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MacRumors Site/Forums Causing Battery Drain?
- Thread starter iStorm
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Rebooting or clearing MacRumors Safari data may be something to try regardless.
Next steps:
1. Try with debug on. If it helps, post here.
2. If that doesn't help, try browsing with Javascript completely off and see if that prevents it from happening.
3. If it doesn't help, then it's an even stranger problem.
4. If it does help, then profiling using the Safari developer tools is the next best step.
arn
Next steps:
1. Try with debug on. If it helps, post here.
2. If that doesn't help, try browsing with Javascript completely off and see if that prevents it from happening.
3. If it doesn't help, then it's an even stranger problem.
4. If it does help, then profiling using the Safari developer tools is the next best step.
arn
Yea I cleared safari macroumors data. and I signed on to the site again. I am not willing to turn off JavaScript all together because other sites depend on it, but let me restart and see. Once again debug should be on or off after paid membership?
I can do profiling with safari and my Mac as a next step.
I can do profiling with safari and my Mac as a next step.
Debug on = reduces the number of javascript. So if you have having problems with Debug off, then try Debug on.
Javascript off isn't a long term solution, but could be telling if you can test it for a short period.
arn
@arn OK I I'll watch the battery usage in the coming days. I will Keep debug off for now, see how it goes. But to be honest it is not right to spend so much time on debugging a forum site... you be the judge what needs to be done. Can I help in any way, i.e. I am a senior principal developer for the second largest company.. if you guys need help just shout...
Ya, it's been a difficult thing to address. It doesn't happen on everyone's iPhone, and doesn't happen on mine, so it's been difficult to isolate. I do think we addressed it for most people.
This is the flow chart we are using to see if we can isolate it:
1. Full site: ads + Xenforo js + extra javascript
2. Contributor/Adblock: Xenforo js + extra javascipt
3. Contributor/Adblock + Debug On: Xenforo js
4. Javascript Off: No javascript at all
It appears you are seeing the battery drain with #1 and #2. You are now on #3.
arn
I mean this is my mostly visited site.. if there is anything I can do to help it, I will do it.
Been browsing the forums with setting #3 above for the last 56 minutes or so. Battery down 4%, no other activiTy. Still far and above normal drainage for a forum site. I will investigate and get to the bottom of this, chasing every JavaScript to its end. This is not normal for sure....
Option #4 turning JavaScript off altogether results in warnings all over the place for this site and any other site and is a no go!
Unfortunately happened again to me after a few days working well.
I tried with and without debug and no changes whatsoever. The iPhone
was uncomfortable to hold.
CPU usage never went to high, strangely enough.
I tried with and without debug and no changes whatsoever. The iPhone
was uncomfortable to hold.
CPU usage never went to high, strangely enough.
@arn
I am on a 15" MacBook Pro from 2018 on Monterey 12.0.1 with Safari 15.1.
I have been reading the MacRumors Forum roughly since the new MacBook Pro's came out (so +- 1 week now) and only today I have noticed my fans suddenly spinning up, while activity monitor showed +-100% CPU Usage from Macrumors.com.
I have now followed your instructions to switch to Debug and the CPU usage has gone done to what I would assume is normal (when idling it's <1%, only when actively typing it spikes up around 25% but immediately drops to <1 when I stop typing).
The same "normal" behavior occurs if I have DEBUG switched OFF but if I activate an adblocker. I actually installed it just for that purpose.
Once I go back (debug off AND no ad blocker) the forums immediately consume around 100% cpu again. I am happy to provide more details if you need them.
Can you post a screenshot of 100% cpu time?
- what ad blocker are you using?
Are you saying debug WITH ads on works without the cpu issue?
@arn
I am using AdBlock for Safari (https://apps.apple.com/at/app/adblock-for-safari/id1402042596?l=en&mt=12)
Debug on and NO Adblocker
Debug On does occasionally show ads, CPU usage is < 1% as per the following image.
However, the behavior is a bit erratic. Sometimes the ads were not shown at all even through multiple reloads. Sometimes when I go to a thread, the page is totally broken (looks like the css is missing I guess), while the forum list is perfectly fine. However, after turning debug off and on again (and always completely closing Safari afterwards) it is working again.
Debug off and NO Adblocker
Here you can see the image with Debug Off and no Adblocker. As you can see, CPU usage is around 100%.
Although I could perfectly reproduce this before, CPU usage was not acting up immediately this time. It took a few moments (jumping from Forum list to thread view back to forum list) when it suddenly jumped up again.
Debug off WITH Adblocker
When I activate the AdBlocker I get the same < 1% cpu usage - without ads.
With Debug on (and no AdBlock) I still managed to get the 100% CPU usage all of a sudden.
Initially it seems to be okay (mostly <10%, when completely idling also < 1%).
Then I switch to the "Watched Threads" and go back and forth to the threads I watch. After visiting a few of them and going beck, CPU usage suddenly spikes at roughly 125 % and then comes down to the 100%. As I said, that is with debug mode on.
However, I was not getting any of that "broken style" thing anymore.
When I do the same thing (switch between my watched threads for a while) with AdBlock on, CPU usage stays around 1% (not accounting for loading spikes of course).
Initially it seems to be okay (mostly <10%, when completely idling also < 1%).
Then I switch to the "Watched Threads" and go back and forth to the threads I watch. After visiting a few of them and going beck, CPU usage suddenly spikes at roughly 125 % and then comes down to the 100%. As I said, that is with debug mode on.
However, I was not getting any of that "broken style" thing anymore.
When I do the same thing (switch between my watched threads for a while) with AdBlock on, CPU usage stays around 1% (not accounting for loading spikes of course).
Attachments
The no CSS happens when you have the MacRumors Auto Detect theme chosen. Make sure you have picked the MacRumors Dark theme manually at the bottom of the page.
Ok... previous version of debug didn't touch the Forum List. I've added it there. So try this scenario again.
Ok, then this may be an ad issue.
Debug turns off several extra javascripts. If Debug off fixes the issue, then I can narrow down the javascript that is causing it.
Did debug mode + ad blocker help you? Or not? The last time you posted your battery went down 4% over 56 minutes which seems good.
arn
Currently with Safari MacRumors.com is using 2.18GB of memory. That is not the first time that this site has gotten to that high or more. there really does seem to be a memory leak on the forum code. It mostly builds up over time, so it might be best to leave more often. ?
hi @arn
Mind, that I have completely deactivated the AdBlocker extension for all this.
I followed your request to try that specific scenario (debug off and no AdBlocker) again --> issue persists.
I tried with debug on and no AdBlocker --> issue persists
My testing looks like this:
- Quit Safari after every try
- relaunch it (start page=favorites)
- type in forums.macrumros.com in adress bar
- and from there just randomly any of these in no particular order
- go to watched threads
- go to an actually watched thread, switch pages
- go to forums list
- go to forums I've never visited before
- go to a thread in that forum
- go back to forums list
- go back to watched threads
Now, since I am using Little Snitch, I tried to see what domains were polled just whenever the issue happened. One of these was adthrive.com.
I created a rule to deny any connections to adthrive.com and voilà, I'm using the forums for +10 minutes now (tested both on Debug ON and Debug OFF) and CPU usage is what I expect it (<1 when idle). What I also noticed was, that I have 0 ads on the whole forum. And with that I mean really NOT ONE SINGLE AD at all. And this is all on debug off mode, as I kept it OFF for my last couple test runs.
Just to make sure, I disabled the rule to deny traffic to adthrive.com and restarted my test as listed above (quit safari,...) --> the issue arises from the ashes once again.
So for NOW and for ME I can say that denying connections to adthrive.com solved this problem (and it got me rid of all the ads. On a side note, for the last test run, I even uninstalled the AdBlocker - just to 100% rule out that AdBlocker is doing anything even though it was deactivated. Safari lists no extensions now.)
I hope this can help you. I do not know anything about how ads are served, so this might be only valid for me for now for where I am (home).
Macrumors continues to be the culprit in using excess system resources. My iPhone always gets very hot while on the site and yesterday I confirmed the same on my Mac. Macrumors was using 30%+ of cpu power, which is ridiculous. And this was WITH content blockers enabled, so it’s not the ads. They really need to fix this site.
Here's where things stand. Summary of where we are and what can be done:
There have been reports of excessive battery usage, primarily on iOS devices, which is what started this thread. I believe we have fixed that one specific issue, as complaints have dropped off considerably since we've made a change. There remains potentially different issues that affect Macs and iOS devices at less frequency.
1. If Ad blocking or Contributor status fixes the issue. You're done.
Ads can intermittently cause high battery drain and it's possible that a stray ad can cause this in particular. Due to the nature of ads (they change on every page load), this is difficult to track down. Our ad network is aware and is working on improving this aspect, but it may take some time. Simply stick with ad blocking or contributor status.
2. If ad blocking or contributor status do not fix the issue, then it's possible that some of our 3rd party Javascript could still be causing the issue.
If you turn on Debug Mode in the forums, it will turn off all of our 3rd party javascript form forum indexes and threads.
- If you browse around and Debug Mode does fix it consistently, then you can post here with your results and I can slowly re-enable elements to isolate what is causing the problem.
- If you browse around and Debug mode does NOT fix it, this is a bit more challenging and potentially unfixable, as what remains is stock Xenforo.
arn
There have been reports of excessive battery usage, primarily on iOS devices, which is what started this thread. I believe we have fixed that one specific issue, as complaints have dropped off considerably since we've made a change. There remains potentially different issues that affect Macs and iOS devices at less frequency.
Here's what you can do if it is still affecting you.
1. If Ad blocking or Contributor status fixes the issue. You're done.
Ads can intermittently cause high battery drain and it's possible that a stray ad can cause this in particular. Due to the nature of ads (they change on every page load), this is difficult to track down. Our ad network is aware and is working on improving this aspect, but it may take some time. Simply stick with ad blocking or contributor status.
2. If ad blocking or contributor status do not fix the issue, then it's possible that some of our 3rd party Javascript could still be causing the issue.
If you turn on Debug Mode in the forums, it will turn off all of our 3rd party javascript form forum indexes and threads.
- If you browse around and Debug Mode does fix it consistently, then you can post here with your results and I can slowly re-enable elements to isolate what is causing the problem.
- If you browse around and Debug mode does NOT fix it, this is a bit more challenging and potentially unfixable, as what remains is stock Xenforo.
arn
It is interesting that we see such different results. For me the AdBlocker worked like a charm, but - as much as I hate ads - many sites I like depend on it, so I don't really like using it. As stated above, for me blocking a specific domain resolved the issue for now.
I hope you can get this fixed too, because MR is otherwise awesome.
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