Mozilla Firefox is one of the fastest browser available, but sometimes due to the problem with add-ons and other factors, your browser might slow down over time. Though every browser has more or less similar speeds when it comes to performance. However, Firefox users have to face performance issues sometimes. If your Firefox is slow and you want to speed it up, then follow this article. Here you will get to know the effective steps to speed up the Firefox browser.
Reasons Behind Firefox Is Slow:
If your Firefox browser is running slow, it can be due to following reasons:
- Firefox is overloaded with cache and cookies, thereby consuming too much RAM or CPU
- Plugins or Addons is creating problems
- The virus is causing complications in the Firefox
Apart from these, there are other causes as well which are causing complications in your Mozilla Firefox web browser.
How To Speed up Firefox Running Slow?
If your Firefox is slow and you don’t know how to speed up Firefox, then try out the methods provided below one by one to fix the problem.
Method 1: Enable “Show a blank page” option
If you find that your Firefox browser takes too long to start than any other browsers like Chrome, Edge, and Safari, then you can follow the below steps to make your Firefox browser boot faster:
- Go to about: preferences
- Go to General option. Then, tick off the box ” Always check if Firefox is your default browser.“
- Go to about and then Preferences
- Go to General option and then, click on “When Firefox Starts”
- At last, select the option “Show a blank page“
Method 2: Restart the Firefox browser in Safe Mode
- At first, try to restart Firefox browser in Safe Mode. By doing this, your Firefox browser will run without any plugins or Add-ons
- Go to the three-line icon, which is situated at the extreme right of the URL bar and choose “Options”
- Then, click on the Question Mark icon
- Click on option ” Restart with Add-ons Disabled.” After performing this step, Firefox will restart and it will display two options: ” Refresh Firefox” or ” Start in Safe Mode “
- You have to select the ” Start in Safe Mode ” option
Now, if your Firefox browser runs faster, then probably the problem lies with any of the plugins or Add-ons. Thus, you have to disable all the Add-ons and then again, restart your Firefox browser. Then, enable one by one to verify which one is causing complications.
Method 3: Use hardware acceleration to speed up Firefox
Sometimes, your Firefox runs slow even with top-notch hardware because the browser is being conservative in how to improve the performance of your Firefox browser. Follow the steps described below:
- Go to about and then preferences
- Then, select “General” option. After that, scroll down to “Performance.” option
- Then,tick off the box which says ” Use recommended performance settings.”
- At last, you have to check the box ” Use hardware acceleration when available.”
Once, if you enable this option, your Firefox browser will no longer use the processor instead, it will use the graphics card. Thus, you will get much smoother performance while watching YouTube or playing a web browser game.
Method 4: Use Speed Tweaks
It is always recommended not to use the extensions because it adds more bloat to your browser. Always tweak about config settings. SpeedyFox or Speed Tweaks is the most reliable trick in Firefox. To use it follow the steps provided below:
- You need to download and install the extension
- Then, go to the Tools option. Then, choose the “Add-ons” option and proceed on by selecting the Speed Tweaks> Preferences
- After that, you have to click on the Apply option in ” Set recommended values for all preferences”
- Then, restart your Firefox browser
Automatically, the extension will apply all the “about: config” tweaks that you get on your various sites. Through this Preference page, you can customize any of the values.
Method 5: Refresh your Firefox browser
If all the above methods fail to optimize your Firefox browser, you should perform a clean installation of Firefox browser. Now, the Firefox browser also has a one-click option to return back to default Firefox state just like most of the operating systems. This will not only remove the customizations and add-ons but also restore the browser settings to default.
For that, you have to go through the steps described below:
- Visit the about: support
- Then, click on Refresh Firefox in the “Give Firefox a tune up.”
- Go to the dialog box which pops-up and click on Refresh Firefox option once again.
After you have attempted these steps, your Firefox browser will ultimately shut down and will restart again after a few seconds. This will revert back all the performance and settings to default.
Method 6: Remove Antivirus from your system
If your Firefox browser is running slow, then it is always recommended to install Anti-virus programs in it. This will remove the additional virus and malware in your browser and ultimately speed up your Firefox.
Hope, you can easily speed up your Firefox browser by trying the above methods. If you fail to do so, then get in touch with an experienced professional to resolve the Firefox running slow issue.
