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Loading pages in the background (Android)

  • 7 replies
  • 8 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by Ed

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Hello, I have a problem with the tabs loading int he background in my Galaxy Nexus.

The thing is, let's say, I load a page in a tab and it finishes loading. I switch to another application, then I go back to the firefox and the page is reloaded, why? This is quite problematic in slow connections, sometimes I spend like a minute waiting for a whole page to be completely loaded. I even switch to other applications in the meanwhile a page is being loaded and, when I go back to firefox, it's showing the previous page, like before clicking the link I was waiting for to be loaded.

Also, sometimes I go back to firefox and some of the tabs I had closed on purpose, are automatically restored.

Is that a bug or is there any way to prevent this behavior? I really like this browser but these impediments make me waste a lot of time.

Thanks so much.

Hello, I have a problem with the tabs loading int he background in my Galaxy Nexus. The thing is, let's say, I load a page in a tab and it finishes loading. I switch to another application, then I go back to the firefox and the page is reloaded, why? This is quite problematic in slow connections, sometimes I spend like a minute waiting for a whole page to be completely loaded. I even switch to other applications in the meanwhile a page is being loaded and, when I go back to firefox, it's showing the previous page, like before clicking the link I was waiting for to be loaded. Also, sometimes I go back to firefox and some of the tabs I had closed on purpose, are automatically restored. Is that a bug or is there any way to prevent this behavior? I really like this browser but these impediments make me waste a lot of time. Thanks so much.

Modified by piripo

All Replies (7)

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These links will help to solve your problem

Most often hanging at exit is caused by Extensions, maybe plugins. Try Firefox Safe Mode; don't check any items, just click "Continue to Safe Mode". http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Safe+Mode

If the problem does not occur in Safe Mode, disable Extensions and Plugins, one at a time or up to one half at a time, restart Firfox after each change. Narrow down until you find the problem:

Modified by iamjayakumars

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Hello, thanks so much for your respones. However, I think they're not really useful to me because I'm talking about the firefox browser for Android.

Don't know if it's a problem of my phone (I have a Galaxy nexus) but I don't think so because I don't have any modified rom, just google one.

It's weird the behavior... sometimes I think that it's normal that some pages are automatically refreshed every X seconds (like newspapers, for example) but this happens with any page. But, what it's not normal, is that some tabs are automatically restored when firefox comes to the foreground after having been some hours in the background.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

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Did this "Top Contributor" even read your question?

I do not think "background loading" is a current feature at this time, but I sure hope it is one day. If you find out any more info please post here. Thanks

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Hello backitude and thanks for answering, it's always useful.

I didn't know it wasn't a feature, in this case, then some behavior makes sense. Thanks for reading and answering.

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I am having this problem as well. I'm running a nexus 7. I also had this problem on my old Acer iconia a500.

This is my only major issue with Firefox for android.

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@iamjayakumars Problem is related with Firefox for Android, not desktop version.

Modified by trkygn

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I believe this is a problem in Android rather than in Firefox.

Your android device has a limited amount of RAM. When the Firefox app is in the foreground it has priority and will sit in RAM.

If you then switch to another app then it will take priority and will move into RAM. So long as your device has enough RAM then Firefox will remain in there as well. This means that when you return to it the pages will load up almost instantly.

If the new app uses too much RAM then Android will decide to move Firefox out of RAM and into the cache on the device. When you then switch back to Firefox it will take longer to retrieve because it is not as fast as RAM and the pages will reload.

This is common to all Android browsers and apps in general.

See here for more details:

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/29466/how-to-force-browsers-not-to-reload-recently-seen-page-after-resume

The only options for getting around this are:

  • Try to use apps that have a small RAM requirement. Those are less likely to force Firefox out of RAM.
  • Buy a device with more RAM.
  • Try using a new launcher which uses less RAM than the default. The launcher sits in the background all the time so if you use one that is RAM inefficient then there is less RAM left over for the apps. On my Galaxy S3 I switched from the default launcher to Apex launcher and now Firefox gets forced out of RAM much less frequently.

I hope that helps.