MacRumors Site/Forums Causing Battery Drain?

[tennisproha]

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.

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

Thanks for the reply.

I have an ad block enabled and no ads are visible.

When I initially navigated here on iOS, through comment notifications, it was fine. But as soon as I navigated to your Debug Mode post crosslink, it immediately started getting warm (to be clear, I just visited the thread, without actually clicking the Debug Mode link). I’ve navigated back to the this page, reloaded the page, and as I type this comment, it continues to get burning hot.

Seems to specifically be a forum issue, not ad related; and I’ve never noticed this on the main site…

What are the Fluid/Fluid HD links at the bottom of the page?

 

[arn]

Thanks for the reply.

I have an ad block enabled and no ads are visible.

When I initially navigated here on iOS, through comment notifications, it was fine. But as soon as I navigated to your Debug Mode post crosslink, it immediately started getting warm (to be clear, I just visited the thread, without actually clicking the Debug Mode link). I’ve navigated back to the this page, reloaded the page, and as I type this comment, it continues to get burning hot.

Seems to specifically be a forum issue, not ad related; and I’ve never noticed this on the main site…

What are the Fluid/Fluid HD links at the bottom of the page?

Fluid is for desktop and let’s the page go really wide.

Can you try in debug mode and see if it helps?

 

[leman]

I have the same issue and frankly, I am seriously considering dropping MR altogether. It does not make any sense that an MR forum tab spins up 100% of a CPU core. I have tried the solutions proposed to no effect:

- ad blocker does not do anything
- debug mode prevents any CSS from being loaded on my machine which makes the website unsuitable

 

[arn]

I have the same issue and frankly, I am seriously considering dropping MR altogether. It does not make any sense that an MR forum tab spins up 100% of a CPU core. I have tried the solutions proposed to no effect:

- ad blocker does not do anything
- debug mode prevents any CSS from being loaded on my machine which makes the website unsuitable

For #2 you need to select a Dark or Light theme from the bottom style selector. Auto won’t work in debug mode

 

[leman]

For #2 you need to select a Dark or Light theme from the bottom style selector. Auto won’t work in debug mode

Thanks, that fixed my problem with #2, but the CPU usage is still 100%.

 

[PhillyGuy72]

I visit MacRumors on desktop 99.999% of the time, using AdBlock so I don't see the bogged down ads thankfully. I actually never knew it was THAT bad until I did go on this site using my phone, whew...no. I can understand why the battery takes a hit and I understand the site needs some ad revenue, but sorry, that's a bit insane.

I never paid attention to how many get blocked on any page - my little icon "stop sign icon" counts up...and up.

Homepage of MR - 108 blocked
Forums / MR - Another 40

 

[yitwail]

Is it possible that Macrumors forum can cause all the reported OS Monterey issues like memory leak and erratic tap to click? After all, a great many of those experiencing these problems happen to post in MR forum. ?

 

[arn]

Thanks, that fixed my problem with #2, but the CPU usage is still 100%.

Is this on desktop?

If possible can you post a screenshot of what is causing the cpu load?

If you are on desktop you can skip the steps about connecting to your iPhone and just go to the Develop menu and choose Show Page Resources. Do this when you are experiencing the issue.

MacRumors Site/Forums Causing Battery Drain?

How savvy are you with Safari and Developer tools? If someone who this happens to consistently can follow this procedure: 0. Make sure ad-blocking is on, as that is harder to measure with consistency and we are trying to pinpoint MacRumors code issues here. 1. iOS Settings -> Safari ->Advanced...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[arn]

You may have to check off "Stop recording once page loads" so the recording continues for more time.

This is how it looks on my Mac. No ads. Normal mode (not debug). While viewing this thread.

 

[leman]

It's pretty much like this any time I open any page on MR forums.

 

[GrumpyCoder]

This started to be a problem again for me today, I assumed it was MRs response to the new M1 Max ?

 

[arn]

View attachment 1905955

It's pretty much like this any time I open any page on MR forums.

Are you in debug mode? What device? Ads blocked?

It’s weird there are no network requests. Can you include the full window in your screenshot?

 

[arn]

This started to be a problem again for me today, I assumed it was MRs response to the new M1 Max ?

If you’d like assitance please follow the directions I’ve posted above.

Several people have posted but very few have posted the necessarily next steps for me to look into it further.

 

[arn]

Instructions

MacRumors Site/Forums Causing Battery Drain?

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...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[leman]

Are you in debug mode? What device? Ads blocked?

Debug mode on, ads blocked, MacBook Pro 16" 2019, Monterey 12.1 Beta (21C5021h). Tried with both Safari and Safari Tech Preview, no difference.

It’s weird there are no network requests. Can you include the full window in your screenshot?

Is this fine? It's all on the main thread btw.

P.S. Disabling JavaScript makes the high CPU usage go away.

 

[arn]

Debug mode on, ads blocked, MacBook Pro 16" 2019, Monterey 12.1 Beta (21C5021h). Tried with both Safari and Safari Tech Preview, no difference.




View attachment 1905966
Is this fine? It's all on the main thread btw.

It’s still weird looking. Can you go into Safari preferences. Turn off JavaScript entirely and reload the page and see if it fixes it.

 

[leman]

It’s still weird looking. Can you go into Safari preferences. Turn off JavaScript entirely and reload the page and see if it fixes it.

Yeah, just did it, disabling JavaScript and restarting Safari fixes it.

 

[arn]

Yeah, just did it, disabling JavaScript and restarting Safari fixes it.

I've made another change to make the DEBUG mode more obvious.

Can you post another timeline with it not happening? I'm still not quite why your timeline doesn't have any other activity.

Just to confirm:

Debug mode/ Ads Off: Still happens
Javascript Off: doesn't happen?

arn

 

[arn]

Let me see if I can further strip things down in debug mode.

 

[arn]

Ok. @leman

Right now. Debug mode strips down the page even further. Some things might break because of it, but at least you should be able to see if it is still happening on this thread view.

thanks
arn

 

[arn]

And you'll know you are in debug mode because the page title will be prefixed with DEBUG:

 

[NBKindaGirl]

Tried out the debug link, iPhone started getting hot still as usual. Then I tried turning off JavaScript as well, and now my iPhone feels just barely warm.

 

[arn]

Tried out the debug link, iPhone started getting hot still as usual. Then I tried turning off JavaScript as well, and now my iPhone feels just barely warm.

Yeah... definitely Javascript related, but I have a theory now.

I've modified the Debug code once more. If someone is seeing it and can look at

Safari -> Develop -> Show Javascript Console

While in debug mode. If you look at that after you load the page.

1. If it's happening (CPU 100%)
2. I'd be curious to see if "Debug Triggered" appears more than once.

 

[vddobrev]

I can clearly reproduce this when I sign-out (become anonymous from contributor) - my CPU usage goes nuts, this is on MacPro 2013 6-core in Safari on Monterey.

 

[arn]

I can clearly reproduce this when I sign-out (become anonymous from contributor) - my CPU usage goes nuts, this is on MacPro 2013 6-core in Safari on Monterey.

View attachment 1906045

Could you check Safari -> Develop-> console in debug mode when it happens?

thanks