If you keep 30 tabs open in Google Chrome, you might notice a frustrating behavior: when you click back to a tab you haven’t looked at in an hour, the page suddenly refreshes itself. If you were halfway through filling out a long form or writing an email on that tab, all your unsaved work is instantly erased by the reload.
This happens because Chrome has an aggressive “Memory Saver” feature (also known as Tab Discarding). To save RAM, Chrome automatically unloads background tabs from memory, forcing them to reload from the internet when you click on them again. If you have plenty of RAM and hate losing your place, you can safely disable this automated feature.
How to Safely Disable Google Chrome Tab Discarding
You must turn off the Memory Saver feature in Chrome’s performance settings.
- Open the Google Chrome browser.
- Click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner and select Settings.
- In the left-hand navigation sidebar, click on Performance.
- Look for the section labeled Memory Saver.
- Toggle the switch to the Off position (the switch should turn gray).
Pro Tip for specific websites: If you actually like the Memory Saver feature but want to prevent it from reloading one specific website (like your webmail or a complex spreadsheet), leave the switch On, click the Add button next to “Always keep these sites active,” and type the URL (e.g., docs.google.com). Chrome will now forcefully discard all background tabs except the ones you specifically protect.