Thursday, August 7, 2014

Request Desktop Sites on Your Mobile Device

Mobile sites are usually wonderful.  They are formatted for small screens and require less processing power for phones and tablets.  However, there are times when you may not want the mobile site.  The layout on a mobile website may be different from what you are used to, or not all features may be accessible from the mobile site.

Most websites used to include a link to access the desktop site on their mobile pages, allowing you to quickly switch back to the desktop site.  However, changes in web development practices have meant that many sites have gotten rid of these buttons.  This means that you will have to use other measures to get the desktop site instead of the mobile site.

Fortunately, most major mobile browsers now include an option to request the desktop site.  (The one exception is the Safari browser for iPhone and iPad.)  For Chrome, simply tap the menu button and the "Request Desktop Site" button appears on the main menu.

This will work for most sites, but some will still force you onto the mobile version.  In some cases, you can try editing the website's address.  Most mobile sites will start with an "m." or have a "/mobile" at the end.  Deleting this may take you to the desktop site, but the site may recheck your information, see you are on a mobile device, and redirect you back to the the mobile site.

If neither method works and there is no button on the site to request the desktop version, you are out of options unless you can develop another workaround.  For example, the mobile site for my employer does not contain a link to the database where we log in to check our payroll data.  To get around this, I went to the login page and copied that address into an email, and then opened the link and bookmarked it on my phone.

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