The quickest built-in way to save all open tabs in Chrome is Ctrl+Shift+D (⌘+Shift+D on Mac): it bookmarks every tab in the window into a new folder. To have Chrome reopen your tabs after a restart, set On startup → Continue where you left off. If you save tabs often, a tab manager such as LB TAB Layers can save the whole window into a named group in one click, so you can close everything and reopen it later with ▶.
You are about to restart for an update, or switch to a different project, and there are thirty tabs you don’t want to lose. Here is every practical way to save them — and what you get back afterwards.
Method 1: Bookmark all tabs (Ctrl+Shift+D)
- Press Ctrl+Shift+D (⌘+Shift+D on Mac). You can also right-click an empty spot on the tab bar and choose Bookmark all tabs.
- Give the new folder a name, choose where to put it, and click Save.
- To reopen them later, right-click the folder in the bookmarks bar or bookmark manager and choose Open all.
Good: built in, and the result is ordinary bookmarks that sync. Limits: it saves only the current window, every save makes a new folder, and the folders tend to land in the same place with names like “Tabs 3”. A month later you have a pile of folders to sort.
Method 2: Continue where you left off
Go to Settings → On startup and choose Continue where you left off. Chrome reopens the tabs you had when you closed it.
Good: nothing to remember. Limits: it brings back everything, including the tabs you were glad to see go, and it is not a backup — if the session is lost, so are the tabs. It is a convenience, not a save.
Method 3: Chrome tab groups
Recent versions of Chrome let you save a tab group so it appears at the left of the bookmarks bar. That works well for one or two groups, but you have to create the group, drag tabs into it and save it — and with many groups the bookmarks bar gets crowded. More on that in tab groups vs. a tab manager.
Method 4: Copy the URLs
Some people copy every address into a document. It works anywhere, but it is slow, you lose the page titles, and reopening means pasting links one by one.
What the built-in methods have in common
| Method | Saves | Easy to find later? | Reopen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bookmark all tabs | Current window | Only if you name and file each folder | Open all |
| Continue where you left off | Every window | No — it is just the last state | Automatic, all or nothing |
| Saved tab groups | One group at a time | Yes, while there are few | From the bookmarks bar |
| Copy the URLs | What you paste | Depends on your notes | One by one |
The common gap is sorting. Saving is easy; knowing where you put it three weeks later is the hard part.
Method 5: Save the whole window into a named group
LB TAB Layers lives in Chrome’s side panel. At the bottom of the panel, Solo Tabs lists every open tab in the window that isn’t saved in a group yet. From there you have three ways to save them in bulk:
| Button | What it does | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Folder-plus: Group all into a new group | Asks for a name, then saves every Solo Tab into one new group | The tabs belong to one project |
| … menu: Auto Group by Domain | Creates one group per site and sorts the tabs into them | The window is a mix of unrelated sites |
| … menu: Close all tabs except active | Closes every Solo Tab except the one you are looking at | You have saved what matters and want a clean slate |
Every group is a real Chrome bookmark folder inside a folder named “LB TAB Layers”. So “save all tabs” here produces ordinary bookmarks — with a name you chose, in a place you can find again.
Step by step: save, close, reopen
- Open the side panel with Alt+T (Option+T on Mac).
- Check Solo Tabs. Drag any tab that belongs to an existing group onto that group first.
- Click Group all into a new group and type a name such as “Tax return 2026” or “Laptop research”.
- Press ■ on the new group. Its tabs close and the memory is freed; the group stays.
- Press ▶ when you need them again. The saved tabs that aren’t already open come back in the background.
Saving one page at a time, without opening the panel
Not every save is a whole window. Two shortcuts help with single pages:
- Press Ctrl+Shift+S (⌘+Shift+S on Mac) to drop the current page into a group called 📥 Sort later. Sort it into the right group when you have a minute. (It works on normal web pages, after you have opened the side panel at least once.)
- Right-click any page or link and choose Save to TAB Layers to put it straight into one of your groups.
For the three ways to save individual tabs from inside the panel, see three ways to save tabs.
A few things to know
- One window at a time. Solo Tabs shows the tabs of the window the panel is open in. With several windows, save each one separately — a group per window is often a natural split anyway.
- Group limit. The free version allows up to 5 groups, and subgroups count toward that. Auto Group by Domain stops when the limit is reached. During the 3-month free trial there is no limit.
- Backups. Because groups are bookmarks, Chrome’s bookmark sync and export already cover them. For notes and other extras, use Export (JSON) in the settings.
Frequently asked questions
Q. How do I save all open tabs in Chrome at once?
Press Ctrl+Shift+D (⌘+Shift+D on Mac) to bookmark every tab in the current window into a new folder. To save them into a named group you can close and reopen in one click, use the Group all into a new group button above Solo Tabs in LB TAB Layers.
Q. How do I save tabs before restarting Chrome?
Set Settings → On startup → Continue where you left off so Chrome reopens your tabs. For tabs you want to keep beyond the next restart, save them as bookmarks or into a group first, because a restored session is not a backup.
Q. Can I save all tabs from every window at once?
Chrome’s Bookmark all tabs and the Solo Tabs buttons in LB TAB Layers both work on one window at a time. Save each window separately, which also gives you a natural group per window.
Q. Where do the saved tabs go in LB TAB Layers?
Into Chrome bookmarks: each group is a folder inside a folder named “LB TAB Layers”. They remain even if you remove the extension.
▶ See it in action
Managing bookmarks and tabs together in the sidebar. (The video shows the Japanese UI.)
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