Will FireFox ever fix its high energy usage?

[bunnspecial]

I've been a Firefox user for a long time-I'd say probably since the early to mid-2000s, and long before I was a Mac user. I don't really want to give it up, partially because of sync(I know iCloud/Safari/Keychain does similar, but I have a lot of stuff in Sync and don't think it carries over easily) and partially because for a lot of reasons I want a separate search bar.

I can't get around the fact, though, that despite claims of it getting "better" Firefox still hammers my battery and also seemingly makes my computers run hot. It consistently reports as "high energy usage." On my old trusty MBP 9,1, I'm lucky to get 2 hours on an otherwise healthy battery if using Firefox-not even Lightroom drains my battery that fast! On my much newer Retina(13" 2015), I'm good for 6+ hours using Safari, and usually just barely 3 with Firefox.

My 9,1 is on 10.13 and my Retina on 10.14(don't want to go to 10.15 for a variety of reasons). I'm running FF 77.0.1 on both, which it claims is up to date, and I always update promptly. I have a couple of extensions installed, but they're things that should DECREASE energy use, not increase it(uBlock Origin, Disable JavaScript, FaceBook Container). Can anyone offer me any insight on this?

As I said, I don't want to give up Firefox, but I'm at the point where I may have to, as it seems to be getting worse and not better.

 

[AppleSmack]

You could just use Safari if you want power consumption, but then extension support is limited.

Give Chrome a try with the same extensions.

I suspect you'll find that Firefox fills the middle ground, using less power than Chrome, while still supporting extensions.

You could instead offload ad-blocking by pointing Firefox's DNS to Adguard DNS service, though it won't be as granular as using ublock.

 

[MacGizmo]

You should give up on Firefox. The rest of the world has.

I would avoid Chrome like the plague, but the basic engine it uses is also used by BRAVE and MS EDGE for Mac. Both are EXCELLENT alternatives that offer the benefit of being able to use Google Chrome Store extensions.

 

[bousozoku]

I don't seem to have as much of a problem, but I have 16 GB of RAM in my 9,1 and an SSD. Looking at Energy with just MacRumors on Firefox, it showed 0.8. Prior to the upgrade, it wouldn't correctly run a modern Firefox with 4 GB of RAM and a spinning drive. Now, I'm on Catalina with Firefox 78.0.1.

I also have Chrome, Edge, and Safari, but Firefox is so much better for privacy.

 

[BluAffiliate]

You could just use Safari if you want power consumption, but then extension support is limited.

Give Chrome a try with the same extensions.

I suspect you'll find that Firefox fills the middle ground, using less power than Chrome, while still supporting extensions.

You could instead offload ad-blocking by pointing Firefox's DNS to Adguard DNS service, though it won't be as granular as using ublock.

Chrome uses less juice than Firefox, at least for me.

 

[Madhatter32]

You should give up on Firefox. The rest of the world has.

I would avoid Chrome like the plague, but the basic engine it uses is also used by BRAVE and MS EDGE for Mac. Both are EXCELLENT alternatives that offer the benefit of being able to use Google Chrome Store extensions.

It's actually the second leading browser per Net Marketshare -- although far beyond Chrome. Firefox is a good browser.

 

[Janichsan]

🤔

Firefox is supposed to be using significantly less energy since version 70, and I can confirm that this is the case for me. And the most recent version is 78.0.1.

 

[BluAffiliate]

Nope.

 

[nbnbxdnb]

I started FF ver85 in safe mode with all addons disabled to measure the rough base energy consumption. It still rates between 8 to 9. With all addons loaded, it is actually slightly lower. 16G ram.

 

[MacBH928]

i didnt do it scientifically but you wont beat Safari on macOS. Run ublock origin see if it helps.

If you want to change go for Brave which is Chrome with out google spycode. microsoft edge has been pleasing some people. they say it's pretty efficient but i wouldn't use it due to privacy reasons.

 

[bebarhood]

Just like the original post, I've been using Firefox since 2005 I believe. I cannot simply shift to another browser because I do see Firefox getting better and faster with each release. I've never used Chrome. Safari I use it on my iPhone only.

I suggest you stick with Firefox and maybe disable unnecessary plugins or extensions. Clear cookies and browser data frequently.

Hope this helps. FF forever🦊🔥

 

[MacBH928]

Just like the original post, I've been using Firefox since 2005 I believe. I cannot simply shift to another browser because I do see Firefox getting better and faster with each release. I've never used Chrome. Safari I use it on my iPhone only.

I suggest you stick with Firefox and maybe disable unnecessary plugins or extensions. Clear cookies and browser data frequently.

Hope this helps. FF forever🦊🔥

unfortunately FF/Mozilla is breaking apart. They are dry on cashflow, they fired their employees, moved offices, raised CEO pay. Personally I don't want to see the last non-chromium multiplatform browser go down but its just the reality of the situation.

 

[AppleSmack]

This fantastic extension will unload tabs automatically - it's super configurable for time, which tabs are excluded, included, etc.
Out of my 100 tabs open, I probably only need 10 of them active really.

Auto Tab Discard â Get this Extension for ð¦ Firefox (en-GB)

Download Auto Tab Discard for Firefox. Increase browser speed and reduce memory load and when you have numerous open tabs.

addons.mozilla.org

(Also available on other browsers!)

 

[bebarhood]

unfortunately FF/Mozilla is breaking apart. They are dry on cashflow, they fired their employees, moved offices, raised CEO pay. Personally I don't want to see the last non-chromium multiplatform browser go down but its just the reality of the situation.

That's very unfortuante. I am not following the news tbh. Let's hope they pick themselves up, since I am a big fan of Firefox. Not sure how to transition to another browser all of a sudden.

 

[MacBH928]

That's very unfortuante. I am not following the news tbh. Let's hope they pick themselves up, since I am a big fan of Firefox. Not sure how to transition to another browser all of a sudden.

There is nothing much to it, there is an export function for bookmarks and everything. FireFox is not necessarly bad now but the future is looking dim. In the next few years if they don't pickup themselves I can see them lagging behind big time.