TabFern tab manager and backup tool

I would really love to try this. Unfortunately nothing happens when clicking the extension icon...Not even if I right click and open it from that menu. In fact, I cant even get the extensions options to load! just says loading... what gives?

I use this extension many times every day. It is a natural for organizing readings and projects, and it is indispensable for computer memory management. I have worked with most of the tab/bookmark knowledge-management extensions, and this is the one I keep coming back to.

if only it could move with chromes UI and open / close with it then I'd use it.

When trying to restore a backup of a lot of tabs they all will be loaded in memory and make Chrome crash, unlike recently closed that loads them suspended and doesn't have this problem.

5 stars for being the best open source alternative to TO, which btw is not really maintained anymore.

Please offer keyboard shortcut such as Alt+T to load the tab list. Besides, please offer two columns tab list optionally for wide screen desktop.

Chris WhiteDeveloperDec 22, 2021

Thanks for using TF! (1) Keyboard shortcut: Please go to chrome://extensions/shortcuts . Scroll to TabFern. Pick a hot key in either box ("Activate the Extension" or "Open the TabFern window"). Either should work! (2) Two-column list: I have opened an issue at https://github.com/cxw42/TabFern/issues/278 .

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This tool is amazing and underrated! I used Tabs Outliner for a long time and that has it's benefits too but the ability to easily name and open/close windows in Chrome with Tab Fern means you can basically do what Chrome *should* do which is keep your idle windows from using all your system resources. Just open a named window "session" when you want to research those thing. What made me switch in the first place though was the ability to easily backup the open windows and tabs to a local f... Show more

Hi Chris, agree with all the above, well done again on the work here. As with many TO users, when moving to new PC's and moving the TO database, we need to reload TO, which is now gone. Any chance you could add a read of TO databases into TF? Instant 80% TO>TF migration it could be :)

Chris WhiteDeveloperJul 17, 2021

Jenny, thanks for the positive feedback! Reading TO databases would indeed be very nice! That feature request is open at https://github.com/cxw42/TabFern/issues/27 .

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This is one of the few session management extensions that appears to remain active development. However, this extension does not support restoring Tab Groups. Restoring sessions results in disorganized tabs, which then need reclassifying into Tab Groups. Google has listed the Tab Group API as working since Chrome v89: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/tabGroups/ My hope that an actively-developed extension, like TabFern can now use Chrome's Tab Groups API to get it impl... Show more

Chris WhiteDeveloperJul 17, 2021

Jeff, thanks! Tab Groups are open at https://github.com/cxw42/TabFern/issues/246 .

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I had used it for a day and it's really impressive. It's the third best and most flexible tabs manager I've ever experienced. I loved how it saves backup on json format, this way I'm able to manually create backups of single windows. I'm willing to donate if you keep it open source and implement support for tree tabs structure and/or per-tab hibernation, similar to how Tabs Outliner works.

Chris WhiteDeveloperDec 12, 2020

Hikari, thank you for your kinds words! There is a prerelease with per-tab hibernation: https://devwrench.wordpress.com/2020/12/12/request-for-testers-tabfern-tab-at-a-time-support/ . Please give it a try if you have a chance, and spread the word so others can test it!

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