64-bit Firefox + ABP + The Weather Network = memory leaks

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impstrump
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64-bit Firefox + ABP + The Weather Network = memory leaks

Post by impstrump »

If I visit The Weather Network website http://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/wea ... io/toronto using 64-bit Firefox 42.0 with Adblock Plus 2.7.2 enabled, it gradually eats up all my memory, to the point where Windows forces me to close Firefox because it's out of memory. This happens even if it's the only tab I have open, and even if I just leave it sitting open without interacting with it.

The problem does not occur if I disable ABP, even if I leave all my other add-ons running. It does occur if I disable all my add-ons other than Adblock Plus. I tested it with each filter individually and this behaviour occurs with each individual filter.

It doesn't occur with 32-bit Firefox 42.0 running Adblock Plus, or with IE 11 running Adblock Plus.

I haven't seen the same problem on any other website.
haedon
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Re: 64-bit Firefox + ABP + The Weather Network = memory leaks

Post by haedon »

If your computer is 32bit OS, your processor is also 32bit. Thus, you cannot run 64bit application. That is the reason it eats up your memory.
impstrump
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Re: 64-bit Firefox + ABP + The Weather Network = memory leaks

Post by impstrump »

My computer is 64-bit Windows 7. That's why I switched to 64-bit Firefox in the first place - it resolved other problems I was having, but introduced this one problem on this one website only when using Adblock Plus.
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mapx
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Re: 64-bit Firefox + ABP + The Weather Network = memory leaks

Post by mapx »

impstrump wrote: I tested it with each filter individually and this behaviour occurs with each individual filter.
you mean does happen even disabling easylist and keeping for example only the social list or easyprivacy ?
lewisje
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Re: 64-bit Firefox + ABP + The Weather Network = memory leaks

Post by lewisje »

haedon wrote:If your computer is 32bit OS, your processor is also 32bit. Thus, you cannot run 64bit application. That is the reason it eats up your memory.
If the OP had a 32-bit OS, 64-bit applications wouldn't even run; this means that the OP has a 64-bit OS, which can also run 32-bit applications.

Anyway, it is true that 64-bit browsers tend to use more memory than 32-bit ones, but they can also, if needed, access more than 4GB of memory per process; still, it is strange that a memory leak happens with the 64-bit version and not with the 32-bit version.

With that said, the OP should try to see whether the memory leaks still happen with Firefox 45, just released today to the stable channel; in particular, Firefox 42 is a couple months out of date: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/45.0/
There's a buzzin' in my brain I really can't explain; I think about it before they make me go to bed.
impstrump
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Re: 64-bit Firefox + ABP + The Weather Network = memory leaks

Post by impstrump »

Yes, it even occurs with Easylist disabled and only EasyPrivacy running.
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mapx
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Re: 64-bit Firefox + ABP + The Weather Network = memory leaks

Post by mapx »

indeed you should first update firefox to the last version
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mapx
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Re: 64-bit Firefox + ABP + The Weather Network = memory leaks

Post by mapx »

after updating FF, see if adding these filters it's a little better:

Code: Select all

@@||theweathernetwork.com^$generichide
@@||theweathernetwork.com/js/ads.js
impstrump
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Re: 64-bit Firefox + ABP + The Weather Network = memory leaks

Post by impstrump »

I've been testing it in FF 45, and there's no discernible difference in its behaviour.

The filters suggested by mapx do help a little. With the filters, Firefox still sucks up memory with a single tab passively open to the Weather Network, but it usually tops out at 6.8 gigs (of an available 8 gigs). About half the time it releases memory before there's any noticeable lag. The rest of the time it freezes for a minute or two, with "Not Responding" appearing in the title bar and the mouse pointer turning into a spinner, before releasing several gigs of memory.

This is certainly an improvement over the previous behaviour of sucking up 100% of my memory and then crashing every single time, but really it should be releasing memory before it freezes every single time.
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mapx
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Re: 64-bit Firefox + ABP + The Weather Network = memory leaks

Post by mapx »

6.8 gigs ? :shock:
I tested the site and it arrives at 650 - 750 mb not more and using those filters it remains stable (otherwise it keeps increasing the occupied memory)

Did you clear FF ? cookies, cache, or even try creating a new profile, install ABP, test again. Or, first reset FF: https://support.mozilla.org/kb/reset-fi ... t-problems
and install ABP.
impstrump
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Re: 64-bit Firefox + ABP + The Weather Network = memory leaks

Post by impstrump »

I've reset Firefox and reinstalled only Adblock Plus, adding the two filters mentioned upthread.

It now stays between 300-500 megs for about an hour, which is a significant improvement, but then it starts climbing again for no apparent reason. The first time it maxed out at 4.7 gigs before releasing memory, the second time it reached 6.1 gigs and froze, and I had to go into about:memory and click on "Minimize memory usage" to get it to release. Again, this is an improvement, but not quite what it should be.

Anyone trying to duplicate this problem should note that it happens more frequently when the browser is left sitting passively as opposed to being used in the normal manner, and it doesn't always manifest itself quickly. This means that in order to confirm that it isn't happening, you have to open the Weather Network page and then leave it untouched for a couple of hours before you can state definitively that the problem didn't occur. (This is why it's taking me so long to test things.)
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fanboy
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Re: 64-bit Firefox + ABP + The Weather Network = memory leaks

Post by fanboy »

Using Firefox nightly, I didn't see any memory issues with Adblock Plus enabled here.
jibblypop
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Re: 64-bit Firefox + ABP + The Weather Network = memory leaks

Post by jibblypop »

I just wanted to chime in and say that I have this problem as well with The Weather Network website. I checked it on three different computers and they all have the problem. To check if the problem is really Adblock Plus though, I installed another adblocker called u lock and interestingly that extention had the exact same problem with the Weather Network website. So I can only conclude that the problem isn't specific to Adblock Plus but has something to do with blocking ads in general on that website in Firefox. It may have something to do with how that site auto-refreshes the forecast every few minutes? No idea. Anyways, I hope this information helps in some way.
impstrump
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Re: 64-bit Firefox + ABP + The Weather Network = memory leaks

Post by impstrump »

I was googling around the problem, and found a similar bug report for another add-on here: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/issues/1449, which suggests the following filter:

Code: Select all

||twnmm.com/js/*/adobe_audience_manager$script
This filter does seem to curb the memory leak with ABP. I had it sitting open for 4 hours, and it never went higher than 700 megs.

However, with the introduction of this filter, the page no longer auto-updates. The countdown that appears at the bottom of the page saying "There is a new forecast available for your area and your page will update in X seconds" still does appear when a new update is available, but once the countdown reaches zero the page doesn't auto-refresh. I'm not knowledgeable enough about filters or scripts to figure out if this filter can be tweaked to allow the auto-update while preventing the memory leak.
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