Backup & restore

TabBoy has two recovery concepts: saved groups for focused context and collections for full-browser snapshots.

Saved groups

Saved groups are focused tab sets that help reduce currently open tabs without losing context.

• Saved before tabs are closed.
• Restorable fully or partially.
• Separate from full collections.
• Incognito tabs are excluded.

Collections

Collections are full-browser snapshots for later restore or backup.

• Saving a collection does not close tabs.
• Restore can target the current window or a new window.
• Chrome tab group metadata is preserved when available.
• Users can include or exclude system and extension tabs for manual saves.

JSON backup

Backup export produces readable local JSON with rules, collections, and saved groups. Import validates the envelope and every item before the user chooses how to handle new, duplicate, conflicting, local-only, and rejected items.

The review phase writes nothing to storage.

Universal import from third-party tools

TabBoy supports importing browser sessions and tab lists directly from other extensions:

• OneTab: Plain text export (URL | Title format or raw URLs). See our OneTab migration guide.
• Session Buddy (v3 & v4): JSON sessions and CSV exports. See our Session Buddy migration guide.
• Toby: JSON lists and spaces exports. See our Toby migration guide.
• Tablerone: JSON sessions and Markdown exports (# Heading and - [Title](URL) links).

You can drag and drop any of these files directly onto the Collections panel or select them in Backup & Storage. TabBoy automatically identifies the format, validates URLs with strict schema rules, detects duplicates, and lets you preview every collection before importing.

Why this matters

Tab managers can become dangerous if they close or replace browser state too quickly. TabBoy keeps browser-changing actions explicit and recoverable.