Vacuum Firefox databases for better performance, now with no restart

August 22, 2009 - 12:09 am

A few months ago, I posted how to improve Firefox performance by defragmenting its database files executing SQLite VACUUM command. The only con was that it required a Firefox restart to execute the command.

Thanks to Mozilla’s Jeremy Orem, we have now learned it can be done from within Firefox in two short steps:

  • Open the Error Console: Tools menu/Error Console
  • In the Code text box paste this (it’s a single line): 
    Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL("VACUUM");
  • Press Evaluate. All the UI will freeze for a few seconds while databases are VACUUMed

Vacuuming Firefox databases from the Error Console

Note however that the procedure optimizes the Places database only, but this is precisely where you will get the most significant performance improvements.

Comments in Jeremy’s blog post point to the open bug on the issue and plans to include this optimization by default, and Vacuum Places, an (experimental) add-on by Revertron that does just this.

http://blog.mozilla.com/oremj/2009/08/20/speedup-firefox-with-vacuum/
More on Firefox, Tips

Comments

David Naylor

August 22, 2009 12:09 am

Great tip. Thanks! Didn’t know this could be done from inside Firefox.

Reply

El Guru

August 22, 2009 12:09 am

I just tried this and got an error about ‘an illegal character’….

Reply

Arneh

August 22, 2009 12:09 am

El Guru, it’s the last two quotation marks, try:

Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL(”VACUUM”);

Reply

Arneh

August 22, 2009 12:09 am

Hmm, it didn’t come out correctly in my altered paste above. Just replace the last two italic quotation marks with regular ones.

Reply

Greg

August 22, 2009 12:09 am

Also getting an error about ‘an illegal character’

Reply

Clochix

August 22, 2009 12:09 am

Thanks for sharing this tip.

@El Guru : just replace the curved quotes (”) around VACUUM with typewriters quotes (”).

The nsPIPlacesDatabase interface seems to be new in FF 3.5, so it probably won’t work with FF 3.0.x. Time to update ;)

Reply

inselaffe

August 22, 2009 12:09 am

i get the ‘illegal character’ message too…

Reply

FND

August 22, 2009 12:09 am

El Guru: Replace the pretty quotes around VACUUM with regular double quotes.

Reply

TnS

August 22, 2009 12:09 am

El Guru: Because the typographic quotation marks around VACUUM. Here is the correct:

Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL(”VACUUM”);

Reply

TnS

August 22, 2009 12:09 am

Got auto converted… After copy&pasting replace them manually. :)

Reply

Philipp

August 22, 2009 12:09 am

@El Guru:
I got the same error but found the solution. You have to replace the ”-characters around VACUUM (at the end) with normal “-characters. Hope this works for you ;)

Reply

Stan

August 22, 2009 12:09 am

Percy, the text from the main article is overlapping the links and history columns.

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Percy CabelloAugust 22nd, 2009 at 10:32 am

Yeah, sorry about that. It’s fixed now and with the correct characters. Thanks for the head up all.

Reply

Ray R.

August 22, 2009 12:09 am

If you have the Console2 extension installed, the text box to the left of the “Evaluate” button is not IDed. Is this box the same as the “Code” box cited above?

Reply

leandro

August 22, 2009 12:09 am

Good post! My places.sqlite went from 23MB to 3,75MB !!!

Reply

level

August 22, 2009 12:09 am

Vacuum Places :: Add-ons for Firefox
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/13824

Reply

Zen @ ASUS Eee PC

August 24, 2009 12:09 am

Nothing seems to be happening to my browser. Any ideas??

Reply

Cirus

August 25, 2009 12:09 am

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/statistics/addon/13878

A polished version of Vacuum Places, with automatic cleaning, periodic reminder and i18n

Reply

Ray R.August 31st, 2009 at 7:15 am

Cirus,

I am getting a “You do not have access error” when trying to follow your provided link. Is there another way to get to that add-on?

Reply

Toby

August 25, 2009 12:09 am

I get “uncaught exception”:

Error: uncaught exception: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80570018 (NS_ERROR_XPC_BAD_IID) [nsIJSCID.getService]” nsresult: “0×80570018 (NS_ERROR_XPC_BAD_IID)” location: “JS frame :: javascript:%20Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL(”VACUUM”); :: :: line 1″ data: no]

Reply

Rob T.

August 25, 2009 12:09 am

I’m getting the following exception when I try to run this.

Error: uncaught exception: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80570018 (NS_ERROR_XPC_BAD_IID) [nsIJSCID.getService]” nsresult: “0×80570018 (NS_ERROR_XPC_BAD_IID)” location: “JS frame :: javascript:%20Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL(”VACUUM”); :: :: line 1″ data: no]

I’ve checked that I’ve got normal quotes.

When I try to break it down, the error is being thrown from the getService
Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase)
‘
What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
–Rob

Reply

Andrew Z

August 25, 2009 12:09 am

Some people may find vacuuming easier to do with BleachBit. It’s simple clicking without any complex commands

Reply

MarsianMan

August 25, 2009 12:09 am

Error: uncaught exception: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [mozIStorageConnection.executeSimpleSQL]” nsresult: “0×80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)” location: “JS frame :: javascript:%20Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL(”VACUUM”); :: :: line 1″ data: no]

running: Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL(”VACUUM”);

Reply

Matt

August 26, 2009 12:09 am

Can this be adapted to work in Flock please?

Reply

Giulio

August 26, 2009 12:09 am

Not working for me:

Error: uncaught exception: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80570018 (NS_ERROR_XPC_BAD_IID) [nsIJSCID.getService]” nsresult: “0×80570018 (NS_ERROR_XPC_BAD_IID)” location: “JS frame :: javascript:%20Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL(”VACUUM”); :: :: line 1″ data: no]

I’m running version 3.0.13 on Ubuntu Hardy Heron.

Reply

GiulioAugust 26th, 2009 at 4:23 pm

EDIT: I just figured out that the trick only works with Firefox 3.5

Reply

Bob

August 27, 2009 12:09 am

WooHoo!.
I put that code into a “Custombuttons²”-button for easy access, works great!

Reply

xoc

August 30, 2009 12:09 am

I get:

Error: uncaught exception: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80570018 (NS_ERROR_XPC_BAD_IID) [nsIJSCID.getService]” nsresult: “0×80570018 (NS_ERROR_XPC_BAD_IID)” location: “JS frame :: javascript:%20Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL(”VACUUM”); :: :: line 1″ data: no]

Reply

GiulioSeptember 1st, 2009 at 4:24 pm

Only works in FF3.5.
If yuo have a former version (3.0 or higher) you can use this howto to vacuum all the databases “manually”:
http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2009/07/vacuum-your-firefox-databases-for-better-performance/

Reply

Mohammad Khatib

September 3, 2009 12:09 am

Thanks! Keep the performance of Firefox up please!
This really helped!

Reply

Alan

September 8, 2009 12:09 am

I get a “missing ; before command” error… !

Reply

Jawwad

October 23, 2009 12:09 am

i paste this code in code bar >
Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL(”VACUUM”);

but nothing is happen after clicking Evaluate ?? why ?

Reply

Ray R.October 23rd, 2009 at 11:57 am

I think all quotes need to be straight quotes. The quotes around VACUUM appear to be angled.

There are now add-ons that provide a nice user interface to vacuum Places. I use Vacuum Places Improved 1 available at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/13878

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