Google Chrome on Mac OS keeps shutting itself

March 1, 2013 5:28 AM

Chrome on Lion 10.7.5 keeps closing while I'm in the midst of browsing, and it's driving me nuts. And it doesn't seem to think there's a problem with that.

I'm having problems with Google Chrome running on Lion 10.7.5, where it suddenly closes itself while I'm in the middle of browsing. No warnings saying it's closing, not even warning me even though I checked off Warn Before Quitting, and no errors showing up after it closes. It just up and quits.

It usually happens when I'm opening a new tab, or maybe even when I'm using Cmd-Tab to shift between applications. It just closes abruptly, and that's it. When I open Chrome back up, it doesn't ask to restore anything, so I'm assuming it thinks it was a normal quit operation. I do see it maintains pinned tabs, so nothing seems out of the ordinary.

And from checking Chrome, this is the most updated version they have out, version 25.0.1364.99. I didn't have problems with it closing before, but don't know whether this problem came with this recent version.

I went to Google's product forums to see if they've done anything about that yet, but the only thing I see are some other users on Mac saying that it is happening to them, with no resolution yet.

Just wanted to check if any of you guys have any tips on what else I can check inside of Chrome or maybe even OSX that can tell me what the hell is happening, because it's gotten pretty annoying to just keep opening and closing the damn thing.

posted by FarOutFreak to computers & internet (9 answers total)

This happened to me several times yesterday on Chrome/10.8.2 when I would type anything in the address bar. Since rebooting twice I haven't been able to get it to repeat, though.
posted by Burhanistan at 5:35 AM on March 1

I have the same problem on lion, when typing in the address bar at random times - it goes away for a bit if I reset chrome but don,t know what causes it. very annoying and has almost driven me back to safari. One interesting thing, one when I had a download running Chrome did not close but came up with the "confirm quitwhile download running" box in the same circumstancet. Which makes me thinkit is more complex than a crash (as well because chrome does not seem to think it crashed)
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 6:08 AM on March 1

I have the same thing with Safari in Mtn Lion, which makes me wonder if its an OSX bug rather than a browser bug. I generally just restart my laptop when that happens and it doesn't happen for a few more days. It's pretty much the only time I shut down the laptop instead of just going into sleep mode, so if you have a similar habit try that.
posted by DoubleLune at 6:26 AM on March 1

This seems to be happening for a lot of people right now - seen it pop up on Twitter over the past week (and doing a twitter search shows plenty more). Chrome Canary (development branch) is a fair bit more stable.
posted by backwards guitar at 6:32 AM on March 1

You might check the system log and the "diagnostic and usage messages" in the Console app (under Applications/Utilities) to see if there are any suspicious looking error messages after Chrome crashes.

This won't solve the problem, but may at least give you the satisfying feeling of knowing whose fault it was (as well as help you submit a useful bug report to the developers, if you're so inclined.)
posted by ook at 8:04 AM on March 1

This is a known issue they're working on. For most people this fixes it:

Go to Chrome Settings (you know, under that little 3-bar menu near the top-right of the browser), then type "predict" into the search box (which is to the right of the word "Settings"). You will see a setting appear that says "Predict network actions to improve page load performance" -- UNCHECK that box.

The problem will be solved.
posted by shivohum at 8:13 AM on March 1 [4 favorites]

I've been having this problem too! I am so relieved to have found this question.
posted by Andrhia at 11:27 AM on March 1

Just to close this up - chrome got an update today to version .152 that fixes this bug.
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 4:47 AM on March 2

Yikes. Got the version up to .152 and put back the 'Predict network actions...' option. And I just got hit by Chrome closing again. So that's not fixed yet, but the workaround is still fine.
posted by FarOutFreak at 5:59 PM on March 2