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Hot air and ill-informed banter

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Balloon Juice Pages Automatically Refreshing For No Reason?

Balloon Juice Pages Automatically Refreshing For No Reason?

by | 204 Comments

This post is in: ,

Over the past few days, I have seen a comment or two on Balloon Juice saying something about being prompted to reload the page.  I inquired whether there was some sort of message saying they needed to reload or refresh the page, or whether it was just happening without your participation, but I never saw an answer.

Today the note below arrived using the site feedback form.  I think this may be what was being reported in the occasional comment, but I can’t be sure.

Using an apple iPad, as I scroll through the page it refreshes about every 2 minutes. This has only started happening in the past couple of weeks.

I had to restart this feedback notice because I couldn’t complete it before it was refreshed away. My browser refreshes About every 2 minutes. I am only able to complete this feedback by copying and pasting several times now. I can’t watch a 2:50 embedded video.

Anyway, I need to understand the problem and find out whether it is:

  • prompting you to reload the page? or the page just reloads itself?
  • happening to a handful of people?   to a lot of people?  to everyone?
  • happening only on certain kinds of devices – tablets, phones, computers?
  • happening only certain specific devices – like an iPad or a Kindle?
  • happening only on older devices – like it happens on your new iPad but not your old one?
  • happening only with certain browsers – Safari?  Firefox?  Chrome?
  • happening only on certain combinations of devices and browsers – say it only happens on an iPad in Safari but not on an iPad using Chrome
  • happening only one one particular device you use for BJ?  or for all of them?
  • happening consistently or sporadically?
  • happening only on certain posts?
  • happening only at a certain time of day?  fine in the morning but always happens in the evening?
  • happening only when you are reading from the front page?  or does it happen within individual posts?
  • are you running an ad blocker?  if so, which one?

Can you guys help me out and let me know whether this is happening to you, or not?

If you have experienced this, please include the kinds of information I inquired about above.  

Thank you!

Update at 3:45 pm:

Does anyone who uses Brave on their phone or tablet have this reloading issue?  Does anyone running an adblocker on their phone or table have this reloading issue?

 

Reader Interactions

204Comments

  2. 2.

    MisterForkbeard

    This has not happened to me (PC/Android using Chrome), and in the grand internet tradition I’m therefore going to declare that everyone else is making it up. :)

  3. 3.

    LivinginExile

    When using my kindle on balloon juice the screen will go blank and then say reload. I just did a factory reset an hour ago and I think it’s done it again since then, although the reset seems to have fixed other problems.

  4. 4.

    WaterGirl

    @LivinginExile: Thanks for the info.

    Can you speak to some of the other questions I asked about:

    • happening consistently or sporadically?
    • happening only on certain posts?
    • happening only at a certain time of day?  fine in the morning but always happens in the evening

    Does it just reload and reload and reload, with a certain time period where the site functions?  does it reload once a day?  every hour or two?  on a consistent or predictable schedule, or not?

  5. 5.

    debbie

    Yes, dammit, yes! I’ve worn out Google the past few days trying to figure out how to stop it on my fifth generation mini iPad.

  6. 6.

    coachjdc

    It’s been happening on my iPhone. It refreshes every couple minutes on its own. No prompt or action necessary.

  8. 8.

    debbie

    ETA: New device, OS 14.8. plenty of space left. Only on Balloon Juice. Chrome, any time of day. If I’m in the middle of typing in a post, pffft into space. It does it on its own. About every two minutes seems right, but I’ve never timed it.

    ETAA: All posts; it’s time, not OP-dependent. I don’t have this issue with my Chromebook or very old MacBook Pro (both using Chrome).

  13. 13.

    WaterGirl

    @Mai Naem mobile: Same questions:

    So it’s every couple of minutes, over and over and over whenever you are on BJ?

    I assume this is not happening on other sites, but I will ask that so you can confirm.

    Also Android/Chrome doesn’t tell me whether it’s a phone or a tablet.  Or is it happening to you on an android phone and an android tablet?

  15. 15.

    Ha Nguyen

    I only noticed Balloon-Juice reloading more than usual without my input on my Lenovo tablet.  There is no notice of it happening, just a blank screen while it’s reloading.  I only read on this tablet in the mornings and the evenings.  During the day I read Balloon-Juice at work on my work laptop – which is a Dell – and on this device, Balloon-Juice does not reload unless I hit the reload button.

    I use Google Chrome on the Lenovo tablet and Microsoft Edge on the Dell laptop.

  16. 16.

    WaterGirl

    @Grover Gardenr:

    Same questions:

    So it’s every couple of minutes, over and over and over whenever you are on BJ?

    I assume this is not happening on other sites, but I will ask that so you can confirm.

    Also Android/Chrome doesn’t tell me whether it’s a phone or a tablet.  Or is it happening to you on an android phone and an android tablet?

  17. 17.

    Grover Gardner

    @WaterGirl: Just did it to me again, as I was reading comments!  iPad Air, a few years old, 14.7.1, Chrome, no other site does this, only BJ.

  20. 20.

    Vec

    Hi!  iPad, chrome, latest updates on both.  Happens without prompting, mostly in the morning/evening.  On front page, not when I open the post in its own page.  Also happens to me on boing boing.net.

    Thank you and good luck, hope you find a solution!

  22. 22.

    Central Planning

    Using Safari on my iPhone 11Max with all the latest iOS.

    When reading a post, it will automatically refresh. Usually it ends up back where I was in the thread, but it’s annoying.

    I’m not sure about what time of day it happens, but I’ll try to keep track.

  25. 25.

    WaterGirl

    Vec raises a good question for everyone this happens to.

    Does this happen only on the front page?

    Does it only happen within individual posts?

    Or does it happen to you regardless of whether you are on the front page or inside a particular post?

  26. 26.

    LivinginExile

     

    @WaterGirl: It seemed to be any time of day. It usually happens when I’m reading comments and when it reloads it goes back to the post, then I have to click on comments and try to find where I was when it malfunctioned.

    it just did it again, as soon as I posted this comment.

  27. 27.

    Scout211

    Yes, it happens to me on my iPad using Chrome. Also on my iPhone using Chrome. But not on either device using Safari.  At least not on Safari, so far. I never use Safari but I have been forced to lately due to the automatic refresh that has been recently happening more often. A couple of my comments were erased by the automatic refresh.

    This weird automatic refresh of Balloon-juice is not a new thing for me, though. It has happened periodically on my iPad using Chrome for the past year or so. And sometimes, if it happens twice in a row, I get a message that the site can’t be reached. It does fix the problem if I restart my iPad, restart Chrome and empty the cache. This is the first time I have had to switch over to Safari.

    But this most recent problem in the last couple of days is much more often.  Sometimes it happens every few minutes.

    I am on iOS 14.8 on both devices. I have assumed it was a browser issue since I haven’t had it happen on Chrome Safari but I am not really sure since I never use Safari.

    I’d say it’s sporadic, but more recently it is more often. I have an iPad Pro but it’s one of the older models. My phone is an iPhone 8, so old.

    I’m not sure but posts with lots of Twitter embeds do seem to make it happen more often.

    ETA: some corrections and to add: It has never happened on my Mac using Chrome on Mojave.

  28. 28.

    UttBugly

    It happened to me 2 times today while I was viewing comments using Safari on my iPhone X. It does not happen when I view the site with my iPad Pro, using Safari.

    FYI.

  29. 29.

    FelonyGovt

    Yes, it’s happening to me sporadically on my iPhone XR and my iPad, both running Safari. The page will just automatically refresh on its own, usually bringing me back to (approximately) where I left off. It doesn’t happen with any other sites

    ETA and it seems to happen both on front page posts and while reading comments.

  31. 31.

    WaterGirl

    Please, everyone, even if this doesn’t happen to you, please chime in to say that it doesn’t happen to you and that you use this device with that particular browser(s).

    And let us know whether you read the site from the front page OR if you click on individual posts to read the comments OR if you only read BJ pages by opening in a new tab or by navigating with the fly-out buttons on the side.

    Please share all the details you can because I plan to share this post with the developers so they work on the problem.

  33. 33.

    Amber

    It’s been happening on my phone all week! Using Chrome. However, it has never happened on my laptop so figured it was something weird happening with the mobile version of the site.  It did not happen today when I was on my phone this AM though so maybe it resolved itself.

  34. 34.

    Scout211

    @WaterGirl:

    Or does it happen to you regardless of whether you are on the front page or inside a particular post?

    Yes, it happens anywhere on the site.

  37. 37.

    frosty

    Yes, no prompt just refresh.
    IPhone SE 1st gen, iOS 15.
    Firefox.
    Sporadic. Sometimes none, sometimes a couple of times in 2-3 hours.
    Don’t know which posts, definitely in the middle of comments.
    Don’t know about time of day.
    Can’t recall if it occurs on the laptop with Win10

    Usually navigate with the buttons, occasionally flyout, only one tab open

    Just happened twice while editing this comment!.

  39. 39.

    Steve

    Has been happening constantly the last week or so. Reading a story on my iPhone and it refreshes the page every 1-2 minutes and causes me to lose my place. If I’m reading comments, then I have to scroll through sometimes hundreds of comments and go through clicks to load comments just to find where I was.

  40. 40.

    Jerzy Russian

    For me this happens on my iPhone XR with iOS 14.8 and Chrome.  The page automatically reloads itself every few minutes.   It happened even more frequently as I was trying to read the daily COVID thread from this morning.

     

    As far as I can tell, this happens if I use the little arrows to go from one post to the next, or if I visit the main site first before choosing a post.

  41. 41.

    Baud

    Haven’t noticed the issue on my Samsung phone or PC.  I haven’t used my ipad on BJ in a while, but I haven’t noticed it there either.

  44. 44.

    Ruckus

    iMac Big Sir 11.6 – current. Computer is 2 yrs old, far more than enough memory

    BJ is the only program that loads – sort of, partially loads/hesitates/reloads at least 4-5 times before it’s stable. Then it seems to be fine. This has been happening for 3-4 weeks. Does not crash, or need to be reloaded, but it takes that hesitation/reload thing every time I open a new post. Does not do this with any other program/site except BJ.

  45. 45.

    debbie

    @WaterGirl:

    Both. i don’t keep dozens of tabs open like some do, but I usually keep a few open at night, which I then close the next day. I don’t think tabs make any difference.

    Sometimes, I go from OP to OP using the side tabs rather than returning to the front page. Also, I don’t think I’m on the main page long enough to be affected.

  46. 46.

    Leslie

    I have an iPad (Pro, 2017) and so far have not experienced this issue at BJ (the only site where it’s happened is FB, I believe).

  47. 47.

    karen marie

    I haven’t had a refresh issue but more and more frequently I have to retype my nym and email, like I had to do earlier this morning and now to post this comment

    I use an Android tablet with Chrome

    I bring up the site and go to individual posts.

  48. 48.

    zhena gogolia

    No problems with Chrome on a Mac laptop. I have looked briefly at BJ on an iPhone and didn’t notice anything there either.

  49. 49.

    satby

    Happens on both of my Kindles and on my plain Vanilla Android tablet, and affects both how slowly the page loads because it’s endlessly cycling in the background, whether you can comment or edit (because it bounces you out of the window) and occasionally even just blanks the page and leaves you with a “site unresponsive, reload” message.

    and edit: I never have more than 3 or 4 tabs open, usually only if I’m copying a site or other info to paste into a comment or email. I close open tabs when I’m away from them, or bookmark and close them if I think I’ll want to refer back, which is seldom.

  50. 50.

    JMS

    Yes this is happening to me. Started in the last week, I think. iphone 8, ios 14.6. Happens on Safari. Have not tried other devices or browsers. Doesn’t happen on any other sites. Happens intermittently, can be anywhere (front page or post). The page throws up a message and starts to reload spontaneously.

    I’m posting this comment from an old laptop that I rarely use to access BJ, but I’m seeing a lot of “Waiting for cache…” and “Waiting for [some name]…” messages flashing in the lower left in the laptop. Not sure if that’s anything. I’m using chrome on the laptop.

  55. 55.

    HarlequinGnoll

    Personally my site issue on android is sporadic and seems to only happen on posts with Twitter or image imbeds.  I swipe up to move down the screen and the screen seems to stutter a few times before continuing down the page.

  56. 56.

    WaterGirl

    @Another Scott: Yes, I certainly think of ads first when things go wonky.

    In the past, we had to coordinate testing with the previous ad guy.  Let’s just say that that sometimes often added days to the process of figuring things out.

    The good thing is that now our developers are also doing the ads, so they should be able to turn them off and on as they do their testing.

  58. 58.

    CorgiMom

    I’ve never experienced the refreshes on any device (MacBook Pro/macOS Big Sur 11.6, iPhone 8 Plus / iOS 14.8, iPad Air (4th generation) / 14.7.1. I only visit this site using Safari on all devices. And I never use the navigation arrows.

  60. 60.

    WaterGirl

    Please keep the info coming, whether you experience the problem or not.  More and better information speeds up the troubleshooting process immeasurably.

  62. 62.

    Percysowner

    I’m having no problems on my Macbook Air I0.14.6 using Firefox 93.0. I’ve pulled BJ up on my Iphone and will report back on that.​
    ​
    ​

  63. 63.

    JimV

    No such problem on Dell and Acer laptops, both Windows 7 (Windows Professional and Home Premium, respectively, 32-bit and 64-bit, respectively), using Chrome. However, the bottom left corner goes crazy with “connecting …” messages for a while, probably due to all the embedded stuff. No big deal, but I miss the golden-age days when you could visit a blog and have everything ready to read immediately.

    (I added the Dell, rebuilt, for $179, recently, to install Heroes of Might and Magic III and the WoG and Era add-ons on it and give it to a niece to play my Heroes mods on. She tried to install them on a Windows 10 PC and had a lot of problems, which I could only guess about at long distance. I have gotten them to run on one Windows 10 system after several issues, but not at long distance. I plan to die running Windows 7.)

  64. 64.

    joel hanes

    Has never happened to me.

    Firefox with noscript and Adblock+

    Up-to-date Windows 10 on middle-aged whitebox intel-based desktop PC

  66. 66.

    EmBeeJay

    @Watergirl: I have not seen it, but I can tell you this much.  All browsers on iOS/iPadOS are required to use the built-in WebKit for rendering web content.  WebKit spawns separate processes for each page (or sometimes groups of pages per domain) so that if one crashes, the entire browser doesn’t quit.  When one of these processes does crash, WebKit respawns it—with the effect that the user only sees the page “refresh.”  Internally, the page and the process containing it were destroyed/unloaded and restarted from scratch.  (When this happens on macOS Safari, you usually get a banner at the top of the page saying something like “This web page was reloaded because of a problem.”)

    Therefore, I’d bet the refreshes people see on the Apple devices are because the rendering process is crashing, and we both know that’s usually a bad embedded ad.

  67. 67.

    Louise B.

    Happens to me sporadically, using an older iPad and Safari.  Reloads spontaneously, usually several times over the course of ten minutes or so, and then gives me a “site unavailable” message.  Rebooting generally fixes the problem.  I read on the front page – only one tab open.

  68. 68.

    SkyBluePink

    Same issues as satby’s on Kindle.  Reload takes me back to post, not back to comments.

    Typically only use Kindle in the evening.

    No issues on desktop or laptop- Firefox.

  70. 70.

    TEL

    It happened on my iPad (6 generation, 15.0.2) this morning for the first time using Safari. It didn’t recur – just happened once and I was on the morning thread for more than 2 minutes. In the past, Balloon Juice would occasionally crash the browser and I’d have to restart the iPad to get it to load again, so I figured this was an improvement. It hasn’t happened on my Mac laptop at all, so it seems to be limited to mobile devices for me.

  71. 71.

    ReadWrite

    This has been happening to me sporadically on my iPad for at least a year, after I updated it to iOS 14. I’m using Safari. Every so often, the page goes blank, a message appears in the URL area with something like “There was a problem with this web page. Safari will reload it.” If the reload does the same thing within a short interval (unsure, maybe 30 seconds), Safari gives up and shows a message in the page area that the web page cannot be loaded. Refreshing the tab doesn’t work. Closing and reopening the tab doesn’t work. Closing and reopening Safari doesn’t. The only fix is to reboot the iPad. That tells me there is a serious memory corruption bug in iOS, but I digress…

    BJ is not the only site where this can happen. I’ve been trying to diagnose the problem since it started. One issue seems to be auto-play video ads. If a page has these ads, I can usually make it crash by scrolling very slowly (e.g., as I read through a long post) or scrolling back and forth. Sometimes a page will crash with no visible video ads, but some just might be out of view. In the worst case, a page will crash when loading the first time, before I even interact with it. That’s a sure sign the iPad needs rebooting.

    BJ has “bad days” where, after a reboot, it still won’t load in Safari. I just give up and look at it later, or on my desktop (Windows 10, Firefox, AdBlockPlus, NoScript), which gives no trouble. My guess is the failing web sites are pulling in malformed ads with bad HTML or JavaScript, or something that Safari simply can’t cope with.

    Apple requires ALL browsers on iOS (phone or iPad) to use Apple’s WebKit rendering engine. When you use Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc. on iOS you are using a “skin” over WebKit, which is doing most the work. I suspect that is where the problem lies. macOS does not have this restriction, so on that platform you get “real” Chrome, Firefox, etc.

  74. 74.

    O. Felix Culpa

    Android and laptop, both using Chrome and both with plenty of memory. Posts with embeds first load without the internal pictures/articles showing, and then, after an unpredictable amount of time, reload to show the embeds. This happens on both the front page and when clicking through to read the full post and comments

    ETA: I use uBlock Origin on my laptop.

  75. 75.

    NotMax

    Just in case you weren’t aware or had forgotten, WG, unless a different one has been owner installed, Kindle uses the Silk browser.

    (Editorial note: imagine airquotes around the word browser.)

  76. 76.

    J R in WV

    Using Firefox (Ver 93.0) on Ubuntu (V 18.04.6), have not had this even take place so far.

    Will try using Chrome on Ubuntu and see what gives… will report back later on that experiment!

  77. 77.

    Percysowner

    No resetting on Iphone XR IOS 14.8 accessing through Feeder and Safari.

    Also on this

    I’m having no problems on my Macbook Air I0.14.6 using Firefox 93.0. I’ve pulled BJ up on my Iphone and will report back on that.​

    I run both UBlock Origin and Adblocker ultimate on my laptop.

  78. 78.

    WaterGirl

    @EmBeeJay:

    I have not seen it, but I can tell you this much.  All browsers on iOS/iPadOS are required to use the built-in WebKit for rendering web content.  WebKit spawns separate processes for each page (or sometimes groups of pages per domain) so that if one crashes, the entire browser doesn’t quit.  When one of these processes does crash, WebKit respawns it—with the effect that the user only sees the page “refresh.”  Internally, the page and the process containing it were destroyed/unloaded and restarted from scratch.  (When this happens on macOS Safari, you usually get a banner at the top of the page saying something like “This web page was reloaded because of a problem.”)

    I was not aware of those details.  Thanks so much.

  80. 80.

    There go two miscreants

    Win10 Home 64 bit, FF 93.0
    Does it occasionally; the only effect seems to be that scrolling pauses if I am in the middle of scrolling.
    Doesn’t seem to reload the whole page — much quicker but I can see the “reload” arrow circle on the browser flickering. Perhaps this is not what other people are seeing but a related thing.​

    ETA: No prompt, it just happens. I don’t spend much time on the front page so not sure about that; definitely within posts/comments.

  81. 81.

    SiubhanDuinne

    iPhone 8 Plus, Safari. Happens irregularly any time of day or night. I haven’t been aware of any pattern. Happens within individual posts.

  82. 82.

    J R in WV

    @J R in WV:

    I’m using Chrome now, haven’t had any problems.

    I should point out that I have third-party cookies blocked and Privacy Badger installed on Chrome, and Firefox has uBlock Origin and Ghostery and DuckDuckGo privacy essentials installed.

    I still get the occasional ad, but not very many, and Google thinks I’m in west central Ohio, which is very much not the case…

    Privacy is a very good thing, I can’t get too much of it.

  83. 83.

    LivinginExile

    I don’t seem to have this problem on my old laptop, an old dell with firefox, no script,  addblock, and windows 7.  As NOTMAX said, the kindle has silk browser.

  87. 87.

    steve g

    Older mac book pro, Mojave 10.14.6, with Safari 14.1.2, no problem. I haven’t seen a self refresh at all. Knock on wood.

  88. 88.

    MomSense

    It has happened to me a couple of times, including my first attempt at commenting.  iPhone safari

  89. 89.

    mali muso

    Just happened to me twice in the last five minutes within the prior post. Automatic reload of the page. I’m on my iPhone using safari.

  90. 90.

    WaterGirl

    @NotMax: I actually am aware of that, in spite of the fact that I have never seen a Kindle in the real world.  I learned that during testing before the site was rolled out.

    But it’s fair to assume I know almost nothing about Kindles, so I have no problem with people sharing information with me just in case.

  92. 92.

    Buachaill

    This has gone on for a while. It used to be that ipad had an issue where you would get the random Congratulations, you have won a $100 amazon gift card…. and you could not back out of it. This happened on some sites not others, I suspect that somehow they managed to lay down a pixel with an event to trigger the page if once you hit the page. If you restarted the iPad, it went away for a while (5-7 days) With an update around 2 years ago Apple stopped the fake page coming up but every now and then you get this to happen as described. The only other thing that I noticed is that it may be related to sites that have a number of embedded tweets such as the Coronvirus updates. It may not be the embedded tweets themselves but having a large number may just pick up one with something malicious.

  96. 96.

    WaterGirl

    There is not a single image or tweet in this thread, so if your device restarts while you are in this thread, please note that in the comments here.

    That would be an indication that it’s unrelated to tweets and images.

  98. 98.

    Ken

    I’m not seeing page reloads, but I do see an almost continuous stream of HTTP requests to sites like vidcrunch, pagead2.google, ads.stickyadstv, etc. which I assume are from the ad sidebar.

    These sometimes appear briefly as a “waiting for wyz…” message at the bottom of the window. Opening the Network view shows the steady stream.  I’m using Chrome browser.

  99. 99.

    Betty

    Hi, I use a Kindle Fire to read this site. It recently started requiring me to reload the site after a few minutes. It returns to the post I was on but not to the comments. I have to relocate where I was when it took me off the site.

  100. 100.

    Sourmash

    Happening on my iPhone X with chrome and it’s 2230 in Turkey 7 hours ahead of NY time. It just refreshes automatically and so do other pages I’m looking at while bj is open

  101. 101.

    jeffreyw

    I was out and about yesterday and using my Android phone with Samsumg Internet browser with AdGuard and I had no problems.  Mostly, I’m on a desktop Win10 machine with AdGuard running FFox 93.0, no issues with auto-refreshing but I do run into the occasional bounce to the top on manual refreshes and the usual back arrow woes if I have a comment in the thread.  Still seeing the occasional problem with absent cursor in Visual mode.

  102. 102.

    Just Chuck

    No auto-refresh on desktop for me (chrome on mac and linux), but I frequently get the text editor popup instead of the richtext widget and have to reload to bring it back.

    I’d love to write a whole new front end for the site … headless, with a SPA and graphql integration for FYWP (or just a sane rest api that isn’t the built-in one). Tinkering with the existing theme … nope, not so much.

  103. 103.

    Betty

    @WaterGirl:  The reloading happens on any post a y time of day. I notice it when there are a lot of comments to read. This also happens to me on Twitter

  104. 104.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    I have not noticed this problem either with my Android cell phone (Brave browser) or my Win10 computer (Firefox browser). I never use the Balloon Juice front page. I open a new post (in a new tab) from the “wing” or notice on the previous post, and I delete old posts’ tabs as I get done with them.

  105. 105.

    Another Scott

    Just for completeness, I have not seen this reloading issue using the Brave browser on my Android phone. Samsung S20+, October 1, 2021 security update, One UI 3.1 (Android 11). 12 GB RAM (5.4 GB used), 512 GB storage (+SD card).

    (Brave has a built-in ad blocker.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  106. 106.

    Schmendrick

    I normally use a laptop to lurk, but a few days ago I was using Chrome on my 7th gen iPad and I had this problem— namely, BJ would frequently reload while I was trying to scroll through comments.  After a few such reloads I gave up.  Today We are away from home and have only one laptop (which Mrs. Schmend has commandeered, so I am back here on my iPad and apparently the problem was not my WiFi or operator error.

     

    edited to add — it reloaded again immediately afterI posted this comment!

     

    and a second time 3 minutes later.

     

    and a third time 2 minutes later.  I am using the edit your comment timer to keep track of the time.  This time I will not scroll and see if it still happens.

     

    even though I did not touch my screen in the interim, 5 seconds after the last update the site refreshed, and then about 2 minutes later it refreshed  again.

  108. 108.

    Antonius

    Windows 10 Chrome, Android Chrome, Android Firefox, no such issues. In comments above, I’m seeing a lot of (not exclusively, though) Apple devices exhibiting this behavior.

  110. 110.

    WaterGirl

    Does anyone who uses Brave on their phone or tablet have this reloading issue?

    Does anyone who uses any other ad blocker have this reloading issue?

  111. 111.

    EntroPi

    Also most recent Safari on iPhone XS.  I generally reed through Feedly, so rarely load the front page.  Have seen reloads if I switch apps and come back  fairly consistently, this also occurs on my iPad using NetNewsWire.

    I will reiterate what others have said about all these being WebKit based, and so we should see the same problems on all of them.

    Pretty sure this is an iOS memory bug, and that it’s more often triggered by memory heavy posts. Like, say, ones with lots of comments, or crazy amounts of embedded tweets.

    That being said, some JavaScript bug running BJ, could also be …helping the bug. Those who come in from the homepage may be more likely to trigger a bug like that.

    This post, having neither too many comments nor any tweets, has been fine.

  113. 113.

    Juju

    I have an apple pirate phone (XRrrrr), and this has been happening about every 2-3 minutes. No prompt, just a notation at the top of the screen telling me it was refreshed. I noticed that the phone was getting warm when this happens. It also happens on the LGM site. My time is running out. My phone is getting warm.

  115. 115.

    Ken

    @WaterGirl: The HTTP requests are definitely from the ad sidebar, when I delete that element they stop.

    EDIT: I’ve identified the sub-element, it’s the one with the video ad.  The element is inside the <section id="mai_aec_widget_a-2" class="widget widget_mai_aec_widget_a"> markup.

    There are dozens of requests every second, and as I mentioned above, to a bunch of different sites.

  117. 117.

    WaterGirl

    @Ken:

    There are dozens of requests every second, and as I mentioned above, to a bunch of different sites.

    Do those dozens of requests cease when you delete that element?

    Just trying to clarify whether we might be talking about two separate issues.

  119. 119.

    Scout211

    @WaterGirl:

    if your device restarts while you are in this thread, please note that in the comments here.

    I think I mentioned this upthread, but my iPad auto refreshed several times using Chrome and once using Safari in this thread.

    I think I also mentioned upthread that when this has happened periodically in the past, I could fix it by a hard restart of my iPad, restart of Chrome and clearing the cache.

    In the past several days, the problem is much worse and restarting did not fix the problem.  I tried that several times.

    I typically start reading the blog from the front page and use the side arrows to move between posts.

  122. 122.

    Math Guy

    No problems with pages reloading. Using an iPad Pro purchased in 2018. IOS 14.7.1 and using Safari.

  125. 125.

    neabinorb

    iPad mini 4. iPadOS 14.8. Safari.

    like the original message I get periodic, spontaneous refreshes. After the blog very slowly loads I can usually scroll through everything on the front page. But if I expand a post it’s a question whether I will get to the end of it before it spontaneously reloads. This morning I sat through two refreshes just to get through the Covid update. There’s no message; it’s spontaneous.

    This happens mostly for me on the front page. It seems that if I click on a post and get away from the front page I don’t encounter this problem. I don’t think I’ve ever had it happen once I’m looking at comments.

    I keep coming back, though! This won’t stop me.

  130. 130.

    John Harrold

    I often get a “This page is using a lot of memory” message. Sometimes it refreshes on its own. I’m not sure if this is I. Safari or Chrome.

  131. 131.

    Justin W

    I had not noticed this to my knowledge recently until just now, but yes this is happening to me presently on my iPhone. But it appears to only be on the main page. Once I click through to the individual posts I can comment and it doesn’t happen. I’m on a 12 Pro Max with the latest update.

  134. 134.

    Rob

    It’s **not** happening to me on my 2019 model Macbook Pro with macOS Catalina 10.15.7​​
    eta: not on the main page, not on/inside any posts​
    eta #2: Firefox 93.0​​​
    ​
    ​

  135. 135.

    prostratedragon

    Haven’t seen this yet on Android/Chrome or Sprint browser, or on linux/firefox92/93.

    ETA: Looking over a few of the comments above me (!0!), I see it might help that I’m using Adblocker Ultimate on high setting, and noscript with permissions only for this site, cloudflare, and twitter.

  136. 136.

    Larch

    iPad mini 4 / iOS 14.8 / both Safari & Chrome: auto-refreshes every 2 min or less (I think it’s slightly less, but haven’t clocked the seconds)

    iPhone SE (2nd) / iOS 14.8 / Safari: no auto-refresh

  137. 137.

    CAM-WA

    This has been happening to my wife and me ever since BJ “upgraded” the website, and not before.  Two 6th generation iPads, an iPhone SE 2020 and an iPhone XS, all running iOS 14.8.  But since it’s been happening since the site upgrade, it was happening on older iOSs as well.  Doesn’t seem to affect my Macs or my wife’s PC.

    Running Safari.  And yes, we run an ad blocker, but as an experiment, we tried turning off the ad blocker, and it still exhibited the issue.

    Restarting the iDevice seems to help (most of the time…), but only for a relatively short time.  Could be hours, could be a couple of days (depends on how much we are reading BJ!).

    It doesn’t happen on any other site we visit.

    Given that it is happening to us only on our iPads and iPhones, I’m guessing it is some weird interaction between iOS and something particular on the BJ site.  Perhaps one of the WP plugins?

  138. 138.

    FlyingToaster (Tablet)

    I was writing a comment when it just happened… jumped over to PrivacyPro and blocked vidcrunch.  It seems to have gone away, so like Ken, I’m pretty sure the problem is thrashing over at vidcrunch.

    iPad Pro (last one with a button, whichever that one is).  iPadOS 14.8. Chrome latest. PrivacyPro latest. Crappy hotel wifi.

  140. 140.

    dnfree

    It just started happening now on my iPhone, safari. Said page is repeatedly reloading for no reason.

  141. 141.

    Justin W

    @WaterGirl: okay, it also just happened to me within this post AND it happened over on crooks and liars. I’m going to restart phone. This refresh issue on iPhone in safari has been an on and off issue for years on a number of sites. I’m too dumb to do anything but hold down power buttons. But they let me have a bar license lol

  143. 143.

    Betty

    Update on the reloading issue. I tried going back to the older posts with lots of comments, one with a tweet, using my phone instead of my Kindle. No reloading issues. It is an older Android, 5.1.1

  146. 146.

    dnfree

    It does happen sometimes on my older iPad with safari, but turning the tablet off and back on helps. I run entirely too many open tabs on any device

  147. 147.

    Shana

    Not happening to me at all. I have a Macbook purchased in 2017, using Safari Big Sur 11.2, no ad blockers. Nor on my iphone 8.

  150. 150.

    Jackie

    Late to reply to a dead thread – but I’m having random auto refresh issues – at anytime of day. I’m using IPhone 6 with Safari. This started about a week or so. No ads block.
    It will happen two or three times in about 15 minutes – then not for several hrs – until it does it again. Most of the time it refreshes back to where I was, but other times it starts back at the beginning of replies.

  151. 151.

    TEL

    @TEL:
    I am using Adguard, which might be why I’m not getting the periodic auto refresh. And the auto refresh this morning was from the main page. After that I was reading the morning thread.

  154. 154.

    J R in WV

    @J R in WV:

    I’m using Chrome now, haven’t had any problems.

    I should point out that I have third-party cookies blocked and Privacy Badger installed on Chrome, and Firefox has uBlock Origin and Ghostery and DuckDuckGo privacy essentials installed.

     

    @WaterGirl: And here’s the second report, no issue on Chrome, listed all the privacy and ad-block tools in use on both browsers.

  155. 155.

    Gretchen

    I use safari on two iPads, an older and newer one, no ad blocker.  I haven’t seen this problem.

  156. 156.

    Gvg

    Yes this happens to me on iPad Pro safari 14.8. I think it has been going on awhile. Also happens on Little Green Football much worse, so it’s not just this one. I don’t go to that site much though.

    it does not happen at work on a Mac

  158. 158.

    Reboot

    Microsoft Surface/Firefox. No problems (except for the occasional back button misfire if I forget to click the date/time stamp first).​  ETA: From the front page, I right-click to open a new tab to read posts and comments.​ETA 2: I’m also running Privacy Badger, ‘currently blocking six potential trackers,’ quote, unquote.

  159. 159.

    Czar Chasm

    Safari on an iPhone 12 Pro, running iOS 14.8.

     

    YERP, it’s happening to me.  I’ve had this happen to me at other websites, it seems to be a weird ping that gets interpreted as a refresh call:  An update by the site’s host seems to resolve it,

  160. 160.

    Citizen_X

    I have this problem. It just refreshes the page unprompted. Don’t know if it’s a periodic occurrence or not.

    Safari on iPhone SE, iOS 14.8, no ad blockers.

  162. 162.

    NorthLeft12

    Yes, it has been happening to me all week. Refreshes the page about every two or three minutes. Very frustrating. I have an iPad. Safari browser. Just happened again while I was writing this comment.

  165. 165.

    Juju

    I’ve tried to say it’s starting to refresh more frequently. I’ve tried to do this three times and it’s refreshed   iPhone XR safari.

  166. 166.

    Kattails

    Have not read comments but the  iPad has just decided to refresh itself randomly over the last few days. Have not noticed it on the Mac mini. It’s an older one, don’t ask details, a hand me down. (The iPad). Taking forever to load and doing weird black bars across half the page while loading.

  168. 168.

    HW3

    @HW3: just tried it in safari and in chrome with no luck. Ios 14.8. I keep the active memory pretty low and kill other browsers ?‍♂️

  169. 169.

    Benno

    It happened twice while I was trying to respond to this question. iPad using Safari browser. It seems to happen with increasing frequency until BJ is practically unusable (reloading twice within 2-3 minutes while trying to post, for example), so I restart my tablet and it used to stop for a few weeks before starting again. It’s been happening long enough that when I visited my father for the first time post-covid this past July I asked him if he was experiencing the same thing (ie, was it an iPad thing or a *my* iPad thing…he had gotten me this iPad the last time I saw him before covid, for a bit of timeline). He was not experiencing the same thing, but I only just got him reading BJ end of last year and he’s not as habitual a user as I am.

    I ended up typing this in Safari browser on my MacBook and haven’t had any reloading issues on the laptop at all, but I just checked my tablet and BJ reloaded *again* while I was typing this, so minimum 3x in the last 10 minutes.

    Glad its not just me, I guess. Thanks for looking into it.

  170. 170.

    PhaedrusOnBass

    I can only speak for myself…

    • prompting you to reload the page? or the page just reloads itself? It reloads itself 3-5 times, then completely fails
    • happening to a handful of people?   to a lot of people?  to everyone? I don’t know
    • happening only on certain kinds of devices – tablets, phones, computers? Occurs on my iPad (6th gen)
    • happening only certain specific devices – like an iPad or a Kindle? IPad
    • happening only on older devices – like it happens on your new iPad but not your old one? 6th gen
    • happening only with certain browsers – Safari?  Firefox?  Chrome? Both Safari and Chrome
    • happening only on certain combinations of devices and browsers – say it only happens on an iPad in Safari but not on an iPad using Chrome  See last answer
    • happening only one one particular device you use for BJ?  or for all of them? On my iPad
    • happening consistently or sporadically? Consistently for months
    • happening only on certain posts? All posts
    • happening only at a certain time of day?  fine in the morning but always happens in the evening?  Any time of day or night
    • happening only when you are reading from the front page?  or does it happen within individual posts? Front page
    • are you running an ad blocker?  if so, which one? No ad-blocker

    IMHO, it may be an issue with the way the iPad versions of these browsers handle sites with a lot of ads. I notice this when I’m using Flipboard for my news – if the site has a lot of ads, it tends to reload itself into oblivion regularly. I’ll investigate ad blocking technology. Thanks for the tip!

  177. 177.

    JerrytheMacGuy

    I am running iOS 14.8 on a iPad Air 2. “Block Pop-Up Ads” is on, otherwise I have no ad blockers. Using Safari. The BJ site has been “refreshing” itself every few minutes, reloading the top of the page. It has been doing this for at least the last week.

    “Refreshing” it is not. Annoying it is.

    Added thought. Perhaps it has something to do with all the Twitter posts on the pages?

  178. 178.

    WaterGirl

    @JerrytheMacGuy: Thanks for the info.

    It is  happening to people on the post, where there are no tweets and no images.  So I don’t think it’s that.

    Though posts with tons of tweets do load more slowly, for sure.

    Do you usually read from the front page or from individual posts?

  181. 181.

    Rachel Bakes

    Late comer. Mostly when I’m in comments. Just refreshed 2x in about a minute. Newer iPhone (don’t ask me which), chrome-for what it’s worth

  182. 182.

    Edward Brennan

    Late. Was happening with Safari and 14.x.

    Originally thought it was my ad blocker (Wipr) even though disabled for Balloon Juice.

    Updated to ios15 and it stopped happening…Browsing balloon juice normal now.

  183. 183.

    ZeeLizzee

    The auto refresh just started for me on my iPad Pro, gen 2, running iOS 14.7.2

    iPhone 11, runningiOS 14.8 seems ok.

  187. 187.

    Misswhatsis

    Hi — I’m getting refreshed about once a minute on an iPhone 11maxpro. I have a screenshot of the error message — I can’t post it but it just says “a problem repeatedly occurred.”

    This is new as of 5 pm Sunday

  189. 189.

    Anomalous Cowherd

    Watergirl –

    I’m using an iPad mini 4 running ios 14.6. Safari reloads the page without any warning or announcement every two or three minutes unless I turn off javascript (settings:safari:advanced:javascript). I suspect some ad doesn’t play well with Apple os, unless non-Apple-users have the same problem – in which case it’s simply an all-around cruddy script.

  190. 190.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I’m getting the random page reload thing. Safari on iPhone under latest IOS.

    Me too, same same. It’s really disruptive.

  191. 191.

    Phaedrusonbass

    Hey @WaterGirl – a quick update – I loaded and activated AdBlock Pro, and had a quiet weekend of browsing. No crashes, either here or on Flipboard. Yay!

    I’m glad I could be of assistance…

  192. 192.

    geg6

    @SiubhanDuinne: ​ I had the same problem over the weekend. Haven’t accessed BJ from my phone today, so not sure if it’s a continuing issue or something of a glitch.​

  193. 193.

    satby

    Still happens occasionally on all my Android devices, both Kindle Silk and Chrome. 192 comments should indicate it’s widespread enough to fix.

  194. 194.

    Ruckus

    What little I use my phone for browsing, no, I have not seen issues.

    iPhone XR, Safari, both latest updates, with AdBlock.

    On the iMac, Safari, both latest updates, with AdGuard, I have issues with BJ loading, but not refreshing issues. It partial loads, hesitates, loads, hesitates, this goes through 3-5 cycles when ever I open BJ. After that seems OK. It has been doing this for a little while. It used to just load. A wild ass guess would actually be a server issue, rather than a coding issue, it was stable after the last major work was done, unless more was done recently

    Reading just up thread I see that someone else has javascript turned off as well and having no issues. I’ve had it turned off for a long time so forgot to mention this but I did have far fewer issues with any/every site since I turned it off. I’ve had one site that wouldn’t load in the last several years because of this – I got a message that javascript was required for that site. Too bad for them.

  195. 195.

    lurker

    Running safari on a MacBook – it occasionally tells me a page was refreshed because it was using significant energy. Sometimes it suggests refreshing for the same reason. Suggests a script that is looping, which might be from an ad. Or from some part of the site.

  197. 197.

    Jon Marcus

    Haven’t read through previous comments, so maybe this is old news? But I don’t see it with Brave or adblockers (i.e. at home) but do see the reloading behavior at work.

    The two sites I see (today) trying to load are: tag.1rx.io and vidcrunch.technocraticmedia.com (both typed by hand, after catching glimpses of the very short reload messages, so there could easily be typos there.)

  198. 198.

    SkyBluePink

    Page not responding reload
    Kindle fire silk browser
    Happening more frequently
    Several times reading comments and even when typing this comment

  199. 199.

    buggrit

    Page not responding reload
    Kindle fire silk browser; I have a new one and an older one, no difference.
    I was sort of keeping track the other evening and it was happening about every 6 minutes. I would say more in the evening, but that’s mainly when I’m on, so…
    no ad blockers

  200. 200.

    dkinPa

    This has happened to me several times over the past week, usually when I’m in a post and reading comments. The page suddenly jumps and lands in a new place & then I have to figure out where I was. I’m using an iPad (7th generation), software version 14,8 which I bought one-two years ago. I’m not running any ad blockers. Thanks, WaterGirl, for any help you can give

    Oooh, #200!  Is there a prize?  LOL

  201. 201.

    Gravenstone

    PC, Win 10 enterprise. Chrome. Page crashed and got an error message in lieu of a reload. Message was “out of memory”. Happened earlier today as well, but I didn’t think about it until seeing some other comments in a thread.

  202. 202.

    Jackie

    Today (10/18) auto refreshing is extremely problematic – I think because of the long numbers (200 replies +/-) And “refreshes back to the last manually refreshed post – which is absolutely maddening if you’re at #125 and it refreshes back to #56. (And continues BACK to #56 multiple times.) Two posts today are loooong and each has auto refreshed at least a dozen times.

    This only happens on BJ. Again, IPhone 6 with Safari browser.

  203. 203.

    dopey-o

    ”the webpage was reloaded because a problem occurred.” Happens several times a day on my  ipad air, fully updated to 12.5.5 with safari and with firefox.

    front page has been so slow to load that i now go straight  to first article, and use the back arrow to see the previous posts.

    Often, after reading 75% of a post, the page will reload, and drop me down into the comments. Has happened half a dozen times while composing a comment.

    95% of the time, this only occurs while viewing BJ. I once failed to sufficiently praise Tunch, so this might be his revenge.

  204. 204.

    WaterGirl

    from eb, by email:

    hey. not getting a request to refresh, but over the last three days or so, the page keeps crashing on me and telling me i have to reload it. i’m running chrome on win 10 and it’s a very recent problem.

    Balloon Juice Pages Automatically Refreshing For No Reason?

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