[the2ndflood]

I know there is a patch for this, but it doesn't work for me. I just don't really understand why Palm thought that having web pages Auto-Refresh was a good idea. It's the 1# most Aggravating feature on the Pre. Even worse then that stupid feature where when you goto enter text into a wed site's Text-Entry field; then the text will be entered into the browsers top-bar instead.

So does anyone know why Palm put this feature into the WebOS in the first place? Does anyone really like having web pages Auto-Refresh at random times? I can't even count how many times I have lost entire thread, blog and email entries, because the browser refreshed the page I was on.

[rlee2001]

This is ONLY my guess, but I would think it was for the multi-tasking. If you are on a page, and switch applications to do other things, then come back to the browser, the page will be up to date.


I agree it is annoying in the extreme. I wish there was a way to toggle it off, or at least increase the time between refreshes.

[NickDG]

It's a memory issue. Web pages take an enormous amount of memory to render, so when you switch to another app and it needs memory, webOS will purge the browser memory to make space for the new app.

I bet the Pre+ doesn't see this as much as the original Pre because of the extra memory.

[dsei]

I agree, it's very annoying. I frequently search gmail via their web app, switch cards and come back. When I come back to gmail, my search results have been lost due to the auto-refresh "feature". Aggravating. The patch didn't work for me either.

[firstnamemike]

Ok, i'm not losing it. good news!

[the2ndflood]

This is ONLY my guess, but I would think it was for the multi-tasking. If you are on a page, and switch applications to do other things, then come back to the browser, the page will be up to date.


I agree it is annoying in the extreme. I wish there was a way to toggle it off, or at least increase the time between refreshes.

I can understand the Mulit-Tasking feature if I were on news sites like Sherdog, MSNBS or something like that; because the old articles are being updated and new ones added. But if I'm checking my Gmail or writing a blog, then why would I ever want the page to Auto-Refresh? Palm should have known having this annoying feature would cause more harm then good? It has gotten to the point with me where I write the text in the email app, or keep Copying the text, because I have lost pages worth of text from this happening.

So I just don't understand why anyone would think this feature was helpful.

[Cantaffordit]

This is ONLY my guess, but I would think it was for the multi-tasking. If you are on a page, and switch applications to do other things, then come back to the browser, the page will be up to date.


I agree it is annoying in the extreme. I wish there was a way to toggle it off, or at least increase the time between refreshes.

Personally, I think they did it to make sure your battery drained quickly because the browser keeps hitting the web for the same page...

[the2ndflood]

It's a memory issue. Web pages take an enormous amount of memory to render, so when you switch to another app and it needs memory, webOS will purge the browser memory to make space for the new app.

I bet the Pre+ doesn't see this as much as the original Pre because of the extra memory.

I have had this happen even when only the browser is open. The problem I just had that ticked me off enough to write this post; is that I was posting a blog comment for a friend on Myspace and the page just Auto-Refreshed as I was writting. Nothing else was open.

I would rather the browser get more resources as I am using it; if that meant the Auto-Refresh was disabled.

[nyquistjack]

I have had this happen even when only the browser is open. The problem I just had that ticked me off enough to write this post; is that I was posting a blog comment for a friend on Myspace and the page just Auto-Refreshed as I was writting. Nothing else was open.

I would rather the browser get more resources as I am using it; if that meant the Auto-Refresh was disabled.

I am beyond tired of this. It's driving me extremely insane. I just wish palm would explain it!!!!

[Daemon]

Yes this is especially aggravating when you're in the middle of composing
a response in a web forum and it just decides to auto-refresh the page
despite having not clicked on anything, or even cardified the web page.
As of 1.4 there's really no rhyme or reason to when it does it.
The patch still seems to suppress a refresh if you cardify the web page
and then come back to it, but the auto-refresh now seems to happen at
other times.

The other fun thing (and it's probably related) is that it often
just blows away most or all of the browser history. So I go from say
top page of precentral.net to forums to pre forum to specific topic
to page 2 of that topic. At some point the web page auto-refreshes
and when I hit Back, it takes me to page 1 of the thread, hit back again
and it goes all the way back to top level bookmarks. Basically
the garbage collection in 1.4 seems to be obnoxiously aggressive
even when it doesn't need to be.

ian

[the2ndflood]

Yes this is especially aggravating when you're in the middle of composing
a response in a web forum and it just decides to auto-refresh the page
despite having not clicked on anything, or even cardified the web page.
As of 1.4 there's really no rhyme or reason to when it does it.
The patch still seems to suppress a refresh if you cardify the web page
and then come back to it, but the auto-refresh now seems to happen at
other times.

The other fun thing (and it's probably related) is that it often
just blows away most or all of the browser history. So I go from say
top page of precentral.net to forums to pre forum to specific topic
to page 2 of that topic. At some point the web page auto-refreshes
and when I hit Back, it takes me to page 1 of the thread, hit back again
and it goes all the way back to top level bookmarks. Basically
the garbage collection in 1.4 seems to be obnoxiously aggressive
even when it doesn't need to be.

ian

The WebOS version 1.4 didn't seem to offer anything all that great. We can record videos now; big woop... I would have liked to see pointless features like the Auto-Refreshed removed; instead of adding new features. I wish at the very least that the patch worked for me. Then I could have some hope that the page won't Auto-Refresh. I am now worried about putting my phone down when I'm writing something, because when I come back; the page is Refreshed, and whatever I was writing is then gone.

[etx]

Dude, It's not a feature. It's doing that because you are multi tasking and whatever you're doing requires more memory. It's a cell phone, not a desktop computer.

[Daemon]

Dude, It's not a feature. It's doing that because you are multi tasking and whatever you're doing requires more memory. It's a cell phone, not a desktop computer.

How's your reading comprehension?

I have had this happen even when only the browser is open.

Yes this is especially aggravating when you're in the middle of composing
a response in a web forum and it just decides to auto-refresh the page
despite having not clicked on anything, or even cardified the web page.

We're not opening other apps that demand memory. It's doing it by itself
to free up memory that isn't needed by anything else.

ian

[hellozepp04]

My Pre Plus doesn't auto refresh webpages. That use to always happen to me on my G1 and I hate it because I use to use google reader and read something than it would auto refresh and I would lose my spot in reading and that article would be mark as read so then I would have to go looking for the article again in a different tab (Sorry for going into different phone, I just wanted to make the point I hate it to). Anyways I'm guessing you guys have the Pre on sprint?

[Daemon]

Ya, and the difference in behavior is likely due to the fact that you've
got twice as much memory.

ian

[joshewah]

It's a memory issue. Web pages take an enormous amount of memory to render, so when you switch to another app and it needs memory, webOS will purge the browser memory to make space for the new app.

I bet the Pre+ doesn't see this as much as the original Pre because of the extra memory.

I don't think its the rendering thats the issue, its all the files on the page. The cache is probably kept in memory so you can scroll through it and everything looks smooth. If you go to other apps the memory gets used for other tasks. Does it actually refresh the page from the net?

Has anyone tried loading a page, going into airplane mode, and then doing some other memory intensive tasks before going back? Why I ask is it is possible its loading it from the flash storage. If it isn't, maybe they could try it (or did try it and didn't get good results).

[spare]

This only happens to me if I'm running a memory hog like a 3d game so it's not a feature. Your phone is buggy. It likely some app running in the background you don't see. Try closing processes with JSTop one at a time?

[Daemon]

Just spend some time browsing the non-mobile versions of precentral.net and
the forums and you'll eventually see it. There are no other big apps
running in the background, just the usual email/phone/calendar/messaging
apps that launch at startup.

ian

[spare]

Just spend some time browsing the non-mobile versions of precentral.net and
the forums and you'll eventually see it. There are no other big apps
running in the background, just the usual email/phone/calendar/messaging
apps that launch at startup.

ian

So if I just leave the phone on the full precentral page, it should happen right? I can test it right now and report my findings.

edit: ok, i did this with weather dashboard running in the background and hadn't reboot my phone in days.

-left pre on full precentral for ~10 min, no refresh
-browsed 2 threads in full precentral forum then left running for ~20 min, no refresh and can still scroll page with some checkerboarding.
-started up preware but preware did not open properly, web page refreshed
-allowed web to reload where it was and opened preware again, scrolled list of everything, checked out a few app descriptions then clicked to install skybox game which open the app catalog card, no refresh of web
-clicked to download skybox, web refreshed
-opened skybox to play, lost at first stage, web refreshed again
-close preware then played skybox again, lost at third stage, no refresh
-close skybox, reopened skybox, no refresh

[Colonel Kernel]

I've never once had a web page auto-refresh while I was looking at it or typing something in a comment box. It only ever happens when I go into other apps or web pages.

I understand the memory issue, but it either needs to save the web page to memory or at least save the text that I'm writing and re-insert it back in to the text box after the page has finished reloading.

Sprint Pre, btw.