is it possible to increase cache over 1024 MB?

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mike821
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Joined: July 10th, 2017, 4:31 am

is it possible to increase cache over 1024 MB?

Post by mike821 »

can anyone increase thier browser cache over 1024 MB?

im trying to be able to view websites i have been to when i am offline and i think that if i can increase browser cache to over 1024 MB it should work.
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BuddhaNature
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Re: is it possible to increase cache over 1024 MB?

Post by BuddhaNature »

I think you might be able to set that via one of the following two routes:

Route 1:
(1) In the Address Bar type in the following: about:config hit the Enter key - and then click to say you'll be careful.

(2) In the search box inside the about:config page type the following: browser.cache

(3) Look for a setting titled browser.cache.disk.capacity

(4) Right-click on that setting and select Modify. In Kilobytes, enter a value for the amount of disk space you want to allocate. (1024KB = 1.0MB) Once the setting is made close the about:config tab then shutdown and restart Firefox.

(5) If ever you want to go back to the default setting just right-click on the item again and select Reset. Close the tab then restart Firefox and the setting should be back to the default.

Another route (though one I've never used myself):

Route 2:
(1) Go (Menu) Tools > Options
(2) Click on the button for Privacy & Security options.
(3) Look for the settings for Cached Web Content
(4) Click to select Override automatic cache management
(5) Enter the value you want to use in Megabytes. Then close that tab and restart Firefox.
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mike821
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Re: is it possible to increase cache over 1024 MB?

Post by mike821 »

route 2 is what i have been trying, it just resets its self back to 1024.

now i will try route 1, thanks.
mike821
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Re: is it possible to increase cache over 1024 MB?

Post by mike821 »

i tried route 1, i closed down and restarted firefox. then went to options and i typed "cache" in the firefox search box, and it seems to have went right back to 1024. screenshot attached:

(edit) this message system doesnt seem to be allowing one to post screenshots.
mike821
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Re: is it possible to increase cache over 1024 MB?

Post by mike821 »

i am trying to increase cache size because i am having trouble accessing websites i have recently visited offline. previous thread is here:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14781887
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Reflective
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Re: is it possible to increase cache over 1024 MB?

Post by Reflective »

It might be dependent on the amount of RAM you have installed. Scroll down to Cache on this site for an explanation together with possible values you can configure in about:config
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RobertJ
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Re: is it possible to increase cache over 1024 MB?

Post by RobertJ »

mike821 wrote: this message system doesnt seem to be allowing one to post screenshots.
Images can be shown in your posts. You must link to an image stored on a publicly accessible web server, (e.g. http:// www. imageshack .com/my-picture.gif).

To display the image use the BBCode [img] tag.

Code: Select all

[img]http://www.imageshack.com/my-picture.gif[/img]
.
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BuddhaNature
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Re: is it possible to increase cache over 1024 MB?

Post by BuddhaNature »

Mike,

I have now tested this on my own system via Options and via about:config. Tried different combinations of settings and I also can't get Options to stick above a value of 1024MB.

Via the Options route I tried, instead of manually entering a value, using the up-spinner (if that is what it is called) to increase the value above 1024MB - takes a few seconds to let the numbers spin-up that far. However, once it hits the 1024MB value the up-spinner stops and gets greyed-out - so you can't go beyond that via the Options route. (You can type in a higher value, say, 2048MB but on restart of Firefox it bounces back down to 1024MB. In addition, as soon as you type in the value greater than 1024MB, it also changes the value in about:config to match the 1024MB (apparent limit) value.)

The only thing I tried that looked kind of promising is that in Options tick the box that says "Override automatic cache management" and set the value in the box, using the up-spinner, to 1024MB (max. the box will allow). After having done that, then in about:config I set the preference browser.cache.disk.capacity to 2097152 KB (i.e. = 2048 MB = 2.0 Gigabytes). Then restarted Firefox. On restart the Options still showed 1024MB but the about:config preference still retained the value of 2097152 (KB). So maybe try setting it like that (and via the means I've just described) and just test it to see if you find an improvement in your offline page viewing. If the value in the about:config preference has precedence then you might be in luck. If the value in Options has precedence then it would seem that you are stuck at 1024 MB max. Just need to test for a while and see what happens.

The only other preference I see in about:config that looks promising (at least going by its title) is browser.cache.offline.capacity There is scant detail on the preference in the article there and the inf is above my meagre knowledge. But if it was me I would experiment with that and see if you get any improvement.

@Reflective: With respect to installed memory I can't think how this would matter as the cache in question is disk cache - so how can installed memory have an effect on that? Why would a coder link disk cache and memory together when it would seem, at least to me, there is no need to do so? :-k
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BuddhaNature
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Re: is it possible to increase cache over 1024 MB?

Post by BuddhaNature »

Mike,

I was just researching this a little bit more and found the following which suggests that setting the value to 2097152 KB as described above might in fact work. I found a reference that said there was an about:cache option that could be used in Firefox to show some information about the cache size. So I tried that and this is what I got:

https://images2.imgbox.com/b9/23/5CYqfEGB_o.png

If it works, or even if it fails, it would be good if you could post up the results of your testing. I'd be really curious to know what happened.
Last edited by Daifne on December 13th, 2017, 7:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: removed img tags. Size of image breaking forum format.
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therube
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Re: is it possible to increase cache over 1024 MB?

Post by therube »

Having two threads on the same subject at the same time kind of makes things, confusing, & duplicates work, http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... &t=3036329.
One ought to be locked.
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Brummelchen
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Re: is it possible to increase cache over 1024 MB?

Post by Brummelchen »

1gig is very much, my firefox is limited to default (384mb) and wont reach it.
if you need more run a local proxy server - no alternative!
mike821
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Re: is it possible to increase cache over 1024 MB?

Post by mike821 »

BuddhaNature,
thanks for your response, i was away for a bit, im back now, i will try what you wrote.
mike821
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Re: is it possible to increase cache over 1024 MB?

Post by mike821 »

If it works, or even if it fails, it would be good if you could post up the results of your testing. I'd be really curious to know what happened.
this level of technical know-how is over my head.
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BuddhaNature
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Re: is it possible to increase cache over 1024 MB?

Post by BuddhaNature »

Hi Mike,

I'm not high on technical know-how myself. If it was me I'd just try seeing, after making the settings I suggest, if I could get FF to go over the seeming 1.0 GB limit that it has. This would mean just surfing the web and seeing if FF will store in the cache2 folder content that goes over the 1.0 GB limit. If it does that then it means that you can set the cache to be greater than 1024 MB (1.0 GB). If it won't fill the cache folder with over 1024 MB of file content then it would mean that you can't go over that limit. In theory, it's not a difficult experiment to try.

That said, even 1.0 GB of cache content would be one helluva' lot of content and can't think how in practice anyone would use even 1.0 GB of content in straightforward daily use of FF.

Also in one of your other threads on this topic area therube did point to a useful document that suggests that FF might not be able to download all content from a website anyway: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14783410 Even a cursory read of that document - HTTP Caching - suggests that you might not be able to achieve what you want to achieve via increasing the cache size in FF.

Perhaps you might want to try HTTrack Website Copier for downloading a website for offline viewing. I toyed around with it many years ago and it was okay but not perfect. Don't know by how much it has improved nowadays.
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BuddhaNature
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Re: is it possible to increase cache over 1024 MB?

Post by BuddhaNature »

I just found that there are other programs similar to HTTrack. Article is here: 5 Ways to Download Complete Websites For Offline Access

Also if you google: download website for offline viewing (and variations on that search phrase) then you will get hits for programs like HTTrack and also some quick instructions on how to use HTTrack.

There are also multiple videos on Youtube that amount to introductory tutorials for using HTTrack.

EDIT: I found this page useful as it does mention some the settings you can make in HTTrack Options. In particular, on page 2 of the article, it gives some idea of how deeply HTTrack should go with webpages external to the site you are actually trying to mirror. How to save websites offline with HTTrack

Also on HTTrack's home webpage there is a menu item there titled "Manual". Click on that item and you will taken to a webpage that allows viewing of Documentation for HTTrack. Click on the item under the heading "How to Use" that is titled WinHTTrack/WebHTTrack (GUI version for Windows or Linux/Unix). In the page that opens you will see a link for Options - at that page you can get some explanation of the various options for HTTrack, which you will find very useful. HTTrack looks complex but with some initial experimentation it is actually quite simple to use.
OS: Windows 10 Pro. x64
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