Lighthouse: Running lighthouse (Chrome Audit) switches into mobile emulation automatically
Running either via the Chrome Dev Tools or the Chrome Extension causes the browser to render in mobile device emulation mode. This causes the site being tested to run as mobile and impacts the collected metrics. This is intermittent, occasionally I can make the audit run and render the site with a desktop user agent. I can reproduce this with multiple public sites such as https://www.royalcaribbean.com and https://www.carnival.com
The device being emulated always shows as Nexus 5X.
danielrolfe
All 19 comments
UPDATE: Functionality to run as mobile or desktop was added in early 2018. This comment is out-of-date. Simply use the "Desktop" radio button. It was temporarily broken in Chrome v71 (December 2018 - January 2019).
@danielrolfe this is intentional behavior and should happen every time. Lighthouse should always load your site with mobile emulation on in the extension and in DevTools. If you can render the site with a desktop user agent, repro steps would be much appreciated as this is a bug :)
You can follow the progress of making mobile emulation an option in #2838 or run from the CLI as mentioned in that thread.
patrickhulce
on 30 Aug 2017
@patrickhulce Thank you, I assumed it would be the case as the problem was too obvious. However, I've haven't seen in the documentation, at least high level documentation that Lighthouse is a Mobile audit tool. So I must admit, I am somewhat confused by this and why Google would choose this as their primary Audit tool in Chrome? Any links with discussion or background on this would be appreciated, I previously searched for this information but to no avail.
danielrolfe
on 30 Aug 2017
I'd also love to test my desktop version of web page using the Lighthouse auditing mechanisms - is this possible? I wasn't able to Google any info on that.
jalooc
on 12 Feb 2018
echo what jalooc mentioned, is there a way to run desktop site? We have 2 different versions for desktop and mobile, with mobile view being the default one there's no way for us to run the audit for our desktop site. Previously it was possible by installing the ADT chrome extension, but now the audit entry has been claimed by lighthouse. Seems the only option we have is downgrade our Chrome?
buy
on 22 Feb 2018
@jalooc @buy Honesty, I'm puzzled by why Google chose this tool. Desktop traffic is still pretty significant! Confused.
danielrolfe
on 22 Feb 2018
Also after the audit the device mode is in a weird state - the page is still showing in mobile mode but the DevTools device mode icon is not highlighted. You have to turn on the device mode and then turn it off again for the page to revert back to desktop mode.
mdr1384
on 7 Mar 2018
I too am super confused by this behavior. Why is desktop auditing specifically excluded? Seems like an anti-feature.
banksean
on 28 Mar 2018
FYI @banksean and others, the toggle for desktop/mobile landed in Chrome ~4 weeks ago and as always has been available on the CLI, use Chrome Canary or the CLI if you want this functionality today.
patrickhulce
on 28 Mar 2018
@patrickhulce I attended a talk at CSUN where they demoed the emulation mode for desktop, but I'm struggling to figure out how/where to select desktop as device mode. Can you share over a screenshot of where you can override the mobile mode?
aetcoff
on 5 Apr 2018
patrickhulce
on 5 Apr 2018
It looks like I don't have those same options and as far as I know, I'm at the latest version.
aetcoff
on 5 Apr 2018
@aetcoff you're probably using Chrome stable, features take ~6-12 weeks to make their way through all the channels. Use Canary if you want the latest features.
patrickhulce
on 5 Apr 2018
Got it! Thank you so much. :)
aetcoff
on 5 Apr 2018
TL;DR:
npm install -g lighthouse
lighthouse --disable-device-emulation --disable-network-throttling --view
banksean
on 5 Apr 2018
I also have both a mobile and a desktop site. On my Chrome (71.0...) - although there is an option for desktop (see snip) - it always runs as mobile. i.e. selecting desktop still runs as mobile
ognik777
on 20 Jan 2019
Had the same issue as ognik777 (lighthouse always running on mobile), tried running on Canary and mobile and desktop options worked fine.
IPbianco
on 28 Jan 2019
This is true for both the Chrome extension and the Audit panel in devtools.
Malvoz
on 28 Jan 2019
Fixed in Chrome 72 (see #6772), which releases tomorrow.
connorjclark
on 28 Jan 2019
Fixed in Chrome 72 (see #6772), which releases tomorrow.
It got Fixed as you mentioned in Chrome 72 (stable).
Thanks!
david007co
on 1 Feb 2019
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Most helpful comment
@patrickhulce Thank you, I assumed it would be the case as the problem was too obvious. However, I've haven't seen in the documentation, at least high level documentation that Lighthouse is a Mobile audit tool. So I must admit, I am somewhat confused by this and why Google would choose this as their primary Audit tool in Chrome? Any links with discussion or background on this would be appreciated, I previously searched for this information but to no avail.