Horribly slow since the Dormant Tabs feature
From five stars to two. Not good.
Ever since, I think, the introduction of the “dormant tabs” feature, FF has been horribly slow for me, lagging, freezing, crashing and just plain going away. Freezes seem definitely to occur after a system popup/notification (e.g. low battery warnings); the only fix is to close and reopen the app, when I don’t always get back the page I was working with. At other times, the menu refuses to appear or is extremely laggy - over 30 seconds on the two occasions I’ve had the patience to check.
This may be down to the fact that I have many - over 80 - “dormant” tabs, though it wasn’t a problem when they weren’t dormant. Whatever it is, it needs fixed, or I’m afraid I’m going to have to switch browsers. 😐
Ever since, I think, the introduction of the “dormant tabs” feature, FF has been horribly slow for me, lagging, freezing, crashing and just plain going away. Freezes seem definitely to occur after a system popup/notification (e.g. low battery warnings); the only fix is to close and reopen the app, when I don’t always get back the page I was working with. At other times, the menu refuses to appear or is extremely laggy - over 30 seconds on the two occasions I’ve had the patience to check.
This may be down to the fact that I have many - over 80 - “dormant” tabs, though it wasn’t a problem when they weren’t dormant. Whatever it is, it needs fixed, or I’m afraid I’m going to have to switch browsers. 😐
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Response from developer
We're so sorry to hear about the slowness you've experienced in Firefox for iOS. We would like to learn more about what you've seen. Could you please share your report in our support forum so we can investigate further and help you out? You can visit our support site by following this link: https://mzl.la/3owNESY
Borderline unusable lately
This browser was great a few years ago, but recently it does nothing but crash. If I use the home button at all to leave the app and return, it hangs until a crash. I pull notifications down from the top? Crash. iPhone battery notification pops up? Crash. I plug my phone in to charge? Crash. Not to mention that it’s just generally been slow. Other than that, the only change that bothers me is that the app rotates your screen 180 if your phone is held upside down. I remember a few years ago if you did that it would just stay landscape, making reading landscape pages while lying down much better. I’m can’t even think of a use case for upside down portrait.
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New update seems to have addressed the missing ‘reader view’
I just started using the latest version and it appears they fixed one of my biggest bugbears, the reader mode option not being consistently available on sites (the same sites worked perfectly well with reader mode in safari).
I’d love even more parity with Safari, if Apple would let that happen. FF is my default browser on phone, ipad, and laptop, and I’ve been tempted to switch to safari on phone/ipad lately mainly because of the reader support (so much nicer on your eyeballs when you grab your phone in the middle of the night). But this may have stopped me!
Improved LastPass integration (such as that now available in safari) would be a huge win too, if that were possible.
I’d love even more parity with Safari, if Apple would let that happen. FF is my default browser on phone, ipad, and laptop, and I’ve been tempted to switch to safari on phone/ipad lately mainly because of the reader support (so much nicer on your eyeballs when you grab your phone in the middle of the night). But this may have stopped me!
Improved LastPass integration (such as that now available in safari) would be a huge win too, if that were possible.
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Lagging and Unresponsive : update
After crashing this morning I decided not to restore my tabs and suddenly Firefox on IOS is lightning fast again. Whilst I’m happy it’s actually usable again, and that I’ve kept my history log, there is still something clearly wrong with tab management. Perhaps it’s the unused tabs option that was introduced. Never had a problem with speed of loading or closing tabs before that. I thought it might also be tracking prevention, but those options are the same as before. So I’m guessing this might only be a problem for people with lots of tabs open, and difficult to replicate for a Support query.
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Response from developer
We're sorry to hear about this issue you've encountered while having several open tabs in Firefox for iOS. Could you please share your report in our support forum so we can investigate further and help you out? You can visit our support site by following this link: https://mzl.la/3owNESY
Only for newer phones I guess?
Mozilla, you shills!!! (I joke. This is probably unintentional even if it is frustrating). I have an iPhone 6S+ that’s been working spectacularly after all these years. I never felt the need to upgrade (another reviewer has just about my same reasons: it’s expensive, flashy, and wasteful to upgrade frequently). After several billion years, I updated my phone to the newest OS available due to that important security patch. Firefox worked better BEFORE the update. It takes an EXTREMELY long time to load anything now, and if it does, there’s a 45% chance the app outright crashes after a couple seconds. And then I have to load the page again. When I launch the app, it can hang and ignore input. When I type, often it will start to take input and even allow me to press “go”, and then the app “refreshes” and wipes my tab (and its loading progress) clean. I love having all of my bookmarks in one place, but now I’m stuck with Safari I guess. Fix this when you can, guys!!
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Sometimes I Miss Chrome
Let me start by saying that about a year ago, I completely switched from Firefox to Google Chrome. I do not regret it, either! I love the bookmark system, the speed, and the syncing. But on mobile, there is something I sorely miss from chrome: the bookmark features.
On chrome, I could edit a bookmark from the browser. I didn’t have to visit the bookmark manager. That seems like something Firefox should have. As someone who used tab stash, I have a lot of desktop bookmark folders. This wouldn’t be a problem if I had to scroll through about fifty folders each time! On Google Chrome, when you open bookmarks, it automatically takes you to the mobile bookmark folder. Why can’t Firefox do this?
All in all, I love Firefox, and if these changes were made, I’d use it just as much on mobile as I do on desktop
On chrome, I could edit a bookmark from the browser. I didn’t have to visit the bookmark manager. That seems like something Firefox should have. As someone who used tab stash, I have a lot of desktop bookmark folders. This wouldn’t be a problem if I had to scroll through about fifty folders each time! On Google Chrome, when you open bookmarks, it automatically takes you to the mobile bookmark folder. Why can’t Firefox do this?
All in all, I love Firefox, and if these changes were made, I’d use it just as much on mobile as I do on desktop
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Latest version issues
Since the latest version and on ios16 the first tab randomly doesn't open and tabs randomly don't remember their state / cookies so the page loads as if I'm not logged in. I have to refresh the page/tab for Firefox to reread state and cookies and the page in question then loads and remembers where I was at. Have tried a full reinstall which helped for a bit but now the problem is back. Almost like the browser is treating the tabs as private sometimes.
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Latest update has rendered it unusable on my old phone
I don’t like to buy a brand new phone every couple years due to the cost, both to me and the environment. Firefox is my go-to browser and has been for years, but since the latest update I’ve grudgingly gone back to the default browser (safari). It takes sometimes a full minute to load a page, and even when loaded clicking on links or buttons or text fields on mobile sites can cause it to stutter again, or crash altogether. If I go to Home Screen for even a moment to check my calendar or respond to a text, the page will spontaneously reload when I return (to clarify, without closing the app, simply viewing anything other than the app for even a second while keeping it open triggers this).
As a test, I spent 10 minutes trying to log into a social media account on Firefox before giving up and did it on Safari in seconds. Maybe it’s an issue of resources, but Safari seems able to allow my old decrepit phone do web browsing just fine so clearly it’s *possible*, and just not a priority for Firefox developers. Which may be fair, but is unfortunate for me and anyone else who values privacy but can’t afford the latest hardware. I’ll regrettably have to start looking for another browser that attempts to protect consumer privacy, because Firefox constantly reminding me what it was like to browse websites in the 90s isn’t the kind of nostalgia I enjoy.
As a test, I spent 10 minutes trying to log into a social media account on Firefox before giving up and did it on Safari in seconds. Maybe it’s an issue of resources, but Safari seems able to allow my old decrepit phone do web browsing just fine so clearly it’s *possible*, and just not a priority for Firefox developers. Which may be fair, but is unfortunate for me and anyone else who values privacy but can’t afford the latest hardware. I’ll regrettably have to start looking for another browser that attempts to protect consumer privacy, because Firefox constantly reminding me what it was like to browse websites in the 90s isn’t the kind of nostalgia I enjoy.
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Disruptive UX
I’ve been a die hard Firefox user most of my
life and this app might be the reason I have to finally seek out an alternative. For some odd reason anytime one switches back to FF from another app, or opens the app up after a period of inactivity, it suddenly opens a new tab and selects in the browser url/search field. Never mind that I may have been deep in an article and I am just switching back and forth between it while I handle some background task, like a stream of incoming messages from someone, every time I switch back to FF it behaves as though whatever I was (am) doing is stale and assumes I am trying to do something else now. It wouldn’t be so bad except that it’s two taps every time to get back to the previous tab I was on with the page I am currently trying to read. I don’t know any other browser that behaves this way and it disappoints me to no end that someone with such bad UX insights would have this kind of influence over an app and brand that I have trusted to much. I hope they fix it soon but its been this way for at least half a year now.
life and this app might be the reason I have to finally seek out an alternative. For some odd reason anytime one switches back to FF from another app, or opens the app up after a period of inactivity, it suddenly opens a new tab and selects in the browser url/search field. Never mind that I may have been deep in an article and I am just switching back and forth between it while I handle some background task, like a stream of incoming messages from someone, every time I switch back to FF it behaves as though whatever I was (am) doing is stale and assumes I am trying to do something else now. It wouldn’t be so bad except that it’s two taps every time to get back to the previous tab I was on with the page I am currently trying to read. I don’t know any other browser that behaves this way and it disappoints me to no end that someone with such bad UX insights would have this kind of influence over an app and brand that I have trusted to much. I hope they fix it soon but its been this way for at least half a year now.
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Response from developer
Thanks for your review. I understand how you prefer not seeing a new tab opened when you launch Firefox. You can change this by going to Settings > Home Page > select "Last Tab".
Much better + suggestions
If you’re looking for a chrome replacement that works very well and is available on many platforms, this is it! I use Firefox on iOS, macOS, Windows 10, and Linux. Please do not put focus in the address bar when you add a new tab. That way the menu for accessing bookmarks is still visible like safari. “New tab puts focus on address bar” could be an option. I’d prefer it be the default. The option for the address bar at the bottom is great! I realize the current implementation wants you to create a new tab when accessing a bookmark but you still have to close the bookmark menu AND touch the switch button at the bottom. this is just not as easy as not putting focus on the new tab and then picking your bookmark
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