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Settings reference

Open the TGD settings from the extension popup, or navigate to chrome://extensions/ → The Great-er Tab Discarder → Details → Extension options.

Settings are saved automatically — there is no Save button.

General Settings​

Automatic mode​

The main toggle switches between two automatic behaviours:

ModeBehaviour
Discard (default)Unloads the tab's content via the native browser discard API. Frees the most memory; the tab reloads automatically when you switch back to it.
SuspendReplaces the tab with a lightweight suspended page. Frees less memory than Discard but allows visual customization (title prefix, favicon dimming).

Discard / Suspend tabs after​

How long a tab must be inactive before it is automatically processed. Options range from Never to 3 days. Set to Never to disable automatic processing entirely (manual actions still work).

Do not Discard/Suspend pinned tabs​

Pinned tabs are excluded from automatic processing when this is enabled.

Do not Discard/Suspend tabs that are playing audio​

Tabs with active audio (music, video, calls) are skipped.

Only auto-Discard/Suspend if connected to the internet​

Pauses automatic processing when the browser detects no internet connection.

Only auto-Discard/Suspend if running on battery​

Activates automatic processing only when the computer is running on battery power, leaving performance headroom when plugged in.

Browser Startup​

Prevent reloading all tabs​

By default, Chrome lazily reloads all tabs after a browser restart. Enabling this option discards all tabs at startup instead, keeping them visible but unloaded. This prevents Chrome from consuming memory and network bandwidth re-fetching every tab at once.

This option also works well with Suspended tabs: suspended tabs at startup stay suspended rather than being reloaded.

Whitelist​

A list of URL patterns that should never be automatically discarded or suspended. Enter one pattern per line.

Examples:

https://mail.google.com
google.com
/^https:.*github\.com/
  • Exact or partial URL — google.com matches any URL containing that string
  • Regular expression — enclose in forward slashes: /^https:.*google\.com/

Suspended Page Settings​

Access via Options → Suspend Settings.

Click anywhere on the Suspended page to restore it​

When enabled, clicking anywhere on the suspended page (not just a specific button) unsuspends the tab.

Reload the Suspended page to restore it​

When enabled, pressing the browser's Reload button (or keyboard shortcut) on a suspended tab unsuspends it.

Favicon modification​

Controls how the favicon is displayed for suspended tabs.

ValueBehaviour
NoneFavicon is unchanged
DimFavicon is visually dimmed to make suspended tabs easy to spot at a glance

Other​

Add to right-click context menu​

Adds TGD commands to the browser's right-click context menu on tabs.

Sync settings between different systems​

Syncs your TGD configuration via your Google account using Chrome's sync storage. Turning this on will overwrite settings on all synced systems the first time it is enabled.

Adds links to Chrome's internal chrome://discards page in the context menu and popup. Useful for diagnosing which tabs are discarded and why.