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How can I quickly "unclog" firefox when it runs out of memory (with 1000/2000 tabs) (youtu.be)

submitted 4 months ago by interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml to c/firefox@lemmy.ml

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Hi, Once in a while I try to clean up my tabs. First thing I do is use "merge all windows" to put all tabs into one window.

This often causes a memory clog and firefox get stuck in this state for 10-20 minutes

I have recorded one such instance.

I have tried using the "discard all tabs" addon, unfortunately, it is also getting frozen by the memory clog.

Sometimes I will just reboot my PC as that is faster.

Unfortunately, killing firefox this way, does not save the new tab order, so when I start firefox again, it will have 20+ windows open, which I again, merge all pages and then it clogs again !

So far the only solution I have found is just wait the 20 minutes.

Once the "memory clog" is passed, it runs just fine.

I would like better control over tab discard. and maybe some way of limitting bloat. For instance, I would rather keep a lower number of undiscarded youtube that as they seem to be insanely bloated.

In other cases, for most website I would like to never discard the contents.

In my ideal world, I would like the tabs to get frozen and saved to disk permanently, rather than assuming discard tabs can be reloaded. As if the websites were going to exist forever and discarding a tab is like cleaning a cache.

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[+] interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml -12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

why do you need to keep the things you want to get back to open rather than just using Google to find the page again later?

If it's already in memory, that's one few step to reach it.

My tab manager can't search google

do you find it just by scrolling through all your tabs until a title/favicon looks like what you’re looking for?

I search my live memory with Tab Manager Plus

Sadly, it can't search tab body text, only tab titles.

if the page/content gets deleted off of the server, you don’t lose it. Is that correct?

My software should not discard data without my permission. When it runs out of RAM it should dump to disk cache, not delete. But browser have the builtin assumption that the web remembers everything, which is false. I also think bookmarks should save all tab data, all text, all images, all code, all video, and the code should remain as functional as possible. That's a long way off, currently the only way to do that is freeze the tab with its browser and operating system inside a virtual machine live snapshot.

I haven’t been able to find any “discard all tabs

I believe this one can do, discard selected tabs, but not discard all tabs

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/discard/

Discard is the action where all tab content is deleted, keeping only URL, title and favicon

I haven't found discard all tabs either.

I would like "stop all tabs" to work

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/stop-all-button/

But it will only work after firefox has cleared the clog, it currently freezes with the rest of the browser.

[–] TootSweet@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

If it's already in memory, that's one few step to reach it.

I search my live memory with Tab Manager Plud

Oh, so you're doing something like Googling just to find the page title and then rather than clicking the link in Google, (closing the Google results page, I hope and) searching through your tab titles with Tab Manager Plus to find and switch to the open tab where you already have the page in question open?

Though, I still don't understand why you keep the tab open in the first place rather than juat closing the tab when you're (at least for the moment) done with it and then Googling to find the content again and clicking the appropriate link to get that same content in a new tab when you do need it again. I asked whether the reason was so that if the content is removed from the server, you didn't lose it, but I don't think anything you said in your last post answered that question. You did say:

My software should not discard data without my permission. When it runs out of RAM it should dump to disk cache, not delete.

Which wasn't quite a direct answer to my question. And you then directly admit that the browser doesn't even keep content that's open in a tab:

But browser have the builtin assumption that the web remembers everything, which is false.

So that must not be why you keep content open in tabs, right?

Is it maybe something like if you keep something open in a tab, the presence of that page title in your tab manager gives you confirmation when you later Google to find the page title that such-and-such particular result in the Google results is indeed the thing you're looking for and not a different page than the one you were looking for?

Just as an aside, my web browser use is probably atypical as well. I have my browser forget all cookies, history, cache, etc (basically everything but my bookmarks) every time I fully close it. And I close it every time I switch activities to keep my online personas isolated from each other. (So I'm never logged into my Google account and my Amazon account at the same time, for instance. To reduce targeted ads and such.)

Also, I'm wondering if something more like a caching proxy with maybe page searching capabilities and finegrained control of what is cached and what isn't might fill part of your use case, but I still don't have a firm grasp on your use case.