Electron `chrome --type=renderer --field-trial-handle=...` won't shut down, eats up Memory

Question

I am trying to build an app with electron. When I do this, however, it appears that several chrome processes are created that don't shut down after closing electron. These processes eat up a lot of memory that slow down my computer. Most of the processes are called something like chrome --type=renderer --field-trial-handle=....

They occur even when I try to run the electron quick start app. I cannot figure out a way to stop these processes besides restarting the computer.

Here is a screenshot of these processes from my system monitor:

This is what happens when I try to end the process. Some sort of weird non-functioning dialogue box pops up:

Questions.

1. Is this problem in fact created by electron?
2. Is there a way to shut these down within electron (e.g. via a flag)?
3. Is there a way to shut these processes down without restarting?
4. Would it just be better to submit an issue to the electron repo?

Info.

• OS: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
• Electron Version: v1.7.9
• Chrome Version: Version 61.0.3163.100 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Solution 1

There might be a couple of reasons for this.

You can try disabling the 'background apps' - In Chrome Settings, click on the 'Advanced' button in the navigation menu on the left. Under 'System' uncheck

Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed

You can also try to clear the Cache. On Ubuntu-based systems, it is located in

~/.config/google-chrome/Default/Application Cache

on Windows it is usually under

C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache

As noted here, you can open the Chrome Task Manager to check which tabs consume the most CPU/Memory.

Solution 2

It is not caused by Electron. I was searching for what they were doing consuming my memory when I ran across your question. But I am not using or even have Electron installed. I instead run Brave browser which is built upon chromium. So this must be some chrome shit. I am new to this too.

Comments

[spinkus]

It's Google chrome browser "field trials" AKA spy ware trojan. AFAIK you can't disable it.

[webelo]

It is not clear to me that brave does not use electron (though I have not looked into it closely). Check out the search for "electron" in their github here. However, this may well be a Chromium issue, since both certainly do use Chromium.

[webelo]

Also, @bign dhakal just a quick note about answers: usually your note would be added as a comment to the question, not as an answer, because it does not solve the issue but does potentially help out with a solution. Your reputation might be too low to comment, though, so maybe that's why you did it?

[swatantra]

yeah, that was the issue.