How to Fix Chrome Tabs Keep Auto-Refreshing

Sometimes, Chrome reloads tabs by itself when toggling back and forth between different tabs. This is just, in essence, an aspect of memory management but quite disruptive to workflow. Follow these steps to prevent this from happening in the first place:

1. Close unwanted tabs.

Chrome's memory management system automatically discards inactive tabs to save RAM for active ones. If you have problems with the performance, close extra tabs. Surely, keeping your bookmarks in order might be a hassle without a little help from a bookmark organizer extension. It will let you quickly set in order the saved content and find what you need, so that the work in your browser goes more smoothly.

2 Restart Google Chrome

If your Chrome tabs are auto-reloading while the usage is really less, it might be that this is a temporary glitch. It often gets fixed by simply restarting Chrome. Before relaunching Chrome, open the Task Manager (on Windows) or Activity Monitor (on macOS) and close any lingering Chrome background processes.

If it doesn't work with the restart, think of Chrome updating for any performance improvements or any other fixing of bugs. To update, click on the three dots in the top right corner and select Help > About Google Chrome. Chrome will auto-update if there is a new version available. After the update process, it will ask for "Relaunch" to restart the browser. This will fix the auto reload problem.

3 Check Google Chrome Extensions

While Chrome extensions can enhance your browsing features, sometimes they might be discordant with the tab management or begin using too much RAM to cause unwanted auto-refreshes. Turn off all extensions temporarily to troubleshoot this issue. Use the three-dot icon in the top right, then "More Tools" > "Extensions" > "Manage Extensions". Disable each extension one at a time to find out which one is problematic.

You can also try using the Task Manager to find extensions that are uses up too much memory/resources. The Task Manager can be found through the three-dot icon > "More Tools" > "Task Manager". Highlight the suspected offending extension and click "End process."

Successively isolate and turn off the problem extension. There, you would have solved the problem of auto-refresh and be able to enjoy Chrome in the best way again.

4 Use Tab Management Extension

"Tired of manually refreshing tabs? That's where the Tab Auto Refresh extension comes into play. Customize reload intervals according to your needs, whether you are awaiting some important update, fending off useless refreshes, or just automating routine tasks. You only need to install the extension and set your preferred reload time. Tab Auto Refresh will then do the rest in the most seamless and efficient manner for managing your browsing experience. Download it today and experience the convenience brought to you by automated tab refreshes."

5. Turn Off Automatic Tab Discarding

If you are looking for a method to get Chrome to stop auto-refreshing tabs without installing more extensions, you can disable automatic tab discarding. First, open Chrome and type in chrome://discards into the address bar. Doing this will take you to a page listing all of your open tabs.

Find the column named 'Auto Discardable'. Inside, find the tab that you want to lock from being auto-reloaded. On the right side of that column's checkmark, click the 'Toggle' link. It will turn off the checkmark, thus disabling auto discard of that tab.

Note that this is just a temporary setting. Closing a tab and reopening it after some time will require that this process be done again to prevent it from reloading automatically. Second, disabling automatic tab discarding may impact the performance of your system, mostly in scenarios when you have opened too many tabs. This feature should only be activated when there is a need, and only on those tabs that you would consider important.

6 Turn Off Chrome's Memory Saver

This could be due to the memory saver in Chrome. This is the rewritten and enhanced paragraph about Chrome's Memory Saver.

Free Up Memory, But Use With Caution:

Low on memory? Chrome's Memory Saver saves you some by unloading tabs you're not actively using. Turning this off stops Chrome from ditching tabs, but it also means Chrome won't be quite as efficient with memory.

To turn off Memory Saver:

Click the three-dot menu in the top right corner and select "Settings."

On the left navigation menu, click "Performance" and then toggle the switch off for "Memory Saver."

Keep Certain Sites Active:

Want the Tab Disk Cleaner to make sure particular tabs stay active when your memory runs low? With Memory Saver, you can have an "Always keep these sites active" list. Here's how:

Settings > Performance > Memory saver Turn it On.

Click "Add" next to "Always keep these sites active."

Select "Add current sites" to never close your currently open tab.

Alternatively, turn on "Add sites manually" and add the site (e.g., google.com) to allow its subdomains to remain on, such as maps.google.com.

Use asterisks () as wildcards. For example, will keep all Twitch tabs on, regardless of specific URL variations.

By these steps, you can be able to locate and fix the source of trouble that makes Chrome tabs automatically refresh.