Google Chrome is undoubtedly the popular browser with more than 60% of the internet users using it for day to day browsing. Though built for safety and fast browsing experience, Chrome also has problems like slow page loading and slower performance especially when switching the tabs. Here are some tips to fix Google Chrome slow page loading issue and speed up your browsing.
Slow Google Chrome
The issue can be caused due to various reasons starting from wrong settings to a faulty extension. Depending up on the situation try the following options to improve the page loading speed in Google Chrome.
1. Chrome Cleanup Tool for Windows
Google has a dedicated cleanup tool to scan and remove the malware and spyware causing problem with Chrome browser. Earlier this was offered as a separate tool which you could download from Chrome website. However, now this tool is part of Chrome settings and is only available for Windows PC. Scan your PC with this tool and remove the problematic software codes to speedup Chrome. Go to chrome://settings/cleanup URL in the address bar and click on the “Find” button against “Find harmful software” option. Chrome will start scanning your PC and remove the problematic software codes to speed up the browsing.
2. DNS Resolution Problem
Before going to browser specific issues the most general issue for slow page loading is the incorrect DNS resolution. If you frequently notice the message “Resolving host..” on your browser’s status bar then changing to public DNS might help in fixing it.
Open the site in another browser like Firefox, IE or Safari and check the site loading speed. If it loads slow in all the browsers then the possible cause here could be your DNS settings. Refer our detailed article for fixing the resolving host issue on Google Chrome.
If you see any messages like “waiting for fonts.googleapis.com” or “waiting for ajax.googleapis.com”, then there could be many other reasons for slow page loading. Learn more on how to fix fonts.googleapis.com and ajax.googleapis.com issues in Google Chrome.
3. Clear Browser History
Over the period of time there will be lots of unnecessary history files accumulated slowing down the browser’s performance. Open the URL command “chrome://settings/clearBrowserData” in the address bar to see “Clear browsing data” popup.
Go to “Advanced” tab and choose “All time” from the dropdown to clear the browsing history from the beginning of browser installation. Click on the “Clear data” button to delete all those browser files which may be causing the slowness.
Note: You can also clear browser history from the setting menu “More Tools > Clear Browsing Data…“. In addition, you may feel the slowness in loading the page first time after the history is cleared due to cleanup of cookies and CSS. The page loading speed will improv from next time you open the same page.
4. Disabling Extensions
Extensions are additional external applications that help to enhance the functions of Chrome browser. There are many possibilities that one of the installed extensions may affect the speed of Chrome. The easy way to check this is to open the page in incognito mode, if it loads faster then the cause here could be the extensions or your browser cache. You can view al the installed extensions using the URL “chrome://plugins/” and disable them.
Now open any webpage to check whether the slowness is caused by extensions. If the page loads faster then enable the extensions one by one to narrow down the one causing issue.
5. Disable Hardware Acceleration
Open Chrome and navigate to the URL “chrome://settings”. Scroll down to end of the page and click on “Advanced ” option. Under “System” section disable the check box “Use hardware acceleration when available”.
Close and reopen your browser to check whether the page loading speed is improved.
6. Delete Bookmarks
Do you have lot of pages bookmarked? There is a known bug that large bookmarking slows down the performance especially when opening a new tab. Export all your bookmarks and delete them from the browser. Check the speed and if there is no improvement you can import the bookmarks back.
7. Check Your Chrome Installation Version
Always keep your browser up to date and if the slow page loading continues in the latest Chrome version the option is to uninstall Chrome and test the beta version. Chrome beta version comes with the latest features a month prior to the stable version.
Also ensure you have installed correct 64 bit or 32 bit Chrome version based on your operating system.
8. Check Antivirus and Firewall Settings
Antivirus and firewall settings may also slow down Chrome. Disable your antivirus and firewall settings then check the page is loading faster. Certain firewall applications need the app to be authorized before sending and receiving network. So, check your application and ensure that Chrome app is allowed to pass through the firewall settings.
9. Enable Network Predictions
Network prediction service allows Chrome to preload the linked pages on the webpage. So when the page is loaded, all connected links will be automatically preloaded by Chrome. Again when you click on any of the link on the page, Chrome will load the content faster as it was already prefetched.
Go to the URL “chrome://settings/privacy” and enable “Use a prediction service to load pages more quickly” option under “Privacy and security” section. Close all browser windows and reopen Chrome to check the page loading speed.
Warning: Sometimes enabling network prediction may slow down the Chrome. Check the speed of webpages and disable this option if this causes problem.
10. Close Memory Consuming Processes
One of the major reasons for lower speed is that many other processes running on other tabs occupy the available memory. This will lead to lower memory for the new loading page and even result in crashing with the errors like “Aw, Snap!“. Click on the “More (three dots on top right corner) > More Tools > Task Manager“. You will see the “Task Manager” showing all running browser processes. You can sort the processes based on the memory.
Select the high memory consuming process and click on the “End Process” button to kill the page. This may result in “Aw, Snap!” error on the tab which you killed the process. Now that the occupied but unused memory is cleared and the new page can use that memory to load faster.
Note: Similar to browser processes, there will be apps and programs running in the background on your PC or Mac. These unused programs will also occupy your computer’s memory and slow down the browser. So if you notice the browser is very slow then first cleanup the memory of your computer.
11. Close Multiple Not Used Tabs
Some of the users are habituated to use the browser with large number of open tabs. Each open tab on the browser will essentially occupy the memory. This can be seen on the “Task Manager” as explained above. As a result, any new page you try to open will be loading slowly.
If you don’t want to check the memory then simple close all unused tabs to improve the speed for other pages. Learn more on how to manage tabs in Chrome.
FAQ on Fixing Slow Google Chrome
Yes, you can fix slow Chrome and solution depends upon the situation. Most of the times, clearing browser caching will help to fix the issue if not you can reset the browser from the settings page.
No, there will be no data loss when troubleshooting the slowness, your bookmarks and saved passwords will be available. However, after deleting browsing history you may find the browser is responding slow when you visit pages for the first time. In addition, make sure to sync your settings before resetting the browser.
It helps to improve the speed if any installed extension was causing the issue. However, make sure you have disabled all extensions in incognito mode.
Chrome offers a free malware cleanup tool which you can access from the settings page in Windows version. On Mac, you need to manually scan and clean up the system using any third-party apps.
Chrome will consume high resources when you use lot of open tabs. You can use Chrome Task Manager tool to view and kill the resource intensive tabs.
Firefox is one of the best alternative browser you can consider. However, if you do not want to use third-party apps, then use the default Edge browser in Windows and Safari browser in macOS.
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