Is it Normal for FF Profile to Have 4000 Files?

[koolx]

When I backed up my FF profile which was 270MB in size, the info window stated it had over 4000 files in it. It took a long time to copy and paste it which is strange. Is this normal?

[Reflective]

Clear the cache and then check the size again.

To clear Firefox cache click Tools ---> Options ---> Advanced and then click the Network submenu. It will also show how many MB is being used for the cache. If you can't see the "Tools" menu at the top, hit the ALT key.

[costark]

Glad you asked this.
I noticed 3479 Files being Copied (as a backup set) but I show only a 73.7 MB folder size (typical of my backups).
FF Cache DEFAULT appears to be 350 MB, because I didn't set it that way After Install.
Hopefully more Replies will clarify the Best CACHE SIZE AND HOW you can spot the Real issue (ie) you've got 500 more Files than me but it's hard to know IF your issue is In those extra Files.

[koolx]

Glad you asked this.
I noticed 3479 Files being Copied (as a backup set) but I show only a 73.7 MB folder size (typical of my backups).
FF Cache DEFAULT appears to be 350 MB, because I didn't set it that way After Install.
Hopefully more Replies will clarify the Best CACHE SIZE AND HOW you can spot the Real issue (ie) you've got 500 more Files than me but it's hard to know IF your issue is In those extra Files.

Yeah this is very strange. I cant believe it. Why is FF generating over 4000 files?? makes no sense at all.

I'll wait for further replies. This seems to be a serious issue which can have serious ramifications.

[JayhawksRock]

You could try dumping the Cache and then override the size value on the Options > Network page. Firefox should respect the value you set. My cache is set to 0 {no cache} and the setting is respected

[therube]

Cache, cache, cache.
Who said this has anything at all to do with /cache/ files?

4000 files in your Profile folder - outside of any /cache/ folder, yes that would be wrong.

So, do tell, just what are, where are these 4000 files?


My Profile...

450 MB incl. /cache/
100 MB excl. /cache/

13,500 files incl. /cache/
160 files excl. /cache/


(SeaMonkey, so old style /cache/. Old utility, so take the numbers with a grain of salt.)

Code: Select all

/cache/ - FS:NTFS clusters:4k
Total: 77 309 370 368 [72G] - Free: 18 828 857 344 [18G]
       Usage(B)   Dirs   Files  Eff  Path    
--------------- ------ ------- ----  --------
     16 003 072    245     560  93%  0
     14 471 168    246     611  91%  1
     22 126 592    245     556  95%  2
     26 054 656    243     614  95%  3
     15 851 520    246     607  92%  4
     19 238 912    249     618  93%  5
     26 624 000    242     580  95%  6
     16 257 024    245     635  92%  7
     20 975 616    246     599  94%  8
     21 258 240    238     593  94%  9
     25 190 400    248     616  95%  A
     16 011 264    247     584  93%  B
     17 362 944    247     562  93%  C
     21 344 256    249     596  94%  D
     28 655 616    246     624  96%  E
     15 790 080    244     586  93%  F
--------------- ------ ------- ----  --------
    381 235 200   3942    9545  95%  C:\Mozilla\USERS\Cache\.   (depth: 2)

Maybe it is basically correct.

Code: Select all

NDIR.EXE, Version 2.44 
Directory of C:\Mozilla\USERS\Cache\
-------------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------------
                         | files and directories |    files and directories
                         |   cumulative counts   |       cumulative sizes   
                         +-----------+-----------+--------------+--------------
Subdirectory names       |    files  |directories|  disk space  |  disk space
-------------------------+-----------+-----------+--------------+--------------
Cache                         9,548  |    3,942      58,347,520 |   397,725,696
+0                              560  |      245           4,096 |    17,010,688
+1                              611  |      246           4,096 |    15,482,880
+2                              557  |      245           4,096 |    23,146,496
+3                              614  |      243           4,096 |    27,054,080
+4                              607  |      246           4,096 |    16,863,232
+5                              618  |      249           4,096 |    20,262,912
+6                              580  |      242           4,096 |    27,619,328
+7                              635  |      245           4,096 |    17,264,640
+8                              599  |      246           4,096 |    21,991,424
+9                              593  |      238           4,096 |    22,237,184
+A                              616  |      248           4,096 |    26,210,304
+B                              584  |      247           4,096 |    17,027,072
+C                              562  |      247           4,096 |    18,378,752
+D                              596  |      249           4,096 |    22,368,256
+E                              624  |      246           4,096 |    29,667,328
+F                              586  |      244           4,096 |    16,793,600
-------------------------------------+--------------------------+--------------
Disk capacity: 77,309,370,368 bytes, Free disk space: 18,828,713,984 bytes

[therube]

If it is /cache/, do you have a need to back that up?

[koolx]

If it is /cache/, do you have a need to back that up?

No offense but why woud I need to back up the cache?

[koolx]

You could try dumping the Cache and then override the size value on the Options > Network page. Firefox should respect the value you set. My cache is set to 0 {no cache} and the setting is respected

I did that... it doesnt work. Those 4000 files are still there. Its annoying that it takes 10 mins to copy the FF profile to my flash drive. Theres got to be a way to delete these files. I am 1000% sure most of these are not necessary at all.

[koolx]

BTW, heres what I found in my FF profile:

Datareporting ................................... 1040 files
Extensions ........................................ 903 files
Storage ............................................ 505 files
Simplemail ....................................... 350 files
saved-telemetry-pings ..................... 220 files

Now which folders can be emptied out without any issues?

[lovemyfoxy]

data reporting---742
extensions -- 163 (31 extensions)
storage --------44
saved telemetry pings--1

How many extensions do you have? What's Simplemail?

[Benjamin Markson]

Data Reporting: 1 file
Extensions: 2,516 files (but 2,114 files are in DOM Inspector, Tidy, and FireFTP - some few extensions have a lot of files)
Storage 9 files
Simplemail: no such folder for me (some kind of extension?)
saved-telemetry-pings: 0 files

Data Reporting and saved-telemetry-pings are down to you. I don't collect/send any crash reports or telemetry for Mozilla.

Storage is an unruly, poorly documented, difficult to control, monster. Broadly, it is yet another place were websites can dump stuff on your computer. In my experience, for the most more part, it is entirely unnecessary. Here is a typical discussion: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... &t=3023971

My feeling is that for the most part it is unnecessary and useless and just represents yet another way for web sites to hide junk on our computers. It is poorly documented, and its visibility and use in Firefox has few useful controls. I routinely delete anything in the default and temporary sub-folders. The stuff in the permanent sub-folder appears to be a part of Firefox itself - I have no idea what these achieve either (again, nothing is documented).

...there are other threads. None seem to be exactly definitive. Recently, as well has setting about:config's dom.storage.enabled to false, I've also set these two preferences which seem to have stopped other variants that appear in these folders:

dom.indexedDB.enabled -> false
offline-apps.quota.warn -> 0

Bear in mind that blocking storage can break some (very) few websites that seem to really need these enabled.

Ben.

[the-edmeister]

When I backed up my FF profile which was 270MB in size, the info window stated it had over 4000 files in it. It took a long time to copy and paste it which is strange. Is this normal?

Have you "moved" your Profile from the default location = /Users/***/AppData/Roaming/Mozilla/Firefox/ ??

If so the /cache2/ and other files in the /Users/***/AppData/Local/ path will end up in the main Profile folder that is normally in /Roaming/.

[costark]

Rt Clk current Profile/Properties shows 2941 Files - 548 Folders - 73.5 MB size

Profile\storage\default has ..... https+++weather.com ..... WITH 2298 Files and 265 Folders, 19.7 MB - 25.7 MB on Disk

This would explain my Large Profile File Number & Ben Markson has most of his Files in 3 Extensions ... so Profile Size explanations can seemingly be quite diverse.

I make Profile Backups, so I'll try his practice of Deleting storage\default and \temporary sub-folders and see what happens.

DELETING those Folders now nets me 49.2 MB size 50.3 MB on disk 553 Files and 95 Folders.............

[koolx]

Data Reporting and saved-telemetry-pings are down to you. I don't collect/send any crash reports or telemetry for Mozilla.

Hi, Ben.., I dont understand. What do you mean by "Data Reporting and saved-telemetry-pings are down to you"? Do you mean I can delete those folders with no problems in FF? Or do I delete just their contents and not the folders?

And should I also delete the Default folder in the Storage folder too? Or just its contents? Or leave it alone?

Recently, as well has setting about:config's dom.storage.enabled to false. I've also set these two preferences which seem to have stopped other variants that appear in these folders:

dom.indexedDB.enabled -> false
offline-apps.quota.warn -> 0

Bear in mind that blocking storage can break some (very) few websites that seem to really need these enabled.

You mentioned 3 settings in about:config to disable. Did you mean that blocking storage in the 1st setting would break some websites? Or did you mean that for the last 2 settings you mentioned? Just want to be clear.

.