TL;DR: Chrome's "Continue where you left off" only restores everything after a crash — no selective save, no memory freeing. Tabbiy saves any tab to a staging list with one click and restores it later with its original URL intact, surviving Chrome restarts, crashes, and machine reboots. Hibernate when you want tabs visible but not consuming RAM.
A browser restart shouldn't mean saying goodbye to your workflow. Whether you're rebooting, closing Chrome for the night, or switching devices, saved tab sessions let you pick up exactly where you left off.
Why "Chrome Restores Tabs" Isn't Enough
Chrome's built-in "Continue where you left off" has real gaps:
- It restores everything, even the 30 tabs you meant to close
- It only survives crashes and restarts — not accidental tab closes
- It's all-or-nothing: you can't restore "just the work session"
For deliberate control over your sessions, you need an explicit save mechanism.
Saving Tabs the Smart Way
Tabbiy's tab saving works from the sidebar:
- Open the sidebar with ALT+D
- Click Save on the toolbar or on individual tabs
- Tabs move to a staging list — stored safely, restored in one click
Saved tabs leave the browser bar entirely, so they free memory and reduce clutter. When you need them back, one click restores every tab, each with its original URL.
Restoring After a Crash or Restart
Because saved tabs live in the staging list, they survive Chrome restarts, crashes, and even machine reboots. Instead of Chrome's all-or-nothing restore, you choose which saved session to bring back.
Hibernation: Save Memory, Keep Context
Saving a tab removes it from your active bar. If you'd rather keep tabs visible but free their memory, use hibernate instead — tabs stay in the sidebar but are unloaded from RAM, and reload when you click them.
The two features combine into a complete workflow:
Pro Tip: Use Rules to Keep Sessions Organized
Pair saving with auto-grouping rules so restored tabs land in the right groups automatically. Your restored session comes back already organized — no re-sorting.
Next Steps
- See Tabbiy vs OneTab for how session restore compares to OneTab's URL lists
- Learn how auto-grouping keeps restored sessions tidy
- Restoring a big session can spike Chrome's RAM — see 7 fixes for high memory usage
- See the full usage guide for save, hibernate, and restore details
- Unlock unlimited custom groups with the Pro plan
- Install Tabbiy and save your first session in seconds