How to Save All Open Tabs in Firefox (2026): Every Native Method, Extension, and Workaround

By Kshetez Vinayak, founder of SupaSidebar. Last updated May 12, 2026.

The fastest way to save every open tab in Firefox is the keyboard shortcut ⌘⇧D on Mac or Ctrl+Shift+D on Windows and Linux, which bookmarks every tab in the active Firefox window into a new folder. Per Mozilla's bookmarks documentation, the shortcut is window-scoped, not browser-scoped, which is the single biggest gotcha cross-window users hit. Firefox also has five other ways to save tabs: right-click → Select All Tabs → Bookmark Tabs (subset-friendly), Session Restore (auto-reopen previous session), Firefox Sync (across signed-in devices), Multi-Account Containers (per-context tab graveyards), and Profiles (entirely separate tab worlds). The full breakdown, sync limits, the add-on landscape, the session-file crash-recovery path, and the cross-browser gap none of them close are below.

Quick navigation:

• All browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge)? → How to save all open tabs (the pillar)
• Chrome specifically? → How to save all open tabs in Chrome
• Best extension across browsers? → Best tab saver extensions 2026 (publishing soon)
• Tab session managers in depth? → Tab Session Manager guide (publishing soon)
• Firefox vs Chrome on Mac? → Safari vs Chrome on Mac in 2026

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The six native ways Firefox saves tabs

Firefox has more save-tabs options than Chrome and most users only know one of them. Each one is good at a different job. Picking the wrong one is how tabs end up lost.

1. Bookmark All Tabs (⌘⇧D / Ctrl+Shift+D)

The fastest method. Press the shortcut in any Firefox window and Firefox opens the "New Bookmark" dialog asking for a folder name and a parent location in the Bookmarks Toolbar, Bookmarks Menu, or Other Bookmarks tree. Every tab in that window goes into the new folder. Per Mozilla's bookmarks documentation, this is the canonical "save every tab" flow.

Three things this method does NOT do:

• It is window-scoped, not browser-scoped. Tabs in other Firefox windows are not included. To save all tabs across all open Firefox windows, merge them first (drag tabs from one window into another, or use an extension that merges windows) or save each window separately.
• It does not save scroll position, form data, or session cookies. It saves URLs and titles. Opening the bookmark folder later opens fresh page loads. Forms-in-progress are gone.
• It does not preserve tab-group membership, container assignment, or pinned-tab state. Pinned tabs become regular bookmarks. Container-assigned tabs lose the container link. Tab-group color and name are not stored on the bookmark folder.

The non-shortcut path: right-click any tab → Bookmark All Tabs…. Same result.

2. Select All Tabs → Bookmark Tabs (subset-friendly)

The right-click method, useful when only some of the open tabs need saving. The flow:

1. Right-click any tab → Select All Tabs
2. ⌘-click (Mac) or Ctrl-click (Windows/Linux) the tabs you want to deselect
3. Right-click any selected tab → Bookmark Tabs

This is the only native method that supports saving a subset of open tabs without first closing the unwanted ones. Per Mozilla's tab management documentation, Select All Tabs is the entry point to every multi-tab action - close, mute, pin, reload, move to new window - not just bookmarking.

3. Session Restore (auto-reopen previous session)

The hands-off option. Settings → General → Startup → Open previous windows and tabs. Per Mozilla's session restore documentation, enabling this makes Firefox reopen every tab and window from the previous session every time it launches. It is also the recovery path after a crash, surfacing as the "Restore Previous Session" item under the Application Menu (☰) → History.

This is not exactly saving tabs. It is delaying their disappearance. Caveats:

• A force-quit, system crash, or kernel panic can interrupt the session write. Firefox writes session state on graceful shutdown and at intervals while running, but a crash can leave the session file mid-write. The recovery section below covers what to do when this happens.
• Closing all Firefox windows manually wipes the session in some configurations. If "Ask to save tabs and windows when quitting" is disabled, closing the last window can lose the session even with Session Restore enabled.
• Profile-scoped, not Mozilla-account-scoped. This setting applies to the local Firefox profile. Multiple profiles each have their own session state.

4. Firefox Sync (across signed-in devices)

Firefox Sync is the cross-device save. Per Mozilla's Firefox Sync documentation, signing in to a Mozilla account and enabling Sync (Settings → Sync) syncs the per-category controls under Settings → Sync → Sync Settings:

The categories that matter for save-tabs:

• Bookmarks - sync across devices. This includes folders created by Bookmark All Tabs.
• Open tabs - this is the "Tabs from other devices" feature. It surfaces tabs currently open in other signed-in Firefoxes under Library → Synced Tabs. It does NOT push saved tabs.
• History - syncs across devices, which is how the address-bar history recall stays consistent.
• Logins, Add-ons, Settings - sync but irrelevant to tab saving.

What does NOT sync, even with Sync turned on: tab-group membership (when tab groups are in the build), container-tab assignments, scroll position, form data, pinned-tab pinned-state, session cookies.

For users signed in to Firefox on multiple Macs, this means: bookmark all tabs from the work MacBook into a folder → that folder appears on the home iMac when it syncs. URLs reopen on demand. Containers and groups don't follow.

5. Multi-Account Containers (per-context tab graveyards)

Firefox is the only major browser with native isolated containers. The Multi-Account Containers extension - shipped by Mozilla, not a third party - lets tabs run in isolated cookie/login contexts (Personal, Work, Shopping, Banking). Per the Mozilla Add-ons listing, container-assigned tabs keep their logins, cookies, and storage walled off from each other.

For save-tabs specifically, containers change the math:

• Each container is effectively a separate tab world. A Work container with 10 Notion tabs and a Personal container with 8 YouTube tabs are not one stack of 18 - they are two stacks that happen to share a window.
• Bookmark All Tabs does NOT preserve container assignments. Saving every tab into a bookmark folder strips the container metadata. Reopening the bookmarks puts every URL in the default (no container) context.
• Container Bookmarks (the add-on from the Multi-Account Containers team) restores the container link on bookmarks, so saved tabs reopen in the right container. This is the workaround for users who actually depend on containers.

A common Reddit pattern in r/firefox: someone bookmarks 40 container-assigned tabs, restarts Firefox, opens the bookmark folder, and everything reopens in the default context. Logins are gone, cookies are mixed, the whole point of containers is broken. Container Bookmarks fixes this.

6. Profiles (entirely separate tab worlds)

The nuclear option. Per Mozilla's profile manager documentation, Firefox supports multiple profiles via the Profile Manager (about:profiles). Each profile has its own bookmarks, history, sessions, extensions, and Sync account.

The trap: profile separation feels like the answer to multi-context tab management, but it doubles the save-tabs problem. Each profile has its own session state. Each profile has its own bookmarks. Each profile has its own Sync. Saving tabs from one profile does not save tabs from another. Recovering one profile after a crash does not recover the others.

Practical advice: profiles are right for one specific case - sharing a Mac with another person, or running an entirely separate "work Firefox" and "personal Firefox" with no shared bookmarks or history. For everything else, containers are lighter-weight and don't fragment the save-tabs flow.

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The window vs profile vs sync vs container confusion (Firefox-specific)

Firefox has four scopes for tab data and they get conflated all the time. Knowing which one a save-tabs method operates on is the difference between safely saved tabs and tabs that quietly disappeared.

⌘⇧D saves at window scope. Session Restore restores at profile scope. Bookmarks upload at sync scope. Containers operate within profile scope but are not synced.

The trap: someone opens Firefox on Profile A, has 30 tabs across 4 containers, presses ⌘⇧D in the active window, saves a folder, switches Macs, comes back to the same Mozilla account, finds the bookmarks synced but the containers gone. They blame Firefox Sync. The actual problem: container assignment is not part of Sync, and Bookmark All Tabs does not preserve container metadata.

Practical rules:

• Saving a single moment of work? ⌘⇧D in each window, or right-click → Bookmark All Tabs. Window-scoped.
• Saving across devices? Sign in to a Mozilla account and enable Bookmarks sync. Profile + sync scope.
• Saving container-assigned tabs? Install Container Bookmarks alongside Multi-Account Containers, then bookmark. Otherwise the container link is lost.
• Switching between sharply isolated contexts? Use separate profiles, not separate containers. Profile scope.

Cross-browser users (Firefox + Safari, or Firefox + Chrome) get a fifth scope nobody talks about: cross-browser scope. Firefox cannot save Safari's tabs and Safari cannot save Firefox's. That's a separate problem with a separate solution, covered below.

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Firefox Sync: what actually syncs

Firefox Sync is more nuanced than the on/off toggle suggests. Per Mozilla's Sync settings documentation, the per-data-type controls live at Settings → Sync → Sync Settings.

Two specific points trip up save-tabs workflows:

For tab persistence across devices in Firefox specifically, the working flow is: bookmark on device A → Sync propagates the bookmark folder to device B → open the folder on device B as tabs. Indirect but reliable.

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The Firefox add-on landscape (May 2026)

Firefox's native save-tabs methods cover the obvious cases. The Firefox Add-ons store has dozens of extensions that cover the rest. Five worth knowing for save-tabs specifically:

Tab Session Manager

The auto-backup option. Per the Tab Session Manager Firefox listing, it saves the entire session on a schedule (every 5 minutes, every hour, etc.) and on window close. Free version is local. Paid cloud sync syncs sessions across devices and across browsers (cross-browser via the Chrome version of the same extension).

Use case: crash paranoia. Firefox's built-in Session Restore is generally reliable, but on systems with frequent kernel panics or force-quits, Tab Session Manager's hourly snapshots are insurance. The next crash loses one hour of tabs instead of the entire session.

Differentiator from Chrome's equivalent: Tab Session Manager on Firefox supports auto-saving on container changes, which matters for users with heavy container workflows.

Tab Stash

The save-and-close model. Per the Tab Stash Firefox listing, one click stashes every open tab as bookmarks in a chosen folder, then closes the tabs. Tabs become "stashed" - out of the active tab strip, still saveable.

Use case: 80+ open tabs that nobody is actually using right now but that should not be lost. Tab Stash collapses them all to a bookmark folder in one click, freeing RAM and clearing visual clutter. Reopening is one click from the Tab Stash sidebar.

Tab Stash uses Firefox's native bookmarks under the hood, so stashed tabs sync via Firefox Sync. This is meaningful: most "save and close" tools build their own cloud store. Tab Stash piggybacks on Firefox's, which means no extra account.

OneTab (Firefox version)

Per the OneTab Firefox listing, it claims up to 95% memory savings by collapsing every open tab into a single list of links in one tab. Free version is local only. Paid sync ($4.99 one-time per browser) syncs the list across Firefox devices.

Use case: 100+ tabs eating RAM that need to stay reachable as URLs but don't need to stay open. OneTab is one click → all tabs become a list → all RAM freed.

Caveat: OneTab does not preserve tab groups, pinned tabs, container assignments, or window layouts. It flattens everything to a list.

Session Manager (Sessionbox-style, not Session Buddy)

Firefox does not have a Session Buddy equivalent of comparable polish. The closest is Tab Session Manager (above) plus manual exports to JSON via Firefox's places.sqlite backup. For users who tried Session Buddy on Chrome and want the Firefox version, Tab Session Manager covers most of the workflow but with a less-polished UI.

Tree Style Tab + Sidebery (organization, not save)

These are not save-tabs extensions, but they change the save-tabs equation. Per the Sidebery research, Tree Style Tab and Sidebery put tabs in a hierarchical vertical sidebar with drag-to-restructure parent-child grouping. The result is tabs that are easier to find and harder to lose - which means save-tabs becomes less urgent because tabs are not getting buried.

Both are Firefox-only, both are open source, both are free. Sidebery also integrates natively with Multi-Account Containers, which Tree Style Tab does not.

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Comparison: Firefox native vs extensions

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Firefox session crash recovery

Firefox stores session data in files inside the profile directory. When Firefox launches, it reads these files to restore the previous session if Session Restore is enabled. The files are updated while Firefox runs and on graceful shutdown.

When a crash, force-quit, or system kernel panic interrupts Firefox before the final write, the previous session can sometimes be recovered. This is not a guaranteed flow - the file formats are internal to Firefox and behavior changes between versions - but the general approach:

1. Don't open Firefox yet. Firefox will read and rewrite session files on launch. If the previous session is still present in the files, opening Firefox can overwrite them.
2. Quit Firefox completely. Right-click the Firefox icon in the Dock → Quit, or use Activity Monitor → Force Quit on every Firefox process.
3. Navigate to Firefox's profile folder. On Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/<profile-id>.default-release/sessionstore-backups/. On Windows: %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile-id>.default-release\sessionstore-backups\. Per Mozilla's profile folder documentation, these are the canonical profile directory locations.
4. Look for the session files. Files named recovery.jsonlz4, previous.jsonlz4, recovery.baklz4, and upgrade.jsonlz4-<timestamp> are Firefox's session-state snapshots. previous.jsonlz4 generally contains the previous session.
5. Back up the files. Copy them to a separate folder before launching Firefox again.
6. Launch Firefox. If Session Restore is enabled, Firefox will attempt to restore from recovery.jsonlz4 first, falling back to previous.jsonlz4 if recovery is missing or corrupt.

The .jsonlz4 format is Mozilla's lz4-compressed JSON. Tools like dennisschwartz/lz4json and various web-based decompressors can read these files outside Firefox if recovery from inside the app fails.

This is best-effort recovery. The reliable answer for users who hit crashes regularly is to install Tab Session Manager and set it to save every 15 minutes. The next crash loses 15 minutes of tabs instead of all of them.

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What none of this solves: cross-browser

Every method above only saves Firefox tabs. A typical Mac user has tabs in two or three browsers at once - Chrome for work (because that's where the company SSO is configured), Safari for personal accounts (Keychain handles the passwords), Firefox for anything they don't want tracked or anything that benefits from containers and uBlock Origin. Three separate tab graveyards.

A Reddit user on r/macapps captured the multi-workflow case: "I use different browser for different workflows like Safari for social media, Chrome for web development, and Firefox for research." Another user posted on r/firefox about 3,800 accumulated tabs because the alternative was losing them when migrating between browsers. A third was blunter: "I hate having bookmarks scattered across 3 different browsers."

Firefox's save-tabs methods don't help here. Even cross-browser extensions like Toast install separately in each browser and sync via the extension's own cloud. The browsers themselves remain isolated.

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The cross-browser approach

One Mac app takes a different approach. SupaSidebar is not a browser and not a Firefox extension. It runs in the menu bar, shows up over whatever browser is active, and keeps tabs and saved links in one place across 25 browsers including Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Arc, Zen, Vivaldi, Brave, Helium, and Dia.

Three SupaSidebar features matter for the save-tabs-from-Firefox question:

There is also Firefox-specific import: per the SupaSidebar release notes, the 0.17.0 build added direct Firefox bookmark import from places.sqlite, so existing Firefox bookmark folders (including any from previous Bookmark All Tabs runs) come over in one step rather than via Chrome as an intermediate.

The combination is what Firefox alone cannot offer: saving Firefox tabs to a target that also holds Safari tabs and Chrome tabs, and seeing all of them in one sidebar regardless of which browser is open.

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Conclusion: Picking what to use for saving Firefox tabs

The fastest universal answer for Firefox-only users is ⌘⇧D on Mac or Ctrl+Shift+D on Windows, which bookmarks every tab in the current window into a folder. For everything beyond that, the choice depends on what's actually breaking.

Different reader segments need different answers:

• Firefox-only users on one device: Native ⌘⇧D plus enable Settings → General → Startup → Open previous windows and tabs. Covers 95% of save-tabs needs without installing anything.
• Firefox-only users with containers: Multi-Account Containers + Container Bookmarks. Without Container Bookmarks, every saved tab loses its container assignment.
• Firefox-only users with 80+ open tabs: Tab Stash for save-and-close into Firefox's native bookmarks (syncs free), or Sidebery if the actual problem is tabs becoming impossible to find.
• Firefox-only users worried about crashes: Tab Session Manager on a 15-minute auto-save schedule. The next crash loses 15 minutes.
• Firefox users who also use Safari, Chrome, or Arc: Cross-browser save-tabs is a different problem. The two options worth trying are Toast (real-time sync extension across Chrome/Safari/Firefox/Edge/Opera) and SupaSidebar (a Mac sidebar across 25 browsers with a single save-all-tabs shortcut and Live Tabs visibility).
• Memory-management focus: Firefox already loads tabs lazily after restart - this is why the r/firefox user with 3,800 accumulated tabs stayed usable. If RAM is still a problem, Auto Tab Discard (Firefox version) frees memory from inactive tabs without losing them.

For multi-browser users on Mac, SupaSidebar's free tier is worth trying since it includes Save All Browser Tabs (⌘⌃T), Live Tabs across every running browser, and 3 Spaces for context separation. For the universal cross-browser version of this guide, see How to save all open tabs.

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Why we recommend SupaSidebar for cross-browser save-tabs workflows

SupaSidebar is a macOS app that brings Arc's sidebar to every browser - one sidebar for tabs, bookmarks, files, and apps across 25 browsers including Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Arc, Zen, Vivaldi, Brave, Helium, and Dia. For Firefox users specifically, four features matter: Save All Browser Tabs (⌘⌃T) saves every open Firefox tab into a folder that also holds tabs saved from other browsers, Live Tabs shows currently-open Firefox tabs alongside tabs from every other running browser in real time, direct Firefox bookmark import pulls existing Firefox bookmarks from places.sqlite in one step, and Spaces separate work and personal contexts with one keystroke. The free tier includes all four features plus 3 Spaces. macOS 13+ required.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Written by Kshetez Vinayak, founder of SupaSidebar. Last updated May 12, 2026. SupaSidebar is a Mac app that brings Arc's sidebar to every browser - one sidebar for tabs, bookmarks, files, and apps across 25 browsers including Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Arc, Zen, Vivaldi, Brave, Helium, and Dia.