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How do I turn off lazy loading for tabs definitely and irrevocably?

  • 13 replies
  • 0 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

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I can't turn off lazy loading. I set the following about:config settings to "false":

browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand browser.sessionstore.restore_tabs_lazily browser.sessionstore.restore_pinned_tabs_on_demand

Nothing changes. When I start Firefox, it simply won't load all tabs. How do I fix this?

I can't turn off lazy loading. I set the following about:config settings to "false": browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand browser.sessionstore.restore_tabs_lazily browser.sessionstore.restore_pinned_tabs_on_demand Nothing changes. When I start Firefox, it simply won't load all tabs. How do I fix this?

All Replies (13)

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How many tabs does it load on startup?

Does it still happen in Troubleshoot Mode?

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Note that your Troubleshooting Information shows a rather old Firefox 108.0 version. Does this still happen with the current release ?

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zeroknight said

How many tabs does it load on startup? Does it still happen in Troubleshoot Mode?

Firefox is loading about 50 tabs. Troubleshoot mode makes no difference; I still have to manually click on almost all tabs to load them. A handful tabs seem to load themselves, however.

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Tabs will unload when the system runs low on memory, you can disable this by going to about:config and changing browser.tabs.unloadOnLowMemory to false.

WARNING from the moderator team: Changing Firefox preferences from the about:config page can sometimes break Firefox or cause strange behavior. You should only do this if you know what you're doing. Please read Firefox Advanced Customization and Configuration Options to learn more.

Modified by Paul

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zeroknight said

Tabs will unload when the system runs low on memory, you can disable this by going to about:config and changing browser.tabs.unloadOnLowMemory to false.

That still didn't turn off lazy loading. Are you sure that lazy loading can still be disabled and that this function hasn't been removed?

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Did you access all tabs in the previous to ensure they are loaded and session data is available ? Do you keep the browsing cache ?

See also MAX_CONCURRENT_TAB_RESTORES and other comments here:

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cor-el said

Did you access all tabs in the previous to ensure they are loaded and session data is available ? Do you keep the browsing cache ? See also MAX_CONCURRENT_TAB_RESTORES and other comments here:

I did access all the tabs. MAX_CONCURRENT_TAB_RESTORES is currently at three for me; how I can I increase that number? Can I add this as a string in about:config?

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No, that max value is hard coded and can't be changed, this is done for performance/responsiveness reasons to prevent blocking the user interface when you restore a lot of tabs. This hard coded limit may not always be used as there can be cases where more tabs or windows need to be loaded.

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cor-el said

No, that max value is hard coded and can't be changed, this is done for performance/responsiveness reasons to prevent blocking the user interface when you restore a lot of tabs. This hard coded limit may not always be used as there can be cases where more tabs or windows need to be loaded.

Sounds like turning off lazy loading is dead then.

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A limit on concurrent restores should not limit total number of restored tabs.

How many tabs do you have across how many different sites?

Did this use to work previously? What was the last version you recall it working?

Does it work in Firefox 117?

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zeroknight said

A limit on concurrent restores should not limit total number of restored tabs. How many tabs do you have across how many different sites? Did this use to work previously? What was the last version you recall it working? Does it work in Firefox 117?

Oh, I misunderstood that. I don't recall when this last worked, but I don't think Firefox always had lazy loading. Even if it did, why does switching it off does nothing?

When I start Firefox, it should open about 100 tabs across maybe 70 sites now. I can do that, but it requires me to select all tabs and choose to reload them all at once. Firefox won't do it by itself.

Anyway, based on this discussion and a few others I found, loading all tabs was abandoned years ago: https://superuser.com/questions/1086541/how-do-i-make-firefox-47-load-all-my-tabs-on-startup

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I still haven't found a solution for this other than selection all tabs and reloading them. Is the option to turn off lazy loading truly dead?

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If the tabs are load lazily, then it can take some time to finish load them all. Loading lazily is merely meant to prevent Firefox from blocking the user interface when a lot of tabs need to be loaded. If you select a tab that hasn't been loaded yet, then this tab needs to be loaded (the selected tab will always be loaded).

Does this still happen if you wait a few minutes to allow Firefox to load the tabs ? You can possibly monitor the internet connection to see if data still is loaded.

You can check about:processes page for info about all processes. See also the about:unloads page for info about the tabs.