Save your Firefox tabs in a single-click with Tab Stash

Managing an open browser session is no easy task. The more tabs you have, the more cluttered it gets, and if you use multiple browser windows, you may realize quickly that most browsers are not well equipped for that out of the box. Extensions that improve tab management are a solution.

When you install Tab Stash, you'll see a new icon on the toolbar. DO NOT click on it, not yet. Why? If you do, the add-on will save all the tabs in the Stash and close them all. It's kind of similar to what OneTab does, but Tab Stash only hides the tabs from view, the tabs are open in the background.

Tab Stash works as a side-bar tool. So what you want to do is right-click on the extension's icon and select "Show Stashed Tabs in a Sidebar". This opens the side-bar without closing your tabs.

Don't like side bars? Use the "Show Stashed Tabs in a Tab"(refer to the first screenshot). This option looks a lot better, and you can view the full/extended title of tabs in the "Tab" mode.

Tab Stash lists your tabs in the "Unstashed tabs" section.

The list displays the tabs of the current window, so if you've multiple windows, you'll need to manage them in each instance. There are four buttons at the top of the tab list. If you have unstashed tabs, the first option can be used to stash them all or the ones you select. Use the alt button when clicking on the option to stash the tabs without closing them.

Note: Select the tabs normally as you would by using Ctrl or Shift on the Firefox tab bar, and then click on the Tab Stash button.

The second button in the side bar allows you to stash the active tab to the current group. Restore all tabs from the stash by hitting the third button. The fourth option does the same, i.e., it loads the tabs from the group but also deletes the group. The X button deletes the group without loading the tabs.

Tab Groups

When you stash some tabs, a new group is created. By default, Tab Stash assigns it a name in the format "Saved, date, time". Click on the name to rename it. Hit the arrow icon to collapse/hide the list of tabs in the group.

Let's get to the tabs in the group. Right-click on a tab and the Firefox link context menu pops-up. Mouse over a tab in the list and two icons appear, use them to load the tab from the stash or to delete the tab. There are five ways to stash tabs. The first method is to left-click the toolbar icon that saves all your tabs. The second option is to right-click on the icon and select "Stash tabs" or "Copy Tabs to Stash". The latter is more useful in my opinion, as it doesn't close the tabs when stashing them.

Or you may use the "Stash this tab" button in the address bar, which saves the current tab for later. The fourth method is to use the side bar or the add-on's tab to stash the tabs. You can right-click anywhere in the browser to access the Stash Tabs options.

Search

Tab Stash has a built-in search tool at the top of the side bar/tab interface. Enter a keyword in it and the extension will filter the list to display only the corresponding results.

The search works in real time on an as-you-type basis. That's handy if you have a ton of tabs and don't want to waste time scrolling down a list.

How it works

Tab Stash saves your tabs as bookmarks in its own folder. This also ensures your tabs sync across devices via Firefox sync. The add-on checks existing tabs to see whether a tab from the stash is loaded before restoring it.

Note: This review is mostly based on Tab Stash 2.5. The extension was updated to version 2.6 a few days ago, which added support for some additional features.

This includes options to import and export tabs. The release notes and the Wiki say these options are available from the Tab Stash menu, but I wasn't able to find them. I've tried restarting the browser, removing and re-installing the add-on to no avail.

Tab Stash is an open source extension.

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