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I've observed formula-heavy pages such as this to cause Chrome on Android to stop responding. A dialog pops up stating that “Chrome isn't responding”. If I choose to “Wait”, it will pop up again a number of times. Eventually all the rendering may be done and the dialog will stay away, but I've also encountered pages (not the one above, don't recall which one it was) where this problem persisted for longer than I was willing to retry.

  1. Am I the only one seeing this, or is this a general problem?
  2. Is there anything Math Stack Exchange can do about this? Any config setting to make it play nicer with Chrome on mobile?
  3. Do you have any form of monitoring in place to detect how often this affects users? Not sure how such a thing could be implemented, would be non-trivial.
  4. Is there any workarounds that can be recommended to read these pages without rendering the Math? Since the page is non-responsive, any interaction with MathJax UI elements likely won't work, so it would have to be a URL edit or some such.
  5. Should we as authors try to avoid using so much MathJax that this problem might get triggered? How can we tell if we are using desktop browsers?

This is Chrome 107.0.5304.91 on a Google Pixel 5.

Screenshot of Chrome not responding

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  • $\begingroup$ Did you mean to link to the Revisions page of that post? $\endgroup$
    – JonathanZ
    Nov 3, 2022 at 17:46
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    $\begingroup$ @JonathanZ yes I wanted to get a stable reference, so that if I truncate the post to avoid this problem, the description here remains valid. $\endgroup$
    – MvG
    Nov 3, 2022 at 19:00
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    $\begingroup$ Could you include the Chrome version in the description? Chrome has shipped MathML (the format MathJax uses to store math formulae) rendering since 105, and my tentative guess is that Chrome might be spending a lot of time rendering MathML natively before MathJax JavaScripts kick in. $\endgroup$
    – Ѕᴀᴀᴅ
    Nov 4, 2022 at 0:38
  • $\begingroup$ @Ѕᴀᴀᴅ included version in post. $\endgroup$
    – MvG
    Nov 4, 2022 at 0:46
  • $\begingroup$ You're not the only one seeing this. I have the same issue, perhaps it's even worse because I can't read my own posts as they are typically MathJax-heavy. $\endgroup$
    – Sarvesh Ravichandran Iyer
    Nov 4, 2022 at 2:19
  • $\begingroup$ One reason may be too many open tabs. Another maybe that you have typed some heavy mathjax post in the editor. Just opening your page in a single tab in chrome or firefox on android does not create such issue. $\endgroup$
    – Paramanand Singh Mod
    Nov 4, 2022 at 7:12
  • $\begingroup$ Seems fine to me on mobile android chrome, it loads fine and fast (maybe your using another version different from mine) $\endgroup$
    – DialFrost
    Nov 12, 2022 at 5:28
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    $\begingroup$ Several years ago there was a possibly related problem with MathJax preview pane being unable to keep up with formulas refreshed several times per second. Wonder whether the underlying cause is the same, meaning that the Greasemonkey scripts used at a time might help here?? I'm afraid I can't test this for I will NEVER try and use this site with a device less capable than a laptop (though undoubtedly some big players want to blur the distinction between a laptop and a mobile device). $\endgroup$
    – Jyrki Lahtonen
    Nov 15, 2022 at 5:09
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    $\begingroup$ I am having big trouble writing questions on Chrome on a laptop. The rendering is not only slow but wrong. MS Edge is working fine. $\endgroup$
    – JP McCarthy
    Nov 15, 2022 at 11:34
  • $\begingroup$ Try Safari. It seems to work perfectly $\endgroup$
    – 冥王 Hades
    Nov 23, 2022 at 11:56

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