Adblock Plus slows Firefox site load time on warm restarts.
Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 6:45 am
Adblock Plus is a fantastic program that generally does a great job. But ABP is the ONLY add-on in Firefox that causes about a 50% increase in site load time on warm repeated restarts of Firefox, going from about or 2.33 to 3.5sec. just opening to the Google Home page. Other sites take a little longer, but the increased time delay is also about 40% increase in loading time, depending on the site. This happens with only one tab open ( it's set to load tabs on demand) and regardless of the Firefox version, which is currently up to date version 23.
I've systematically tested every single extension and Ablock Plus is the only one that's responsible for that much delay. Even Norton Internet Security, which does far more work, including the Toolbar and Firewall, doesn't cause that much delay, in testing. Other extensions have only a minimal effect. Clean re installs of Firefox show no improvement, because this is not caused by Firefox. I've been bothered by this with earlier versions of Adblock Plus, but it actually got a little worse after the update in June. I'm pretty sure of that because I was doing clean installs of Firefox after wiping out my profile to try to fix it, if it was made worse by a problem with Firefox, but that made no difference and everything else is running normally fast, as are the other browsers. Firefox's loading times are normal also, opening to any site, if Adblock Plus is disabled and there are no other problems with Firefox.
Note: This slowdown caused by Adblock Plus only occurs on restarts of Firefox, but it's consistent. Once it's already open, loading a new site doesn't seem to be slowed down by Adblock Plus. It seems strange, unless the filters are already initialized, but it must be a positive clue to the problem, because there's no slowdown at all if Firefox is already open and you're going to a different site.
Testing with some of the forks of Adblock Plus, like Adblock Edge, showed similar delays.
Testing the filter list by unchecking Easy List showed a negligible difference, so it's the program, not the Easy List that's causing the delay.
I know Adblock has a lot of work to do, and it's a great program, but it really shouldn't be slowing down the browser nearly that much and in testing, the Adblock software for Chrome 28 doesn't slow it down at all, although I don't use Chrome - I just tested it for comparison.
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Steps to Reproduce.
Note: Make sure Firefox is set in Options to "Remember my windows and tabs from last time", so it will automatically reopen to the same site your testing after you close Firefox.
1. Start Windows normally with Adblock Plus enabled. Launch Firefox. Note: The site loading time at initial cold startup is not significantly affected by Adblock Plus - from about 4 secs to 4.5 secs. -Only 1/2 sec delay.
2. Close Firefox and then reopen it to Google Home Page after several seconds. That's when you see the delay.
3. Repeat Step 2. while reopening repeatedly to different sites, such as the Huffington Post, or YouTube or The New York Times.
4. Disable Adblock Plus and repeat and note the time reduction in site loading.
5.Re-enable ABP and repeat steps 1-3 to confirm the slowdown, by seeing the increase in load times.
I have an HP notebook with an I7 processor with 8 Gigs of Ram and a Hybrid drive and I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, English language. All drivers, add-ons and software and the Envidia Graphics Card and Adobe Flash are updated as well on the notebook, and so are Windows updates, as well as Adblock Plus.
Extensions are:Adblock Plus 2.3.2 with EasyList English filter
Make Link
Norton Toolbar
Norton Vulnerability Protection
Personas Plus
Preloader (for Firefox) - only runs on cold startup. Note: I tested the cold startup times manually, without the Preloader. Cold starts with the Preloader enabled don't seem to be significantly effected, which is consistent with ABP not slowing down the cold start times without the Preloader.
RSS icon for Awesome bar.
Tab Mix Plus
UnMHT
Wiktionary and Google Translate
Changing from allowing some adds to blocking all adds doesn't make any difference. The slowdown got so annoying that I uninstalled Adlblock Plus completely. But, although the load time were much faster, the time wasted watching those dumb adds wasn't worth it, so I reinstalled it, of course. It's a great extension and I love it and I know it has a lot of work to do to block the adds after checking the filter list, but it shouldn't be causing that much of a slowdown. This does NOT happen with the Adlock extension for Chrome - there is NO significant difference in site load times whether Adlock is enabled or disabled in Chrome. It also doesn't happen with Adblock Plus for Chrome - no delays at all.
Disabling or uninstalling other add-ons, plugins, etc. is not relevant because my testing has shown they are not the problem and make very little significant difference. I have them running for good reason - that's what Firefox is known for. One single add-on shouldn't cause that much of a slowdown by itself, and that's the problem.
UPDATE 12/20/2013: Testing with the updated version 2.4 of Adblock Plus shows no improvement - exactly the same delays, with the current Firefox 26. Testing the Easy List by unchecking the box still shows negligible effect - it's the program that's the problem, not the filter list.
I've systematically tested every single extension and Ablock Plus is the only one that's responsible for that much delay. Even Norton Internet Security, which does far more work, including the Toolbar and Firewall, doesn't cause that much delay, in testing. Other extensions have only a minimal effect. Clean re installs of Firefox show no improvement, because this is not caused by Firefox. I've been bothered by this with earlier versions of Adblock Plus, but it actually got a little worse after the update in June. I'm pretty sure of that because I was doing clean installs of Firefox after wiping out my profile to try to fix it, if it was made worse by a problem with Firefox, but that made no difference and everything else is running normally fast, as are the other browsers. Firefox's loading times are normal also, opening to any site, if Adblock Plus is disabled and there are no other problems with Firefox.
Note: This slowdown caused by Adblock Plus only occurs on restarts of Firefox, but it's consistent. Once it's already open, loading a new site doesn't seem to be slowed down by Adblock Plus. It seems strange, unless the filters are already initialized, but it must be a positive clue to the problem, because there's no slowdown at all if Firefox is already open and you're going to a different site.
Testing with some of the forks of Adblock Plus, like Adblock Edge, showed similar delays.
Testing the filter list by unchecking Easy List showed a negligible difference, so it's the program, not the Easy List that's causing the delay.
I know Adblock has a lot of work to do, and it's a great program, but it really shouldn't be slowing down the browser nearly that much and in testing, the Adblock software for Chrome 28 doesn't slow it down at all, although I don't use Chrome - I just tested it for comparison.
.
Steps to Reproduce.
Note: Make sure Firefox is set in Options to "Remember my windows and tabs from last time", so it will automatically reopen to the same site your testing after you close Firefox.
1. Start Windows normally with Adblock Plus enabled. Launch Firefox. Note: The site loading time at initial cold startup is not significantly affected by Adblock Plus - from about 4 secs to 4.5 secs. -Only 1/2 sec delay.
2. Close Firefox and then reopen it to Google Home Page after several seconds. That's when you see the delay.
3. Repeat Step 2. while reopening repeatedly to different sites, such as the Huffington Post, or YouTube or The New York Times.
4. Disable Adblock Plus and repeat and note the time reduction in site loading.
5.Re-enable ABP and repeat steps 1-3 to confirm the slowdown, by seeing the increase in load times.
I have an HP notebook with an I7 processor with 8 Gigs of Ram and a Hybrid drive and I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, English language. All drivers, add-ons and software and the Envidia Graphics Card and Adobe Flash are updated as well on the notebook, and so are Windows updates, as well as Adblock Plus.
Extensions are:Adblock Plus 2.3.2 with EasyList English filter
Make Link
Norton Toolbar
Norton Vulnerability Protection
Personas Plus
Preloader (for Firefox) - only runs on cold startup. Note: I tested the cold startup times manually, without the Preloader. Cold starts with the Preloader enabled don't seem to be significantly effected, which is consistent with ABP not slowing down the cold start times without the Preloader.
RSS icon for Awesome bar.
Tab Mix Plus
UnMHT
Wiktionary and Google Translate
Changing from allowing some adds to blocking all adds doesn't make any difference. The slowdown got so annoying that I uninstalled Adlblock Plus completely. But, although the load time were much faster, the time wasted watching those dumb adds wasn't worth it, so I reinstalled it, of course. It's a great extension and I love it and I know it has a lot of work to do to block the adds after checking the filter list, but it shouldn't be causing that much of a slowdown. This does NOT happen with the Adlock extension for Chrome - there is NO significant difference in site load times whether Adlock is enabled or disabled in Chrome. It also doesn't happen with Adblock Plus for Chrome - no delays at all.
Disabling or uninstalling other add-ons, plugins, etc. is not relevant because my testing has shown they are not the problem and make very little significant difference. I have them running for good reason - that's what Firefox is known for. One single add-on shouldn't cause that much of a slowdown by itself, and that's the problem.
UPDATE 12/20/2013: Testing with the updated version 2.4 of Adblock Plus shows no improvement - exactly the same delays, with the current Firefox 26. Testing the Easy List by unchecking the box still shows negligible effect - it's the program that's the problem, not the filter list.