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How to save Tab groups for later browsing

  • 24 replies
  • 655 have this problem
  • 10 views
  • Last reply by chuckbaldwin

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Can tab groups be saved so that when I launch Firefox next time all previous tabs will be there ?

Can tab groups be saved so that when I launch Firefox next time all previous tabs will be there ?

All Replies (20)

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See the 'when Firefox starts' section of Startup, home page, tabs, and download settings

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Open Firefox Preferences General Tab and When Firefox starts: Select "Show my windows and tabs from last time"

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Like the OP, I have the same problem and find the proposed solution lacking. With what's been described, tabbed groups is just a way to organize open tabs among open windows. If I close the Firefox window associated with the group, the group is lost. I need a way to save the group such that I can close the window (though, not necessarily closing Firefox) and have easy access to that group in the future. Add this, and I'll probably be switching back to FF from Chrome.

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Firefox just crashed on me and I lost the 4 tab groups that I'd currently been using. Being a Web developer, having the ability to create and save groups in Panorama would be a god-send. I routinely have tabs with in-development sites open, ones with references and resources, another with MySQLAdmin and other interfaces, etc. Having the multiple groups set-up and easily retrievable would be a definite advantage, especially in the case of a browser or system crash.

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Did you guys try saving the group? I added the tab groups button to my toolbar and then when you click on and see you group (s), on the top left there is a little pencil; write in a name to save it. At least that's how I set mine up and so far seems to be working! Another thing that may be related is how you've set up for startup; I have mine set to show my windows and tabs from last time...

I'm sure you've thought of this but just thought I'd share. Good luck!

Modified by lisamarieBC

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App tabs and Tab Groups (Panorama) are stored as part of the session data in the file sessionstore.js in the Firefox Profile Folder

Make sure that you do not use Delete browsing, search and download history on Firefox to clear the "Browsing History" if Firefox is closed.

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Identical to others, I do not want to reload all tab groups on restart; however, I strongly desire the ability to save tab groups (beyond just naming & resuming from previous session). My use case is simple. I reboot, switching from Ubuntu to Windows and back multiple times per day on my laptop. I work on multiple projects and would like to associate tab groups with each one. Then I would like to click a button/link, (perhaps in the Ctrl-Shift-E -- Tab Group View) to restore a specific tab group for a project without having to load the 28 other pages which are relevant to other projects... Essentially, I want to bookmark a tabgroup. I would be willing to contribute coding time to this feature, but am unsure as to where to start.

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Firefox can save a tab group for later opening!

  1. Go to Bookmarks
  2. Click "Bookmark All Tabs"
  3. Press the downward point triangle to navigate to a folder location
  4. Give it a nifty name

Later....

  1. Start a new Firefox session
  2. Navigate the Bookmarks menu to the folder you created
  3. Click on "Open All in Tabs"

The only shortcoming is that the resulting set of tabs is not named when navigating your open tab groups ( ). It would be cool if the group took the name of the Bookmarks folder created for them. This arrangement would have 100% of the functionality with the only caveat that one must think in terms of "bookmarks".

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This is a partial solution. But I have 5 different tab groups (or let's say 20 tab groups - I currently have over 150 tabs open, so I use tab groups A LOT).I have the sizes of each group specifically tailored, and their location on the screen specifically tailored. It's a terrible pain to go and individually save each tab group's tabs. And as you have pointed out, it doesn't save the tab group's name, nor it's size nor location. Is there any way to save all tabs from all tab groups and all their details into one backup file? If not, this would be a great addition.

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Here is a simple but not complete solution to this issue.

1.) Type "about:config" into your address bar (without the quotes) and hit enter; you should see a warning similar to the first attached image, click the "I'll be careful, I promise!" button

2.) Firefox's "about:config" interface should now be displayed simlar to the second attached image, listing a large number of internal browser preferences. Scroll down until you locate the "browser.showQuitWarning" preference (without the quotes)

3.) The default value of this preference is false. If the value is already true within this preference, then you can skip to step 4.), if not, double click it to make it true then close the "about:config" tab.

4.) Create your desired tabbed groups

5.) Attempt closing FireFox; you should be prompted if you want to save your session, click the "Save and Quit" button

6.) Restart FireFox; vuala, your tab groups were restored as well :)

Please let this be part of the big new features in the upcoming FireFox 5 :| This solution only works when it's the user themself that choose to close the browser, not guaranteed to work in cases were the browser crashes :(

Modified by MrElectrifyer

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Alternative approach to the problem:

If we could configure specific tabs so that they could not be deleted then the tab group couldn't be deleted.

Need to save view on exit/show tabs from last time on restart.

Might want to extend so that links to other sites from 'read-only' tabs open in a new (delete-able) tab. And then I discover extensions which Lock and Protect tabs, such as Tabloc. Sorted.

Modified by torquemada

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Certainly when I save my entire Firefox "session", it saves all my carefully constructed tab groups and the lovely "Group Your Tabs" layout. Restarting Firefox restores everything just the way it was - great.

Problem 1: Even if tabs aren't visible, the Flash and animations inside each of those tabs is still running, slowing down the whole machine for no visible purpose.

Problem 2: I want different sets of "Group Your Tabs" layouts for different things I'm doing. One isn't enough, no matter how big it is.

Problem 3: I need to be able to save the contents, position, name, and session history of a Tab Group, not just the individual tab URLs.

This means:

1) We need options to say "stop all CPU use when this [tab,tab group] isn't visible".

2) Of course tab groups should be able to contain other tab groups. I should be able to have a Tab Group that is a set of other Tab Groups rather than only having one Tab Group.

3) Tab Groups should have a right-click option to "Save" the group, its name, its session history, and its position in the "Group Your Tabs" view. Then I could Save and then Close the tab group, to stop it from wasting CPU. (Especially useful is the session history, so that re-opening a Tab Group and then using "Undo Close Tab" would work.)

I haven't found any way to do the above three things. The "Bookmark All Tabs" menu item isn't useful because it isn't aware of the Tab Group Name or its position in the "Group Your Tabs" layout. It also doesn't save the session history of the Tab Group, so I can't restore a group of tabs and then say "Undo Close Tab" (because it saves the individual tabs, not the Tab Group).

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I cannot understand why Panorama would be released with such a massive glitch.

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I use the Session Manager Add-on to save the current state of Firefox. It saves tab groups, individual windows, and can replace your current session or add to it when you load later. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/session-manager/

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You can use this add-on: Session Manager (Link)

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Session Manager!

Holy crap! I can't believe it! It looks like an actual reply to the problem. I can't be sure because I just installed it and now must restart, but had to chime in because these Q& A sites always kill me. lol I'm not sure half the people even read the OP.

The OP's request was simple: Can tab groups be saved so that when I launch Firefox next time all previous tabs will be there? That was settled right away. Go to Options/ General and on the first dropdown choose show my windows and tabs from last session. Done.

Of course, then the question was advanced (thankfully) to include the off chance that the group you want WASN'T the last session you had open. Granted, we could have done without the personal history about the inquirer's occupation and work habits, but I still believe it was simple enough. Translated from narcissism, it would be:

How can I Save/Bookmark a set of tab, or a "session," rather than just a single page? This command is extremely common to most every browser but is ostensibly missing from the newest FF.

Hopefully session manager does the trick. If I don't return....it did.

(not that it will stop anyone from giving useless replies. lol)

P>S Also, I doubt most people here aren't interested in going into their system files to start deleting and changing things.

Modified by Schirall

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OK SESSION MANAGER! Case closed! It's an add-on. Thank You for those who came through with that.

  • It nestles itself right in the TOOLS dropdown and allows you to save the session in a nice session folder as it should be. lol
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agree with idallen, we need more utilities on organizing tab groups, and i hope that there is an option to select how to deal with the group which is switched to background

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None of the suggestions helps very much. The problem is that when a group is opened, then closing one of the tabs also deletes it from the group; conversely, adding a new tab adds it into the group. Inadvertently doing a Google search or typing a URL in an open tab replaces the tab in the group with the new content, as does not returning to the starting address within the tab before exiting. It seems that once groups have been created, it is impossible to use FF without one being activated, and that group then gets updated as described. What we need is to be able to 'lock' a group so that it can only be updated optionally, and the option to ignore groups at any point in a session.

The best work around for me was to:

  1. Create my groups.
  2. Open a group.
  3. Press CTRL + SHIFT + 'D' (not the quote marks')
  4. In 'Name:' type the same name as the group in place of [Folder Name]
  5. Click on 'Add Bookmarks'
  6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 for all remaining groups.

After that, you can use by clicking on 'Bookmarks' and select any of the bookmark folders listed (same names as your groups). When selecting any of them, you can either choose 'Open All in Tabs' to open all of the tabs, or just select individual tabs. What is more, you can ignore them if you wish and the bookmark lists are unaffected unless you deliberately update them, even if you have a crash.

It seems to work fine. I hope this helps.

Modified by Brammy

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TabGroup Manager


This seems to be the closest "solution" that I can find. Anyway, like many others here, I feel that Tab Group is such a good tool that it warrants it's own save funstion and not relying on an add-on.

FireFox team: please do this and FF will be stronger and more appealing!

Modified by kclee

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