What is "Tab Suspender (Tab Unloader)" extension and how does it work?

Usually, when there are too many open tabs, your browser becomes less responsive since these tabs use too many resources from memory and executing background scripts. This extension observes all your tabs and unloads the ones that are inactive for a predefined period of time (default period is 30 minutes). When a tab is inactive for this period and has no unsaved form data, the tab gets unloaded (gets killed) which free ups the memory associated with the tab. Once the tab is selected, you can load its content back (restore the tab) by clicking on the page.

I no longer use this extension and still have a few tabs that are suspended. How can I recover these suspended tabs?

Use the following tool:

I have installed the extension, but there is no icon in the toolbar area. Am I missing something?

Once the extension is installed, you need to refresh tabs for the observer to be placed. Once the tab is refreshed, an icon will appear in the toolbar or address bar area of your browser. In chrome, the icon is appeared in the toolbar, while in Firefox and Opera icon is placed on the address bar.

How can I prevent a certain website from going into hibernate state?

The extension supports whitelisting certain domains. You can either manually enter the domain name in the options page, or once the page is loaded, click on the toolbar button and select "Never suspend this domain".

If you just want the current tab to remain active without adding it to the whitelist, right-click on the toolbar button and select "Don't suspend for now". This option prevents the current tab from being hibernated until it gets refreshed manually.

Why is the extension icon not visible for some web pages like about:blank?

Basically, the extension's toolbar button is only visible (or active) for ftp://, http:// and https:// schemes. Other domains are local and do not use a significant amount of memory and hence there is no need to hibernate them.

What's new in this version?

Please check the Logs section.

When I select "Suspend all tabs" from the toolbar context menu, some tabs are still active. Is there any reason for this?

If a tab is local, or the domain is already added to your whitelist, or the tab is pinned and "Do not suspend pinned tabs" option is checked, then hibernation is skipped. To suspend a tab that violates one of your predefined options, switch to the tab and press "Suspend this tab" from the context menu.

What does happen if I have a few suspended tabs and my browser crashes?

"Tab Suspender (Tab Unloader)" extension has a built-in session manager. Once your browser gets restarted, a desktop notification is displayed. Clicking on this notification opens all the suspended tabs once again.

What options this extension supports

Options page supports the following exceptions:

• Do not suspend pinned tabs
• Do not suspend tabs that contain unsaved form inputs
• Only auto-suspend if connected to the internet
• Only auto-suspend if running on battery (if battery API is available)
• Automatically unsuspend when tab gains focus

What is the meaning of "Use native method" in the options page?

If your browser supports chrome.tabs.discard, Tab Suspender uses this method to suspend tabs. So your browser actaully handles the tab suspension and hence the native session manager handles the discarded tabs. This is the recommended method, however if you still prefer the old method, use the options page to revert.

Note that if your browser does not support this method (like in Firefox browser), the old method will be used.