The Phantom Tab Refresh
Google Chrome’s Memory Saver feature (previously known as “Tab Discarding” or “Tab Freezing”) automatically suspends background tabs that have not been used for a period of time, freeing up RAM for the active tab. When you click back on a suspended tab, Chrome must fully reload the page from the server, which means losing any unsaved form data, resetting your scroll position in a long article, disconnecting from live web applications like chat clients or dashboards, and adding a noticeable delay before the page is usable again. For users with plenty of RAM who keep many tabs open as part of their workflow, this automatic suspension creates far more problems than it solves.
Disabling Memory Saver
To stop Google Chrome from automatically putting inactive tabs to sleep and forcing them to reload when revisited, you need to disable the Memory Saver feature in Chrome’s Performance settings.
Open Google Chrome. Click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner and select Settings. In the left-hand navigation pane, click on Performance. You will see a toggle labelled Memory Saver (or “Memory” on some versions). Turn this toggle off. With Memory Saver disabled, Chrome will keep all your open tabs fully loaded in memory at all times, preventing any automatic discarding or reloading. If you prefer to keep Memory Saver enabled globally but want to protect specific sites from being suspended, click the Add button next to “Always keep these sites active” and enter the URLs of critical web applications (such as your email client, project management tool, or music streaming service) that must remain live in the background. These exempted sites will never be suspended regardless of inactivity.