The Memory Saver’s Aggression
Google Chrome is notoriously hungry for system RAM, especially if you keep dozens of tabs open simultaneously. To combat this, Chrome introduced a feature called “Memory Saver.” When enabled, Memory Saver monitors your open tabs. If it determines you haven’t interacted with a specific tab for a while, it automatically “discards” or essentially closes that tab in the background, freeing up the memory it was using. The tab remains visible in your tab bar, but when you click on it, the page must completely reload from the internet. While this prevents your computer from bogging down, it can be infuriating if Chrome automatically closes a tab containing a half-filled form, an unsubmitted comment, or a paused video, causing you to lose your progress.
Adding Exceptions to Memory Saver
To protect your important work and stop Google Chrome from automatically closing specific tabs via the Memory Saver feature, you must add those websites to an exclusion list.
Open Google Chrome and click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner to access the menu, then select Settings. In the left-hand navigation pane, click on Performance. Look for the Memory Saver section. You don’t need to turn the entire feature off if you still want the memory benefits for generic sites. Instead, look for the sub-section labeled Always keep these sites active. Click the Add button next to it. A dialog box will appear. Type in the core domain of the website you want to protect (for example, docs.google.com or youtube.com) and click Add. Chrome will now permanently exempt that specific website from the Memory Saver process, ensuring those tabs are never automatically closed or discarded in the background.