or you can roll it in from a backup, but you have to wipe the drive to start over.


I have considered upgrading my 2011 iMac with a SSD, but while I know I can use the MA to do this, won't is just bring all the garbage that is already on my drive over with it? Or am I still thinking in Windows world? I mean 4 years of stuff would have choked a Windows computer (I used to wipe and reinstall at least once a year). Do I need to use one of those Mac Cleaner programs?


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

I personally would never use any outside cleaner programs. 

And by garbage, it doesn't copy over caches and such. You can also limit what it brings over, so if a couple of areas are dodgey, you can do that part manually.


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

Herdfan said:


> I have considered upgrading my 2011 iMac with a SSD, but while I know I can use the MA to do this, won't is just bring all the garbage that is already on my drive over with it? Or am I still thinking in Windows world? I mean 4 years of stuff would have choked a Windows computer (I used to wipe and reinstall at least once a year). Do I need to use one of those Mac Cleaner programs?


I use the PC version of this and it helps a lot. It cleans out old temporary files, cleans out missing / broken stuff in the registry and many other things.
It is free for the PC and I think it is for the Mac.
Several others on here use it on their PCs also.
http://www.piriform.com/mac/ccleaner

You might also try disabling some of the recently added Plugins and see if they are your problem. If you find they are not the problem you can reactivate them after your trial.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Jimmie-

Macs do not need that type of cleaning unless one is doing far out things, growing huge caches, etc. Too often, downloads of this stuff is a vector for seriously bad things.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

I did do a wipe and clean install of Mavericks a few months ago on the newer machine. I actually figure it is a good opportunity to start fresh and not carry over a lot of junk, install apps I never use, etc... so I really don't have that much I'd need to migrate. It's just something I keep putting off doing. Laziness I guess!

I also keep meaning to carve out time to use my older machine as a Yosemite test bed to see what apps get broken. I still use some older apps that don't have new upgrades, and was planning on upgrading both computers to Yosemite... but haven't had the chance to properly investigate. Most of my newer apps will be fine... it's just some of the older stuff I always worry about... hardware too... it seems like about every other OS upgrade I lose a driver for an old scanner or something and have to scramble to make it work again.

I am going to get tired of the slowness and things I can't run at all on my older Mac, though.. and eventually be pushed one way or the other over to the new machine.

All that said... from the way people are talking, it doesn't sound like all the Firefox sluggishness is just me and my older machine... but I still want the newer one for when I'm drawing/working with larger files.


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

This might just be a Fire Fox problem.
I have a PC running Windows 7.
I opened a website I have been going to for years. Clicked around on it for a few minutes and then closed the site, then closed Fire Fox.
A couple of minutes later a Pop up screen saying that Fire Fox Crashed was on my screen. I had no problems while the program was open.
I sent the report to them fro review.
The new version for Mac might be having a similar problem.


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

Question that I have been wondering is why folks don't run safari which was designed with yosemite in mind? Just curious, not a debate. 


Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

peds48 said:


> Question that I have been wondering is why folks don't run safari which was designed with yosemite in mind? Just curious, not a debate.


Still running Mavricks. Haven't upgraded to Yosemite because then I would have to upgrade my VMWare. Plus I never really liked Safari when I got it with Snow Leopard, so I've not tried it again.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

When I first got my iMac back in 2008 I tried to use as many of the stock apps as possible... so I used Mail and Safari. Mail was lacking in some things I had become accustomed to in Thunderbird, so I went back to that pretty quickly.

Safari is perfectly fine as a browser... but at the time, it was easier to get plugins for Firefox to do a bunch of other things. I think much of that is available via Safari now... but I've become used to Firefox again.

On my iPad, however, I use Safari a lot and don't typically have any complaints there.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

I've used T-Bird for mail for some time, but some problem or another cropped up and I switched to Mail for mail. Still use the bird for Usenet, a long tried, but now tired and slowly expiring concept in Networking. Even the trolls there are neutered.


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## bobnielsen (Jun 29, 2006)

I used Usenet for several years but I can't remember the last time. Forums have pretty much made it obsolete.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

It's very useful to me. Semi-closed forums such as this are great, but too many other forums have drive by users, some of whom are morons, some of whom are just nasty, some helpful but not knowledgeable, some great, etc. But unless it's a relatively stable environment, such as DBSTalk or my Usenet groups, there's too much chaff with the wheat. Here we get to know who to listen to and who to pass by.


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

Laxguy said:


> Here we get to know who to listen to and who to pass by.


That's kind of harsh don't you think?


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

I have used safari for many years now. While I do agree that a few years ago it was lacking, now is my go to browser, even better then chrome. For mail I use Mailbox from Dropbox, very good client and supports many platforms. 


Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk


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