Firefox is causing video/voice call applications (Discord, Signal, etc) to lag significantly.
Posting here at the recommendation of a friend. I'm completely at a loss to what is causing this issue, but when I have Firefox open, and go to enter a voice call on Discord or a video call on Signal, I get a severe (upwards of 5 seconds) lag on the call that makes it impossible to communicate. I am using desktop clients for both Discord and Signal, so my guess is that something about Firefox is severely taxing my internet (bandwith I think?), but I have no clear indication as to what is doing it or how to fix it.
This has only started happening since making the switch to Firefox (i.e. doesn't occur on Chrome). I thought it might have something to do with some of the anti-tracking extensions I had installed, but even with only Firefox Recommended extensions, and also with no extensions enabled at all, the issue persists. Starting a call after quitting Firefox encounters no lag issues.
The weird thing is that I can enter a video call on Signal, and then open a link to YouTube sent by someone I'm talking to, and I am able to navigate that specific website and watch videos perfectly fine with no lag on the video call, but the second I click the 'New Tab' button or navigate to any other kind of website, the lag spike starts. Closing the tab doesn't fix the issue, only closing the browser does.
I tried doing a refresh of Firefox to see if that would resolve the issue, but it has made no difference to the problem. The only way I am able to be on a call in other programs is if I have Firefox closed.
I'm currently going to have to go back to Chrome in order to be able to play DnD with my online friends next week, but I was really starting to enjoy using Firefox so I'm hoping someone has an answer for what is going on so that it can be resolved.
All Replies (4)
I forgot to add, Firefox itself does not experience any lag or slowness whatsoever while this is happening. It is only when I am on a video or voice call while the browser is open.
Hello ithinkler,
I use discord client on my Mac and i don't face any lag issues with firefox so this is new to me?!
I would really appreciate if you can share a video-clip or screenshot of such problem, also please do let me know what platform you are using firefox on. Sometimes re-installing firefox will fix such issues, if it still remains, please try updating your PC OS to the latest version.
Archit said
Hello ithinkler, I use discord client on my Mac and i don't face any lag issues with firefox so this is new to me?! I would really appreciate if you can share a video-clip or screenshot of such problem, also please do let me know what platform you are using firefox on. Sometimes re-installing firefox will fix such issues, if it still remains, please try updating your PC OS to the latest version.
It would be a bit tricky for me to get a recording of the problem, but it's basically just standard video/voice call lag, there's nothing particularly unusual about it that a recording would show.
I'm using Windows 10 64bit, and I did just notice I have an update to install so I will try installing that. I will also try your recommendation of a fresh install, and I'll let you know if that improves anything.
Okay, I completely wiped Firefox off my computer and did a fresh install, and made sure to remove all of the extensions I had installed, and I tried calling a friend and the call quality was back to normal.
I can't tell if the fresh install was what did it, or if it was removing the extensions (rather than disabling them), but I will be installing the extensions I'd like to have running one by one to see if I can't figure out which one is tanking my call quality.
I guess my question would be, if I find out that one of the extensions is causing the lag spike, should I report it?