Website Refresh Issue on iPhone

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Level 1

4 points

Website Refresh Issue on iPhone

I'm currently facing an issue where my website refreshes randomly while browsing on an iPhone. Despite being a developer and attempting various troubleshooting methods, including hiring freelancers on Upwork, the problem remains unresolved.

Some things to note:

This refresh issue is exclusive to iPhones; it doesn't occur on PCs, MACs or Android devices. I have not tested it on a MAC, my guess , I don't have access to a MAC to determine if the issue extends to that platform.
Basically the site random refreshes with irregular intervals – sometimes within a few seconds and other times within a couple of minutes.
This behavior is consistent across all browsers I've tested on the iPhone, including Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, Edge, DuckDuckGo, and even Instagram's in-app browser.
While the behavior is generally the same across most browsers, the Instagram in-app browser is a bit different in that it consistently refreshes to a blank page. On other browsers, it usually refreshes or redirect back to the same page.
I've conducted tests on multiple iPhone models ranging from 11 to 15, and the issue persists across all of them.

Has anyone else encountered this issue, and if so, how did you go about resolving it?

Thanks in advance!

iPhone 11, iOS 17

Posted on Feb 24, 2024 1:06 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

etresoft

Level 9

56,308 points

Feb 25, 2024 7:19 AM in response to codeblue001

codeblue001 wrote:

Hi etresoft, I appreciate the feedback. What you said makes a lot of sense. I never thought of it that way, so in the end, it could be a Safari issue since all technology is the same regardless of which browser I am using.

Well, it's not a "Safari issue". You're blowing out the RAM on the device. Apple strictly limits how much RAM any app can use. Even when Apple allows non-Webkit-based web browsers in the EU, the RAM limit will remain. If anything, your problem will get worse in the EU. Safari (and WebKit) are the best browser (engine) for managing RAM. That's why Apple requires it.

Where would you suggest I look to find a developer who may be able to fix this?

No clue. Anything involving popular platforms like Wordpress, or especially anything involving Apple, is going to be flooded with fakers. How can you tell the difference? It sounds like you spent quite a bit of time and money on this problem already. And yet it is trivially easy, at least to identify. It's a cruel world, eh?

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Answer 2

etresoft

Level 9

56,308 points

Feb 25, 2024 5:39 AM in response to codeblue001

codeblue001 wrote:

Has anyone else encountered this issue

Never.

how did you go about resolving it?

Standard way to debug any website issues is to run the site in developer mode.

I've browsed the web and found similar cases, but they usually end without a solution or are specific to Safari, whereas my issue occurs across all browsers but only on the iPhone.

All browsers on the iPhone are Safari.

I plan to eventually get a Mac for testing purposes.

Bummer. You've already missed the golden era. At one time, you could have simply bought a Mac and used that to test all browsers on all platforms. Those days are over. You are going to need to increase your development and test budget significantly.

my site occasionally consumes up to 2GB of memory

That would do it.

I also removed some features on the site and was able to successfully bring it down to approximately 1.3GB.

Still way, way too high.

the guys on upwork I hired all had 100% success rate and still could not fix it.

Stop wasting your money.

This is a trivial problem, but you will need to hire a real developer. Using WordPress will make that much more difficult. Competent developers probably wouldn't want to bother. The sea of "WordPress developers" that are left are probably no better than the people you've hired so far. No one has told you that Apple only allows its own WebKit engine from Safari to be used on iPhones? No one has told you about the memory constraints? No one has suggested an iPhone version that loads minimal plug-ins?

And to make matters so much worse for you, the EU is forcing Apple to allow other web browsers on the iPhone. This is going to make your work 10x more difficult. It's a really bad time to be building a mobile web site.

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Answer 3

codeblue001 Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 24, 2024 3:01 PM in response to MrHoffman

I did disable all the plugins and reenable them one at a time. I could not narrow it time to a single one. Although, when disabling plugins, the issue seems to improve, leading me to suspect it could be resource problem. Initially, I thought the issue was with Disqus since disabling it significantly improved performance, but recently, even that doesn't seem to have much effect.

A few months ago, I noticed Chrome browser had a feature that shows memory usage when you hover over the tab. This revealed that my site occasionally consumes up to 2GB of memory, which is unusually high. I conducted some tests to determine memory usage for each plugin, and found that Disqus accounted for 500-800MB, while ads made up about 600MB. Interestingly, the site itself, without ads or Disqus, only used 300-500MB. This led me to believe that high memory usage might be the underlying issue.

I have since implemented changes to reduce the memory usage such as lazy loading. I also removed some features on the site and was able to successfully bring it down to approximately 1.3GB. Initially, the issue appeared to have been solved, but recently it resurfaced with a vengeance and is now worse than ever.

I am not sure if it could be related to the OS since it is only on the iphone. I have yet to see it on android device or PC. Unfortunately most of the sites traffic is on the iphone so it is a demographic I can't do without.

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Answer 4

codeblue001 Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 25, 2024 7:12 AM in response to codeblue001

I also wanted to add that when this first happened, I disabled all the plugins and tested each one. Disabling the Disqus plugin improved or eliminated the problem, so I thought Disqus was the issue or at least the biggest contributor. For a couple of months, that seemed to be the case. However, a few days ago, the problem got worse and now even when I disable the Disqus plugin, nothing changes. The only thing that now improves or eliminates the situation is disabling my video player, which is injected using the Ad Inserter plugin.

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Answer 5

Feb 24, 2024 1:42 PM in response to codeblue001

Unlikely this’ll get addressed here, given folks with code access have tried and failed.

That failure usually means the website is complex or framework-heavy, too. Maybe also progressive.

That written…

W3C or other validation run successfully on HTML and JavaScript and whatever else was used here?

Safari web inspector providing any clues around the refresh?

Website can possibly be simplified, and tested again?

Same origin on ~everything?

Are you doing anything with tracking, monitoring, fingerprinting, or otherwise privacy-involving or privacy-adjacent?

Maybe rent or borrow or buy a Mac, and test with Safari on that?

PS: if there’s a framework dependency underneath this as I’d suspect, contact the framework maintainers, too.

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Answer 6

Feb 24, 2024 2:43 PM in response to codeblue001

Revert to WordPress, removing all add-ons, test and validate again, then add one at a time and test and validate, and see which one busts privacy or security or whatever.

Safari tends to be the least permissive around creative interpretations of security and privacy.

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Answer 7

Feb 24, 2024 3:40 PM in response to codeblue001

I can probably boot Linux in a Safari browser tab with less overhead than what you’re reporting with this website.

Safari on macOS has instrumentation, but Safari diagnostics are more limited on iOS and iPadOS.

But…. This doesn’t seem a Safari problem, it seems one or more website or website dependency issues. Or bugs.

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Answer 8

codeblue001 Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 24, 2024 2:44 PM in response to MrHoffman

Thank you for the feedback. It was very insightful. In terms of complexity, it's just a WordPress site. However, I do JavaScript is loaded from various external links, mostly for ads and commenting.

Regarding successful W3C and other validations, I did conduct a few, and I believe the freelancers I have hired may have.

Regarding same-origin requests, most requests are same-origin, but there are a few cross-origin requests.

I've browsed the web and found similar cases, but they usually end without a solution or are specific to Safari, whereas my issue occurs across all browsers but only on the iPhone.

I plan to eventually get a Mac for testing purposes. Again I appreciate the feedback.

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Answer 9

codeblue001 Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 24, 2024 3:54 PM in response to MrHoffman

Correct, I can recreate it on any browser on an iphone. Instagram being the worst because it reloads to a blank page. It is just disapointing that I can't figure it out and the guys on upwork I hired all had 100% success rate and still could not fix it.

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Answer 10

codeblue001 Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 25, 2024 6:42 AM in response to etresoft

Hi etresoft, I appreciate the feedback. What you said makes a lot of sense. I never thought of it that way, so in the end, it could be a Safari issue since all technology is the same regardless of which browser I am using.

Where would you suggest I look to find a developer who may be able to fix this?

Thanks!

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Website Refresh Issue on iPhone

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