Auto-closing inactive tabs

[vr7bd]

I usually have a lot of tabs open and I am really bad at managing them. I used to use Arc for this as it closed inactive tabs after a certain duration.
I'm aware that there is a way to unload tabs. While this is a good solution in terms of memory, the UI becomes a mess as it there are lot of tabs open.
I tried installing Tab Wrangler extension which does what I want. However, it doesn't seem to work for some reason.

Is there any other solution for this? If not, I request the team to consider this feature request

[g3rv4]

Yeah, I tried tab wrangler as well, but it seems like every 3 seconds something happens to all the tabs where tab wrangler sees as activity

[mjontop]

Yes, this would be a great feature! Currently, there is an extension called Zen Mod that provides a similar functionality called Better Unload Tab. It applies a muted (grayscale) effect to highlight unloaded tabs.

I've created a fork of this extension that hides the unloaded tabs from the UI by applying display: none in the CSS.

You can check out the fork here: [Zen Browser Better Unloaded Tabs (Fork)](https://github.com/mjontop/zen-browser-better-unloaded-tabs).

I'm not sure how to test or upload this, so if anyone can assist, I'd really appreciate it!

[egl1]

I second this. I would like an option to automatically remove tabs.

[Blaithnaid]

third. i absolutely loved this about arc, would love to see it implemented in zen. kind of the only key thing missing for me right now

[Cha-rlie]

Very true! I loved how I could set a time and if a tab had not been used after that much time, then it would automatically close it. I would love to see that implemented please :D

[bouteillerAlan]

If you do this please make an option to deactivate it :) I'm ok with my tab management and want to keep my two inactive tab "open"

[guilfoos]

Tab wrangler looked to have the desired functionality, but it does not work because I think from the extensions point-of-view every time you change workspaces all the tabs are "touched" and the timers reset. For someone like me who has a serious problem with tab cruft, an option to autoclose tabs I haven't looked at in a day is a godsend.

[UrsKR]

Coming over from Arc, auto-closing tabs and folders are the last two features I am missing in Zen for true bliss, and folders are on their way.

[transcental]

I don't really understand why this isn't a feature to be honest. Zen already has a separation between pinned tabs and today tabs, like in Arc, when they function identically I'm not quite sure what the point of that separation is?

[metametapod]

I've tried both Tab Wrangler and Auto Tab Discard (with the "Permanently delete (remove) old discarded tabs if they are inactive for N hours" setting enabled). Neither seems to work with Zen Browser. Dustman almost works. When launching Zen Browser after the elapsed time, you will see the old tabs until creating a new tab, at which point they'll be closed.

I would be excited if this were fixed, either via compatibility with existing extensions or a built-in feature. It is very helpful for attention (I find even the current behavior with Dustman distracting).

[leic4u]

I prefer auto-unload than auto-close.

[istnein]

That same feature hasn't been working for months.

[istnein]

Automatically disabling active tabs don't work and is broken. Now let alone automatically closing it!

[Jasaxion]

I've migrated from Arc, and the last feature I’m hoping for in Zen is the ability to automatically close tabs. It's about closing, not unloading, because I really enjoy opening a clean list every day rather than a bunch of tabs that were left open. Just like Arc, it would be great if Zen could support setting tabs to automatically close after 24 hours.

[Forkiy]

This is the feature I loved in the Arc the most! Missing it in Zen, and agree with the comments above that pinned tabs don't make much sense without it.

[green-yellw]

for me this was the whole point of having separate 'today tabs' and pinned tabs in arc - i liked being able to open loads of tabs and not worry about managing them (except for the pinned ones which i would keep pinned until i was done with them)

would love to have this in zen :D

[What-Do-I-Know]

I'll add my voice to this feature request. Auto-close of (unpinned) tabs after a given (configurable) amount of days, with option to turn this auto-close on/off, would be great. I did not realize how useful this was when I used Arc (I had it set to 7 days), until I start seeing open tabs piling up in Zen after 3 weeks :-)

[What-Do-I-Know]

I made an extension that does only that: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/f2a33c17390645a49b34/ or search in Extensions "Auto-Close-Tabs-for-Zen". Minimalist, just deals with closing tabs after a given (configurable, default 7 days) amount of days.

[knotbin]

This was the whole point of Arc's pinned tabs feature! All unpinned tabs being removed periodically was the whole point of Arc's pinned tabs feature! Please add this!

[vraravam]

Not everyone liked that feature. If this is done in Zen, please make it optional so that folks like me can turn it off!

[jstrattonsmith]

I'm a little late to the game, but am migrating from Arc like others and agree with the consensus that this should be an optional feature, but it is one that would really complete the experience in Zen.

[Leo310]

Please support it! 🙏