How to use Chrome's network debugger with redirects

Question

The Chrome network debugger gives me a great view of all the HTTP resources loaded for a page. But it clears the list whenever a new top-level HTML page is loaded. This makes it very difficult to debug pages that automatically reload for one reason or another (running script or 300 responses).

Can I tell Chrome not to clear the network debugger when a new top-level page is loaded? Or can I go back and look at the previous page's network resources?

Or can I somehow force Chrome to pause before loading a new page when I don't control the page I'm trying to debug that's doing the redirecting? It's part of an OpenID dance that's going awry, so the combination of SSL and credentials makes it extremely difficult to debug with command-line tools.

Solution 1

This has been changed since v32, thanks to @Daniel Alexiuc & @Thanatos for their comments.

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Current (≥ v32)

At the top of the "Network" tab of DevTools, there's a checkbox to switch on the "Preserve log" functionality. If it is checked, the network log is preserved on page load.

The little red dot on the left now has the purpose to switch network logging on and off completely.

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Older versions

In older versions of Chrome (v21 here), there's a little, clickable red dot in the footer of the "Network" tab.

If you hover over it, it will tell you, that it will "Preserve Log Upon Navigation" when it is activated. It holds the promise.

Solution 2

I don't know of a way to force Chrome to not clear the Network debugger, but this might accomplish what you're looking for:

1. Open the js console
2. window.addEventListener("beforeunload", function() { debugger; }, false)

This will pause chrome before loading the new page by hitting a breakpoint.

Solution 3

Another great solution to debug the Network calls before redirecting to other pages is to select the beforeunload event break point

This way you assure to break the flow right before it redirecting it to another page, this way all network calls, network data and console logs are still there.

This solution is best when you want to check what is the response of the calls

P.S: You can also use XHR break points if you want to stop right before a specific call or any call (see image example)

Solution 4

Just update of @bfncs answer

I think around Chrome 43 the behavior was changed a little. You still need to enable Preserve log to see, but now redirect shown under Other tab, when loaded document is shown under Doc.

This always confuse me, because I have a lot of networks requests and filter it by type XHR, Doc, JS etc. But in case of redirect the Doc tab is empty, so I have to guess.

View more solutions

Comments

[isaaclw]

This wasn't the right answer for the question, but it's actually what I'm looking for. Thanks.

[Daniel Alexiuc]

In version 32 it's still there, but has moved to the top of the network panel.

[Thanatos]

Actually, it's now at the top, but called "Preserve log", and is a checkbox. Confusingly, there's still a red record icon, but that's just whether to log at all.

[bfncs]

Thanks for commenting on the change, I just updated the answer accordingly.

[bfncs]

@ruben, the interface does indeed now look a bit different, but there's still a checkbox labeled "Preserve log" at the top of the network tab: i.imgur.com/fhSDYSz.png

[rubenlop88]

@boundaryfunctions I know, I've been using it for a few weeks, but yesterday I updated Chrome to version 43.0.2357.65 and it doesn't work the way it used to anymore. Now the request that produces the redirect is replaced by the next request, I have to be very quick to click on the first request to see the details before it disappears. Can you check this behavior with your latest version of Chrome? To be clear, all previous request are preserved in the log, but the one that produced the redirect disappears.

[bfncs]

@ruben Sorry, I can't confirm this problem for version 43.0.2357.81 (64-bit) on Ubuntu Linux.

[user3167101]

@rubenlop88 Make sure you're not filtering on Documents, otherwise they won't persist there. You can check them specifically in the Other tab.

[Joel Mellon]

This is so slick. I got here looking for a "pause before redirect" solution and here it is. The accepted answer is easier to remember but this is rad.

[Kristóf Dombi]

This is extremely useful, because chrome does not shows the server response body, if the browser redirects right after getting the response.

[LeOn - Han Li]

This is great. With the load event, we can stop at the beginning and set break point easily. Thanks!

[kladderradatsch]

This doesn't work for me just by ticking the checkbox. The javascript snippet window.addEventListener("beforeunload", function() { debugger; }, false) is necessary.

[Ofir Hadad]

No, it's not. I'm using it daily.