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whenthepawn
join:2012-06-22
Martin, TN

whenthepawn

Member

[Firefox] Issues Switching Tabs

Hey everyone,

So, I've had an annoyance with the way switching tabs seems to work now. Since the last two updates updates or so, I've noticed that every time I switch tabs—when I have multiple open—the browser shows a white screen with a grey progress icon before the page is shown on the screen.

It looks like this:


What is up with this? I don't like it at all.

In previous versions, the pages in other tabs were just there upon switching over, not a white background and this icon.

There have been times when I've had to wait 10, 20, 30 (or more) seconds before the page in the tab reappears on the screen. Usually, it happens when another tab is being loaded.

It sucks. All it does is slow me down when I'm trying to browse since I have to wait longer for the page in the tab to show as fully loaded.

They need to change this ASAP. Is anyone else having this issue or as annoyed as I am by it?

whenthepawn
Frodo
join:2006-05-05

Frodo

Member

That means you have E10's on. I forced E10's on and see it too.
whenthepawn
join:2012-06-22
Martin, TN

whenthepawn

Member

said by Frodo:

That means you have E10's on.

What does that mean, exactly? Is there a way to prevent the icon from showing up?
Frodo
join:2006-05-05

1 recommendation

Frodo

Member

I'm suggesting you have the multi-processing enabled. Enter about:support and check the Multiprocess Windows item. If it is showing 1/1 then you have multi-processing on.

On my box, the startup of an additional process is what is causing a delay when I go to a new tab. It is not giving me issues if the tab is already there.

If you don't have multi-processing on, then your issue is different from mine.

If multi-processing seems to be the culprit, look in about:config for

browser.tabs.remote.autostart
and set it to false and restart.



(I've locked mine to true, to play with the new technology)
whenthepawn
join:2012-06-22
Martin, TN

whenthepawn

Member

said by Frodo:

If it is showing 1/1 then you have multi-processing on

Yes, it says Enabled by default.

About:config says browser.tabs.remote.autostart is set to false, but browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2 is set to true.

I don't know what any of this means, though.

There's also a browser.tabs.animate, which is set to true (by default). Maybe that's what causes the icon to appear?
Frodo
join:2006-05-05

1 recommendation

Frodo

Member

I'm going to have to look around. I've had the multiprocess enabled for a few releases, and Mozilla has been switching the proferences.

I just toggled autostart.2 to false, and it is still multiprocess.
Frodo

1 recommendation

Frodo

Member

I managed to kill the beast. In about:config I entered tabs.remote and brought up the following preferences.


By toggling all to false, Firefox is running in only one process. Not sure if all need to be false, but at least one of these knocked out the multiprocess and a new tab opens instantly, since a new process isn't generated.
Frodo

1 recommendation

Frodo

Member

Looking at it further, the Mozilla preference file, line 1429 indicates that autostart.2 is the preference currently in use. So setting:
browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2
to false should do it for this version. Later on, the preference might be something else, but by putting in tabs.remote the preference should be out there somewhere. I reset the other preferences under tabs.remote .
whenthepawn
join:2012-06-22
Martin, TN

whenthepawn

Member

said by Frodo:

setting:
browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2
to false should do it for this version. Later on, the preference might be something else, but by putting in tabs.remote the preference should be out there somewhere. I reset the other preferences under tabs.remote .

I'm only slightly familiar with about:config. So, I'm just wondering: Is it ok to change values back and forth like this?

You'd think there'd be an easier way to stop the icon from showing up while switching between tabs.

I'm sure the developers think changes like this have improved the browser, but not really.

Thank you for looking into the issue further, Frodo.

Since upgrading to 49.0.2, I've also noticed that the browser stalls with multiple tabs open.

Yesterday, I was surfing YouTube (listening to songs) and waiting for a download to finish. For whatever reason, the browser became unresponsive, but the download kept going. Every time I tried to switch between tabs, I'd get the grey icon in the middle of the screen. All menus and icons were accessible, but clicking on them did nothing. The browser just hung for 10-15 minutes before it seemed to catch up with itself.

So frustrating. Also, in general, it just seems slower than ever.
Frodo
join:2006-05-05

1 recommendation

Frodo

Member

You can toggle browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2 between true and false. I'm finding that if it is "reset" that firefox will go through the check to see if multi-processing can be enabled. But false should shut it off. Then, you get to find out if that is the problem.