Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

staggering or pausing for less than a second

  • 8 replies
  • 6 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by djeddie2014

more options

Every time I restart Firefox after 15-30m, it starts staggering or freezing every 3 seconds for a half second or so. For example, when I'm bringing down the drag down bar it pauses every 3 seconds or the same thing when I'm highlighting passages. It also affects videos and typing. I've tried reinstalling Firefox completely but the problem came back shortly. The other applications on my laptop aren't having this issue.

Every time I restart Firefox after 15-30m, it starts staggering or freezing every 3 seconds for a half second or so. For example, when I'm bringing down the drag down bar it pauses every 3 seconds or the same thing when I'm highlighting passages. It also affects videos and typing. I've tried reinstalling Firefox completely but the problem came back shortly. The other applications on my laptop aren't having this issue.

All Replies (8)

more options

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window.

You can also check for problems with the sessionstore.js and sessionstore.bak files in the Firefox profile folder that store session data.

Delete the sessionstore.js file and possible sessionstore-##.js files with a number and sessionstore.bak in the Firefox profile folder.

Deleting sessionstore.js will cause App Tabs and Tab Groups and open and closed (undo) tabs to get lost and you will have to recreate them (make a note or bookmark them if possible).

more options

I deleted the application and reinstalled and the issue came back. I tried safe mode, turning off hardware acceleration and deleting the sessionstore files but after some time the staggering happens.

more options

Do you keep a lot of tabs open? Firefox saves your open windows and tabs very frequently -- as often as every 15 seconds. For some users, this seems to create a drag on performance. You could try extending the interval to every 60 seconds and see whether that helps. This thread has the steps: Last update made my Firefox stop working for a second every minute.

more options

Yes, the dragging starts happening once I get over a certain amount of tabs. After I reduced my tabs open to two, everything was working normal. But I'm always able to keep a lot of tabs open and the application would work, what could have happened?

more options

Hi j032, I'm not sure what changed. Some users have reported that Firefox 24 used a lot more memory when a lot of tabs were open (e.g., over 100). If you starting having this issue in Firefox 24, maybe it is related to overall memory usage?

more options

Having more than a certain number of tabs causes it to drag more gradually. I've tried the solutions above. The memory usage doesn't go above 30% even with all applications open. Is there anything else I can try or would reinstalling Windows solve it?

more options

I wouldn't go all the way to reinstalling Windows unless there are global symptoms.

If you typically have a lot of tabs using Flash, could you try disabling the Flash Player plugin's protected mode. See this support article from Adobe under the heading "Last Resort": Adobe Forums: How do I troubleshoot Flash Player's protected mode for Firefox?

more options

after update 25 its running very slow and pause every damn second it also uses a lot more memory 228 mb i only have 8 tabs open and i can hardly see any video.

Modified by djeddie2014