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System & recovery pages

Besides the extension's main pages (Settings, Session Management, Backup & Sync, Tab Health, News, About), TMS opens a handful of small, single-purpose pages automatically at specific moments — after an update, after a crash, or when a permission is missing. This page explains what each one is and what to do when you see it.

The suspended tab page​

The page shown in place of every tab TMS suspends (suspended.html). It shows the site's favicon and title, the original URL, and a hint on how to reload it (click anywhere, or use the tab-toggle keyboard shortcut). Its appearance (light/dark, screenshot preview) is controlled from Settings → Suspended Tabs.

A suspended tab, showing the site's favicon, title and original URL

Dark theme:

A suspended tab in dark theme

If you see "This site cannot be reached" on what should be a suspended tab, see My suspended tab says "This site cannot be reached".

Update screens​

When TMS updates itself:

  • Pre-update backup prompt (update.html) — shown before the update is applied, if TMS believes tabs might be at risk. It offers Export backup (saves the current session as a .json file, same as Session Management → Export) and confirms that a recovery restore point was also created automatically, viewable afterwards from Session Management → Recent sessions.
  • Update in progress / completed (updated.html) — shown after the update finishes. While tabs are being restored it shows a progress state; once done, it confirms success and links to Session Management for anything that needs manual attention. For major version updates it may show extra release-specific notes.

You do not need to act on either screen unless something looks wrong — both are informational.

Recovery screen​

recovery.html appears if TMS detects that not all previously-open tabs came back after a browser restart or crash. It lists the tabs it believes are missing and offers:

  • Restore tabs automatically — reopens the listed tabs for you
  • Manage manually — jumps to Session Management so you can pick specific windows/tabs yourself instead

Recovery screen listing the tabs to restore, with "Restore tabs automatically" and "Go to Session Manager" buttons

Once restoration finishes, a success screen confirms all tabs were restored:

Recovery success screen: "Marvellous success! All your tabs have been restored."

If screen capture is enabled, a notice on this screen offers a quick link to disable it — screenshots are the most expensive part of a suspend/restore cycle on very large sessions, so switching it off here can speed up recovery on future restarts.

Restoring-window screen​

restoring-window.html is a brief, no-interaction placeholder shown for a moment while TMS restores an entire window from a saved or recovered session (see Session Management → Reload/Resuspend). It replaces itself automatically once the real tabs finish loading.

"Broken" page​

broken.html appears if TMS's Service Worker cannot start correctly for a given tab (e.g. right after a manual reload of the unpacked extension during development, or a rare corrupted-state case). It offers a Restart extension button and a link to Session Management in case tabs need manual recovery, plus a shortcut to file a GitHub issue if it keeps happening.

Local file permissions page​

permissions.html is what opens when TMS needs to read a file:// URL but Chrome hasn't granted it access — reached via the popup's Grant permission link (see Toolbar popup → Local file permissions). It offers:

  • Export current session — a safety-net backup before you change extension permissions
  • Set file permissions — opens chrome://extensions/?id=<TMS's ID>, where you can toggle Allow access to file URLs yourself (Chrome does not allow extensions to grant this permission programmatically).