How to Make Chrome Not Load Tabs Until They are Selected?

Question

I have over 20 tabs opened in Chrome and need to restart browser from time to time. This browser does not have option similar to Firefox's "Do not load tabs until selected" loading tabs only after selecting them. I have tried a few Chrome extensions but none do what I am looking for.

Solution 1

At the time of this writing, Chrome does not support this functionality natively. I've been using The Great Suspender, an extension that adds similar functionality to Chrome.

You can verify the memory and CPU savings you gain while using this extension by opening the Chrome Task Manager: Menu > More tools > Task manager

Solution 2

Since Chrome 54 (Oct 2016) this feature is supported in Chrome natively, so previous bloated extensions are not that needed. A GNU GPLv3 licensed extension Native Lazy Tabs extension works and it is very small: 33 KiB.

Citing extension description:

Automatically discards all tabs at startup, before they load, reducing memory footprint and unnecessary bandwidth usage.

Native Lazy Tabs is a light extension for users that don't want to load all tabs when Chrome is started. It's native because it uses the native tab discarding method from the Google API (introduced in version 54). Also, because of that, it doesn't have the shortcomings of older implementations that could cause bugs like the pages reloading itself even after suspended.

Moreover, this extension doesn't use any memory because there's no need for a background page: it loads and unloads itself after Chrome is started.

Solution 3

Without any extensions it's possible to prevent loading tabs by disconnecting the internet when you start Chrome. Chrome will eventually give up trying to load the pages, and one-by-one tabs will gray out. Reduces CPU and Memory.

After reconnecting to the internet, a page will load when you select the grayed-out tab.

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StefanQ points out you may also need to change these chrome://flags

• Disable Offline Auto-Reload Mode
• Enable Only Auto-Reload Visible Tabs

Solution 4

As of version 44 (currently dev branch), after a restart Chrome only loads tabs when they are first selected. It doesn't even start a process for the tabs until they are loaded, so that means less memory/CPU usage for us.

Solution 5

Below are the flags (chrome://flags) I have changed in Chrome 69 64-bit (September 2018) to [indicated values] to speed up the startup experience with many open tabs and windows.

Note as of February 2020: none of those flags are present in Chrome 78, so answer left only for reference.

The memory consumption is still high (1.2 GB in my case) but Chrome starts instantly and doesn't seem to be busy reloading all of the tabs.

1. Only Auto-Reload Visible Tabs [Enabled]

Pages that fail to load while the browser is offline will only be auto-reloaded if their tab is visible. – Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS, Android

#enable-offline-auto-reload-visible-only

2. Automatic tab discarding [Enabled]

If enabled, tabs get automatically discarded from memory when the system memory is low. Discarded tabs are still visible on the tab strip and get reloaded when clicked on. Info about discarded tabs can be found at chrome://discards. – Mac, Windows

#automatic-tab-discarding

3. Infinite Session Restore [Enabled]

Reduces the number of tabs being loaded simultaneously during session restore, to improve responsiveness of the foreground tab. This requires #enable-page-almost-idle. – Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS

#infinite-session-restore

4. Page Almost Idle [Enabled]

Make session restore use a definition of loading that waits for CPU and network quiescence. – Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS

#page-almost-idle

5. Proactive Tab Freeze and Discard [Enabled Freeze and Discard]

Enables proactive tab freezing and discarding. This requires #enable-page-almost-idle. – Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS

#proactive-tab-freeze-and-discard

6. Site Characteristics database [Enabled] (this one is probably not necessary)

Records usage of some features in a database while a tab is in background (title/favicon update, audio playback or usage of non-persistent notifications). – Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS

#site-characteristics-database

View more solutions

Comments

[happy_soil]

One workaround that I could think of is using Session Buddy. Obviously it doesn't give you specifically what you want, but it I think this gives you nearly the functionality you're after (saving and managing sessions, etc.).

[moritzebeling]

I am not after saving and managing because I already have Session Buddy. I am after function that won't let Chrome load all restored tabs at once but only active individual tab I click on.

[Stephen Cheng]

If you are open to those Chromium-derived browsers, you can try Slimjet which offers an option to not load background tabs at startup. This link will give you more information: slimjet.com/blog/… . It does automatically pick up your chrome profile data if you sync it via your google account.

[Loki]

goto chrome://flags --> then enable the flag "Only Auto-Reload Visible Tabs "

[moritzebeling]

@LokeshAgrawal It's only when browser is offline.

[moritzebeling]

I like that it does not just close tab and puts it on 1 list with other closed tabs but actually keeps the tab with favicon so you don't have to look much for one you want to unsuspend.

[moritzebeling]

Yes I see this comment in reviews: "Very good extension. Just so new users know, the Suspension DOES NOT make the Memory of the suspended tab becomes Zero. But the saving is great still."

[Tomalak]

Unfortunately, this does not seem to work anymore (currently on 44.0.2383.0 dev-m). Is there a configurable flag or bug/issue/thread associated with this feature? I'd like to follow along but can't seem to find the right incantation of search engine keywords.

[cristis]

I couldn't find a configurable flag, but there are some related issues... code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=476521#c19 , code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=476619

[cristis]

It's working again (v44.0.2403.4 dev-m)

[Tomalak]

Nope. Still loads all tabs for me.

[KornMuffin]

Version 46.0.2482.0 canary (64-bit) on a Win7 machine does not load the tabs until clicked while Version 46.0.2489.0 canary (64-bit) on Win 8.1 does.

[bertieb]

Hi Juriy, welcome to Super User. Could you update your answer to give a bit more information? Eg a summary, how it addresses the problem as asked. It may help to read how to recommend software in an answer :)

[Martin Hansen]

Is there a way to disable this behavior? I seem to be the only person who dislikes this.

[jp2code]

FYI: Chrome appears to do this now. I'm here searching for how to disable it.

[2Toad]

@jp2code I just tested the latest version of Chrome 47.0.2526.73 (64-bit) on OS X El Capitan and Windows 10, and I see no change in functionality and no new setting that would affect this. Unfortunately, tabs still load when Chrome starts up, before selecting them. I performed a clean install, and disabled all extensions prior to testing.

[2Toad]

I just tested the latest version of Chrome 47.0.2526.73 (64-bit) on OS X El Capitan and Windows 10, and I see no change in functionality and no new setting that would affect this. Unfortunately, tabs still load when Chrome starts up, before selecting them. I performed a clean install, and disabled all extensions prior to testing.

[jp2code]

Interesting. Hopefully, my browser will fix itself. I'm a big fan of middle clicking 2 or 3 links in a search result and reading the first one while the others continue to load.

[Thalys]

Welcome to superuser. This is written a lot in the style of an advertisement and might be seen as such. It might help a little to phrase this differently, and maybe touch on what it does better than the alternatives. It was previously blocked from Chrome extension manager, is a little concerning as well

[moritzebeling]

The Great Suspender does not work properly anymore. I have 2 windows open and when I try to suspend tab in 1st it instead suspends in 2nd and vise versa.

[SuperUberDuper]

Still the case with v49, what a shame

[rogerdpack]

@MartinHansen it appears to be "mostly disable-able" see superuser.com/q/1048029/39364

[rogerdpack]

@jp2code to disable it see superuser.com/q/1048029/39364 (oddly, for me, on a low resource box, it currently does not load tabs at start time by default, FWIW).

[Martin Hansen]

Yes, it is now with current versions of Chrome. It wasn't possible to disable when I wrote that comment. The disable flag either didn't exist or had no effect, if I remember correctly.

[Innokenty]

I am running v 55.0.2883.95 (latest chrome for the time being) and that functionality is totally absent. Loads all tabs.

[inspirednz]

I can't say that's the case with 61.0.3163.100 (Official Build) (64-bit). It loads every tab when I start it up.

[d9k]

inspirednz, information about native Chrome support was added to answer in edit by @soshial

[CodeLurker]

Not working for me in Iron 62.

[Biraj Gautam]

Today the extension's name is "Lazy Tabs" and it works well in Chrome Version 63.0.3239.108 (64-bit)

[Bob Stein]

@Marecky Not sure Lazy Tabs is the same extension, but it is available: "Unload all inactive tabs (except pinned) at startup or by clicking an icon. Faster start for Google Chrome. Unload all inactive tabs (except pinned) at Google Chrome startup or by clicking an icon." I needed to click the icon during startup.

[hanjo]

A fork of Native Lazy Tabs (which is not in the store any more) is Sloth which is available here and on the Chrome Store.

[Yehor]

Check this out github.com/ekonoval/TabsLazyLoad_thegreatsuspender it’s done on the basis of TheGreatSuspender extension but suspends all the tabs on browser startup

[Yehor]

Check this out github.com/ekonoval/TabsLazyLoad_thegreatsuspender it’s done on the basis of TheGreatSuspender extension but suspends all the tabs on browser startup

[peterflynn]

Unfortunately as soon as you go online it will immediately try to load every single tab at once, often freezing all of Chrome for minutes - at least in Chrome 69.

[StefanQ]

Indeed, this seems to me to be new behavior in a recent Chrome release. This may be fixed by disabling #offline-auto-reload-mode in chrome://flags/ (s.a. #enable-offline-auto-reload-visible-only).

[Devin Rhode]

Sloth is definitely the winner here, open source, fork of native lazy tabs, and it's 4.5 stars unlike many others that are 4. github.com/hrj/sloth

[Devin Rhode]

Unfortunately sloth does not prevent a restored window from loading all the tabs.

[Kamafeather]

@Ekonoval I took that because of the super simple and light code it has. But unfortunately it doesn't keep the same behaviour when restoring sessions of tabs (restoring a crashed session, or when restoring a session with SessionBuddy). I modified the code of that extension, locally, months ago, and added that feature; also refactored a little bit the code (what an arrogance, uh? 😅); is not working perfectly yet, but enough that I coded it and forgot to complete & pull-request 😁. I can push the code to a branch, if you are interested in giving a check or maybe merge it. Note: could be buggy.

[Kamafeather]

oooops... wasn't the right repo. I was talking of github.com/jman/lazy_tab that is another extension. I'll give a check to yours then :)

[Nam G VU]

The extension is disabled in my Chrome today - a google search for new link leads to this reddit discussion on it reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/7ipj4c/…

[Nam G VU]

thegreatsuspender is not working anymore ie it is marked as security risk