Right click "copy" menu becomes unresponsive

yetanotherid · Unread post by **yetanotherid** » 2024-03-10, 14:34

I'm currently using Pale Moon 33.01 on MX Linux, but I've experienced this problem as far back as when I was running Pale Moon on XP.

I tend to have numerous tabs open and also tend to leave Pale Moon running for days on end. I don't think it relates to the number of open tabs though. The problem I'm experiencing is, after Pale Moon has been running and in use for a while, the right click "copy" menu starts to become very unresponsive. CTRL+C continues to work normally, as does the right click "copy as plain text" menu, which I think is provided by an add-on. Unfortunately "copy as plain text" isn't available when copying text entered into a message box such as the one I'm using to write this post.

The right click "copy" menu becomes more and more unresponsive, making Pale Moon temporarily unresponsive, until eventually it effects the entire display. If I have a video running on my second monitor it'll freeze until Pale Moon manages to finish the copying process, which can take 5 seconds or more. CPU usage spikes during this time. The right click "paste" menu doesn't have the same problem, but it does seem to slow down a little too. CTRL+V works fine.

Restarting Pale Moon with the File/Restart menu results in the copy menu working normally again, until eventually the same thing happens.

Is there anything I can do to determine what Pale Moon is up to when this happens? I'm just an average user but if there's anything I can do to help track down the cause I'm happy to. Has anyone else experienced a similar issue?

Cheers.

Unread post by **moonbat** » 2024-03-10, 14:42

yetanotherid wrote: ↑
2024-03-10, 14:34
I tend to have numerous tabs open and also tend to leave Pale Moon running for days on end.

There's your problem. Websites are very poorly coded these days and full of bloated Javascript, there's no telling what kind of memory leaks or other problems will show up over interminable browsing sessions across multiple sites.

yetanotherid · Unread post by **yetanotherid** » 2024-03-10, 14:57

moonbat wrote: ↑
2024-03-10, 14:42
There's your problem. Websites are very poorly coded these days and full of bloated Javascript, there's no telling what kind of memory leaks or other problems will show up over interminable browsing sessions across multiple sites.

Assuming that's true, and I'm not suggesting it isn't, I wonder why Ctrl+C continues to work normally?
It's just the right click copy menu that's effected. I'm not referring to opening the right click menu itself, just what happens after I clicking "copy".

billmcct · Unread post by **billmcct** » 2024-03-10, 14:59

This happens when PM is using too much memory. Only way to fix it is a restart.

yetanotherid · Unread post by **yetanotherid** » 2024-03-10, 15:21

billmcct wrote: ↑
2024-03-10, 14:59
This happens when PM is using too much memory. Only way to fix it is a restart.

Does Pale Moon impose it's own restriction on the amount of memory it uses (64 bit version)? I ask, as this PC is fairly new and has 32GB of RAM. I have a widget-thingy on the desktop displaying memory usage, amongst other things. It usually stays pretty low. Currently it's showing 17%. Memory usage does decrease after restarting Pale moon, but only by a couple of percent at the most.

billmcct · Unread post by **billmcct** » 2024-03-10, 15:48

With that much memory Pale Moon should run like a race car. 2% of 32 GB is a lot of memory.
I am only on 8GB memory and I used to be able to open ProcessExplorer and visually watch PMs memory drop as I closed tabs.
This is not the case now. Closing tabs has little effect on the amount of memory PM is using. I have found it prudent to restart PM every time I have closed all tabs except my homepage.

EDIT:
At 12:03 pm PM with 11 tabs open:

2024-03-10 12_34_19 (2).png

After closing 10 tabs and waiting 30 min 12:34 pm:

2024-03-10 12_34_19 (1).png

After restart:

2024-03-10 12_38_35after restart.png

Unread post by **Moonchild** » 2024-03-10, 18:01

If you want to dynamically manage many open tabs' resource use, may I suggest Suspender?

yetanotherid · Unread post by **yetanotherid** » 2024-03-10, 21:10

Moonchild wrote: ↑
2024-03-10, 18:01
If you want to dynamically manage many open tabs' resource use, may I suggest Suspender?

I'm still not sure it relates to the number of opened tabs.
I've linked to a video demonstrating the issue. It hadn't become painfully bad, but you can see the text is copied and pasted three times. The first time using Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, and the second time via the "copy as plain text" menu item. There's a video playing on one of the monitors. You can see how smoothly it's playing during the first two copy and pastes, but when I copied the text a third time via the right click copy menu item the playback noticeably stuttered, and there was a noticeable increase in CPU usage. There's an item Thunar (the file manager) in Task Manager that flashed yellow the third time I copied. I'm not sure if that means anything. Pale Moon and the Task Manager are on one monitor, everything else is on another one.

The video stuttering is minor compared to how bad it can get. If I let it keep slowing down instead of restarting Pale Moon, the whole PC can become unresponsive for five seconds or more each time I use the copy menu item, but Ctrl+C works normally.

https://files.videohelp.com/u/210984/Screencast.mkv (6.1 MB)

Unread post by **Moonchild** » 2024-03-11, 00:08

That's really strange, especially if your entire OS slows down (which is normally beyond the realm of what can happen with Pale Moon having some issue). Perhaps there's some bad interop going on with other software you have installed? Are you using specific software to handle mouse events? It might also be useful to investigate why your alternative file manager flashed. Check running processes for anything odd, as well.

yetanotherid · Unread post by **yetanotherid** » 2024-03-11, 00:50

There's nothing handling mouse events. I think the closest to that would be the clipboard manager but I'm pretty sure I've tried disabling it in the past.

I'm not sure I'd describe it as the whole operating system slowing down, but more along the lines of the display not being updated. Despite the stuttering video in the sample clip I uploaded, the audio kept playing without missing a beat. Once Pale Moon is taking five seconds or more to recover after I click copy though, it's not possible to switch between running windows during that time, or there's a big delay when attempting to do so.

I don't know if or how an extension could cause the problem, but as this has been an issue for me since running Pale Moon on XP, I guess extensions would be the common denominator. I've mostly used the same ones for years.

I'll try to find the motivation to create a new user profile from scratch soon, to see what happens, and then slowly add back extensions. If I do manage to find the cause I'll post back.

Cheers.

Figueroa · Unread post by **Figueroa** » 2024-03-12, 23:45

yetanotherid wrote: ↑
2024-03-10, 21:10
and the second time via the "copy as plain text" menu item.

I previously had that extension installed and had similar issues. Removing the extension cleared things up. Even though you get the slowdown with regular Copy, if you remove the Copy as plain text extension, I think you will find that regular copy will start working normally again.

yetanotherid · Unread post by **yetanotherid** » 2024-03-13, 06:42

Figueroa wrote: ↑
2024-03-12, 23:45
I previously had that extension installed and had similar issues. Removing the extension cleared things up. Even though you get the slowdown with regular Copy, if you remove the Copy as plain text extension, I think you will find that regular copy will start working normally again.

That'd be disappointing, given how often I use the "copy as plain text" menu item. Although chances are I'm mostly using out of habit to avoid using the standard copy menu.

I was just about to disable it when I discovered it's recently been updated to version 1.2.3, so I'll install the update first, see how that goes, and then disable it if nothing changes.

Thanks for the info. I'll report back with the result.

Goodydino · Unread post by **Goodydino** » 2024-03-14, 18:24

Just as a matter of curiosity, why leave a browser running 24/7? You cannot browse 24/7. You need to eat and sleep sometime.
As for keeping track of websites, there are bookmarks.

yetanotherid · Unread post by **yetanotherid** » 2024-03-16, 01:22

Goodydino wrote: ↑
2024-03-14, 18:24
Just as a matter of curiosity, why leave a browser running 24/7? You cannot browse 24/7. You need to eat and sleep sometime.
As for keeping track of websites, there are bookmarks.

The computer's almost always doing something so I rarely turn it off. I use it as my media player most of the time too. I mostly don't reboot until something goes wrong, or I've installed a bunch of updates, although even updating the OS rarely requires a reboot as I'm running Linux. The browser is one of the few programs I tend to leave running all the time because I use it regularly.

yetanotherid · Unread post by **yetanotherid** » 2024-03-16, 01:28

Figueroa wrote: ↑
2024-03-12, 23:45

yetanotherid wrote: ↑
2024-03-10, 21:10
and the second time via the "copy as plain text" menu item.
I previously had that extension installed and had similar issues. Removing the extension cleared things up. Even though you get the slowdown with regular Copy, if you remove the Copy as plain text extension, I think you will find that regular copy will start working normally again.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry, because for years I've been using the "copy as plain text" extension to avoid using the right click copy menu, only to discover the "copy as plain text" extension is causing the problem with the copy menu. Of course that's not why I installed it in the first place, but Pale Moon has been running for a couple of days now with the "copy as plain text" extension disabled and the copy menu is still working normally.

Thanks for the info. You've no doubt saved me a fair bit of time trying to track down the offending extension myself.

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