[Update: August 30] Google Chrome users unable to save tab groups when exiting or restarting browser, workaround inside

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on February 05, 2021) follows:

Most power users and multitaskers usually cycle through hundreds of tabs at once and may therefore have a hard time navigating between them. Google observed this problem and introduced a simple yet beautiful solution – tab groups.

Tab groups were designed to help tab hoarders organize stuff a bit on Google Chrome by allowing tabs to be grouped together and marked with labels made of a custom name and color.

Thus, gone are the days when users had to spend hours searching for the right tab resulting in missed presentations, deadlines, and whatnot. Now one can just take a chill pill and work stress-free.

Sadly, things aren’t that simple. As it stands, many people have reported that they are unable to save tab groups. This means that exiting Chrome results in all the tab groups vanishing into thin air.

Because of this, tab groups have become useless for many. Having to set up all the tabs after exiting Chrome is not the most intuitive use case. Hence, many users have demanded that Chrome add a separate option to ‘save tab groups’.

I created 3 tab groups that would have helped my workflow immensely, but upon closing them and then trying to reopen them the next morning I discovered they are not only not automatically saved, but there is no way to save them, not even manually. What was the point in naming the tab groups? What is the point of even creating tab groups, if once closed they must be recreated each time you open Chrome???
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Glad I’m not the only person with this issue. I ended up using Session Buddy the extension to save my tabs, but it DOES NOT save the groupings, just the tabs. It’s better than nothing
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Most people do not just close all the tabs before exiting the browser every time. Instead, people like leaving them open so that they can easily continue where they left off with the next browsing session.

And having to reorganize every tab once more into groups is extremely counter-productive.

That said, it is worth mentioning here that we were unable to verify the issue. For us, tab groups on Google Chrome restored just fine even after rebooting the system.

From this, it is highly likely that the ones facing the issue have not enabled a crucial setting and are facing the issue due to it. You can enable it through Settings > On start-up > Continue where you left off.

This should solve the issue for you.

However, if it does not work for some reason, then you can also try the following:

And if you are interested in the Chrome extension mentioned above, then you would want to visit this link and register for the same.

05:45 pm (IST): Many Google Chrome users are requesting Google to add a ‘Bookmark Tab Group’ feature to allow them to save their grouped tabs for quick access even after restarting or rebooting their devices.

As you can see from the screenshot of a thread on Google’s support website, this feature request has got 431 upvotes at the moment and several comments from others wishing for the same.

Google is yet to respond to the request, however, we will continue to keep track of the situation and will post an update once any new details emerge.

01:58 pm (IST): Affected users seem to have found a way around this issue and it involves the use of the Tab Group Saver extension that’s available here.

Solution: You can use the chrome extension Tab Group Saver to save tab groups.
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Thank you Gary Chew 316! I think I will use a combination of that extension + Tab Session Manager for now
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06:22 pm (IST): The Tabox Extension not only saves your tabs and groups as they appear in your window, but it also lets you sync your saved tabs to Google Drive. Check it out from here.

Thank you Gil Goldstein for the tip!

01:52 pm (IST): A user has given out directions to use Tab Group Saver below:

04:37 pm (IST): A new flag in the latest version of Chrome Canary lets users save tab groups so that they persist even with newer browser sessions. However, it is currently in its pre-release stage and doesn’t appear to be fully operational yet. More details here.

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