Some webmasters or bloggers like to have their web pages refresh or reload automatically after a period of time, either to increase the page views, or to increase the ads revenue that based on CPM model. The web pages can ask a web browser such as Firefox to automatically refresh a page after a given timeout by including the HTML element <meta http-equiv=”refresh”>, or instruct web servers to send a Refresh: HTTP header.

The automatically refresh web pages feature can be annoying and irritating, can be disorienting due to sudden replacement of content, and probably a waste of bandwidth although some frequently and constantly updated content does deserve to be able to refresh automatically. If you’re not the one who in favor of web pages automatic refresh, it’s possible to disable, block and prevent web pages from auto refreshing in Firefox.

How to Stop and Block Web Pages from Auto Refresh or Reload in Firefox

In Firefox, go to Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> General -> Accessibility section, and then tick the check box labeled as Warn me when web sites try to redirect or reload the page.

Checking the option is equivalent to setting accessibility.blockautorefresh preference setting in about:config to True.

Block Automatic Page Refresh in Firefox

When the Block Auto Refresh option is enabled (set to True), automatic page refreshing request is blocked and ignored, instead, Firefox will displaying a message indicating the refresh and allowing the user to manually refresh the page.

To re-enable automatic page refresh, just untick and unselect the check box for Warn me when web sites try to redirect or reload the page option, or set accessibility.blockautorefresh preference setting in about:config to False.