Save and Restore Tab Groups With Their Names and Colours
Groups come back as groups
Restore a session and each group is recreated with the same tabs in the same order.
Names and colours kept
A group called “Invoices” in yellow comes back as “Invoices” in yellow.
Captured in every snapshot
Automatic snapshots record groups too, so a crash doesn’t flatten your groups into a long list.
No extra access
Reading groups uses the tabGroups permission only. BelayTab has no access to the pages inside them.
Open tabs in this window
- NWorking memory and task switching: a reviewncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- DThe cost of interrupted workdl.acm.org
- EAttention restoration theoryen.wikipedia.org
- DChapter 3 draftdocs.google.com
- AAPA 7 reference examplesapastyle.apa.org
- RRe: citing preprints in a thesisreddit.com
- GFigure 2 raw datagithub.com
- ABrowser tab habits: survey resultsarxiv.org
- LLibrary proxy sign-inlibrary.uni.edu
- DInterview transcripts, batch 2drive.google.com
- NDeep work scheduling notesnotion.so
- GStatistical power calculatorgpower.hhu.de
Sessions
Saved. 12 tabs in “Thesis chapter 3”. Undo
Automatic snapshots, this window
- 12 tabslatest
- 12 tabs
- 11 tabs
- 9 tabs
- 9 tabs
Every 5 minutes, and whenever a window closes. No button to remember.
Chrome closed unexpectedly at 14:34.
Recovery
Restore 12 tabs
Devices
Sessions on every device
Sync plan. 90 days of cloud history, restorable from any browser.
What Are Tab Groups?
Tab groups are a browser feature that gathers tabs under a coloured label in the tab bar. In Chrome you right-click a tab and choose “Add tab to new group”, then give the group a name and colour. Clicking the label collapses the group.
Chrome can keep saved groups itself, one group at a time, but it doesn’t keep a history of them, and a crash or a changed setting can still leave you with a flat row of tabs. Many session managers save the tabs and drop the groups, so a restored window comes back as one flat row.
How BelayTab Saves and Restores Groups
Save the window as usual
Click Save or press Ctrl+Shift+S (Cmd+Shift+S on Mac). Grouped tabs are saved with their group’s name and colour; ungrouped tabs are saved as they are.
See the groups in the session
On the sessions page, grouped tabs appear under their group label, in the same order as in the tab bar.
Restore
Restore the session into a new window or the current one. BelayTab opens the tabs and recreates each group with its name and colour.
Tab Group Support by Browser
| Browser | Groups saved and restored | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chrome | Yes | Names, colours and order |
| Edge | Yes | Names, colours and order |
| Brave | Yes | Names, colours and order |
| Opera | Yes | Groups the browser reports to extensions are kept |
| Vivaldi | Yes | Groups the browser reports to extensions are kept; Vivaldi’s own tab stacks are a separate feature |
| Arc | Yes | Groups the browser reports to extensions are kept; Arc’s sidebar folders are a separate feature |
| Firefox | Yes, in Firefox 139 or later | Earlier versions save the tabs without their groups |
| Safari (Mac) | No | Safari doesn’t let extensions read tab groups; tabs are saved without groups |
Moving a Grouped Session to Another Browser
A session saved with groups in Chrome keeps its group data. Restore it in another browser that supports groups and the groups are rebuilt there. Restore it in Safari and you get the tabs in order, without the groups.
Exports keep group names and colours in JSON, so a file you export today still describes your groups if you import it later.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Chrome tab groups survive a restart?
Only if Chrome is set to continue where you left off, or if you saved the group in Chrome. A crash or a changed setting can still lose them. BelayTab saves groups with every save and every automatic snapshot, so you can rebuild them from the Recovery screen.
How do I save a tab group in Chrome?
Save the window with BelayTab and the group is saved with it, including its name and colour. Chrome can also keep a group itself from the group label’s right-click menu, one group at a time and without version history.
Does BelayTab work with Firefox tab groups?
Yes, in Firefox 139 or later, which is the version that lets extensions read and create tab groups. In earlier versions the tabs are saved without their groups.
Why doesn’t BelayTab save tab groups in Safari?
Safari doesn’t give extensions access to tab groups, so there is nothing for BelayTab to read. On Safari the tabs are saved and restored in order, without their groups.
What happens to groups when I import from OneTab?
OneTab doesn’t store tab groups, so imported tabs arrive ungrouped. You can group them in the browser after restoring and save again.
Related
- HelpSaving and Restoring Tab GroupsBelayTab saves tab groups with their names and colours and recreates them on restore, in Chromium browsers and Firefox 139+. Not on Safari.
- FeaturesSave Tabs in One Click and Close Them Without Losing ThemSave tabs from any window as a named session in one click or with Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+S. Groups, pinned tabs and order are kept. Free, with no limit on tabs.
- FeaturesHow to Recover Tabs After a Crash, a Close or an UpdateHow to recover tabs in any browser right now, with shortcuts for each. Then how BelayTab snapshots, version history and trash stop you losing them again.
- HelpHow to Restore a Saved SessionRestore a BelayTab session into a new window or the current one, or open single tabs. Large sessions open in batches of 20.