How to Fix Out of Memory Error in Chrome browser

Chrome has always been in the lousy limelight for heavy memory and CPU usage. It encounters multiple error codes and even results in slow performance. However, the developers are continuously tweaking the source code to make it smoother and faster without compromise.

The Chrome browser’s Out of Memory issue is similar to the heavy memory usage to load the website resources. It happens when the website you are trying to load uses more than the available system memory resource. The browser automatically kills the page loading with the ‘Out of Memory’ code.

The issue shouldn’t be happening for all the websites, but if you frequently get the error on most sites, it’s the browser issue rather than the website. It would be best if you considered troubleshooting and fixing it in a go.

We have listed a few working troubleshooting methods that can help resolve the Out of Memory error code on the browser.

Enable Memory Saver

Memory saver is a feature under Chrome’s Performance settings that disable all the background activity, inactive tabs, and animations that consume the memory. Hence, the saved memory is then utilized to power the active tab to resolve the out-of-memory problem.

Here are the steps you can follow to enable memory saver:

1. Launch the Google Chrome browser.
2. Click on the More  options menu.
3. Hover on the More Tools option and select the Performance menu.
   It will launch the Performance tab under the Chrome Settings page.
4. Enable the Toggle button for the Memory Saver option.
   

Once the memory saver is turned on, you can recheck the web page and try to load the resources that were having the problem.

Restart the Computer

Restarting the computer system is one of the most influential and traditional ways to resolve intermittent issues. If Chrome displays the ‘Out of Memory’ error, restarting will help kill all the active processes running in the background.

1. Click the Start button in the taskbar on your Windows PC.
2. Click on the Power button and select the option to Restart option.

After restarting, open the Chrome browser and access the page where you had the problem to see if the issue persists.

Disable Extensions

Extensions help enhance the browser’s capability at the cost of memory resources. If you have many extensions, it’s probably using the memory, even in the background. Hence, disabling the installed extensions from the browser is safer to free up the memory used by these extensions.

1. Open Google Chrome on your computer.
2. Click on the More for options menu.
3. Hover on More Tools and select the Extensions option. It will open the Chrome Extensions Manager page with install extensions.
4. Disable the toggle option against each extension.

Once you’ve disabled all the extensions, you can consider turning on one after to identify the extension utilizing the maximum resources creating the problem. Post that, you can either keep it disabled or find an alternative.

Clear browsing data

The browser has a caching mechanism that most website use to store temporary files in the memory and storage. These files are frequently accessed and used to load the site faster. If you’ve not cleared the data for a long time, it might be overloaded with tons of files and cache, which causes the memory leak. Hence, it would be best if you considered clearing the browsing data.

1. Open Chrome browser on your computer.
2. Click on the More for menu options and hover on the More Tools menu.
3. Select the Clear Browsing Data menu from the list. It will open the Clear browsing data settings window.
4. Choose the Time Range from the drop-down and select the checkboxes for the ‘Cookies and other site data‘ and ‘Cached images and files options.
5. Finally, hit the Clear Data command button.

You can read this guide on clearing cookies and cache in Chrome browser for more details. After clearing the browsing data, check if the out-of-memory error is gone from the website.

Reset Chrome Settings

If nothing works as mentioned, it might be a problem with some settings that we have misconfigured that are causing the out-of-memory problem. Hence, we can reset the browser settings and data, which can help resolve the issue.

The reset will clear the browsing data and all the changes made on Chrome’s Settings page. Hence, you need to proceed with the option cautiously.

1. Launch the Chrome browser on the computer.
2. Click on the More menu for options, and select the Settings menu from the list.
   It will open the Chrome browser’s settings page.
3. Switch to the Reset settings tab in the sidebar and select Restore settings to their original defaults option.
4. Hit the Reset settings command button to continue the browser reset.

After you perform the browser reset, check if the issue persists on the factory reset Chrome app.

Update or Downgrade

If you do not remember updating the browser, you should consider upgrading it to the latest version. The recent upgrade might have a fix for the out-of-memory problem. Hence it will automatically get resolved on upgrade.

1. Launch the Google Chrome browser on your computer.
2. Hit on More  for options and select Settings from the list.
3. Switch to the About Chrome tab on the Settings page.
4. Google Chrome should automatically start looking for the latest updates.
   

If no upgrades are available, and you’ve recently updated your Chrome browser, perhaps the issue started after the upgrade. In such cases, you can consider temporarily downgrading or rolling back to the previous version of the installation.

There have been a few reports where users complain about the Out of Memory issues after the latest browser update when trying to print a webpage. Hence, you might also be facing a similar issue.

Bottom Line

The Chrome browser’s Out of Memory issue has become standard due to heavy and interactive websites. One major problem is the scripts being parsed on the browser rather than on web servers.

Suppose you cannot fix the issue and have faced problems with a particular scenario, like printing or loading certain pages or elements. In that case, you should report to the Chrome developers for investigation.

Anyways, you can follow the troubleshooting steps mentioned, and I believe one of them can help fix the low memory issue.

Lastly, if you've any thoughts or feedback on How to Fix Out of Memory Error in Chrome browser, then feel free to drop in below comment box. You can also report the outdated information.