Zen (non-pinned) tabs are not unloading automatically

[Prabal2004]

I have adjusted the zen.tab-unloader.timeout-minutes in about:config and set unlaod to true but the only way to unload tabs is to right click and unload, and now all the tabs keep collecting while being open rendering zen unusable due to ram usage eventually for me. Is it just a problem with my installation or is someone else too experiencing this? and any ideas on how to fix it?

[dosubot[bot]]

Hi @Prabal2004! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the desktop team.

This isn't just your installation—others have reported that Zen tabs aren't unloading automatically anymore. Zen switched to using Firefox's native tab unloader, which only unloads tabs when memory is low, not after a set time. The old time-based auto-unload feature was removed, so changing zen.tab-unloader.timeout-minutes or setting unload to true won't have the effect it used to. Now, tabs are only unloaded automatically if the system is under memory pressure, and you can only manually unload them otherwise. You can check which tabs are candidates for unloading in about:unloads and adjust the inactivity duration with browser.tabs.min_inactive_duration_before_unload (default is 10 minutes, set in ms) if you want to tweak when tabs become eligible for unloading.

If you're on Linux, the feature may not be enabled by default, but you can try setting browser.low_commit_space_threshold_percent to 100, browser.tabs.min_inactive_duration_before_unload to 300000 (5 minutes), and browser.tabs.unloadOnLowMemory to true as a workaround. Some users have also found that disabling hardware acceleration helps reduce RAM usage and unresponsiveness.

Manual unloading via right-click is currently the only reliable way to unload tabs if you want to free up memory immediately.
Sources: 1, 2, 3

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[Prabal2004]

is there any way or extension to bring back the automatic feature?

[dosubot[bot]]

There isn't a built-in way to bring back the old automatic tab unloading in Zen, but you can use the Firefox extension New Tab Suspender as a workaround. This extension works in Zen and lets you set tabs to unload automatically after a set period of inactivity, similar to the old feature. Zen supports most Firefox extensions, so you can install and configure it from the Add-ons menu. More details and user experiences are discussed here.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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