MyBB Memory Leak?

[TerryRitchie]

Has anyone else noticed this using FireFox or even another browser:

Often times I'll leave Firefox run for weeks at a time. Every now and then I'll get up in the morning to notice Task Manager showing FireFox using over 4GB of RAM and climbing.

I've narrowed this down to this site. To verify this I let FireFox run with this site as its only tab (I used another browser to do other things, yuck). For the past few months I have been tracking the issue using this method. With only this site loaded I'll get a run away memory issue in FireFox within a few days. I can let FireFox run for weeks with many tabs open and no memory issue. As soon as I open this site I'm guaranteed to have a run away memory issue within a day or two.

Is anyone else noticing this?

[SMcNeill]

I've never noticed, but I'm not a Firefox user.  We don't have any advertisements or automatic refreshing that I know of, so I don't have a clue what the heck FF might be doing to use incremental memory. 

[TerryRitchie]

I've never noticed, but I'm not a Firefox user.  We don't have any advertisements or automatic refreshing that I know of, so I don't have a clue what the heck FF might be doing to use incremental memory. 

At first I thought I may have had some crypto-mining malware infecting FF but eliminated that thought by doing a complete wipe and fresh install of FF and performing the same methods using my wife's and my bench computer systems to verify the issue. I completely wipe my bench computer every 6 months and did it just before looking into this issue.

I agree, I see so reason why MyBB would do this, especially as you pointed out you don't load any of the advertising crap and what not. I'm curious if other FF users have noticed this and/or will now start looking to see if maybe they have the issue signifying a possible FF bug.

[bplus]

I turn off my computer at night to avoid electrical leaks.

[mnrvovrfc]

Often times I'll leave Firefox run for weeks at a time. Every now and then I'll get up in the morning to notice Task Manager showing FireFox using over 4GB of RAM and climbing.

Unless you have a dire need to leave your computer on for much longer than a few hours at a time -- as in running your own business -- you should not do this with any web browser. People do all sorts of crazy things and also believe a single Linux distribution constructed in a certain way would make them safe from being spied on. The privacy ends the moment the user opens some web page inside a web browser. The browser does other things to indicate the mission of the creator. Is Mozilla making any money out of creating Firefox? Does it come from the users? So it has to generate it from somewhere. It's pathetic but true.

I use Firefox AppImage, do not rely well on "standard installed" versions on Linux because usually they are crap, on Debian "stable" it has to be ESR which I don't prefer. I have it at medium strength with ad-blocking and that stuff, and clear cookies and history at program exit. And I'm regularly getting out of the program and back in again. Because I have a slow, unpredictable Internet connection and I don't like many megabytes of junk loaded into my hard disk that might hinder me later.

I wish I didn't have to rely on any extensions but I do have UBlock Origin enabled. But that seems to want 100MB at least of information.

[TerryRitchie]

Often times I'll leave Firefox run for weeks at a time. Every now and then I'll get up in the morning to notice Task Manager showing FireFox using over 4GB of RAM and climbing.

Unless you have a dire need to leave your computer on for much longer than a few hours at a time -- as in running your own business -- you should not do this with any web browser. People do all sorts of crazy things and also believe a single Linux distribution constructed in a certain way  would make them safe from being spied on. The privacy ends the moment the user opens some web page inside a web browser. The browser does other things to indicate the mission of the creator. Is Mozilla making any money out of creating Firefox? Does it come from the users? So it has to generate it from somewhere. It's pathetic but true.

I use Firefox AppImage, do not rely well on "standard installed" versions on Linux because usually they are crap, on Debian "stable" it has to be ESR which I don't prefer. I have it at medium strength with ad-blocking and that stuff, and clear cookies and history at program exit. And I'm regularly getting out of the program and back in again. Because I have a slow, unpredictable Internet connection and I don't like many megabytes of junk loaded into my hard disk that might hinder me later.

I wish I didn't have to rely on any extensions but I do have UBlock Origin enabled. But that seems to want 100MB at least of information. 

My computers are on 24/7/365, I never turn them off. It's actually better to leave your electronics run this way. I do, however, turn monitors off when I don't need them (but they're not truly "off", read on). I'm not sure where you heard that computers should not be on for more than a few hours at a time? Every time you start electronics by cycling power it takes a huge toll on components, especially capacitors, that's why they fail so frequently in computers.

When you turn off your VCR, DVD player, stereo system, etc.. you're not actually turning them off. You are simply turning the displays off (and/or an indicator LED) that shows them to be "off". The power supplies in electronic devices are constantly supplying some level of power to components. The only way to truly turn off an electronic device is to unplug it from the wall (or remove it from the mains with something like a switched power strip). Even old tube style TVs did this. If you're old enough you may remember looking into the back of a TV that was off and seeing the little orange glows in there. The power supply was still supplying power to the circuitry. I have bench computers that have been running for over 15 years. The only time they get powered down completely is to vacuum them out or a part needs replaced/installed. If you don't believe me purchase a Kill-a-watt and connect it between the wall and any of your electronic devices. You'll see even when "off" your electronics are still drawing power.

I have FireFox set to wipe all information upon exit, that is why I let it run for days and even weeks on end. It runs in strict privacy mode all of the time. This means login information, cookies, site preferences, etc.. are not saved locally between the program being closed and reopened.

[mnrvovrfc]

If you live in an area where power outages, brownouts and fluctuations of energy are common, I would be double-sure to turn the computer off and to physically disconnect the power cable because it's the best way to protect it. Not even an UPS could protect it adequately in that situation. I have an UPS which is junk which I'm forced to turn on all the time but I'm not going to do the same with my computer. I can only have one thing connected to it -- the computer -- and not the modem and therefore when there's a power outage I lose Internet signal but I get a chance to power down the system gracefully. Even what you have said about electronics which like to be turned on. I agree with that but cannot risk damage due to a power surge because I cannot get compensation for it.

I would need a better UPS which would last me a couple of years anyway, but it's not worth the high cost anymore.

I don't think you would like to take my place in the autumn six years ago.

But this was about things being turned off and unplugged. About keeping them plugged in but not "enabled", well as I've said, I cannot risk my computer in that mode when I'm not going to use it for hours such as going to sleep. Many years ago I bought a power supply at Radio Shack which costed me nearly 100USD. It failed soon after I started using it thanks to a power surge, became completely worthless. A surge might happen rarely nowadays, but I react toward the other problems about electricity.

The only thing that is constantly turned on where I live are the refrigerator and fans. Because it could get uncomfortably hot in the afternoon.

[SMcNeill]

I'm like Terry -- all my computers are on 24/7/365+.  Usually I just hop off to bed or town or wherever I need to go, and I leave my apps and tabs and browsers and all up and running, faithfully waiting on me to come back to them.  This has lead to some rather interesting playtimes for various games over the years (42 days and 19 hours for a game with a 6-8 hour playtime....).  I'm not an user of Firefox anymore (last I tried, it was incredibly resource intrusive whenever trying to play any video from the web), so I swapped over to Vivaldi (https://vivaldi.com), which seems a LOT more customizable and a little less resource intensive than most of the other browsers I've used like Edge, Chrome, ect.  I've never noticed this "memory creep over time" like Terry's talking about, which makes me think the issue is FireFox-specific, and I have no idea *why* it'd act up with our site when we're self-hosting and advertisement free and such.

Honestly, this sounds to me like it's an expected behavior for Firefox (from https://www.getdroidtips.com/firefox-usi...uch-memory)

How to fix Firefox using too much memory?
If increasing the RAM on your system is not an option for you, software solutions are all you can try. Let’s take a look at all the possible options that you have.
Restart Firefox browser:
Sometimes when Firefox is running for a long time, it might take a lot of space in the RAM. So to clear that memory out, try closing your Firefox browser and then opening it up again. Now you should be able to use Firefox without it taking up much space in your memory.

From the "Sometimes when Firefox is running for a long time, it might take a lot of space in the RAM.", it just sounds to me like this is something they're aware of and that it's common behavior in various cases.  There's a ton of information in the link above.  Anyone having memory issues with FF might want to take a look at it and see if anything in there applies to help with their particular problem. 

[Kernelpanic]

@TerryRitchie - Often times I'll leave Firefox run for weeks at a time.

Well, I left the faucet on in the bathroom once so it flooded the whole floors and they kicked me out for it. Bastards! 

Seriously, you remind me of the Linuxboys who boasted that they hadn't switched off their computers for x months.

I do not understand that! No! But that's life! It's a burlesque.

[TerryRitchie]

@TerryRitchie - Often times I'll leave Firefox run for weeks at a time.

Well, I left the faucet on in the bathroom once so it flooded the whole floors and they kicked me out for it. Bastards! 

Seriously, you remind me of the Linuxboys who boasted that they hadn't switched off their computers for x months.

I do not understand that! No! But that's life! It's a burlesque.

Oh I've been using Windows 7 for so long now and know how to perfectly tweak it that I put those Linux fanbois to shame. I routinely go for many months before I reset my system. Heck, I can't even remember that last time my system locked up let alone a BSOD. I only reset when those mysterious svchost.exe files listed in Task Manager start getting too big for my comfort.

I built a Windows 7 system for my mother-in-law well over 10 years ago and it's still going strong running 24/7/365. I perform routine maintenance on it every few months for her. I've offered to upgrade her over the years but she refuses. She simply loves the stability of the system. To be fair she doesn't use it for games or anything taxing, just uploading documents to the State Dept now and them, email, and mild web browsing.

And to be fair to the Linux fanbois, having a system run for many months with no problems is a good thing for them, given that Linux is usually used as a server where downtime can be a huge problem.