Hey there, fellow FreshStarters!
Guess what? FreshStart just got a fresh update – version 1.7 is out now, and even I'm surprised, lol! If you're new to FreshStart, make sure to catch up on what you've missed with our previous posts.
What's New?
Visually, things haven't changed much, but under the hood, it's like we've given FreshStart a whole new engine to run on, all to keep up with the latest Manifest V3.
*Manifest V3 is a new requirement from Chrome web store if extensions want to stay on the store.
Patch 1.7.1 Updates: (RELEASED! 17th May)
Hi, everyone, the comment section is not the official area to report bug, please email to contactus@visibotech.com.
TooManyTabs for Chrome
Oh, and speaking of Manifest V3, I've also upgraded TooManyTabs (TMT), another Chrome's relics extension. If you're into that sort of thing, be sure to check it out!
Enjoy!
29 comments:
This seems to be broken after the new release. Only loads the first tab now...
here too , only the first tab.....
The same, only the first tab ...
It was already broken for me before the update, only loading one window out of the 5 I was saving most of the times (sometimes it opened up to 3 windows, sometimes it simply didn't open any window). That started around the time Youtube started doing some anti ad-block stuff, so that felt like Google Chrome broke something with the extension.
Had been looking for another extension that does the same thing, but all of the others load up fake tabs that require an extra step to load, which really annoys me. So I had been left opening reopening my tabs manually for the last couple months... Glad to see at least that this extension isn't completely forgotten.
Cannot import a session from JSON file anymore... possibly broken with the upgrade.
Any chance that saving tab groups will be added? :)
I found that it still works if you middle click rather than left click
Lost all my previous session snapshots. All five crash recovery snapshots are completely blank. Any ideas where I can pick them backup? These are tabs/windows that never got saved to sessions.
Ok, so I think I found the data in a log file located in AppData\Local\.....
Now, how to import back into FreshStart. Most of the data in the log file is unintelligible but I'm assuming the extension can read it. Might have to be a previous version of the extension though??? Any advice?
hi! i've been having issues i love this extension for loading saved tabs, but the past few days only 1 tab is loading as opposed to the 5 -10 tabs that should be
the best extension to manage sessions! Thank you for the update
this extension has been very helpful all these years using it, wow I didn't realize it hasn't been updated for over a decade until now! There goes the saying, if it ain't broke don't fix it!
It is unfortunate that you broke snapshots. I have found this extension handy for recovering from various crashes, but it would seem because of this change, in combination with having to do a chromebook recovery this afternoon, that I have lost my previous session with hundred of tabs.
Unfortunately can't load any saved session newer then April 12. Nothing happens on click.
I have to go to bookmarks and manually open saved tabs in a New Window. Please share the 1.7 release or fix the latest one.
@Lazy, please update to latest 1.7.1 version.
Best chrome extension EVER! Can you please add a search function to it? ;-)
Beyond words, I am beyond words so appreciative that you time and effort for an extension you made many years ago, that you were fully justifed to just forget about and move on, but you decided to make sure it would keep working for all of us! Thanks, from the "bottom of my heart"(never understood that metaphor), truly I am grateful; I'll look around thoroughly for donation options now; it won't be much, but you've more than earned it. I am certain.
Is there a way to delete old saved sessions?
Going to Crash Recovery, and choosing a snapshot, at the bottom is the option to save the snapshot as a session. It doesn't work. While trying to restore from a browser crash, my GPU driver crashed causing a BSOD on WinBLOWS and now, when I go into FreshStart, the old snapshots aren't available anymore, and neither is my attempt to save those snapshots as new sessions. I just lost 60+ windows and hundreds of tabs--about a year's worth of context. Irreplaceable. This is the first time this extension has really let me down. :( Until now, it's been the best. It may still be, but, I don't trust it anymore.
OK, I found my session! Whew! So, when I clicked "Save as Session", the session did NOT show up in the extension's session list as a session I could click on to restore. BUT, there is a favorites folder containing the saved session. Whew! My bacon is saved!
Importing a session from a JSON file does not work.
I click the "Import" button, insert the previously saved JSON file into the window, click the "Import Session" button and the window simply closes. No new session appears.
There is an issue with crashed / restored sessions. I will send an email to the kind maintainers of the extension at Visibo Tech.
In the meantime, here is what the issue is and how to manually correct it every time you save a crashed session, and how you can find the crashed and restored FreshStart sessions that you previously saved but were not showing in the FreshStart extension's session list.
The issue:
- When you save a crashed session, that session doesn't appear in the FreshStart extension's list of sessions;
- this unexpected behaviour occurs ONLY IF the DATE FORMAT (in the FreshStart extension's settings) has been set to "yyyy-mm-dd";
- there is NO UNEXPECTED BEHAVIOUR when the DATE FORMAT (in the FreshStart extension's settings) has been set to either "dd/mm/yyyy" or "mm/dd/yyyy".
THE ROOT CAUSE (in a nutshell):
- FreshStart doesn't display sessions whose naming format it doesn't recognise, AND
- if DATE FORMAT in FreshStart Options is set to "yyyy-mm-dd", FreshStart saves the restored sessions (with the "yyyy-mm-dd" DATE FORMAT) in the NAMING FORMAT that FreshStart "can't see" (i.e. in a "wrong" naming format) and therefore doesn't show in its list of sessions.
EXAMPLES:
(a) FreshStart CAN SEE the following session saved in the "dd/mm/yyyy" DATE FORMAT:
Test 01 - Restore session on 27/11/2025 (27/11/2025)--10tabs
(b) FreshStart CAN SEE the following session saved in the "mm/dd/yyyy" DATE FORMAT:
Test 02: Restore session on 11/27/2025 (11/27/2025)--10tabs
(c) FreshStart CAN SEE the following session saved in the "yyyy-mm-dd" DATE FORMAT:
Test 03 - Restore session on 2025-11-27 (2025-11-27)--10tabs
===
The first part of the session name is what you would normally see in the FreshStart list of saved sessions:
Test 01 - Restore session on 27/11/2025
Test 02: Restore session on 11/27/2025
Test 03 - Restore session on 2025-11-27
The second part of the session name is what causes the problem in the "yyyy-mm-dd" DATE FORMAT case; FreshStart can "see" and display the forst two file formats, but not the third from this list:
(27/11/2025)--10tabs
(11/27/2025)--10tabs
(2025-11-27)--10tabs
The permanent fix is to change the DATE FORMAT (in the FreshStart extension options). This avoids creating new problems (but sets the DATE FORMAT in sessions to either "dd/mm/yyyy" or "mm/dd/yyyy") and makes it a permanent fix from that moment on.
The temporary fix is to rename the "wrongly named" session (and, if you like, any or all of the previously wrongly named sessions). This way you get to keep the "yyyy-mm-dd" naming convention (DATE FORMAT) if you like that one. See below for how to do it (so your session is listed inside the FreshStart), and how to do it properly (so the creation date of your session is correctly interpreted by the FrestStart).
===
SOLUTIONS... Please see my final comment (located after the two solutions provided below) for the reason causing this issue and the consequences of each proposed solution.
SOLUTION 1:
Make FreshStart SAVE your crashed session in a way FreshStart can see it and display it for you.
- STEP 1. Go to FreshStart extension Options and set the DATE FORMAT ("Date format:") to either "dd/mm/yyyy" or "mm/dd/yyyy".
That's it, nothing else to do.
If you don't want to use SOLUTION 1, or if you need to make the latest or any of the previously saved sessions visible in the FreshStart list of saved sessions, go with SOLUTION 2:
SOLUTION 2: Make FreshStart SEE your restored session in a way FreshStart can see it and display it for you. This assumes your "invisible sessions" were saved when the DATE FORMAT in FreshStart Options was set to "yyyy-mm-dd".
STEP 1: Save your crashed session (if you haven't already); you can skip this step if it's an old session that you have already saved at some previous point in time.
STEP 2: Open your Bookmarks Manager. This is called "Bookmarks Manager" in Chrome browser (chrome://bookmarks/), "Bookmarks" in Opera browser (opera://bookmarks/) , and so on.
STEP 3: Find the "problematic" session. You can use the bookmark search text field (located above the bookmarks) to help you with this. There is a "trick" you can use to find all "problematic" sessions - I will show you this "trick" later in the final comments (at the end of this comment, to not make additional clutter here).
STEP 4: Right-click on the "problematic" session (in the Bookmarks Manager, not in the FreshStart; the "problematic sessions are "invisible to FreshStart - FreshStart doesn't show them in its session list) and click on "RENAME".
STEP 5: Rename the "second part" of the session name (in our example case it was the "(2025-11-27)--10tabs" part (separated with one empty space from the first part in the session name in the Bookmarks Manager!) in the following way:
BEFORE: (2025-11-27)--10tabs
AFTER: (27-11-2025)--10tabs
or:
AFTER: (2025/11/27)--10tabs
Both of these "after" versions will make your restored session appear in the FreshStart list of saved sessions. The difference between the two "after" versions is in the ways FreshStart will display the session creation date under the session name (the session creation date is displayed in a small grey font under each session). You will need to see which of these two versions work best for you (which may depend on the date format set on your computer - which most likely depends on the date format conventions in your country).
FINAL THOUGHTS:
When your browser crashes and you restart it and go to FreshStart and save the crashed session, FreshStart names the session wrongly if you have opted for the "yyyy-mm-dd" DATE FORMAT in the FreshStart extension options.
The saved crashed session (even with the "wrong" name) will be visible in the web browser's Bookmarks manager, though.
You can go to your browser's Bookmark Manager and change the name of the problematic session(s):
change this "(2025-11-27)--"
into this "(27/11/2025)--"
or into this "(2025/11/27)--".
How to find all other "wrongly named" sessions created by FreshStart but invisible to FreshStart:
(d) In your browser's Bookmark Manager, in the search toolbar above the list of bookmarks and sessions, search for something of this type:
"Restore session on". This should give you the list of all restored sessions. See which sessions have the "wrong" NAME FORMAT in them and change (rename) each manually.
(e) Alternatively, try searching for strings like the following ones:
"(2025-"
"(2024-"
and similar.
The hope here is to catch the "wrong" names. There should be a better string search (using regular expressions - or "regex") to catch ONLY the names we want, but that's for someone else to figure out here.
You could also export your bookmarks as an HTML file, then open that HTML file and search it for the "suspicious" strings (like the ones we mentioned earlier, those that start with "(2025-", i.e. with an open bracket followed by four-digit year and a dash. At worst you will have bookmarks from the past 10-15 years (or however long FreshStart exists, or less - because FreshStart introduced this "bug" relatively recently (a couple of years ago, I think)).
There you go, peeps.
Finally, please communicate to people around you to use their brains and not believe most of the ideological stuff they hear or read, and to realise the world is much larger and better than what their media and (usually dumb or dangerous) politicians and militaristic brass tell them. You know, whichever your country, it's not the ideal one, it's not the "chosen one", it's not the best one, it doesn't have the right to preach, torture, invade, or bully others, the rest of the world doesn't envy you, nor hates you, nor dedicates their existence to planning your demise. At the rate we're going, unless people start using their brains, we're heading toward painful and miserable times for all of us on this beautiful planet. Let's change that trajectory and change it into a positive one for us all.
Thanks and hope you can browse for many more years or decades to come! :)
The idea behind the sentence quoted from my previous reply:
"You could also export your bookmarks as an HTML file, then open that HTML file and search it for the "suspicious" strings (like the ones we mentioned earlier, those that start with "(2025-", i.e. with an open bracket followed by four-digit year and a dash."
... is that you could search the bookmarks in the exported HTML file much easier than inside the Bookmarks Manager - because you can use a regular expression search in whichever your chosen text or HTML editor might be (e.g. Notepad++ on Windows).
Once you find your "wrongly named" sessions in the HTML file, you should have more and better options of finding that exact same name in your browser's Bookmarks Manager.
For example, instead of searching for something like this in your Bookmarks Manager:
(2025-
... you'd be seaching for something like this:
Test 03 - Restore session on 2025-11-27 (2025-11-27)--10tabs
... because your regular expression (or even ordinary) search for:
(2025-
... inside the exported HTML file,
... returned the session name:
Test 03 - Restore session on 2025-11-27 (2025-11-27)--10tabs
... and that's how you find out what exactly to search for in your browser's Bookmarks Manager.
Repeat that process for each "suspicious" session name you find in the exported HTML file until you fix as many of your past sessions as you want.
Or ask AI to do all this for you. :) But make backup copies first. :) :) :)
EDIT OF MY PREVIOUS REPLY MESSAGE due to a typo that changed the meaning of one crucial part of the message: in the exapmle (c) the wording shoud be "CAN NOT SEE" (instead of the original "CAN SEE"):
(c) FreshStart CAN NOT SEE the following session saved in the "yyyy-mm-dd" DATE FORMAT:
Test 03 - Restore session on 2025-11-27 (2025-11-27)--10tabs
EXAMPLES:
(a) FreshStart CAN SEE the following session saved in the "dd/mm/yyyy" DATE FORMAT:
Test 01 - Restore session on 27/11/2025 (27/11/2025)--10tabs
(b) FreshStart CAN SEE the following session saved in the "mm/dd/yyyy" DATE FORMAT:
Test 02: Restore session on 11/27/2025 (11/27/2025)--10tabs
(c) FreshStart *CAN NOT SEE* the following session saved in the "yyyy-mm-dd" DATE FORMAT:
Test 03 - Restore session on 2025-11-27 (2025-11-27)--10tabs
===
The first part of the session name is what you would normally see in the FreshStart list of saved sessions (and this is ok in all three variations):
Test 01 - Restore session on 27/11/2025
Test 02: Restore session on 11/27/2025
Test 03 - Restore session on 2025-11-27
The second part of the session name is what causes the problem in the "yyyy-mm-dd" DATE FORMAT case; FreshStart can "see" and display the first two file formats, but can NOT see and list the third from this list:
(27/11/2025)--10tabs // this part is ok
(11/27/2025)--10tabs // this part is ok
(2025-11-27)--10tabs // this part is PROBLEMATIC for FreshStart
"(2025-11-27)--10tabs" - this part is PROBLEMATIC for FreshStart - FreshStart (as it is now, version 1.7.1) doesn't display sessions saved with this format in their name.
You need to rename those "problematic" sessions manually through your browser's Bookmarks Manager (if you already have saved sessions in this type of DATE FORMAT (i.e. if DATE FORMAT in the FreshStart extension options was set to "yyyy-mm-dd" when you saved those "problematic" sessions)).
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