Turn off "This webpage was reloaded because it was using significant memory"

I use some memory-intensive web applications. Since updating to Mac OS Big Sur, they have become unusable because Safari frequently refreshes the page (causing me to lose progress and I have to start the task over again) and displays the message "This webpage was reloaded because it was using significant memory."


I love Safari, but this makes it totally unusable for me. I've had to switch to a new browser for many tasks because Safari just reloads the page and causes me to lose my progress.


How can I turn off this automatic reloading of webpages? Surely Apple engineers wouldn't program in something that could so easily interrupt many peoples' workflows without also adding a way to turn it off...

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 11.1

Posted on Jan 23, 2021 1:20 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 25, 2021 3:41 PM

Hey Fondor12000,


We understand you're using some memory-intensive web applications in Safari and these webpages are being reloaded due to significant memory usage.


While there's not a way to disable this feature, as it's designed to keep your Mac performing as expected instead of locking up due to a lack of memory, you can take some steps to reduce your memory usage and as a result, help prevent this from occurring.


The best way to do so is to rule out or uninstall any Safari extensions which may be installed. You can disable and remove extensions by going to Safari > Preferences > Extensions and unchecking the extensions displayed here to disable them or else tap on the extension and then tapping on "Uninstall".


Next, if the issue persists, we'd recommend testing in Safe Mode to isolate things further: How to use safe mode on your Mac


This will help rule out any login items which may be contributing to unexpected memory usage.


Lastly, you can check what's eating into your memory usage using the Activity Monitor application: View memory usage in Activity Monitor on Mac


If all else fails, we recommend contacting Apple Support to check into any other available options to assist you with this matter: Get Support


We hope this information helps out!


Take care.

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 25, 2021 3:41 PM in response to Fondor12000

Hey Fondor12000,


We understand you're using some memory-intensive web applications in Safari and these webpages are being reloaded due to significant memory usage.


While there's not a way to disable this feature, as it's designed to keep your Mac performing as expected instead of locking up due to a lack of memory, you can take some steps to reduce your memory usage and as a result, help prevent this from occurring.


The best way to do so is to rule out or uninstall any Safari extensions which may be installed. You can disable and remove extensions by going to Safari > Preferences > Extensions and unchecking the extensions displayed here to disable them or else tap on the extension and then tapping on "Uninstall".


Next, if the issue persists, we'd recommend testing in Safe Mode to isolate things further: How to use safe mode on your Mac


This will help rule out any login items which may be contributing to unexpected memory usage.


Lastly, you can check what's eating into your memory usage using the Activity Monitor application: View memory usage in Activity Monitor on Mac


If all else fails, we recommend contacting Apple Support to check into any other available options to assist you with this matter: Get Support


We hope this information helps out!


Take care.

Jan 26, 2021 5:04 AM in response to melissa_m77

Thanks for your response. I have plenty of memory and memory pressure has been very low when the pages have been reloaded. The pages are not reloaded due to any lack of available RAM. I appreciate that Safari is trying to save RAM, but it does it at the expense of being usable. I’d rather have an application I can use than one that is ultra-light on RAM. Unfortunately, I cannot use Safari right now and have been forced, because of this “feature,” to switch to a different browser.

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Turn off "This webpage was reloaded because it was using significant memory"

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