The auto-refresh function can be a double-edged sword in a Chrome browser. On one hand, it can help users stay up-to-date on the latest changes to a page. On the other hand, it can disrupt the browsing, viewing, and reading experience.
If you often find the auto-refresh feature in Chrome to be more of an annoyance than a help, this post is for you. We’ll explore ways to manage or disable the auto-refresh function to improve your browsing experience.
Down below, you will learn why this function exists, how it functions, but also how to turn it off in Chrome, and what to do to never have your pages auto refresh unless you want them to be refreshed, so keep on reading!
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What is an Auto Refresh Function in Chrome Browser and What’s its Function?
The auto refresh function in the Chrome browser is set to refresh open pages and tabs in your browser in intervals to provide you with the up-to-date version of the page.
This function might not be very useful for websites that don’t make live or frequent changes to their pages and that’s why the auto refresh function can actually disturb the viewing and reading experience.
On the other hand, the auto refresh function is very useful when using your email (especially Gmail). It can automatically show you and notify you about the recently received emails.
Sometimes this function can happen way too often than intended, and most users don’t see many benefits, which is why you might be looking for a solution to disable auto refresh.
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How to Stop Auto Refresh in Chrome Browser
There are two main ways to disable auto refresh in a Chrome browser, and you can either do it within the browser and see if that works, or you can use a third-party extension to stop the auto-refresh for you, so here are the steps for both ways.
Disabling Auto Refresh Within the Browser
To disable auto refresh within the browser, open the Chrome browser, and in the address bar, copy and paste the following: “chrome://discards/”.
This will open a new tab to see all your open tabs. In there, find the “Discards” tab title, and in the Auto Discardable, switch the toggle from a check to X to disable auto discarding.
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You should also do this for all other tabs you have open, and you don’t want to get auto refreshed.
The discarding feature helps recognize pages that use too many resources to run and yet aren’t currently used by you, so Chrome kills the tab while keeping it visible. When you click on the tab next time, it loads it again.
To prevent this, switch the toggle to X, and Chrome won’t refresh specific tabs that you don’t want to be refreshed.
Additionally, you can copy and paste “chrome://flags/” into Chrome’s address bar to open the flags page. On this page, you should search for “automatic tab discarding”. If anything pops up after your search, change Default to Disabled.
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However, keep in mind that not everyone’s browser will show Automatic Tab Discarding under flags.
Using a Third Party Extension
Since auto refresh in a Chrome browser isn’t preferred by many, you can block pages from automatically refreshing via a third-party extension built to do that for you.
One of the most known extensions is Tab Reloader, and you should head to Chrome Web Store to install it.
In the Chrome Web Store, search for Tab Reloader, click on the first extension that pops up, and click the “Add to Chrome” button.
Click on Add Extension to confirm, and you should see it in your extension in the top right corner.
When browsing something in an open tab, click on the icon to open the settings menu. In the settings menu of this extension, you can either click on “Do not reload tab if active” or set a reload timer to a high number such as five hours, for example.
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This will prevent the tab from reloading even if you are not actively using it, which is ideal for everyone who uses more than just a couple of tabs when browsing the web.
Remember, you will have to do this for every open tab you want to stop reloading by Chrome’s default option.
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What to do if Chrome Browser Still Auto Refreshes Open Pages?
Even though the two solutions above should help, if you are still having issues with auto refresh, you can try a couple of things to prevent your pages from automatically refreshing.
Restart Chrome Browser
The more you use the Chrome browser on your computer, the more resources it requires to use as it keeps all the cookies and cache stored while actively in use.
However, restarting your browser will empty these things from a temporary memory, so the next time you open the Chrome browser, it will use fewer computer resources.
One of the reasons why pages automatically refresh in Chrome browser is because they use too many resources to run, which should help improve resource use, so pages don’t have to refresh so frequently.
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End Chrome in Task Manager
Sometimes, even when you exit the Chrome browser, it can still run for a couple of minutes in the background to save the data and turn off all processes required to run the browser efficiently.
Right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager to do so. In the task manager, under processes, find Chrome. Click on it and click the “End Process” button.
This will close Chrome for good, so the next time you open it, it will start fresh without anything running in the background from recent use.
Reset Chrome’s Settings
Running too many extensions or just letting all the data pile up in the Chrome browser can cause frequent page reloading too, so from time to time, you should reset Chrome’s settings to default.
To do this, open the Chrome browser and copy and paste “chrome://settings/reset” in the address bar.
In the new tab that pops up, find “Restore settings to their original defaults” and click the arrow to it.
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Click on the “Reset settings” button to reset Chrome’s settings to default. This will help Chrome run as if it was freshly installed, which can help use fewer resources and reduce, and even prevent, page reloading.
Using Fewer Tabs
The reason why tabs refresh is that by refreshing tabs that you aren’t actively using, Chrome uses fewer resources by running only a couple of tabs instead of every open tab.
Using fewer tabs will mean that you actively use a couple of open tabs, and Chrome might not refresh them at any time.
Combined with one of the two methods explained above, you can prevent auto refresh and still help your computer run faster since Chrome uses fewer resources in the background.
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Conclusion
The auto refresh feature in Chrome isn’t always useful since most computers nowadays have enough resources to run plenty of active tabs at once.
Therefore, automatically refreshing tabs isn’t beneficial to everyone, and you can disable it within the Chrome settings, or you can use a third-party extension that will help you control how and when Chrome refreshes your tabs.
While these two methods should stop auto refresh in Chrome browser, you can also combine them with one of the other four methods that should help Chrome use fewer resources and run smoother.
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