Instant Tab Sync between Computers

[xanthos84]

Hi everyone,

I love the idea of zen browser, and i can see how far this can go in some years!
I am one of the "ARC switchers" and I am missing my instant sync feature of all open tabs to my browser between all my computers.
If you switch from one device to another, its so handy to have your complete "session" with all open tabs and workspaces ready to work on.

And as there are no other browsers around with that feature beside ARC, it would be a huge USP for Zen in my opinion.

[Hary309]

Yeah, this is very weird arc was the first to come up with this idea.

[Gamedirection]

Tab Session Manager has been a good work around for myself.

[Gamedirection]

https://floccus.org/ has also been a great solution if you utilize Nextcloud at all too.

[friendywill]

Probably naive solution

From what I understand, if this feature was implemented, the pain point of workspaces not syncing to Firefox mobile (I understand that the synchronised tab feature exists, but the workspace organisation of tabs, pinned tabs and favourites does not) still exists.

So, why not have a reserved bookmark folder for the Zen Browser? Here is what I am thinking:

• Prefix a top-level bookmark folder with zen:
• Suffix this bookmark folder with ${Profile}
• Each folder contains a ${workspace} folder, and their respective tabs.

Zen would then detect, and deal with this accordingly, then hiding the bookmarks in the bookmark bar prefixed with zen: (I am unsure if this is problematic). This would require a diff like system between the synchronised bookmarks and the state of the workspaces, at least, in theory.

This would alleviate, and mitigate some pain points with the sync feature suggestion:

• Their would be, at the very least, another way to access your pinned tabs on mobile. (Synchronised tabs seems to work temperamentally for me)
• You will only have to sign into Mozilla to have these particular items synchronised.

I am not sure if modifying user bookmarks is touching on a sensitive topic for some, so obviously something like this would have to be an optional setting.

Other potential advantages:

• Settings synchronisation, where another tab named after a reserved string could be used. That tab will contain some URL, eg https://zen-browser.app/users?=${USERID}. Once the tab is recgonized by Zen, it will open that URL, which will have Mozilla SSO authentication to protect the contents. No config file to worry about.
• Future support for folders and sub-folders, where workspaces could have tab folders and tab sub-folders and it would translate well into the bookmark. Currently, subfolders in the bookmarks (representing workspaces) could just be handled by ignoring sub-folders but including their respective tabs in the workspace.
• Future support for trees, where subfolders could just have empty names.

I am not a full-time developer, so if someone could please tell me if this would be difficult to implement, because at the surface it seems like an easy option.

[FancyFurret]

I would love if this was implemented

[Alintya]

Currently my biggest pain point as an arc switcher myself (well, besides firefox/gecko having countless issues due to everything being made for chromium).

[the-ult]

Yeah, same here.
Really would like to switch to Zen. But having too many issues.

• Sites not working properly
• settings/short-cuts sometimes working and the next day not anymore
• 1password not being unlocked (although zen browser is added to the allowed browsers in 1password)
  • although this might be a 1password problem..

But the main thing, might be the (missing) of the auto-sync of my open tabs. Loving that about Arc

[Woofer21]

Bumping this! Missing my tabs and sessions syncing between my mac and pc :(

[barrymichaeldoyle]

Another week another bump :) It would be an absolute game changer if I can have instant (or at least near instant syncing between my Mac and PC!

[SCGilbert]

Bumping as well - I'd love to make the swap to Zen and this is currently the last hurdle for me to overcome. I'm currently using Chrome's experimental "Tab Groups Save and Sync V2" and "Tab Groups Save UI Update" to do this within chrome/brave/vivaldi and it works sort ofalright. Iirc Arc and Edge are the only browsers available that treated this as a first-class feature, but neither will support Linux/Windows/MacOS together which is (unfortunately) essential for my work.

[SCGilbert]

Coming back to this as I've just found that Edge does actually support Linux now (previously you had to use older versions that were giving me trouble) so that's at least an option now for people in a similar situation as me. Only downside is that now you're on Edge 😏

Zen, pls save me.

[mFontoura]

Just found out this was not a feature after coming home from work and not having my tabs that I organized at work :/

[amitbartfeld]

Bumping this too - it's one of the most important features for me since I constantly switch between my laptop and home PC and I need sync. Until now it was one of the only features I've enjoyed in ARC's Windows version. I've used Chrome's Tab group sync feature which gets the job done but I really want to fully move to Zen.
Hope this feature will be added soon!

[smilingpeanut]

Bumping as well. I thought that Firefox Sync did this so I was excited to try out Zen, but now that I have it set up on both computers, there is no sync and I has a sad.

[omsharp]

Bump!

I just installed Zen and finished organizing my tabs on my desktop, then went to install it on my laptop and found it doesn't sync tabs!! This is a huge deal breaker for me. I was making the move from Arc but without this feature I don't think I can make it.

[jallalcode]

Bumping. I feel like this is really significant to user experience

[Anoms12]

+1

[phendan]

This is the single biggest feature that's currently keeping me stuck on Arc as someone who goes between devices a lot, where manually copying over a bunch of tabs all the time would be a nightmare. As much as Zen's superior performance and active development make switching very tempting, having the browser feel like just a window to my work wherever I happen to be has been incredibly useful and hard to let go of.

I also understand that this is probably one of the more complex features to implement though. It interacts with a lot of other features and there are a bunch of (presumably) non-obvious decisions to be made (around where to sync to and reconciling different sets of tabs). So basically I'm expecting to have to be patient here, but this is currently the feature that would make Zen my daily driver if implemented.

[davidmickelsen]

Giving this another bump. I love Zen, fantastic browser; I would love to be able to sync my tabs and workspaces between devices.

[adelphi23]

Bump! It is my main pain point as I have to switch between Mac and Linux computers at least three times in a regular day. It is just frustrating to keep consistency without a decent automated sync feature.

[UndercoverNerd5]

+1 I think we are all in need of this and it becomes a matter of time until the devs add this in

[freisenhauer]

Also +1. Currently using Arc to sync between mac/windows .. Now i replace my windows with linux and Arc is not supported by linux, so Zen would gain much more attraction if this feature was available.

[heyJordanParker]

I'm all in for this. Definitely the biggest weakness of Zen right now.

[tbreslein]

Another +1. It's quite a hassle to manage my open tabs through bookmarks. It works, sorta, but it's a pain 😅

[Aguiar16]

+1, this is the dealbreaker for me to go full Zen as my main browser :(
I work on various projects and three different machines. If I can't always have the open tabs on whatever PC I'm on, it feels like my brain just melted, and trying to remember what I was doing is frustrating.

edit: typo

[tanaybhomia]

They do it by making users create a Arc account which even led to that Security issues, So I dont think that feature is going to come.

[friendywill]

Yes and connecting to the internet leads to security concerns, why would this security concern lead to not implementing a highly requested feature? Especially when basic security measures could have avoided the issue Arc had?
If people are concerned, make it a toggle with it off by default.
Also, people can more easily catch such defects considering that Zen is open source.

[jamie9090]

I've switched from Arc to Edge for now, but would love to use Zen.

Edge Workspaces is the best I've found so far, and it goes beyond Arc because it also currently works to sync tabs between Android and Mac with some limitations (no tablet support yet).

Would be interested in a Chrome or Firefox implementation if something similar comes.

[martin-braun]

Personally, for now I would be happy to have it sync between my macOS and Linux, both are installed on the same MacBook, both have Syncthing with my phone in the middle. So I don't need any hot sync, but an export/import to a file (automatically) would help me a lot. This is rather attracting to me, because there is no third party involved, but it is a bit of a hassle and not really a solution for the masses. I will share my progress, because it is a mandatory step for me, before I can even begin using Linux as a daily driver.

[Garfounkel]

Thanks for the initiative, please share updates. Also using Syncthing, that would be a suitable solution for me too.

[martin-braun]

@Garfounkel I will, but I am very slow, because I am still on macOS working on things that pay the bills. If I come up with something, I will share ofc. :)

[martin-braun]

@Garfounkel I started my journey in the attempt to write an .stignore for SyncThing. The idea is to move the zen folder in your sync folder while adding the .stignore, which is a negative ignore list (white lising files instead of blacklisting files). You could then symlink it back and Zen would work just fine, which it does.

I found the about:config stuff and extensions + their settings. ZenMods can't be synced, because they contain absolute paths. I found spaces (containers), but neither tab containers nor (pinned) tabs. I guess this stuff is serialized into one of the many sqlite DBs, which makes it a bit tricky to do reliable sync of these, because they are opened and updated during the browser process lifetime and contain possibly more information that is not suitable to sync.

I guess a much better approach might be to build an import/export shell script and run it during sesssion start/stop. It rules hot syncing out, but could work for when you are on one frame at a time, i.e. home pc vs working pc, etc.

If anyone knows in which of the many sqlite files tabs and tab containers are stored, please let me know.

[kameqdev]

Bumping as a former Arc user. It's one of the features I am missing in Zen the most

[Zeroble]

I really want this, too....

[FutureKen]

This should be the most wanted and needed feature, let's do this!!

[Ate329]

I use a dual-boot laptop with NixOS and Windows, and having this feature would greatly simplify my workflow and make switching between different computers much easier. I truly believe most users would appreciate this addition as much as I would. Also, are there any updates on this feature?