[Tip] Disable or Enable Tab Sleep or Tab Snooze Feature in Web Browsers

Now-a-days almost all popular web browsers are coming with a new feature called “Tab Sleep“. This feature is also known or referred as Tab Snooze, Tab Freeze, Tab Suspend, Tab Discard or Tab Hibernation.

Tab Sleep feature has been introduced to improve performance of the web browser. It reduces amount of memory usage thus helps in improving overall system performance.

When Tab Sleep feature is activated, the web browser checks for inactive or idle background tabs which have not been used by the user since a predefined time period. The web browser puts those inactive/unused tabs to sleep. In other words, the web browser discards or unloads those inactive tabs from memory so that the web browser consumes less memory.

When the user clicks on sleeping or suspended tabs, the web browser activates and reloads the tabs again.

Although this feature is very useful as it improves system performance but sometimes users may get annoyed when they notice that some tabs have been put to sleep and when they switch to those tabs, the web browser takes time in loading the tabs again.

In this article, we’ll tell you how to activate or deactivate Tab Sleep feature in all popular web browsers (such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and the new Microsoft Edge browser). Almost all web browsers allow users to turn on/off this feature.

If you also want to disable or enable Tab Sleep feature in your web browser, following steps will help you:

Enable or Disable Tab Sleep Feature in Mozilla Firefox:

This feature is known as Tab Suspend in Mozilla Firefox web browser and you can enable or disable it using following steps:

1. Open Mozilla Firefox and type about:config in the addressbar and press Enter. It’ll show you a warning message, click on “I accept the risk!” button. It’ll open Firefox’s hidden secret advanced configuration page i.e. about:config page.

2. Now type lowmemory in Search filter box and it’ll show following preference in the window:

If the value of the preference is set to true, it means the tab suspension feature is enabled in Firefox browser.

If the value of the preference is set to false, it means the tab suspension feature is disabled in Firefox browser.

3. If Tab Suspend feature is enabled in your Firefox browser and you want to deactivate and disable it, double-click on browser.tabs.unloadOnLowMemory preference and set it to false. Alternatively, you can right-click on the preference and select Toggle option.

Similarly, if Tab Suspend feature is disabled in your Firefox browser and you want to activate and enable it, double-click on browser.tabs.unloadOnLowMemory preference and set it to true. Alternatively, you can right-click on the preference and select Toggle option.

That’s it. Restart Firefox and it’ll enable/disable Tab Suspend feature in Firefox based on the value of preference.

More Details: [Fix] Mozilla Firefox Automatically Suspends Tabs and Reloads When You Visit

Enable or Disable Tab Sleep Feature in Microsoft Edge:

This feature is known as Sleeping Tabs in Microsoft Edge web browser. Following steps will help you in enabling or disabling this feature in Edge browser:

1. Open Microsoft Edge browser and click on the 3-dots menu button present at the right-side of the toolbar. Now select Settings option from the main menu.

Alternatively, you can press ALT+F keys together to show Edge Menu and then press S key to open Settings page. You can also directly open Edge Settings page using edge://settings/ URL in address bar.

2. Now click on System tab in left sidebar and in right-side pane, you’ll see Save Resources section.

Look for “Save resources with sleeping tabs” option under Save Resources section.

If “Save resources with sleeping tabs” option is enabled i.e. ON, it means Sleeping Tabs feature is enabled in Microsoft Edge.

If “Save resources with sleeping tabs” option is disabled i.e. OFF, it means Sleeping Tabs feature is disabled in Microsoft Edge.

If Sleeping Tabs feature is disabled in your Microsoft Edge browser and you want to enable it, set the toggle button given next to “Save resources with sleeping tabs” option to ON.

Similarly, if Sleeping Tabs feature is enabled in your Microsoft Edge browser and you want to disable it, set the toggle button given next to “Save resources with sleeping tabs” option to OFF.

That’s it. It’ll turn on/off Sleeping Tabs feature in Microsoft Edge based on preference status.

BONUS TIP: You can also completely remove Sleeping Tabs feature in Microsoft Edge by modifying a hidden preference mentioned in following tutorial:

[Tip] Enable Secret “Sleeping Tabs” Feature in Microsoft Edge Web Browser

Enable or Disable Tab Sleep Feature in Opera:

This feature is known as Tab Snooze in Opera web browser. Following steps will help you in enabling/disabling this feature in Opera:

1. Launch Opera web browser, click on Opera Menu button and then click on Settings option. Alternatively you can directly launch Settings page by pressing Alt+P keys together.

2. Now scroll down to bottom on settings page and click on “Advanced” link. It’ll show advanced settings options.

3. Again scroll down and you’ll see “User Interface” section. Now look for “Snooze inactive tabs to save memory” option.

If “Snooze inactive tabs to save memory” option is enabled i.e. ON, it means Tab Snooze feature is enabled in Opera.

If “Snooze inactive tabs to save memory” option is disabled i.e. OFF, it means Tab Snooze feature is disabled in Opera.

If Tab Snooze feature is disabled in your Opera browser and you want to enable it, set the toggle button given next to “Snooze inactive tabs to save memory” option to ON.

Similarly, if Tab Snooze feature is enabled in your Opera browser and you want to disable it, set the toggle button given next to “Snooze inactive tabs to save memory” option to OFF.

That’s it. It’ll turn on/off Tab Snooze feature in Opera based on preference status.

Enable or Disable Tab Sleep Feature in Google Chrome:

This feature is known as Tab Freeze in Google Chrome web browser. There was a hidden preference/flag available to enable/disable Tab Freeze feature in older versions of Chrome browser but Chrome team removed the preference in newer Chrome versions.

If you are using an older version of Chrome, following steps will help you in enabling/disabling Tab Freeze feature in Chrome:

1. Open Google Chrome web browser and type chrome://flags/ in addressbar and press Enter. It’ll open the advanced configuration page.

2. Now type freeze in the “Search flags” box.

It’ll directly go to following option:

3. If “Tab Freeze” option is set to enabled, it means Tab Freeze feature is enabled in Chrome.

If “Tab Freeze” option is set to disabled, it means Tab Freeze feature is disabled in Chrome.

If Tab Freeze feature is disabled in your Chrome browser and you want to enable it, set the “Tab Freeze” option to Enabled using the drop-down box.

Similarly, if Tab Freeze feature is enabled in your Chrome browser and you want to disable it, set the “Tab Freeze” option to Disabled using the drop-down box.

That’s it. It’ll turn on/off Tab Freeze feature in Chrome based on preference status.

More Details: [Tip] Enable Tab Freeze or Tab Suspend Feature in Google Chrome

In future versions of Chrome, the developer team might add a new working preference/flag to enable/disable Tab Freeze feature similar to Microsoft Edge browser.. If we come across a new working method to turn on/off Tab Freeze feature in newer Chrome versions, we’ll update this page.

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