If you are using Microsoft Edge and noticed that your suspended tabs inside tab groups disappear or turn into blank New Tab pages after a browser restart, you are running into the same Chromium-level regression that first appeared in Chrome 149, and it is now reaching Edge users too.

What happened​

Microsoft Edge is built on the Chromium engine, which means it inherits browser-level changes from the upstream Chromium project, including regressions. The change introduced around Chromium 149 that broke the tab group restore behavior for suspended tabs is now making its way into Edge builds.

As a result, Edge users are experiencing the same symptoms Chrome users saw earlier:

• Suspended tabs inside tab groups are silently discarded when the browser restarts.
• Tabs outside tab groups are not affected and restore correctly.
• The suspended tab URL (chrome-extension://… / extension://…) is apparently filtered out during session restore when inside a group.

This is tracked in the dedicated GitHub issue #374, opened specifically for Edge. Issue #369, the original Chrome report, has also been reopened because of these lingering effects across the Chromium ecosystem.

Current status​

To be clear about where things stand right now:

• The browser-side Chromium fix is under review but has not yet landed in Chrome's stable channel, Chrome 149.0.7827.156 is still affected. The fix is expected sometime this weekend or early next week.
• Edge will take even longer, as it follows its own release schedule on top of Chromium's.
• TMS 8.1.4 addressed the issue for Chrome users at the extension level, but some edge cases are still being investigated (see #369).
• TMS 8.1.5 is in active development and specifically targets the Edge regression. A fix has already been tested and looks solid, we expect a release candidate to be ready very soon.

We are not waiting for the browser vendors to ship their fix. We are shipping our own.

Temporary workaround​

If you lost tabs, the manual recovery steps still apply:

1. Open the tab group that now shows blank New Tab pages.
2. For each empty tab, click the browser Back button (top-left arrow) once.
3. The original suspended tab page should reappear.

What we are doing about it​

• TMS 8.1.5 is coming, with a targeted fix for Edge. Follow PR #376 for progress.
• We are tracking the Edge-specific report in issue #374, follow it for real-time updates.
• Issue #369 has been reopened to track lingering issues for Chrome users on TMS 8.1.4 as well.
• The upstream Chromium fix (chromium-review.googlesource.com) will eventually reach Edge too, but we are not relying on that timeline.

We know how frustrating this is, especially after Chrome users already went through it. Thank you for your patience.

References / Links​

• TMS & Chrome 149: the original post
• GitHub issue #374 – Edge-specific tab group regression
• GitHub issue #369 – Original Chrome 149 report (reopened)
• PR #376 – TMS 8.1.5 Edge fix
• https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/7933990

A targeted fix release addressing the tab group restore regression introduced by Chrome 149, where suspended tabs inside tab groups were silently discarded after a browser restart.

What's fixed​

Suspended tabs inside tab groups restored correctly after restart​

Starting with Chrome 149, a change in the browser's session restore engine caused tabs with non-https:// URLs, including TMS suspended tabs, to be skipped when restoring tab groups. This resulted in blank New Tab pages appearing in place of your suspended tabs after every restart.

TMS 8.1.4 works around the Chrome-side behavior and restores suspended tabs inside tab groups correctly again. Tabs outside tab groups were not affected and continue to work as before.

Full changelog on GitHub: v8.1.4 release

Related: TMS & Chrome 149: suspended tabs inside tab groups lost after restart

If you are using Chrome 149 and noticed that your suspended tabs inside tab groups turn into blank New Tab pages after a browser restart, you are not alone, and it is not your fault.

What happened​

Starting from Chrome 149, a change in the browser's tab group restore engine broke compatibility with suspended tabs managed by TMS. When Chrome restores a session after a restart, it now skips tabs whose URL does not start with https:// inside tab groups. Since TMS suspended tabs use an internal chrome-extension://… URL, they are silently discarded instead of being restored.

Tabs outside tab groups are not affected and restore correctly as before.

The issue was reported by users shortly after Chrome 149 rolled out and confirmed by the TMS team. A member of the Chrome development team has acknowledged the problem and filed an internal bug to investigate whether the behavior change was intentional or an unintended side effect.

Temporary workaround​

If you lost tabs, there is a way to recover them without restoring a backup:

1. Open the tab group that now shows blank New Tab pages.
2. For each empty tab, click the browser Back button (top-left arrow) once.
3. The original suspended tab page should reappear.

This is tedious if you have many tabs, but it beats losing them permanently.

What we are doing about it​

• TMS 8.1.4 is now available on the Chrome Web Store. It addresses the tab group restore issue directly, suspended tabs inside tab groups will no longer be discarded after a browser restart. Update TMS and the problem goes away.
• The Chrome team also had an official fix under review on the browser side; TMS shipped the fix first.

We know how frustrating data loss is, and we are sorry you hit this. Thank you for your patience while we sort it out.

Companion workaround: back-grouped-tabs​

While the proper fix was in the works, a small companion extension was made available: back-grouped-tabs.

It does one thing: when Chrome restores a session and discards suspended tabs inside tab groups, this extension detects the affected tabs and navigates them back so the suspended page reappears, automatically, without you having to click the Back button on each one.

To install it, clone or download the repository and load it as an unpacked extension in Chrome (chrome://extensions/ → enable Developer Mode → Load unpacked). The README covers everything you need to know.

References / Links​

• https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/7933990
• https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/7738373

Follow the original issue on GitHub: #369 – Suspended tabs inside tab groups are lost after browser restart (Chrome 149)

The Marvellous Suspender has been a fork since day one, born in 2021 out of The Great Suspender, at a time when that project had been pulled from the Chrome Web Store and flagged as malware. TMS cleaned up what needed cleaning and gave orphaned users somewhere to go. Fair enough, that's exactly what a fork is for.

But five years later, TMS isn't a patched-up copy of someone else's abandoned code anymore. It's had a full Manifest V3 rewrite, a proper visual redesign, its own contributors, and, as of a few months ago, a home under the Marvellous Codeworks name. The GitHub fork relationship, though, hadn't changed: technically, gioxx/MarvellousSuspender was still listed as a fork of the original repository, tied to its network, its issues, its history.

A targeted patch for Vivaldi users who were experiencing crashes related to a browser-specific API inconsistency.

What's fixed​

Vivaldi getContexts workaround​

Vivaldi implements a non-standard version of the chrome.runtime.getContexts API that was causing TMS to throw an unhandled error. This release adds a workaround that detects and handles the inconsistency, restoring normal operation for Vivaldi users.

Special thanks to @wobondar for supporting the project! ❤️

Full changelog on GitHub: v8.1.3 release

A maintenance release with a handful of quality-of-life improvements to the session management page, the suspended tab watermark, and the update banner.

What's new and fixed​

Session export filename includes the date​

When you export your session from the Session Management page, the downloaded file now includes the current date in its name. This makes it much easier to keep track of multiple backups without manually renaming files.

Suspended tab version watermark​

The suspended tab page now displays the TMS version number as a subtle watermark. This small addition makes it easier to identify which version was running when users share screenshots in bug reports.

Update banner is now clickable​

The "a new version is available" notification banner is now interactive, clicking it takes you directly to the release page instead of requiring you to navigate there manually.

Session page scroll fix​

Links within the Session Management page no longer cause the page to jump back to the top when clicked.

Whitelist test button refactored​

The "Test whitelist" function has been cleaned up internally for more reliable pattern matching.

Other changes​

• Localization updates via Crowdin
• Dependency bump: js-yaml patched for a security advisory

Full changelog on GitHub: v8.1.2 release

A focused patch release that fixes the annoying "new version available" banner showing up repeatedly even after TMS was already up to date.

What's fixed​

Update banner false positives​

An issue introduced in 8.1.0 caused TMS to show the "a newer version is available" notification even when the extension had already been updated to the latest version. This has been resolved: the banner now correctly compares the installed version against the latest release and only appears when an actual update is available.

Other changes​

• Additional internal fixes found during the update-detection review
• Updated package dependencies and ESLint rules

Full changelog on GitHub: v8.1.1 release

TMS 8.1.0 is a significant feature release. Tab Groups are now a first-class citizen, favicons are more reliable, and the suspended tab page can now follow your OS theme automatically.

What's new​

Tab Group support​

TMS will now save and restore your Tab Groups across version upgrades and session save/restore operations. Groups are preserved with their names and colors. This was the most requested feature since the MV3 rewrite.

Automatic theme​

A new System option has been added to the theme selector in Settings → General. When selected, the suspended tab page follows your operating system's light/dark preference automatically. The existing Light and Dark options remain.

More suspend intervals​

The "Suspend automatically after" dropdown now includes additional minute-level options, giving more fine-grained control over how quickly inactive tabs are suspended.

Favicon reliability​

Several improvements to favicon fetching and caching make the icon shown on suspended tab pages more consistent, especially in Chromium-based browsers like Vivaldi.

Session Manager shortcut​

A dedicated quick-access button to the Session Management page has been added to the extension popup, so you can reach your saved sessions without opening the full settings.

Other fixes and changes​

• Removed cookies permission (no longer needed)
• Fixed TypeError: undefined crash in tab queue handling
• Removed leftover console.log from the content script
• Added extension icon images to web_accessible_resources for Vivaldi compatibility
• Various Crowdin localization updates

Full changelog on GitHub: v8.1.0 release

The biggest TMS update in years: a complete rewrite to Manifest V3. After a long wait and a lot of work by the community, the extension is now fully compatible with the modern Chrome extension platform.

What's changed​

Manifest V3 migration​

The entire background processing layer has been rewritten as a service worker (background.js), replacing the persistent background page required by Manifest V2. This brings TMS in line with Google's current extension requirements and ensures continued availability on the Chrome Web Store.

New and changed permissions​

The permission set has been updated to match what Manifest V3 requires and allows:

The cookies permission has been removed (scroll position migration from older versions is no longer needed).

Other improvements​

• Sanity checks added across tab logic to handle edge cases more gracefully
• Tab group data is now included in session recovery storage
• SVG page fix: document.body is no longer accessed on SVG tabs, preventing a TypeError
• Various localization updates via Crowdin

Minimum Chrome version​

TMS 8.x requires Chrome 110 or later.

Full changelog on GitHub: 8.0.0.0 release

Had I lost hope? I'll admit it, yeah, pretty much completely. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I finally saw a light at the end of that tunnel.

Rob is the guy behind The Great-er Tab Discarder, itself a fork of an older, seemingly abandoned project, another extension born out of the need to fix a gap that often makes Chrome unusable in the long run (especially when you're juggling hundreds of open tabs). When Rob took an interest in TMS and decided to take on the challenge of making it compatible with the more limited Manifest V3, I saw an opportunity. I reached out to him, and together with a third person from Google, we kicked off a group chat to start connecting the dots and try to make the leap.

The result? It's publicly available here: github.com/gioxx/MarvellousSuspender/pull/253 (now merged with the original repository), a pull request that includes a pretty much rewritten version of TMS for Manifest V3. A 1:1 migration of what's under the hood in the current TMS just isn't possible.

What we need now is a pool of users willing to test this new version of TMS, help us figure out what's still missing, what kinds of issues might come up across different environments, systems, and setups, and what needs to be fixed right away before we publish it on the Chrome Web Store. Only then can we reach all users again and start the (long) journey toward improvements and new features, aiming to finally hit full feature parity, something we're still missing today.

A few quick but essential tips before taking the leap. If you're thinking of joining the testing community for the new version of TMS, I strongly recommend you:

• Save the current state of your open tabs in Chrome.
  TMS (the version currently available) lets you create a full backup, which you can export and keep safe.
• Wake up all your tabs (or pick and choose which ones you want to keep active in the browser, you can always reopen the others later). Try to streamline things as much as you can, so the transition to the new version of TMS is smoother.
• Install the new version of TMS.
  Clone the repo to your PC (or download the full ZIP and extract it), enable Developer Mode in Chrome (chrome://extensions/), then hit the Load unpacked button and select the folder where you saved the files from the repo. You have to load only the src subfolder. At that point, you'll be running the new version of TMS, compatible with Google's Manifest V3, and it'll be back to managing your tabs like before.

What you'll see looks familiar, same interface you're used to, nothing seems to have changed. But under the hood, it's a whole different engine.

Just a quick reminder: using the Load unpacked option won't overwrite your current TMS installation. Chrome treats the new Manifest V3-compatible version as a completely separate extension, so there's no need to uninstall your current TMS, both versions can run side by side.

That's why we suggest:

• Keep your current TMS installed, but set the automatic suspension to Never.
• Set up the new version to handle tab suspension.

This way, you'll be able, if you want, to wake up your older tabs and suspend them again using the new version.

Thanks a ton to everyone willing to test, break things, and share thoughts, this kind of support is what keeps open source alive and kicking.