Scheduled Tab Reloader

Browser extension for Firefox

Reload a tab every two minutes for two hours.

Pick the tabs, set how often they reload and for how long, and press Start. The schedule counts down in the toolbar popup and stops on its own when the time is up.

Version 1.0.2 Get it from Firefox Add-ons
Try it: a working copy of the popup Sample tabs

Tabs to reload

    Active schedules

      Nothing scheduled.

      The sample tabs are not real pages. In Firefox the extension reloads the tabs you tick in the current window.

      Three choices, then it runs by itself

      Everything happens in the toolbar popup. There is no settings page and nothing to configure first.

      1. Pick the tabs

        The popup lists the tabs in the current window with the one you are on already ticked. Tick more, or choose all of them.

      2. Set the interval and the duration

        Reload every so many seconds, minutes or hours, for a number of minutes, hours or days, or until you stop it. The popup tells you how many reloads that is and when it will end.

      3. Let it stop on its own

        Each schedule shows its next reload and how many are left. It ends when the count is reached, when every tab in it is closed, or when you press Stop.

      The toolbar badge shows how many schedules are running. Schedules end when Firefox closes, because tab ids do not survive a restart.

      What a schedule can do

      A schedule is a set of tabs, an interval, and an end: a reload count or "until stopped".

      Several tabs at once
      One schedule can reload any number of tabs on the same interval. Start another for a different interval.
      From 10 seconds to hours
      The interval can be any number of seconds, minutes or hours, with a minimum of 10 seconds.
      Timed, or until stopped
      "Every 2 minutes for 2 hours" means exactly 60 reloads, counted rather than clocked, so small timer drift does not add or drop one.
      Hard reload
      Tick Bypass cache to fetch the page fresh from the server on every reload.
      One schedule per tab
      Starting a new schedule that includes a scheduled tab moves that tab to the new one. A tab is never reloaded twice per tick.
      Closed tabs drop out
      Closing a tab removes it from its schedule. When the last tab in a schedule is closed, the schedule ends.
      Sleep-safe
      If the computer sleeps, the missed reloads are not replayed in a burst, and a timed schedule does not run on long past the time you chose.
      Remembers the last settings
      The interval, duration and cache choice you used last time are filled in the next time you open the popup.
      Light and dark
      The popup follows the Firefox theme.

      What it touches, and what it leaves alone

      Scheduled Tab Reloader reloads tabs and nothing else. It cannot see the pages it reloads, and it sends nothing anywhere.

      Does

      • Read tab titles and addresses, to show them in the picker
      • Reload the tabs you tick, on the interval you set
      • Keep active schedules in Firefox session storage, and your last-used settings in local storage

      Does not

      • Read or change the content of any web page: it asks for no site access and injects no scripts
      • Make network requests of its own, load remote code, or require an account
      • Collect, store or send any data about you: no analytics, telemetry or tracking
      • Keep anything after Firefox closes, apart from the form values you used last
      Browser permissions Scheduled Tab Reloader asks for
      Permission When Why
      tabs At install Lists tab titles in the picker and reloads only the tabs you select.
      alarms At install Schedules each reload without keeping a background timer running.
      storage At install Keeps active schedules for the session and the last-used form values on this device.
      Site access Never Not requested. The extension cannot read or modify the pages you visit.

      The listing on Firefox Add-ons declares that no data is collected. The full text is in the project's PRIVACY.md.

      Install

      Requires Firefox 140 or later on desktop.

      From Firefox Add-ons

      The signed, reviewed build. Updates arrive through Firefox like any other extension.

      Add to Firefox

      From source, for a look at the code

      The repository is plain JavaScript with no build step. Open about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox, choose Load Temporary Add-on, and pick extension/manifest.json. To run the tests and the Mozilla linter: 

      npm install
npm test
npm run lint