Browsed web pages won't update or refresh

[#1]

This is a really strange one. Something has recently changed, but I'm not even sure whether my Plusnet connection is to blame.

On my Android tablet, many sites seem slower to load than usual. But that's not the biggest annoyance. If I return to a tab after leaving it for a few minutes, whatever web page I was viewing in that tab no longer loads, and Refresh (even multiple times) won't refresh it. The little clock icon spins round and round, and the progress bar limps off zero, but the page never (re)loads. From that point, the only way back to it is to open a new tab, and navigate to it again. That tab will likewise become unresponsive if neglected for a time.

I used to have some tabs, such as news and weather, open in the background literally all the time, and just switch to them to see the latest. Now I can't do that. Every time I want the news, I have to open a new tab to get it; I can't view the one opened earlier.

A speed test shows speeds both up and down are normal.

Any ideas? 

[#2]

Do you have any other device to test?

[#3]

I have an old laptop, but that's pretty sluggish at the best of times, so it's hard to make a valid comparison. I can't seem to replicate the exact symptom of web pages turning to 'zombies' after a while, but browsing is slow in general.

[#4]

That sounds like an issue with the tablet, but I have no experience of Android devices, so can't really help. Maybe someone else can, though.

[#5]

@TLM 

Which web browser are you using on your tablet, and have you tried clearing out its cache?

[#6]

I'm using Chrome. I don't want to clear the whole cache, as this will delete all of my saved info for everything. However, I have tried deleting the individual cache for some of the websites that seem borked, but this did not stop it happening again next time I visited.

Sometimes it is as soon as I have left the website for any reason. E.g. while checking out my basket on a shopping site, visit my email to retrieve a discount code, go back to the tab where I was checking out, and find it's hung. This might have taken just seconds.

[#7]

Have you recently updated Chrome? I 'm having similar issues since Monday on two PCs, using a very fast Altnet FTTP connection. Also if I try to cut & paste into a field on a web page Chrome crashes and produces a dump file (it seems the inaction is while it is producing the dump). I've swapped to FireFox for now. 

I may get bored and have a go at debugging it if they don't issue a new update soon... 

[#8]

As an aside: another rushed/untested Chrome 'update'.

[#9]

Hmmm, interesting. I'm on September's version, but don't know when it was installed, as it's all automatic. Not necessarily September, obviously.  The issues are definitely more recent than September - last week or ten days max.

It happened even as I was posting this. I went away to check what version I have. When I returned to the edit tab to continue posting, it had hung, and I had to start over again.

[#10]

Right, I have forced an update (to November 14th release) and that may have fixed it! Slightly paradoxical, as you think the latest update caused it for you, but early indications are that it's either fixed, or at least not as frequent as before. I was able to leave this tab and do a couple of other things, and come back and carry on! This hasn't been possible for several days.

The release notes for the latest version of Chrome said that it's "to improve stability", which is an implicit admission that it was unstable before (more like almost unusable!)

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. It hadn't occurred to me to try a forced update, as I didn't really think Chrome was the issue. Fingers crossed...

[#11]

Well, the "fix" of updating Chrome lasted about two hours before it started doing it again. I do accept that makes it unlikely to be a Plusnet problem, but I am no closer to finding a permanent fix. I'm now back to background tabs routinely hanging and being impossible to refresh.

[#12]

@TLM I think you will find it a Chrome failed/untested update issue - see @corringham post at #7.

[#13]

Worth remembering that Chrome exists primarily to collect user personal data for Google (that's how they earn revenue from  it - they collect and monetise your personal data), so some websites can seem to stall if they fail to connect to the Google personal data mining servers for some reason (and an update will most probably include changes to personal data collection in some way). 

[#14]

If you do a Google search for “chrome not updating dormant web pages” there are links for turning the update off.

Might be worth checking your settings because if the feature can be turned off it can be turned on again.

[#15]

Moderator's note(s):

Thread moved from Broadband to Tech Help.