Question Firefox consuming ssd space randomly after updating Windows 10 in the last few days.

[Confused Cat]

Over the last few days I've noticed that my SSD was filling up without me downloading anything, I've run virus scans, checked the health of the SSD to find no issues, then today I closed Firefox and checked File Explorer to see the space had returned. Have no idea why Firefox is now consuming space and nothing I've tried has worked, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Colif]

tried malwarebytes?

see if this helps - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/storage

 

[Confused Cat]

Just downloaded it to give it a try, first scan showed only 5 potentially unwanted programs, quarantined and removed them. Have not tried the link yet as hoping I don't need to clear cookies or data.

 

[Colif]

are you running any add ons in firefox?

at the very least you should use Ublock Origin, it would block most ads and also stop you going to any sites that might load malware

its unusual for it to use storage space on drive, and not ram instead.

 

[Confused Cat]

Yes running addons, and already have been using Ublock Origin as well.

 

[Colif]

The maximum browser storage space is dynamic — it is based on your hard drive size. The global limit is calculated as 50% of free disk space. In Firefox, an internal browser tool called the Quota Manager keeps track of how much disk space each origin is using up, and deletes data if necessary.

So if your hard drive is 500 GB, then the total storage for a browser is 250 GB. If this is exceeded, a process called origin eviction comes into play, deleting an entire origin's worth of data until the storage amount goes under the limit again. There is no trimming effect put in place to delete parts of origins — deleting one database of an origin could cause problems with inconsistency.

There's also another limit called group limit — this is defined as 20% of the global limit, but it has a minimum of 10 MB and a maximum of 2 GB. Each origin is part of a group (group of origins).

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US.../Browser_storage_limits_and_eviction_criteria

I don't see a way to alter the storage limits

did malwarebytes help?

Shame its not high cpu or ram - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/task-manager-tabs-or-extensions-are-slowing-firefox

not sure if this will help - https://rooturaj.com/technology/fir...-usage-100-99-and-slowing-down-windows-10-87/

 

[Confused Cat]

Dunno yet, just restarted to remove all the stuff from malwarebytes scan, still showing my ssd space is dropping was at 14.9gb upon restart, at 14.6 currently. Of which chrome didn't give back any space after closing it before restart, while Firefox did. I just cannot figure out what is going on.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

If you’re accumulating tons of cookies and data and then it makes sense especially if you never clear them out

 

[Confused Cat]

Your stored cookies, site data, and cache are currently using 855 MB of disk space.

 

[Colif]

how much extra space is it using?

Sounds like you need more storage space in general. 15gb isn't much, how big is ssd?

 

[Confused Cat]

Would vary the long it was on, two days ago I left for a few hours and came back to 10gb eaten up. The ssd is small, a 120gb one that came when purchased the pc. Currently from reboot of 14.9 am at 14.2 now.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

And the difference between those two numbers looks like your cookies and data

You probably need more storage space as mentioned above

 

[Colif]

Is it only drive in PC? 120gb okay if you have another hdd in PC to put most the data on - but really, you should think about getting a 250 at bare minimum.

We know its firefox but this might give more of a clue as to what else is using data - https://windirstat.net/

DO you use any torrent websites? some websites could use the data to run uploads/downloads through, but I guess you would notice in the internet usage chart as well.

 

[Confused Cat]

There's a 1tb hard drive also in the pc, but I've been running well below 15gb for months, all that changed was I updated a few days ago and this space issue started. I use utorrent, but I've not used it for weeks or have anything downloading/uploading there,

 

[Confused Cat]

https://imgur.com/a/17J5Uy4

View: https://imgur.com/a/17J5Uy4

 

[USAFRet]

You have 10GB consumed with pagefile and hibernation
You have 21GB in .mp4 and .mov files
17GB in .gif and .jpg

That's almost 1/2 of your drive right there.


In your WinDirStat, narrow down to the /Users/ folder. What exactly is in that 55GB?

 

[Confused Cat]

https://imgur.com/a/RPJaZjZ

View: https://imgur.com/a/RPJaZjZ

 

[Colif]

i would move movies onto hdd
28gb of desktop seems a lot too? whats in there?
should move location of downloads folder onto hdd as well (link is used because its clear, not because I think you are) - https://www.dummies.com/computers/o...e-the-location-of-user-folders-in-windows-10/

 

[Colif]

your ssd might run faster too with more free space

I only have windows + any applications that would need to be reinstalled with windows, on my ssd. Probably gone a little far, I normally have over 160gb free. I have moved all library folders, all steam games. Onedrive folder, everything I can run off hdd, I do.

 

[Confused Cat]

Stuff can be moved, but I fail to see how that will fix my firefox eating my space issue.

 

[Colif]

this could be why - https://www.servethehome.com/firefox-is-eating-your-ssd-here-is-how-to-fix-it/

 

[Confused Cat]

I did that already, it didn't work.

 

[Colif]

try reinstalling firefox, that worked for someone else with similar problem - reddit link

Next time it happens, can you run windirstat and identify the folder its filled, it might help us figure it out.

 

[Confused Cat]

I'll sleep and try it, I really don't want to do this sleepy, I want to keep all my history and stuff as I use firefox as my main browser.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

uninstall firefox and reinstall it, you should back up all your bookmarks to the cloud anyway due to this, and you can sync passwords can you not like in Chrome?

I would first reset ALL Firefox settings in the browser, then limit FF disk cache
https://ccm.net/faq/40819-firefox-36-how-to-set-the-maximum-cache-size