Extension not seeing tabs in deselected workspaces

[subaieyazeed]

Preliminary Checks

• [x] I have read and understood the important section above.
• [x] I have searched existing issues and avoided creating duplicates.
• [x] I am not filing an enhancement request.
• [x] I have checked that this issue cannot be reproduced on Mozilla Firefox.
• [x] I have checked that this issue can be reproduced once I removed all my Mods and Custom CSS.

What happened?

The extension is called "Tab Session Manager" it's a popular extension along with other similar ones, it auto saves sessions and tabs periodically and you can reopen them later, I found that it only recognizes and saves the open tabs and windows in the active visible workspaces only. I provided examples:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/9a4e0eba-98cb-488c-a154-bc9b5ce0f1f6

As you can see, it only saves the visible workspaces.

Expected behavior

All tabs including the invisible ones in the deselected workspaces should be saved and recognizable by extentions.

Actual behavior

The extention only recognizes the visible tabs in the selected active workspaces only.

Steps to reproduce

1- Use an extension that interacts with tabs or sessions to manage them, in provided example the extention is called "Tab Session Manager" it's one of the most used extentions for Firefox. 2- Open tabs in two different workspaces on the same window. 3- Select one of the workspaces. 4- Test the extension functionality. 5- The extension will not correctly recognize the tabs in the currently deselected workspace.

Screenshots and videos

The video was included in the first post and this is it again:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/9a4e0eba-98cb-488c-a154-bc9b5ce0f1f6

Version

1.12.10b (Firefox 139.0.1) (64-bit) AUR Arch Linux.

What platform are you seeing the problem on?

Linux (Tarball), Other

What component is this issue related to?

Extensions

Relevant log output if applicable

[jasiralavi]

I noticed something similar with Tab Switch extension. It helps to quickly switch tabs (yes, I work with a lot of them open). I was hoping this was part of the browser experience. I had reported in their github issues.

I've been using Zen browser for some time now and this extension has been working amazingly well. But recently (maybe after some recent Zen browser update that involved workspaces) I noticed that the extension only lists tabs from the current workspace.

• Only Tabs from the Current Workspace (in the current window) is shown
• If I switch to a different workspace, then it shows tabs only from that (not from the one before or others)
• If I have two windows open with 2 different workspaces, then it lists tabs from both, but only from the active workspaces on them.
• In other words, tabs from hidden workspaces are not listed and cannot be searched.

Everything else — from search to filter and even switching to tabs on other windows are working correcly.

Hope you can get this fixed so that we can switch to tabs on any workspace. If that was not intended, then at least you could make that an option.

I'm using this on Firefox and Zen browsers on Ubuntu 25.04 (with Gnome, Wayland)

I also noticed that searching for Tabs from the address bar doesn't work properly. It even lists tabs from other synced (firefox) browsers, but not tabs from the zen browser that is active!

[jasiralavi]

I tested this a little more and found that searching 'Tabs' does list and show the tabs (switch to tab option), but only if they are not in a container. Tabs that are active and open in container (container tabs) are not listed. Also, showing tabs from other synced browsers is not a priority, we could just make it optional. What makes sense to be is being able to list tabs currently open (loaded or unloaded).

Note that the tabs with blue indicators are open in a container tabs.

I also which there was an easier way to search and open tabs (similar to 'tab search' extension, but a built-in feature). I currently use Tab Search with Alt+A shortcut to quickly activate it and search. The current equal in Zen/Firefox is Ctrl+L to activate address bar, then Shift+5 (i.e. %) to activate 'Tabs'. I think this can be quickly achieved by creating a shortkey each for Tabs, History, and Bookmarks (similar to Ctrl+K and Ctrl+J shortcuts for directly opening search.

[YaYaTurre]

Having same issue with Tabs Session Manager on Sequoia 15.5. Can add that in past, the extension would save all tabs from all workspaces in Zen.

[jasiralavi]

This bug is affecting Zen's core functionalities not just the extensions. As I mentioned, if you Ctrl+L to activate address bar, then Shift+5 (i.e. %) to activate 'Tabs' filter and search, only tabs from current workspace and those not in any container are shown!

[Propheticus]

Strange, I do see tabs from containers (and also other workspaces):

[dosubot[bot]]

Hi, @subaieyazeed. I'm Dosu, and I'm helping the desktop team manage their backlog and am marking this issue as stale.

Issue Summary:

• You reported that the "Tab Session Manager" extension on Firefox 139.0.1 (Linux) only saves tabs from the active workspace, ignoring others.
• Other users confirmed similar problems with tab visibility and search across workspaces and containers.
• The issue affects core usability, including Zen browser's tab search functionality.
• Some users report inconsistent behavior, with tabs from containers and other workspaces sometimes appearing.
• The problem remains unresolved and impacts workspace tab management.

Next Steps:

• Please let me know if this issue is still relevant with the latest version of the desktop repository by commenting here.
• If I don’t hear back within 7 days, I will automatically close this issue.

Thank you for your understanding and contribution!