When you open your web browser, you discover with astonishment that your homepage has been replaced by a blank page with the mention about:blank in the address bar. You are probably wondering what this is all about? Is it a virus, a bug or a configuration error? Prodigemobile answers all your questions and explains how to fix this annoying problem.
What does the about:blank message mean?
The term about:blank may seem strange and arouse suspicion. Many users think it is a virus or malware that has infected their smartphone or computer. Rest assured that this is rarely the case.
The page with the label about:blank is a blank HTML page generated by the browser itself. It is an option offered by the developers of the application to open an empty tab without any website.
It works on all browsers on the market whether it is Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera or Safari on Apple devices. Some smartphone owners use the blank page as their homepage to speed up the loading of their browser and save bandwidth. So there is no need to worry.
As a reminder, the term About includes all the internal commands of the browser. There are several dozen of them. You can find the complete list of your browser’s commands by typing about:about in the URL field.
If you are used to surfing on Google Chrome, you have certainly noticed that the browser offers a hidden dinosaur game. The latter is displayed in the window when the internet connection is not working.
You should know that there is a trick to launch this game whenever you want. To do so, you just have to enter the code about:dino in the address bar. Once the dinosaur game is launched, you just have to click on the space bar to make the prehistoric animal jump over the obstacles.
Why the about:blank page appears on my phone screen
The blank page does not present any security risk for your device. However, it may be caused by a virus or a technical failure. Here are the reasons that can explain the opening of a blank tab on your browser.
- A URL link badly coded by the editor of a site (errors in the javascript or html code). The browser cannot open the requested web page, so it opts for the blank page
- A browser bug that causes an empty page to open unexpectedly
- When the browser detects an intrusion attempt from an infected site or malware, it will open an about:blank page as a security measure.
If you think your device is infected with a virus, it is recommended to install an antivirus and run a thorough scan of your storage space. These security applications are not infallible but they still offer good results.
If you are still concerned about this security issue, you should know that it is possible to perform a full reset of your phone and restore the original factory settings. Be careful, this operation will erase all your data. It is advisable to make a full backup of Android before launching a reset.
How to get rid of the blank tab
As we have just seen, the about blank page is not really a problem in itself. If it regularly appears on the screen of your smartphone in an untimely manner, you will just have to check if your phone is not infected by a virus.
If a blank page appears each time you launch your browser, you should know that there is a solution to change this behavior. Below is the procedure to remove a blank range
- Launch your Google Chrome for Android browser on your smartphone
- Press the Menu button (3 dots) in the upper right corner
- Select the Settings section
- Click on the Home Page option found in the Advanced Settings section
- Press the Home Page switch
- Choose one of the options provided: chrome’s home page or enter the URL of your favorite site
- Press the little arrow at the very top to go back
Don’t forget to close and then relaunch your browser to test your new configuration. The procedure is slightly different on the Desktop version of Chrome. Once the browser settings are open, you will need to go to the Startup section and select the option of your choice.
Change the startup page on Firefox
The about blank feature is available on all browsers on the market including Firefox. In this section, we will see how to change the homepage of the little red panda.
- Open Mozilla Firefox
- Click on the Menu button (3 lines on top of each other)
- Press the Settings option
- Click on the Home tab in the left column
- Select one of the two choices in the drop-down window: firefox homepage or custom web addresses
If you are still concerned about blank page issues, feel free to let us know by posting a message in the comments below. The members of Prodigemobile will be happy to answer them.