Save Firefox Tab Session: How to Close All Tabs and Restore Them Later

Firefox's default session restore (from about:preferences → Startup) reopens all tabs from the previous session. This is useful for crashes but it does not solve the problem of intentionally closing a context and restoring it later.

Here is how to save a named set of tabs and restore them on demand.

The problem session restore does not solve

Firefox's built-in restore opens the entire previous session. It does not let you:

• Save multiple named contexts simultaneously
• Close one project's tabs while keeping others open
• Restore a specific saved context weeks later

For this, you need a session management extension.

Tab Manager and Session Saver

Tab Manager and Session Saver adds session save and restore to Firefox.

How to save a tab session:

1. Open the tabs you want to save
2. Click the extension icon in the Firefox toolbar
3. Click "Save current session"
4. Name the session ("Research for X," "Project spec," etc.)

How to restore a tab session:

1. Click the extension icon
2. Find the saved session
3. Click "Restore"

All saved tabs reopen.

Multiple sessions

You can save any number of sessions. Each is stored independently with its name. Use cases:

• Context switching: "Client A tabs," "Client B tabs" — close one, open another
• Project phases: "Planning phase," "Build phase," "Review" — each with different reference tabs
• Weekly recurring work: "Monday report tabs" — restore every Monday

How sessions are stored

Sessions save to Firefox's local extension storage. They are:

• Not synced across devices
• Not backed up to any server
• Persistent across browser restarts (unless Firefox's extension data is cleared)

Keyboard shortcut

The extension can be triggered via Firefox's extension keyboard shortcut. Set a custom shortcut in about:addons → Extensions → Tab Manager → Keyboard shortcut.

Install Tab Manager and Session Saver for Firefox

Tab Manager is one of 11 Firefox extensions I built — see the full series.