Firefox memory saver

[DarthVaderx]

Recently I asked chatgpt about a memory problem I was having when opening more than a hundred tabs and he suggested these two procedures:

1) it is possible to configure Firefox to load tabs only when you click on them, instead of loading them immediately after opening. This setting can help save memory on your computer and improve Firefox's performance. To configure Firefox this way, follow these steps:

1. Open Firefox and type 'about:config' in the address bar.

2. Press Enter and then click 'I accept the risk!'.

3. In the search bar, type 'browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground'.

4. Double-click the option to set the value to 'true'.

From now on, when you open multiple tabs at once, they will not load automatically. Instead, only the active tab will load, while the others will remain in a suspended state until you click on them. When you click on a dropdown tab, it will load immediately. Remember that if you click on a link in a dropdown tab, the link will open in a new tab, which will remain in the dropdown until you click on it. If you prefer that all new tabs be loaded immediately, you can go back to the about:config settings and set the 'browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground' option to 'false'.

2) It is possible to configure Firefox so that tabs opened from a link do not load automatically.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open Firefox and type |about:config| in the address bar and press Enter.

2. Click 'Accept the risk and continue' to confirm that you want to access Firefox's advanced settings.

3. In the search bar, type |browser.tabs.loadInBackground|.

4. Double-click the |browser.tabs.loadInBackground| to change the value to 'false'. This will cause tabs opened from a link to not load automatically.

From now on, when you open a link in a new tab, it will be displayed in the background and will not load automatically until you select it.

With these two simple procedures, you can save a lot of memory in Firefox, especially for people who open a lot of tabs like me. And that almost nobody knows, that's why it's important to make these two settings default in the browser, ok?

Thanks.

[Jon]

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.

[Jon]

Potentially related idea here: Firefox should suspend tabs to better performance 

And speaking of chatgpt, Mozilla's Innovation Studio is asking for feedback/participation from the community on the topic of AI tools, chatbots, and more. Join the discussion at Contribute to Mozilla's product thinking around AI tools & chatbots 

[Vitalik]

👍

[yokoffing]

ChatGPT told you incorrect information. Those two prefs have to do with the focus behavior of new tabs and windows, not whether they load in the background: https://github.com/yokoffing/Betterfox/blob/29590403f513190709d25a61aa221d5659508476/Peskyfox.js#L35...

[alexdelorenzo]

This is a ChatGPT hallucination, it will tell you things with confidence even if they aren't true. I've noticed it is particularly bad with software configurations.

[ssssaaaaaaa]

Even though chat-gpt is wrong, both are great ideas to preserve memories when opening several tabs (fx when opening all bookmarks in a folder) and should be considered.

I'll add that it could be cool if it wasn't default from the get-go, but gets turned on if Firefox detects the users system is low on RAM (that it's using swap memory might be a good indicator?) or when the number of tabs exceed a threshold fx. 50 tabs.

I'm a tab-horder myself and use a tab manager (Simple Tab Groups) and a tab unloader (Auto Tab Discard) set up to be quite aggresive, to manage my memory usage nicely.