Extra page before a chapter

Question

I am having a wee problem - I'm getting a numbered (with arabic 1) page after list of Tables before Chapter Introduction. No matter if I use oneside or openany book class. What's happening here?

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt,oneside]{book}

\usepackage{amsbsy}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{multirow}
\usepackage{mathrsfs}
\usepackage{color}
\usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage{cite}
\usepackage[numbers,sort&compress]{natbib}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage{epsfig}
\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage{subcaption}
\usepackage{indentfirst}
\usepackage[strict]{changepage}
%\usepackage{matlab-prettifier}
\usepackage{listings}
\usepackage{color} %red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, magenta, black, white
\definecolor{mygreen}{RGB}{28,172,0} % color values Red, Green, Blue
\definecolor{mylilas}{RGB}{170,55,241}
% Page Margins - Strath Requirement
\usepackage[left=4cm,right=2.5cm,top=2cm,bottom=4cm,includehead,includefoot,headheight=15pt]{geometry}
\newcommand{\specialcell}[2][c]{%
    \begin{tabular}[#1]{@{}c@{}}#2\end{tabular}}
% Page Headers
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\fancyhf{}
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt} % optional
%\fancyhead[L]{\nouppercase{\leftmark} \hfill Section \nouppercase{\rightmark}}
\fancyhead[L]{\nouppercase{\leftmark}}
\cfoot{\thepage}
\pagestyle{fancy}

% Draft Watermark
%\usepackage[draft=true,allpages=true,fontfamily=cmr,angle=90,scale=0.1,mark={\fboxsep=35pt\fboxrule=0pt\relax\fbox{-- DRAFT -- \today~--}},xcoord=-80,ycoord=-20]{draftmark}


% Line Spacing
%\def\baselinestretch{1.5} 
\usepackage{setspace}
\setstretch{1.5}
\setcounter{tocdepth}{3}

% Place uni Logo on Title Page (this package modifies the "\maketitel" command.)
\usepackage{titling}
\pretitle{%
    \begin{flushright}
        \vspace{-9.5cm}
        %\includegraphics[width=5cm,natwidth=472,natheight=531]{logo} \\[7cm]
        \includegraphics[width=5cm]{logo} \\[6cm]
    \end{flushright}
    \begin{center}
        \LARGE
    }
    \posttitle{\end{center}}

\title{Title \\ PhD Thesis}
\author{Name
    \\ \small Institute of Photonics\\[-0.8ex]
    \small Physics\\[-0.8ex]
    \small Uni\\
}


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{document}

    \maketitle


    %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
    \frontmatter
    %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%


    \chapter{Abstract}
    \input{abstract.tex}

    \chapter{Preface/Acknowledgements}
    I would like to acknowledge... 

    \tableofcontents

    \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{List of Figures}
    \listoffigures

    \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{List of Tables}
    \listoftables

\mainmatter
\chapter{Introduction}
\input{1_Introduction.tex}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Bibliography}
\bibliographystyle{ieeetr}
\bibliography{MyBibFile}

\end{document}

Answer 1

I ran the code you posted in your question; it did not reproduce the problem. Please post a minimum working example that reproduces the problem.

Answer 2

I suspect what is happening is you include lists of tables and figures after the TOC but don't yet have tables or figures. That was my case.

This (non) problem should fix itself. The same is true for wrong page numbers and other format issues due to the content not being there yet. Focus on content first.

That said, if your committee wants format correct from the start, like mine did, then use \clearpage or \newpage. Here is a snippet of my completed dissertation:

\frontmatter
\newpage                                      % hyperref
\pdfbookmark[0]{Table of contents}{toc}       % hyperref
\tableofcontents
\newpage                                      % hyperref
\pdfbookmark[0]{List of figures}{lof}         % hyperref
\listoffigures
\newpage                                      % hyperref
\pdfbookmark[0]{List of tables}{lot}          % hyperref
\listoftables

\include{ap.acks}
\include{ap.glos}

\mainmatter       % TOC entry command is in ch.intr
\pagestyle{headings}
\include{ch.intr} % introduction