I thought what is wrong recently because more than 50% of websites I visited are loading very slow, in fact sometimes they are not being loaded at all. Today, I finally realized that the problem is with Google Chrome browser because when I tried surfing using Firefox, they can be loaded in seconds. Of course, I am a Google lover so I wouldn’t switch my default browser just because of this. Then, I started to play around with Chrome’s preferences until I finally found a fix.
For old version of Chrome, the setting is located at Preferences > Under The Hood.
For newer version of Chrome, the setting is located at Settings > Show Advanced Settings > Privacy
Now, look for a checkbox called “Use DNS pre-fetching to improve page load performance” or “Predict network actions to improve page load performance“. Or similar.
Everyone including me would have ticked this checkbox because it seems to bring only benefits and it sounds promising. However, it is not the case here, while I still cannot explain why this is happening, just untick the checkbox to bring your Chrome back to its speedy glory.
In my Google Chrome for Mac, the settings is actually called “Predict network actions to improve page load performance“. Therefore, just untick any similar checkbox.
Hope this helps.
I think you have hit the nail…. at least in my case… One can measure my level of frustration and disappointments by the fact that I had to switch my default browser because of the drag I had been experiencing off-late. All other attempts (clearing cache, cookies etc.) did not work for me. But who knew that a feature purported to make the browsing experience faster may be the primary reason behind the drag experienced. Its the least suspected place one would look for obvious reasons. Thank you very much…. you literally saved me…
I think you have hit the nail…. at least in my case… One can measure my level of frustration and disappointments by the fact that I had to switch my default browser because of the drag I had been experiencing off-late. All other attempts (clearing cache, cookies etc.) did not work for me. But who knew that a feature purported to make the browsing experience faster may be the primary reason behind the drag experienced. Its the least suspected place one would look for obvious reasons. Thank you very much…. you literally saved me…
Edit: Another observation… This drag I experience only on Windows XP at workplace. I don’t experience at all on Ubuntu desktop with this feature enabled. Rather, it works on Ubuntu always as a fresh install… i.e., blazingly fast and snappy. My wife also does not complain about it being slow on her mac. I may have to recheck whether she has this feature enabled or not. I suppose she has since setting up features, services is my job. I have been using this feature when it was available as experimentatin under “about”flags”. I did not notice such slowdown before… Only in the last couple of releases.
I have a similar case as yours here but in different OS. I only experiences this problem in my Mac, not in my windows. Also, I have been using chrome for about 1 year+ and I only encountered this problem lately, probably last couple of releases as you said.
Cheers.
That seems to do it for me!
Thanks.
Recently Google Chrome has been painfully slow. I’ve been trying to find out how to fix it. I kept hearing uncheck DNS something. I couldn’t find that. But then I found this site and tried what you said to do and Chrome is still extremely slow. What should I do?
no good, still slow
I just tried it and it helped pretty significantly! Even Google Maps is working again, which was one of the most molasses of the bunch!
Thank you!
THANKS
This actually worked. I would restart my computer and open up google chorme and within seconds it would already stall; which I thought was (bleeping) ridiculous
But I deselected what you mentioned; and it worked.
…I will pass this information on…
THANKS
This actually worked. I would restart my computer and open up google chorme and within seconds it would already stall; which I thought was (bleeping) ridiculous
But I deselected what you mentioned; and it worked.
…I will pass this information on…
_______________
Google is also my ultimate favorite tooand they are revolutinary with their apps
This is a really inetllgeint way to answer the question.
Wow, thank you so much, I thought it was my computer, this has been bothering me for a while but I have been too lazy to find a solution, thank you again!.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank U !!!! :)
It fixed my issues straight away, finally someone who had the correct answer.Many many thanks !
Thank you!
Worked like a charm. Thank you. I was losing my mind trying to figure out why some pages were loading so incredibly slowly. Since making the change it’s been a night and day difference.
someone could be more specific? where is this “use dns prefetching. . .”
click on the wrench at the top right corner
go to settings
go all the way down to show advanced settings
under PRIVACY, you will see this: Predict network actions to improve page load performance
UNCHECK THAT AND THAT SHOULD DO IT!! GOOD LUCK! EMAIL ME @ sayshabroussard@yahoo.com and let me know what your outcome is! :D
THANNNNNNNNNNNNNK U! working much better
It works!! Thanks a lot!
For a while I had been blaming my internet connection about being INSANELY slow.. even sending a few lines of text as a comment to youtube, any forum etc. took forever and multiple times it just failed to load, ofcourse deleting what I had just wrote.
Also youtube videos and even single pictures took forever to load.
Checked that box off, re-booted chrome and all the 8 pages I had open just snapped open immediately.
INSTANTLY seeing a huge difference.
So THANK YOU! :)
I have a WP site that was loading slowly in Chrome, but not other browsers. I made this change and the site instantly loads in Chrome. Thanks for the insight.
Couple questions though:
- Has this setting always bee enabled by default? I have never noticed this slow loading until a week ago (and specifically for a WP site, not other sites)
- Is there any other option for WP, rather than this setting? For example, is there an application-level fix, i.e. Caching?
It is set as default, because in my case I had never explored the settings of my Google Chrome, not until this time after reading this article.
It does not work for me, but I’ll try restarting my laptop if it will work.
This worked for me with latest version of Chrome and no extensions. Thanks!
Definitely noticed a difference, thanks
Thanks for the information. My Chrome just started getting sluggish as well. Its amazing that something that is supposed to speed up your browser does the exact opposite. Just like Congress at times.
Hope Google starts seeing all the complaints and makes a change to that function. Just wish they would use standards with CSS, I hate styling for several browsers at once because they wont look at the style the same way.
Hey thanks for the tip :)
You said you are not sure what the reason is, do you think it could be your ISP ? As you might know the primary DNServer is by default set to your ISP’s server. I would ask just a simple question, is your ISP one of the leading ones or a small time provider ? If you are interested I would discuss this further.
This has been driving me CRAZY – THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
You are a star, this has worked, whipee! Thank you so much.
Been having this load problem for weeks! So frustrating! And then I found this site and Google is loading really fast. Thanks so much, refreshing to find clear instructions and see great results.
Thank you
Thanks! Worked a treat…I was thinking it was my computer as well, but after applying your tip I’m working fine and fast again!
Thank you !!!! It works great now.
Just means your ISP was update domain records, so your pre-fetching was out of date.
Once that’s done your checkbox will have SLOWED your browsing back down.
Prefetching is normally a good thing, except for the rare data update periods.
Hi,I still have a problem with my Google Chrome. I have already unchecked The stuff that you mentioned it doesn’t work. My internet connection is working fast and fine and I’ve already cleared my history, cache. I have even reinstalled my Chrome but it still doesn’t work. I’m kind of frustrated.
What should I do? Thanks!
I was so hopeful…did everything you said. even shut down and reloaded. Emptied cache and cookies again the regular way. When I open Chrome..’loading issues’ comes right up.I can open a new tab and get going but ‘loading issues’keeps running in the back.Do you know what I am doing wrong ? Everyone else seems to have great results!
Thank you! Two minutes to load every web page on a brand new MacBook was driving me nuts!!