Tab Wrangler
A Chrome & Firefox extension that automatically closes tabs you haven't used in a while so you can focus on the tabs that matter
Installation
- Tab Wrangler for Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/egnjhciaieeiiohknchakcodbpgjnchh
- Tab Wrangler for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tabwrangler/
Features
- The Corral: Stores tabs which have been auto-closed so you can re-open as required.
- Exclude list: Provide the urls or domain names of the sites you never want auto-closed.
- Tab Lock: Pick open tabs to "lock". Locked tabs will not be auto-closed.
- Configurable: Pick how long a tab should be considered ready to close and how many tabs should be open at a minimum.
- Smart: Doesn't autoclose pinned tabs, doesn't close all your tabs, just enough to make your browser usable.
Usage
- Click on the icon next to the URL bar
- Tab Corral
- Stores tabs which have been auto-closed. Restoring tabs with green leaf icons on their right sides will have their full history and scroll positions saved. (Full history restore is limited by the browser to the last 25 closed tabs.)
- Tab Lock
- Selectively lock tabs which you want to stay open.
- See the time remaining before each tab will be checked for auto-closing.
- Options
- Whitelist certain URLs to never be closed.
- Set the amount of time to wait before closing inactive tabs.
- Set the ideal number of tabs to have in your browser.
- Configure keyboard shortcuts.
- Tab Corral
Back up & Restore
You can back up your list of closed tabs as well as the number of tabs Tab Wrangler has closed by using the import/export functionality in the Settings tab.
Back up / Export
- Open Tab Wrangler
- Switch to the Settings tab
- Scroll to Import / Export
- Click Export
Restore / Import
If you previously backed up / exported your list of tabs, follow these steps to restore the list in Tab Wrangler. Note: this will overwrite Tab Wrangler's tabs list; ensure you are not overwriting tabs that you wanted to save.
- Open Tab Wrangler
- Switch to the Settings tab
- Scroll to Import / Export
- Click Import
- Select the file created during back up, it will be named similarly to "TabWranglerExport-6-18-2017.json"
Settings
Tab Wrangler's settings are saved and synced by your browser, like Chrome sync for example, to all of your logged in browser sessions if you have sync enabled. Their possible values and their usages are described in the following table:
| Setting | Default | Possible Values | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
corralTabSortOrder |
null |
null, 'alpha', 'reverseAlpha', 'chrono', 'reverseChrono', 'domain', 'reverseDomain' |
Saved sort order for closed tabs. When null, defaults to 'reverseChrono' |
debounceOnActivated |
true |
Whether to wait 1 second before resetting the active tab's timer | |
filterAudio |
false |
Whether to prevent auto-closing tabs that are playing audio | |
lockedIds |
[] |
Array of tab IDs that have been explicitly locked by the user | |
lockTabSortOrder |
null |
null, 'chrono', 'reverseChrono', 'tabOrder', 'reverseTabOrder' |
Saved sort order for open tabs. When null, defaults to 'tabOrder' |
maxTabs |
1000 |
0 <= maxTabs <= 1000 |
Maximum number of tabs to keep in the tab list |
minTabs |
20 |
0 <= minTabs |
Auto-close tabs only if there are more than this number open |
minutesInactive |
60 |
0 <= minutesInactive |
How much time (+ secondsInactive) before a tab is considered "stale" and ready to close |
paused |
false |
Whether TabWrangler is paused (shouldn't count down) | |
purgeClosedTabs |
false |
Whether to empty the closed tab list when the browser closes | |
secondsInactive |
0 |
0 <= secondsInactive |
How much time (+ minutesInactive) before a tab is considered "stale" and ready to close |
showBadgeCount |
false |
Whether to show the length of the closed tab list as a badge on the URL bar icon | |
theme |
'system' |
'dark', 'light', 'system' |
The color theme to use for Tab Wrangler's popup |
whitelist |
['about:', 'chrome://'] |
Array of patterns to check against. If a tab's URL matches a pattern, the tab is never auto-closed | |
wrangleOption |
'withDupes' |
'exactURLMatch', 'hostnameAndTitleMatch', 'withDupes' |
How to handle duplicate entries in the closed tabs list |
Privacy Policy
Tab Wrangler does not transmit any data about you or your usage of Tab Wrangler. There is no tracking, there are no analytics, and there are no advertisements.
Tab Wrangler does not have nor does it request the ability to read information on the web pages that you visit. Tab Wrangler is able to read the title and current location (the URL) of your tabs but not the content inside those tabs.
Explanation of Requested Permissions
Tab Wrangler's requested permissions are listed in its manifest.json under the
"permissions" key.
"alarms": Allows creation of alarms to periodically check Tab Wrangler's background script that checks for stale tabs is running and healthy."contextMenus": Allows a "Tab Wrangler" menu item when you right click on a webpage that lets you send the tab to the Tab Corral, lock that tab, or lock all tabs on that domain."sessions": Allows Tab Wrangler to read and restore the full history of a tab including enabling the back/forward buttons and your scroll position on the page."storage": Allows Tab Wrangler to sync your Tab Wrangler settings with your browser account and enables saving your closed tabs to your local computer. Note: closed tabs are not synced because the "sync" storage area has only a small amount of storage."tabs": Allows Tab Wrangler to read the title and location of any current tabs as well as close those tabs and open new tabs. This permission does not enable Tab Wrangler to read information on web pages that you visit.
Contributing
Translation
Tab Wrangler's Crowdin Project: the place to contribute and view translations
Tab Wrangler is available in other languages thanks to generous translation help. Any help translating Tab Wrangler is greatly appreciated and can be done via Crowdin. Contributors include the following:
🇨🇳 Chinese (Simplified) by yfdyh000, 🇹🇼 Chinese (Traditional) by ingrid123 and xbddc.ho, 🇫🇷 French by orpheuslummis and bkazez, 🇩🇪 German by johannesfischer, 🇭🇺 Hungarian by kottalovag, 🇮🇩 Indonesian by azhe403, 🇰🇷 Korean by x_nuk, 🇱🇻 Latvian by coool, 🇵🇱 Polish by imjusttony, 🇷🇺 Russian by sdir01 and coool, 🇪🇸 Spanish by julianjaramillo, Tamil by dineshr
Development
Pull requests for bug fixes and features are more than welcome. Please check out the "Developing" section of the CONTRIBUTING doc to see how to get started. Once your code is working and tested, submit a pull request to this primary project and we'll get going.
- Modernized and maintained by ssorallen in 2017
- Rewritten by JacobSingh in 2012
- Original extension and idea by jacktasia in 2010