The Legacy Bandwidth Throttling
For several years, Google offered an official Chrome extension (and a built-in Android feature) known as “Data Saver” or “Lite Mode.” When active, this feature routed all of your HTTP web traffic through Google’s own compression servers before it reached your browser, effectively shrinking images and stripping heavy scripts to save cellular bandwidth. However, as the modern web transitioned almost entirely to encrypted HTTPS connections, Google’s servers could no longer intercept and compress the data without breaking security protocols. Consequently, the feature is now largely obsolete, and leaving the old extension running simply wastes local memory and CPU cycles while providing zero bandwidth benefits.
Removing the Obsolete Extension
Because Google has officially deprecated the Data Saver backend architecture, you should completely remove the extension from your browser to reclaim system resources and prevent potential routing conflicts with modern websites.
Open Google Chrome on your desktop computer. Locate the puzzle piece icon (Extensions) in the top-right corner of the browser toolbar, situated next to your profile picture. Click the puzzle piece to reveal a dropdown list of all your active extensions. Scroll through the list until you find Data Saver (it may also be branded as “Lite Mode” depending on when you installed it). Click the three vertical dots (More actions) located immediately to the right of the extension’s name. From the resulting menu, select Remove from Chrome… in red text. A small confirmation dialogue box will appear in the top centre of the screen; click the Remove button to finalize the deletion. Your browser will no longer attempt to route traffic through the defunct compression servers.