TabsafeHow to back up your open browser tabs automatically
Without an add-on, the quickest backup is to bookmark all your tabs: press Ctrl+Shift+D in Chrome, Edge or Firefox and save them to a folder. That works, but you have to remember to do it. For a copy that makes itself, an add-on has to take snapshots for you, and for a copy that survives a damaged browser profile it has to write a file outside the profile.
Doing it by hand
- Bookmark all tabs. Press Ctrl+Shift+D (Cmd+Shift+D on a Mac). The browser asks for a folder name and saves every tab in the window as a bookmark. Name it with the date.
- Export the bookmarks. Open the bookmark manager and choose the export option. It writes one HTML file, which you can keep in a folder outside the browser or in cloud storage.
- Turn on browser sync. If you sign in to the browser, your open tabs show on your other devices. That helps if one computer fails, but it mirrors what is open now. It is not a history.
- Pick "Continue where you left off". In Chrome this is under Settings, then "On startup". It reopens last session's tabs at launch.
Each of these has a gap. Bookmarks only capture the moment you pressed the key. They lose which tabs were pinned or grouped together.
Letting an add-on do it
Tabsafe saves a snapshot of every open window, tab, pinned tab and tab group a few seconds after each change, and every 15 minutes as well. A snapshot that matches the previous one is not stored twice. Snapshots older than a day are thinned to one per hour, so the history stays small. The tabs you close are logged separately.
Those snapshots live in the add-on's storage inside your browser profile. For a copy that survives a damaged profile, Tabsafe writes a backup file to a Tabsafe folder inside your Downloads folder, named like tabsafe-backup-2026-10-04.json.
- Free: snapshots and a closed-tab log for 14 days, a "Back up now" button on the options page that writes the file whenever you press it, and restoring a whole backup file.
- Pro: the backup runs on its own, every day or every week, and you choose how many of the newest files to keep so your Downloads folder does not fill up. History is kept for 365 days. Comparing a backup with what you have open now, and restoring only the tabs you pick, is also Pro. Pro costs €12 for a year or €29 once, as one-time passes that do not renew.
New installs get 7 days of Pro, with no card, so you can try the scheduled backup before deciding.
What a backup does not contain
Tabsafe stores addresses, titles, pinned state and groups. It does not store the page itself, so a page that has since been deleted, or a form you half filled in, does not come back. Private windows are not recorded. It runs in Microsoft Edge and Firefox on desktop, not in Chrome.
Which to choose
If you rarely have more than a handful of tabs open, the bookmark shortcut is enough and costs nothing. If you keep dozens of tabs as a working memory and a lost session would cost you an afternoon, automatic snapshots plus a file in Downloads is a safer setup. The free plan covers the snapshots and the manual file. You pay only if you want the file written for you on a schedule.
Tabsafe can also import a OneTab text export or a Session Buddy JSON export, so lists you built there are not lost if you switch.
Questions
- How do I bookmark all open tabs at once?
- Press Ctrl+Shift+D, or Cmd+Shift+D on a Mac, in Chrome, Edge or Firefox. The browser asks for a folder name and saves every tab in the window as a bookmark.
- Does Tabsafe back up tabs automatically?
- Yes, inside the browser. It saves a snapshot a few seconds after each change and every 15 minutes. Writing a backup file on a daily or weekly schedule is a Pro feature.
- Where does Tabsafe write its backup file?
- Into a Tabsafe folder inside your Downloads folder, as tabsafe-backup followed by the date, in JSON format.
- Is the backup file free?
- Pressing Back up now is free, and so is restoring from a backup file. The daily or weekly schedule needs Pro.
Keep a way back for your tabs
Tabsafe is free, with no account. It saves your windows as you work and logs the tabs you close.
Tabsafe runs in Microsoft Edge and Firefox on desktop. It is not offered for Chrome. Tabsafe is an independent product.