Good idea! Solutions for browser crashes for mega-tab lovers

[craig123]

I am starting this thread to collect and share solutions for recovering browser tabs after browser/OS crashes. I am sharing my recent solution but am always open to new and better solutions. I wish this was built into the browsers--my latest experiences with Chrome have shown this not to be the case.

Background:
Like Steve G, I rely on having many tabs in many browser windows open. I've migrated to Firefox and Brave for personal use. FF has always recovered well, so much so, that for many years, if I need more RAM, I've used End Task to end all FF instances. They all come back when FF is re-opened.

For work, we have G-Suite and thus use Chrome. Chrome used to recover, but this fall I've had tremendous problems with Chrome crashing and losing all my windows and tabs. This has caused me great pain, loss of efficiency and consternation, especially when I found that not all was saved in Chrome history. So I embarked on a search for a solution, mainly looking at Chrome extensions. After trying many out, I settled on tabXpert. I've now been using it for over a month and am happy to report that it is robust and has actually increased my productivity.

Solution:
A picture says a thousand words, so I've attached a screen capture of tabXpert. Here is summary of the salient and intuitive features shown:

1. TabXpert allows you to name each Chrome window. Each window defaults to date/time code of creation until you name it.
2. In the left column, are listed Active windows at top, and Closed windows at bottom.
   • You can select any Active window to bring it to the focus in front. Hover offers rename or close. Right-click for many options.
   • You can open any Closed window by double-click. Hover allows rename or delete permanently.
3. In the right column are listed Active tabs above and Closed tabs below for the currently selected Active window on left.
   1. You can switch to any Active tab by clicking. Hover allows switch to the tab.
   2. You can open any Closed tab by double-click. Hover allows permanent deletion.
4. Any Chrome window can be closed with full confidence it can be opened later.
5. Being chromium based, tabXpert runs equally well on Brave. I assume it will on CrEdge as well.

Though I close windows to save RAM memory, it seems tabXpert keeps a lot of Chrome resources at the ready. With four active windows currently, there are more than 45 Google Chrome instances shown in Task Manager. Am I saving more than screen real estate when I close windows or tabs?

Your Solutions?
What solutions have you found to recover from OS or browser crashes to retain your tabs in some semblance of order?

 

[danie_vdm]

I've been using Session Buddy but it is per browser without cloud sync for multiple browsers. Has been working perfectly but it does not restore my browser tab groups with the named groups.

Seems like neither does TabXpert, which is something we do need, although at least getting all your tabs back is already a big relief.

 

[danlock]

Any extension for Chrome will also work on Vivaldi and probably many other Chromium-based variants.

I like Session Buddy a lot. It's easy to use and understand and keeps sessions and collections of related tabs for me when I'm ready to follow up on that group of tabs.

To free RAM while Chrome is running without resorting to "features" that automatically close tabs when RAM is scarce, I like The Great Suspender, which frees the RAM and "suspends" the tab whenever the user wants (e.g. with a hotkey) or after a specified amount of time has passed, etc., while leaving the tab on the tab bar. Although I think TGS also keeps lists of previously-opened tabs and sessions, I prefer the aforementioned Session Buddy for naming, saving and manipulating sessions.

TooManyTabs (multiple browsers... chromium-based and firefox at lesat) is an interesting way to keep a drop-down menu of multiple sessions of tabs and save tabs to different tiers of the list. I don't remember specifics about it, though, because it's been a long time since I switched to using mostly the two easy-to-use, many-featured extensions I listed above.

Update 2021-01-04: Additional session storage/management/etc. extensions for Chrom(e|ium), from the ones that are currently installed but disabled:

Session Manager
Tabli (more modern extension)

(I thought there were more... oh well. there probably are, on the extensions site)

Essentials for using along with (non-realtime, or realtime) Security Now and other miscellaneous useful extensions:

• Extensity: "Quickly enable/disable...extensions" ...can set extensions to always-on and create profiles for when you want different extensions enabled or disabled, with various sorting options. Much higher usability score than the "puzzle piece" extension access available in Chrome by default.
• Ears: Bass boost, EQ any audio! : I always reduce the bass and treble when listening to Steve and Leo so my neighbors won't be TOO annoyed...
• Video Speed Controller: very helpful for all YouTube/Netflix/etc. videos including SecurityNow. Speedup/slowdown increment can be adjusted in the options), as well as the default preferred speed. I use 10% increments/decrements with an automatic keypress change between 180% and 100%, but you might prefer something else, like 0.10 speed (100ms played for every realtime second) or 400.0 speed (4 seconds each RT second). Audio resamples to adjust for the tempo change, so you don't have to listen to pitch-shifted audio
• Note about Video Speed Controller... there seem to be many copies of it on the extension download site, many of which are poor copies or maybe with bad intentions... the one I use is ID: nffaoalbilbmmfgbnbgppjihopabppdk and has a current (1/04/21) version number of 0.6.4.
• HackerNotes Plugin: Open HackerNotes page for any relevant info on the page you're viewing, if it exists, in which case a HN logo will appear in the omnibar for you to click
• Keep Awake: override system power-saving settings. Can be very useful if you've got a browser window open and don't want your PC to shut off; can allow/disallow screen saver
• ScriptSafe: a valuable companion to uBlock Origin "for surfing more securely"
• uBO-Scope: from the author of uBO; "A tool to measure your 3rd-party exposure score for web sites you visit." Also helps by showing which sites contain content and which are merely advertising. Can be convenient for making choices in uBO, even if the uBO author doesn't specifically advocate uBO-Scope anymore (I forget...). Has NO information at all about some sites, but is helpful for the ones it knows.

 

[rfrazier]

I'll admit I didn't read the whole thread. But, in Firefox, I have the settings set up to show the top menu with File, Edit, View, History, Tools, and Help - you know - old school. So, when I open Firefox after a crash, for me, it usually says something like "we're having trouble restoring your tabs" etc. There's usually a button that says "restore session" I think. Click that. Also, the restore session option is in the history menu. Activate that IMMEDIATELY upon restarting after a crash. In Brave, based on Chrome, there is a list of recently closed tabs in the history menu. It will have a line for each window and might say things like 2 tabs, 5 tabs, 8 tabs, etc. Again IMMEDIATELY after restarting, go to that menu and click the item for each set of recent tabs until you get all your windows back. I'm generally able to get these to work if I don't do anything else after opening the browser.

Ron

 

[AlanD]

I do it the opposite way. I rarely have more than 3-4 tabs open, but my browser very rarely crashes ( perhaps once or twice a year).

 

[Barry Wallis]

I run the dev channel of MS Edge (with tabs on the side). I can't remember the last time it crashed.

 

[rfrazier]

My whole computer has taken to crashing hard lately. Just happened and I lost 40 tabs. I stupidly hit the "start new session" button in Firefox rather than the "restore session" button. Very frustrating. Considering how to "never care" if I get my tabs back, but that's hard to do.

Ron

 

[JeffL0]

Tip: When your browser crashes or is otherwise closed unexpectedly, try pressing CTRL+SHIFT+T ... this usually just opens the last closed tab, but in the case of crashes will often reopen *all* of the last tabs. This works in Firefox, Chrome, and Edge.

 

[MrObvious]

My whole computer has taken to crashing hard lately. Just happened and I lost 40 tabs. I stupidly hit the "start new session" button in Firefox rather than the "restore session" button. Very frustrating. Considering how to "never care" if I get my tabs back, but that's hard to do.

Ron

Might need to look at that. Bad HDD/SSD?