I've noticed a curious behavior in Firefox that can become annoying under the right circumstances. It sometimes, but not always, reloads a website that I have in a tab (I always use tabs) if I merely click into the tab without trying to reload. I'm sure it didn't always do that.

Ordinarily it's inconsequential and just odd; but what if the tab is an unsaved e-mail draft or other activity that would be disrupted by an unintended reload? And a few days ago, I had my laptop on a bus, reading a website that I had loaded before leaving the house. This would have worked if the browser had just left the page alone, but when I clicked into that tab, it reloaded unexpectedly; and with there of course being no internet on the bus, this disrupted whatever I was on by replacing it with an error screen. I can't remember whether I tried to go back to the previous screen--either I forgot to try, or it wouldn't load either. I think the unexpected disruption distracted me from really thinking about it. But even if I could have backed up, why does Firefox do this in the first place? and can I make it stop?

I have Firefox 22. (Actually Iceweasel, but I'm given to understand that there's no difference whatsoever except branding. It was only a second ago that I even remembered I technically don't have "Firefox.")

Preferences > Tabs > Uncheck "Don't load tabs until selected". This means when you first start your browser all tabs will load which will slow your start-up time. The reload usually occurs when the firefox process is stopped and then restarted. This usually means when you close the browser though I imagine putting the laptop to sleep will have the same effect.

If you're a power user with dozens (even hundreds) of tabs open then I highly recommend leaving this setting alone as it significantly increases performance during start up.

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