The Memory Saver
Google Chrome is notorious for consuming massive amounts of system RAM. To combat this, Google introduced a feature called “Memory Saver.” When enabled, if you open a tab and then ignore it for an extended period, Chrome will automatically “discard” or put that tab to sleep, freeing up the memory it was using. However, the moment you click back onto that tab, Chrome must automatically reload the entire page from the internet. This is disastrous if you were halfway through filling out a massive, un-saved web form, or watching a long, buffering video, as the automatic reload completely destroys your progress and resets the page.
Disabling Tab Discarding
To protect your unsaved web data and stop Google Chrome from automatically reloading tabs when you switch back to them, you must disable the Memory Saver feature or create specific exceptions.
Click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner of Chrome and select Settings. In the left-hand navigation sidebar, click on Performance. At the very top of this page, you will see the Memory Saver toggle. The easiest solution is to simply click this toggle to turn the entire feature Off. However, if you want to keep the memory savings but protect a specific site (like your bank or a complex web app), leave Memory Saver on, but click the Add button next to “Always keep these sites active.” Type the URL of the specific website (e.g., www.mycomplexform.com) into the box and save it. Chrome will now never put tabs from that domain to sleep.