Safari Tech Preview 126 - Tab groups not saved/synced

When using STP 126 on both Monterey beta 1 & Big Sur 11.4, a 'tab group' created in STP is not saved (ie if browser restarts it's gone), nor does it appear to be synced across to iOS or Safari 15 (either direction).

There's no indication in the release notes this is intentional.

Does anyone have even saving working, let alone sync? The tab groups are a wonderful idea - I played with them for a while on Monterey but need my main dev box on Big Sur for now, so was hoping STP would keep me happy :-)

Also raised a feedback: FB9219350

Post not yet marked as solved Up vote post of planetf1 Down vote post of planetf1
6.7k views
Posted by
planetf1
Reply

  • I actually have the opposite issue: I've created several tab groups during Monterey beta and now those tab groups and the tabs within them are stuck in that initial version and I cannot update them anymore. I close a tab and quit Safari, next time I open it it's back where it was. I move tabs into the default tab group (did this with all tab groups), next time I start Safari the tab groups are back there, closed tabs reappear, newly opened tabs disappear. I cannot get Safari to save the tab and tab group setup no matter what - tried deleting cookies, history, local storage...

    —
    dsecareanu

  • This sounds exactly like what I experienced when I updated to Safari Version 15.3 (16612.4.3, 16612).. I could delete a group (or several) and even if hours had passed, as soon as I open up a new webpage (or tab), they ALL reappear. There doesn’t appear to be any way of going back to a previous version of Safari. I would like to delete Safari prefs to go back to no Tab Groups. I can export (& later import) Bookmarks if necessary.

    —
    cybermice

  • I can confirm that the groups are not saved. Example: Use case 1:

    put 2-3 links in any tab group.then try to close 1 tab in the above tab groupswitch to another tab group

    -switch back to the previous tab group where you deleted the tab from Expected:

    the removed tab should be removed

    Actual:

    the removed tab group is still restored like no close tab action have been performed...
    —
    orbanbotond
Add a Comment

Replies

Unfortunately this makes them rather useless for me for now as my lovely curated groups all disappear on exit :-(

I get it's good to get the idea out there for devs to test, so maybe the rest isn't ready yet, but a release note reference would have helped if so.

Posted by
planetf1
Post not yet marked as solved Up vote reply of planetf1 Down vote reply of planetf1
Add a Comment

I confirm that saving tab groups does not work on STP 126 in Big Sur. Actually, this is main reason for me to use new Safari. Please fix this problem.

Posted by
cepxuo
Up vote reply of cepxuo Down vote reply of cepxuo
Add a Comment

I also submitted feedback to this effect.

Equally, I don't seem to be able to open bookmark folders as tab groups, which I was hoping would be an adequate interim work around.

Can't even pin tabs anymore, so hopefully it's just an early preview oversight?

Posted by
pkolyvas
Post not yet marked as solved Up vote reply of pkolyvas Down vote reply of pkolyvas
Add a Comment

I've just tried STP 127 hoping this might be fixed - but now I can't see tab groups at all - indeed other design changes found in 126 appear to have gone

Posted by
planetf1
Post not yet marked as solved Up vote reply of planetf1 Down vote reply of planetf1

  • I just got a shock noticing the same and that is precisely what brought me here! All functionality related to Tab Groups seems to have disappeared in STP 127

    —
    DetourToNirvana
Add a Comment

I installed the Monterey Public Beta today and the tab groups are working for me in that environment, but still not in Big Sur.

Posted by
DanAW
Up vote reply of DanAW Down vote reply of DanAW
Add a Comment

I also have updated today to 127 on Big Sur and don't see any sign of Tab Groups there.

Posted by
cepxuo
Post not yet marked as solved Up vote reply of cepxuo Down vote reply of cepxuo

  • I was excited to test tab groups on Big Sur, and it's not showing in 127. They have removed?

    —
    Gauthamram

  • Confirmed as well, 127 has removed Tab Groups from it. Maybe that is a good sign that Apple acknowledges the issue and is working it.

    —
    DanAW

  • I also can confirm that the tab group is not available in 127. hope to get it back soon.

    —
    MoeenS
Add a Comment

The release notes for STP 127 and STP 128 explicitly say:

Note: Tab Groups do not sync in this release.

The release notes of the latest STP 129 don't note anything regarding Tab Groups, but considering they're not syncing I would assume that this simply has not been implemented yet.

Posted by
fsaenger
Up vote reply of fsaenger Down vote reply of fsaenger
Add a Comment

For anyone coming from Google, as of the release version (Version 15.0 (16612.1.29.41.4, 16612)), Tab Groups still do not sync reliably and they randomly disappear, so don't invest too much time creating them because they'll just go away at a moment's notice.

Posted by
tysonmote
Post not yet marked as solved Up vote reply of tysonmote Down vote reply of tysonmote
Add a Comment

Tab Groups disappeared on Safari Quit. I spent 4 hours organizing Tab Groups and they just disappeared. This means the open tabs I had converted to Tab Groups are now gone, vanished.

Fortunately, I used SessionRestore macOS app and have retained my original tabs, but I will have to start over again and reorganize. This is likely 8 hours lost.

This was NOT a beta version > Safari Public Release Version 15.0 (16612.1.29.41.4, 16612)

Posted by
Jasmer
Post not yet marked as solved Up vote reply of Jasmer Down vote reply of Jasmer
Add a Comment

Wanted to confirm this problem still persists in the final public release.

Posted by
crash7
Up vote reply of crash7 Down vote reply of crash7
Add a Comment

The problem is still present in Safari Version 15.0 (16612.1.29.41.4, 16612)

But with a twist... between my iOS and iPadOS devices the tab groups get synced perfectly. All groups, all tabs, nice.

On the macOS version Safari there is only one tab group (the first one on my other devices) and it contains only one website. So.. some kind of sync is happening obviously.. not to one we are expecting though.

Unchecking / checking Safari in my iCloud account settings results in the same tab group with only one website in it..

At least my iOS / iPadOS devices don't care about the Macs and keep all the tab groups + websites. Won't use Safari on Mac until this is fixed I guess..

Posted by
fabianmay
Post not yet marked as solved Up vote reply of fabianmay Down vote reply of fabianmay
Add a Comment

I can confirm this. Safari Version 15.0 (16612.1.29.41.4, 16612) It is an erratic behaviour because I was able to save 4 tab groups and those are still being saved when I make changes to them. However, any new tab group I create is gone after closing Safari. Additionally I have noticed that there is often a Safari window 'Untitled' that is visible from the Window menu but not accessible.

Posted by
ppdc
Up vote reply of ppdc Down vote reply of ppdc
Add a Comment

I just noticed the same problem is still present on macOS 12.0.1 with Safari Version 15.1 (17612.2.9.1.20).

Posted by
tadija
Post not yet marked as solved Up vote reply of tadija Down vote reply of tadija
Add a Comment

I have the same issue, if I delete a tab group on safari 15.2 (17612.3.6.1.6) on macOS 12.1 , It immediately sync back. It also shows up 2 times.. so I have for example 2 folders with the same content. Tried removing them both first the first secondly the second, all syncs back. No clue which is the master. Should try to do it on my iPad or iPhone and see what the outcome is on that.

Posted by
JimmyBaeyens
Post not yet marked as solved Up vote reply of JimmyBaeyens Down vote reply of JimmyBaeyens
Add a Comment

I just had all tab groups made this week lost after the app store required a Safari update and reopen. No way to recover?

Posted by
Crayzbrian
Up vote reply of Crayzbrian Down vote reply of Crayzbrian
Add a Comment