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Firefox has a setting "Don't load tabs until selected" (see How do I make Firefox 13 Load All My Tabs on Startup or when Resuming Reload). I like that behaviour.

I am searching for a way to "deload"/deactivate a tab manually for a session (until I reload it).

It should stop all running JavaScript functions and plugins (like Flash). The whole webpage content may disappear until I reload/re-activate the tab, but that is not a requirement. The title has to be displayed as tab label (like it is the case with the startup setting, too).

The workaround would be to restart Firefox and don't switch to the tab I want to be deactivated. This is pretty annoying, of course.

EDIT: Here is what I found so far

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  • You can pin it as an app tab as a work around, but you do realize you're effectively moving the bookmarks bar above the address bar right?
    – billc.cn
    Aug 13, 2012 at 23:00
  • 2
    UnloadTab appears to be back.
    – BrenBarn
    Jun 29, 2014 at 1:29
  • 1
    Follow-up: Firefox add-on that suspends inactive tabs, to use less memory
    – kenorb
    Feb 28, 2018 at 12:01
  • @billc.cn yes that's that point. An intermediary step between bookmarks and current use. I use bookmarks for my long term memory and have no bookmark bar.
    – sinekonata
    Mar 4, 2019 at 16:26

9 Answers 9

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In one of the links you referenced at Tab Utilities: Feature Request, there is already an answer from the developer (scroll down to comment no. 4) on how to do this. The answer is to:

  • Add the Restart Tab item to the context menu.

Why it's called "Restart Tab" and not "Unload Tab", I don't understand, but he says you can just change it if you want. Set:

  • extensions.tabutils.menu.context_restartTab.label to "Unload Tab".

By the way, at the moment it only works on tabs that are not selected/focussed. In other words, if you do "Restart Tab" on the currently open tab, it will just reload. You have to switch to another tab, then right-click on the tab you want to unload, and choose "Restart Tab".

Here are the instructions from the developer, I updated them a little:

  1. Set browser.sessionstore.max_concurrent_tabs to 0 in about:config. (BarTab Lite or Load Tabs Progressively extension should also work.) [ the above is outdated, in current versions of Firefox, go to preferences/options for Tabs, and check "Don't load tabs until selected". ]

  2. Unload tabs manually with Restart Tab or Restart All Tabs menuitem. [ first you have to make sure the "Restart Tab" item is added to the context menu, in Tab Utilities preferences/options -> Appearance -> Menus -> Tab Context Menu ]

  3. Unload tabs automatically after a specified period of inactivity with extensions.tabutils.restartAfter option (minutes).

  4. Tag bookmarks with "norestart" to make an auto-unload black list.

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A workaround: Force the tab to reload using CTRL+F5 and stop it quickly (using the cross in the URL bar). It may leave you with a blank page (or almost blank) which consumes little resources.

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  • A great temporary 'do not disturb' for Discord :D
    – starbeamrainbowlabs
    Oct 29, 2018 at 20:40
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    You can use the ESC key to stop a tab from loading, if you want a full keyboard variant.
    – leokhorn
    Jan 30, 2019 at 10:02
  • This actually still works. That is a really great hack! :D
    – hochl
    Jun 23, 2021 at 9:51
3

All Tabs Helper and Auto Unload Tab do this, among other things.

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  • Auto Unload Tab works well for me and is being maintained it appears. Thanks!
    – dbasch
    Apr 4, 2016 at 8:13
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There is the extension BarTab Lite X. This is a light extension. Its feature for unloading tab works with recent Firefoxes.

However, better check that unloaded tabs don't mess up Firefox' session restore.

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1

As of December 2018 the Auto Tab Discard addon appears to be a great option.

The source code is available at https://github.com/rNeomy/auto-tab-discard.

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https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/unload-tabs/

New (Sept 2019) solution that seems to get around the issues that killed earlier addons that provided this feature.

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0

If you have e10s enabled, taskkill /f /im plugin-container.exe or your OS equivalent is a pretty easy solution.

Firefox will think the content process has crashed, but that is wrong.

Clicking on a tab will reload it.

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0

I was searching for a why to freeze the current state of a tab, so maybe these two addons might be helpful for you too:

Freeze, Tab Suspender

Discard tab

"Unloading" was announced by a users comment, and searching that let to these results:

Unload tab (experimental, exactly what you wish, set on a state like on startup)

Unload tabs (all, or all but current)

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0

I can recommend the Add-On 'Tab unloader'.
It seems to work well (so far, I only installed it 2 hours ago).

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