# Why Does Firefox Take SO Long to Quit???



## Amie (May 22, 2009)

Firefox works great, but when I quit the app, I have to sit and wait several minutes for it to finish quitting before closing my laptop. It's not a big deal, but it's annoying at times - especially when I'm rushing in between clients. I'd like to be able to just quit and close and off I go. Is there any way to lessen the time that it takes FF to quit?


----------



## DeltaMac (May 22, 2009)

Any reason you need to quit Firefox? Just close the laptop lid, and she sleeps....


----------



## Amie (May 22, 2009)

DeltaMac said:


> Any reason you need to quit Firefox? Just close the laptop lid, and she sleeps....



Yes, for two reasons:

1. If you leave apps running all the time, this can cause memory leaks. 

2. I'm anal and like to quit everything before sleeping my laptop.


----------



## Mikuro (May 22, 2009)

I've sometimes noticed Firefox become mysteriously slow in one aspect or another, and the simplest way to fix it is to create a new Firefox profile. You'll need to import your old bookmarks and adjust all your preferences for the new profile, but it might be worth it.

To make a new Firefox profile, you need to use the command line. Open Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities) and paste this in: 
	
	



```
/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -profilemanager
```
 (You may need to change "/Applications/Firefox.app" to something else if you don't have Firefox directly in your Applications folder.) See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager#Mac_OS_X for more details.

So I'd recommend making a new Firefox profile, testing the speed, and if it's good, then go to the trouble of moving your bookmarks in from your old profile.

Actually, speaking of bookmarks, that reminds me that I found Firefox unsuitable for my father because he has a bajillion bookmarks (well, at least several thousand, anyway), and it made Firefox slow to a crawl. If you have a large bookmarks collection, that might be a problem.

FWIW, my Mac is comparable to yours speed-wise, and Firefox quits instantly.


----------



## DeltaMac (May 22, 2009)

Are you really experiencing memory leaks from Firefox?
1. Certainly, there are some apps that may contribute to that, but usually the system will handle that, unless your system response is slowing down dramatically because of a memory shortage.
Every app left running does not cause memory leaks in every case, so your information is inaccurate. That would be only in some cases, with some apps, not just any app....
And - a restart will clear that little difficulty quite quickly.
2. Why not reserve your 'anality' for something important? ( I apologize, that would take you out of the definition for anal, eh? )

Likely with FireFox, the problem may be in an extension/plugin that you have added to FireFox. You could probably turn each off one at a time, and you should be able to determine which is jamming up your FireFox.
You could also monitor your Activity Monitor when you Quit Firefox, which might help to show you processes may be slow to respond as you quit FireFox. In other words, you might find out that FireFox is simply the result, and not the cause of your slow quit.


----------



## Amie (May 22, 2009)

Thanks for the replies, guys! You know what? I just remembered reading something ... somewhere ... about remedying this very problem! I wish I could remember what it was. LOL I *do*, however, recall it having something to do with the cookies ... setting them in FF preferences to be removed at a quicker expiration date or something like that? Does any of this ring a bell?

P.S. And, yes, FF does cause memory leaks. Whenever I sleep my computer while leaving the app running for a day or two, next time I use FF, it's v-e-e-e-e-e-r-y slow and just all messed up.


----------



## atariboy70 (May 22, 2009)

Hey Mikuro: 

Thanks for the tip. I had posted another thread named "Firefox super-lag?!" in which I vented my frustration over Firefox going super-duper slow...after pasting your code in Terminal and creating a new profile...it runs smooth as silk (knock on wood)! =) What a relief. Thanks bunches...


----------



## Amie (May 22, 2009)

atariboy70 said:


> Hey Mikuro:
> 
> Thanks for the tip. I had posted another thread named "Firefox super-lag?!" in which I vented my frustration over Firefox going super-duper slow...after pasting your code in Terminal and creating a new profile...it runs smooth as silk (knock on wood)! =) What a relief. Thanks bunches...



Oops ... maybe I didn't make my problem clear. See, FF runs very swift and flawless while running. My problem is: It takes forever to *quit*. Does that make sense? (Sorry if I'm confusing everyone.)


----------



## DeltaMac (May 22, 2009)

I'm also confused - you said it runs v-e-e-e-e-e-r-y slow, yet you then say later that it's very swift and flawless, and the issue is only with quitting FF .  . ?

Does Mikuro's tip about making a fresh FireFox profile help with FireFox shutdowns, too?


----------



## Mikuro (May 22, 2009)

If there's a browser out there that doesn't leak memory, I haven't found it yet. I don't usually quit as much as every day, but I frequently see Firefox up to 200-300MB after a while.

Amie, if cookies are the problem, you can clear them without making a new profile. Just go to the Tools menu and select Clear Private Data. Clearing your cookies means you'll need to log in to sites again and you might lose some shopping cart data and things like that.

Atariboy, glad it helped.


----------



## Amie (May 23, 2009)

DeltaMac said:


> I'm also confused - you said it runs v-e-e-e-e-e-r-y slow, yet you then say later that it's very swift and flawless, and the issue is only with quitting FF .  . ?
> 
> Does Mikuro's tip about making a fresh FireFox profile help with FireFox shutdowns, too?



No, I didn't say it runs slow. I said it runs great. It *quits* very slow. The only time FF actually *runs* slow is when I leave the app running (i.e., don't quit the app), then after a day or two - due to memory leaks, from what I've been told - *then* it runs slow.



			
				Mikuro said:
			
		

> If there's a browser out there that doesn't leak memory, I haven't found it yet. I don't usually quit as much as every day, but I frequently see Firefox up to 200-300MB after a while.



I know. I agree. DeltaMac said it didn't cause memory leaks, not me.



			
				Mikuro said:
			
		

> Amie, if cookies are the problem, you can clear them without making a new profile. Just go to the Tools menu and select Clear Private Data. Clearing your cookies means you'll need to log in to sites again and you might lose some shopping cart data and things like that.



Yeah, I clear the cookies regularly (once a week with routine maintenance, as well as running the scripts and permissions repair, etc.), but I think I read somewhere that you can set the preferences in FF to do something to the cookies in order to lessen the time FF takes to quit. I wish I could remember where I read it...


----------



## Randy Singer (May 23, 2009)

Amie said:


> ...I think I read somewhere that you can set the preferences in FF to do something to the cookies in order to lessen the time FF takes to quit. I wish I could remember where I read it...



When an application, any application, takes an unusually long time to quit, the reason is usually that the application isn't done doing something and it needs to conclude its business before it will quit.  

So, make sure that FF isn't 'involved' with anything when you quit.  Turn off all RSS feeds, turn off Java, disable all plug-ins, set cookies to be expunged on quit, make sure that your homepage isn't a portal that is constantly being updated, etc.

If doing all of the above helps, you can re-enable those features that you like one at a time until you hit on the one that causes quits to be so slow.


----------



## Amie (May 24, 2009)

Randy Singer said:


> When an application, any application, takes an unusually long time to quit, the reason is usually that the application isn't done doing something and it needs to conclude its business before it will quit.
> 
> So, make sure that FF isn't 'involved' with anything when you quit.  Turn off all RSS feeds, turn off Java, disable all plug-ins, set cookies to be expunged on quit, make sure that your homepage isn't a portal that is constantly being updated, etc.
> 
> If doing all of the above helps, you can re-enable those features that you like one at a time until you hit on the one that causes quits to be so slow.



I'm sure FF isn't doing anything when I quit the app. I don't have any RSS feeds or anything like that. Usually, the last thing I do is sign out of my e-mail, which only takes a second. Then I quit FF. I have noticed, however, that if I use FF for a long time in one session, it will take longer to quit than if I use it for a short time. I know it has something to do with the cookies (at least, I'm 99 percent sure), I just have to find that damn tip I read a while back that addresses this very issue and how to remedy it.


----------



## Randy Singer (May 24, 2009)

Amie said:


> ...I just have to find that damn tip I read a while back that addresses this very issue and how to remedy it.



There are only a few settings for cookies in FireFox that might make a difference:

- Keep until the expire
- Keep until I close FireFox
- or you could choose not to accept any cookies from any sites.

Why not try all three settings and see if any of them helps?


----------

