Save our cheap entry-level SSDs or old HDD from destruction by by spacing out the intervals of session store !

[trimechee]

Hi, I read scary articles about testing that chrome and firefox could consume up to 30GB of data per day even while remaining inactive because of the session store which saves data every second or tenth of a second even if the web browser is inactive!

even if firefox and maybe chrome have taken measures to reduce the data consumed by the session store, for example the session store saves less data on the hard drive if the browser remains inactive for a while (I saw that myself in the firefox flags), session store remains the danger for our cheap ssd or old hdd, I completely deactivated session store in firefox and I had no problem, session store is possibly used when we write an email and the computer stops abruptly, it is used to save this unsaved email but for me if I use the browser just to watch streaming videos session store is not useful, and even the email I can write it in word and copy paste it into an email message so session store is dangerous and not important for me and surely for millions of people and wastes ecological resources, in any case if we can use a specific browser just to watch streaming videos by disabling session store,

to avoid any possible problem, in firefox, I left session store active but I increased the session store backup interval to preserve my old hdd and I haven't had any bug problems for years:

about:config
browser.sessionstore.interval 2147483647

but in chromium, it's a nightmare, I tried everything, nothing worked to disable session store or space the session store backup intervals:

use incognito mode
edge://flags/
Storage Access API
Web Storage API

--incognito
--disable-session-storage command-line
--disable-local-storage

--disable-restore-session-state
--kiosk --incognito some.web.site
--hide-crash-restore-bubble
--disable-session-crashed-bubble
--noerrdialogs --disable-infobars --disable-session-crashed-bubble --no-first-run --no-default-browser-check --disable-restore-session-state

we hope Supermium can add an option to increase the session store backup intervals so that session store consumes less data or disable completely session store , I already talked about this problem a long time ago to Mr Alex @Alex313031 and we hope Mr Shane and Mr Alex will find a solution to this major problem of session store, thank you!

---

UPDATE !!!!!!!

GREAT NEWS !!!!

Mr bbt-dev suggest this solution and it seems Thorium browser has succeded to implement this feature recently ! :

he said : "In brief, the solution could be rather simple: allow to easily change the path to cache folder.
If Thorium will write the cache to the dedicated disk - this will prevent consuming SSD writing resource. And this allow to easily exclude from backups the browser cache, but keep user profile, plugins etc."

Alex313031/thorium#860

-There are 2 problems with chromium (and also firefox) caching temporary files to the disk:

Described in the opened "Alex313031/thorium#61" issue
During regular backups to external disk the huge cache backups also just because it is situated in user profile folder (and during bulk directories backup it is not convenient to introduce excluding paths).
The solution could be rather simple: allow to easily change the path to cache folder.
If Thorium will write the cache to the dedicated disk - this will prevent consuming SSD writing resource, and could easily exclude cache from backups.
The optimal way would be to store cache to a separate second quite medium-performance physical disk, thus the main SSD resource will not be consumed by writing and then deleting the huge amount of cache during browsing. Less favorable solution would be to dedicate a logical disk on the main SSD to write cache, so the same sectors will be consumed but not on the main "C" disk.

I found an article describing how to change the Chrome cache location either by adding '--disk-cache-dir="F:\chrome"' to the browser icon properties or by using "mklink/D" for setting the redirection at the Windows level (thus mklink/D "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache" "E:\ChromeDownload\Cache" will redirect all files that would be saved in cache folder to the folder at E: drive).
But I am not sure whether these solutions are good and whether they will work for Thorium in the future versions.

So, the best way would be just to have a setting in the Thorium menu that can easily change the folder with cache. The solution would be quite easy to implement."

• @ bbt-dev I could add a flag with a little text box where you can type or copy/paste a path to specify for the cache folder.

UPDATE: Added this and some other to the TODO.md for next releaes > Alex313031/thorium@24dcb9f

Alex313031/thorium@24dcb9f

[Zero3K]

I don't see what you are writing about in the default profile of the Supermium that is on my laptop.

[billi857]

There is no need to worry about wear and tear of the old HDD at all. If he lived this long, then you can rely on him.
The problem described is not a problem specifically with Supermium and certainly not critical.

Saving resources is achieved by appropriate browser settings, any browser. Everyone has a choice: to use these settings or not.

[tmcdos]

@trimechee I am using RAM-disk (Arsenal driver) for probably a decade already - and Chromium is pointed to store its user profile (data folder) at the RAM-disk. RAM-disk is preloaded with an empty Chromium data folder on each boot. Chromium starts faster and does not wear out my SSD!

[trimechee]

Yes, and we hope also to have opportunity to increase disk cache to verify if this enhance performance and speed, because actually i can't increase cache to 1Gb or 2GB

[trimechee]

UPDATE !!!!!!!
GREAT NEWS !

Mr @win32ss ,

Mr bbt-dev suggest this solution and it seems Thorium browser has succeded to implement this feature recently ! :

he said : "In brief, the solution could be rather simple: allow to easily change the path to cache folder.
If Thorium will write the cache to the dedicated disk - this will prevent consuming SSD writing resource. And this allow to easily exclude from backups the browser cache, but keep user profile, plugins etc."

Alex313031/thorium#860

-There are 2 problems with chromium (and also firefox) caching temporary files to the disk:

Described in the opened "Alex313031/thorium#61" issue
During regular backups to external disk the huge cache backups also just because it is situated in user profile folder (and during bulk directories backup it is not convenient to introduce excluding paths).
The solution could be rather simple: allow to easily change the path to cache folder.
If Thorium will write the cache to the dedicated disk - this will prevent consuming SSD writing resource, and could easily exclude cache from backups.
The optimal way would be to store cache to a separate second quite medium-performance physical disk, thus the main SSD resource will not be consumed by writing and then deleting the huge amount of cache during browsing. Less favorable solution would be to dedicate a logical disk on the main SSD to write cache, so the same sectors will be consumed but not on the main "C" disk.

I found an article describing how to change the Chrome cache location either by adding '--disk-cache-dir="F:\chrome"' to the browser icon properties or by using "mklink/D" for setting the redirection at the Windows level (thus mklink/D "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache" "E:\ChromeDownload\Cache" will redirect all files that would be saved in cache folder to the folder at E: drive).
But I am not sure whether these solutions are good and whether they will work for Thorium in the future versions.

So, the best way would be just to have a setting in the Thorium menu that can easily change the folder with cache. The solution would be quite easy to implement."

• @ bbt-dev I could add a flag with a little text box where you can type or copy/paste a path to specify for the cache folder.

UPDATE: Added this and some other to the TODO.md for next releaes > Alex313031/thorium@24dcb9f

Alex313031/thorium@24dcb9f

[tmcdos]

I simply mklink the whole C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\ to my RAM-disk. The RAM-disk is preloaded with my settings and browser extensions but everything else is completely volatile. I am using this setup for more than 7 years - exactly to avoid wearing-out my SSD!

[trimechee]

Interesting !!! Thank you so much Mr @tmcdos for your important advise :) 💯 🥇

[tmcdos]

I am preserving just a couple of files, the extensions folder (with all extensions), the IndexedDB folder (to preserve some settings for Skype) and Local extension settings for the settings of one of the extensions (custom CSS overrider for websites)

[trimechee]

Instructive, thanks ! 👍 💯

the good news is after suggestion of @mr bbt-dev, it seems Thorium browser had made te feat and succeded to implement this feature recently !

maybe Supermium can do the same in the future, we hope so and the use will have the choice to enable ou disable this feature....