Bookmarks in Firefox on Windows 7 Very Stuttered and Slow to Populate
Hello Experts.
I use Firefox on Windows 7 on my laptop. From about 3 updates ago the bookmarks became really slow to show.
For example, clicking on the "Bookmarks" menu option, the dropdown menu shows quickly, but when I move the mouse down the menu to let it rest on one of the folders, the delay is noticeable. When the sub-menu pops it shows quickly, but there is a significant delay while each of the bookmarks displays its icon. If I move the mouse across to the right onto one of the popout sub-menus of bookmarks and move the mouse up and down while looking for a bookmark to click on, it is almost like watching a screen capture video of my mouse movements half a second or more behind my movements of the mouse.
If I click the Bookmarks menu and "Manage Bookmarks", navigating around that new window is possibly a tiny bit more jerky or stuttered than I think it was before this issue, but the icons load instantaneously into the bookmarks and there is no delayed display of my mouse movements.
I have noticed absolutely no change in how files display and load their icons in Windows Explorer, so this would seem to be an issue with the browser rather than with Windows. Please, no lectures about using an outdated insecure operating system. I know and am willing to take the risks.
I have kept Firefox updated with the expectation that one of the updates will fix the issue, but so far it hasn't. Does anybody know of a user setting or a configuration setting in one of the "about: " pages that I can mess with to try and fix the problem?
ASKER
Thank you Al Jee, I was hoping to leave graphics drivers alone for now but will consider if I can't find another fix. RAM is at the maximum for the laptop's motherboard, so not possible. I've had a go at searching Mozilla forums but it's hard to describe the issue in a way that pin-points the issue without including all the other old "bookmarks not working" problems. I will try again when I can sit down with a Scotch on hand though. I'm wondering now whether my problem is very isolated. I had hoped that the same issue would have affected a lot of users after one of the updates and somebody here would have already had to fix the problem.
Don't believe it is graphics drivers.
More likely to be a RAM shortage problem. Check using Task Manager if anything else is running and close down anything unnecessary and see if that frees up memory.
If this is a standard disk and not a SSD then try defragging or test the hard disk to see it is functioning correctly.
More likely to be a RAM shortage problem. Check using Task Manager if anything else is running and close down anything unnecessary and see if that frees up memory.
If this is a standard disk and not a SSD then try defragging or test the hard disk to see it is functioning correctly.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
Thank you for the suggestions so far. Here's what I have done/established.
1. There are no more recent graphics drivers for this older laptop graphics chip than what is installed.
2. I haven't noticed any significant degradation with performance in other applications or in general use, but this old hard drive hasn't been defragged in a long while so I did it anyway. Very slight improvement overall, but the Firefox bookmarks issue remains as it was.
3. Changed the Firefox settings as prescribed by Dr. Klahn from "use recommended performance settings" to "hardware acceleration limited to 2 tabs only". It's hard to know, but I think there was a very slight improvement with the speed that the icons for the bookmarks load in each of the sub-folders, but the mouseover delay persists.
4. I did a general cleanup of temp files and other junk. I use Ccleaner judiciously and selectively to clean up crap and it has never caused me any issues. I included Firefox. I have it set to leave a handful of cookies that remember my logins, so it cleaned out all other stuff but hasn't changed anything.
Firefox seems to automatically back up the bookmarks file (*.jsonlz4) each day for 30 days (I think). They wouldn't go back as far as the time I first noticed the issue after one of the Firefox updates. I backed up my bookmarks to a *.json file and deleted all my bookmark folders and loose bookmarks and closed Firefox. I found a folder that contains icon files (*.ico) that seem to be used by Firefox at:
C:\Users\Bill\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<my-profile>.default\shortcutCache
I backed these up and deleted them, then restarted Firefox and imported my bookmarks from the *.json file. They are all now minus the icons and they will populate as I access each of the sites again. Unfortunately, even without the icons automatically loading into each of the shortcuts in the sub-folders, it still takes longer than it should to populate the sub-folders and the navigation of them still suffers from the same delay.
I have tested with my only two extensions disabled (AdBlock Plus and New Tab Homepage that loads my chosen page into every new tab I open). No change.
when I use the Firefox menu Tools > Add-Ons and Themes > Extensions. The only extensions that show there are the AdBlock Plus and New Tab Homepage that I mentioned above.
The only "Plugin" that shows is:
OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems, Inc.
This plugin is automatically installed by Mozilla to comply with the WebRTC specification and to enable WebRTC calls with devices that require the H.264 video codec.
I do not have any "Themes" installed and enabled. It's all very "classic".
Curiously, in Ccleaner > Tools > Browser Plugins > Firefox, I see enabled plugins that I do not see in the Firefox menu mentioned above.
Add-ons Search Detection
Amazon.com.au
Bing
Chambers (UK)
DoH Roll-Out
DuckDuckGo
eBay
Firefox Screenshots
Form Autofill
Google
Picture-In-Picture
Proxy Failover
Reset Search Defaults
Web Compatibility Interventions
* New Tab Homepage *
* OpenH264 Video Codec *
Why the hell would I have an extension for Amazon Australia being automatically enabled? Ccleaner does not allow me to delete any of these, but allows me to disable them, but they keep being re-enabled by Firefox. I will look more closely at these to see if any are totally unnecessary and can be uninstalled or disabled.
My next task, when I have time, is to explore any bookmark-related configurations in the "about: " pages to see if any control the display behaviour.
1. There are no more recent graphics drivers for this older laptop graphics chip than what is installed.
2. I haven't noticed any significant degradation with performance in other applications or in general use, but this old hard drive hasn't been defragged in a long while so I did it anyway. Very slight improvement overall, but the Firefox bookmarks issue remains as it was.
3. Changed the Firefox settings as prescribed by Dr. Klahn from "use recommended performance settings" to "hardware acceleration limited to 2 tabs only". It's hard to know, but I think there was a very slight improvement with the speed that the icons for the bookmarks load in each of the sub-folders, but the mouseover delay persists.
4. I did a general cleanup of temp files and other junk. I use Ccleaner judiciously and selectively to clean up crap and it has never caused me any issues. I included Firefox. I have it set to leave a handful of cookies that remember my logins, so it cleaned out all other stuff but hasn't changed anything.
Firefox seems to automatically back up the bookmarks file (*.jsonlz4) each day for 30 days (I think). They wouldn't go back as far as the time I first noticed the issue after one of the Firefox updates. I backed up my bookmarks to a *.json file and deleted all my bookmark folders and loose bookmarks and closed Firefox. I found a folder that contains icon files (*.ico) that seem to be used by Firefox at:
C:\Users\Bill\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<my-profile>.default\shortcutCache
I backed these up and deleted them, then restarted Firefox and imported my bookmarks from the *.json file. They are all now minus the icons and they will populate as I access each of the sites again. Unfortunately, even without the icons automatically loading into each of the shortcuts in the sub-folders, it still takes longer than it should to populate the sub-folders and the navigation of them still suffers from the same delay.
I have tested with my only two extensions disabled (AdBlock Plus and New Tab Homepage that loads my chosen page into every new tab I open). No change.
when I use the Firefox menu Tools > Add-Ons and Themes > Extensions. The only extensions that show there are the AdBlock Plus and New Tab Homepage that I mentioned above.
The only "Plugin" that shows is:
OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems, Inc.
This plugin is automatically installed by Mozilla to comply with the WebRTC specification and to enable WebRTC calls with devices that require the H.264 video codec.
I do not have any "Themes" installed and enabled. It's all very "classic".
Curiously, in Ccleaner > Tools > Browser Plugins > Firefox, I see enabled plugins that I do not see in the Firefox menu mentioned above.
Add-ons Search Detection
Amazon.com.au
Bing
Chambers (UK)
DoH Roll-Out
DuckDuckGo
eBay
Firefox Screenshots
Form Autofill
Picture-In-Picture
Proxy Failover
Reset Search Defaults
Web Compatibility Interventions
* New Tab Homepage *
* OpenH264 Video Codec *
Why the hell would I have an extension for Amazon Australia being automatically enabled? Ccleaner does not allow me to delete any of these, but allows me to disable them, but they keep being re-enabled by Firefox. I will look more closely at these to see if any are totally unnecessary and can be uninstalled or disabled.
My next task, when I have time, is to explore any bookmark-related configurations in the "about: " pages to see if any control the display behaviour.
CTRL-SHFT-A and check under both Plugins and Extensions.
ASKER
Sorry guys. Been a bit busy working and sleeping to check things out further. Thanks db, the dialog that shows on Ctrl + Shift + A is what I see via the Tools menu > Add-ons and Themes, and both tose lists are available.
Have a look at this thread https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/59289-problem-with-firefox-plugins/
ASKER
Thank you for the suggestions guys. I hope you don't mind, but I marked Dr. Klahn's comment as the "solution" because it did seem to make a slight difference to the issue with the bookmarks. The other comments were good, solid suggestions as expected from such seasoned IT experts, but unfortunately I have been unable to upgrade RAM or graphics drivers. The link given by dbrunton to the Ccleaner forum thread was helpful with the side issue of plugins potentially contributing to my bookmarks issue.
ASKER
*** UPDATE ***
I am pleased to report that I have wasted many, many hours scouring Mozilla Firefox forums, searching with Google, piddling around with browser settings, defragging the hard drive, etc, etc, only to find that this seems to have been a Firefox update release issue. How do I know? I just updated to 94.0.1 and immediately after restarting Firefox my bookmark behaviour reverted to how it should be. No delays in loading the list items or their icons. Thanks again for the suggestions.
I am pleased to report that I have wasted many, many hours scouring Mozilla Firefox forums, searching with Google, piddling around with browser settings, defragging the hard drive, etc, etc, only to find that this seems to have been a Firefox update release issue. How do I know? I just updated to 94.0.1 and immediately after restarting Firefox my bookmark behaviour reverted to how it should be. No delays in loading the list items or their icons. Thanks again for the suggestions.
Have you tried to update Firefox?
That would be my suggestion.
That would be my suggestion.
Updating Firefox leads to rants and screams and objects thrown at the screen. And digging out the Voodoo doll and the long pin collection and looking up the names and addresses of Firefox developers. I'm still recovering from the update where all of the tabs were non-coloured and I couldn't tell which one was the open one.
The Firefox usability expert (and associated developers) need to be taken out the back and ... (lengthy description removed but refer to works by the Marquis de Sade and also the acts of Tomas de Torquemada)
The Firefox usability expert (and associated developers) need to be taken out the back and ... (lengthy description removed but refer to works by the Marquis de Sade and also the acts of Tomas de Torquemada)
Update your graphics drivers.
If possible, increase your RAM.
Have you checked the Mozilla Firefox forum to see if others are having / have had this issue?
There may be a solution there [ other than Scotch ] .