Session Buddy’s export feature normally allows you to select a folder to save the export file to.

In some cases, however, folder selection may be unsupported or blocked by a permission setting. When this happens, Session Buddy falls back to a file download option. Most of the time this allows the export to proceed without issue, saving the export file to your preferred Downloads folder.

If you prefer to select a destination for your exports but it’s not offered as an option, or if you encounter a problem with the download fallback, there are a couple of things you can try to enable folder selection. Read on…

Enable file picker support

Some browsers such as Brave do not support a file picker feature by default. In these browsers, Session Buddy’s Export dialog displays a “Download file” button instead of a “Select destination” button.

To enable folder selection in this case, you may need to enable the File System Access API. You can do so by navigating to chrome://flags/#file-system-access-api and selecting Enabled from the dropdown of the highlighted item, then restarting the browser.

Note that while Session Buddy works fine in many browsers including Brave, it is currently only officially supported for use with Chrome.

Also, as with any Chrome flag, be sure to familiarize yourself with the implications of enabling this flag.

Allow file editing permission

In some cases, file selection may be blocked by a “File editing” permission.

When this is the case, Session Buddy will display an error after an attempt to select the file destination and present you with an option to download the file instead.

To enable folder selection in this case, you’ll need to explicitly allow the “File editing” permission.

To do this, open the web permissions page by right-clicking the Session Buddy icon, then selecting “View web permissions”. Alternatively, you can open a new tab and copy-paste the following URL into the address bar:

chrome://settings/content/siteDetails?site=chrome-extension%3A%2F%2Fedacconmaakjimmfgnblocblbcdcpbko

Scroll down to the “File editing” line item and change the permission from Block to Ask in the dropdown. Be sure to reload the Session Buddy tab before attempting to export again.

Sometimes this permission is locked by an enterprise policy, preventing you from changing it. If that’s the case you’ll need to contact your Google account administrator for help.

Session Buddy stores collections, history, and settings on your device.

This post explains the limitations inherent to this type of data storage and what you can do to guard against circumstances that can lead to data loss in some cases.

For a more in-depth analysis, see Understanding and Preventing Data Loss.

Extension local storage vulnerabilities

Data that a browser extension stores on your device can in some cases get deleted or corrupted due to circumstances beyond the extension’s control.

Some of the factors known to contribute to such data loss are:

• Low disk space
• Folders where the data is stored being deleted or corrupted by an external process such as:
  • OS cleaners (eg, CCleaner, Avast Cleanup)
  • anti-virus or anti-malware software
  • scheduled backups
  • Windows Restore
• Browsing data or site data being cleared, automatically or intentionally
• The extension being reset, disabled, or uninstalled by the browser
• Browser profile corruption, possibly caused by a browser update or power outage
• A browser or OS crash
• Browser bugs
• The usual risk factors associated with storing data in a single location, such as hardware failure and device theft

What you can do to protect your Session Buddy data

An opt-in cloud storage feature is currently in the works. This will, among other benefits, be the easiest and most reliable way to eliminate the risks related to storing data locally.

In the meantime, we recommend you follow the measures outlined below to give you the peace of mind of a data recovery option should you need it.

System backups

Include the local Session Buddy data folders in your scheduled system backups as outlined here.

Manual backups

Although less convenient, we recommend setting a daily, weekly, or monthly reminder to manually create a backup through Session Buddy’s Backup feature.

A backup file can be used to quickly restore your collections and history using Session Buddy’s Restore feature.

The initial Session Buddy v4 update mistakenly assigned the default keyboard shortcut for opening a new Session Buddy tab to cmd+b .

This is almost certainly not what you want, since cmd+b is a common keyboard shortcut in other applications.

This was promptly corrected in a follow-up release, but in some cases it may be necessary to reset this shortcut manually.

To reset the keyboard shortcut:

1. In Session Buddy, click on the gear menu in the upper right-hand corner, then click “Settings“
   
2. In the Settings dialog, click the “Other” tab
   
3. Click the “Open extension shortcuts” button. This opens the Chrome extension keyboard shortcuts page.
   
4. Scroll to the Session Buddy card and click the pencil icon next to the shortcut labeled “Activate the extension“
   
5. Click outside of the shortcut text box and ensure the shortcut reads “Not set“

Session Buddy v4 introduced a lot of important features and enhancements, but also some changes to the UI that may have caught long-time users off guard.

While these changes were necessary, we could have done a better job communicating them and explaining why they were being made.

We’ve been listening carefully to your feedback since v4 landed and have been busy rolling out follow-up releases to address your concerns.

We’re committed to continuing our active engagement with our user community to help us understand what remains to be done and how to further improve your experience.

This page was created to answer some of your most common questions and concerns about Session Buddy v4. If there’s anything you’d like to discuss that’s not addressed below, please feel free to post in the user forum. We read every inquiry and make our best effort to respond quickly and meaningfully.

Where did Previous Sessions go?

Previous Sessions have been moved to the History panel. You can access the panel by clicking on the This Browser tile, then clicking the History button on the right.

What if my data did not automatically transfer from v3?

The upgrade to Session Buddy v4 includes an automatic data migration from a deprecated database technology to the modern standard.

While the vast majority of users were able to take advantage of this automatic data migration, those upgrading after having upgraded to Chrome 124 (much more likely now than when Session Buddy v4 was first released) will need to transfer data manually due to Chrome deprecations.

To transfer your v3 data manually, follow the steps outlined here: https://sessionbuddy.com/restore-v3-data/

Where is my favorite feature from v3?

The initial release of Session Buddy v4 left behind a handful of v3 features. These omissions were a strategic decision driven by time pressure imposed by impending Chrome deprecations. The alternative would have been to delay the release, putting a significant number of users’ data at risk—an unacceptable option.

While this situation was less than ideal, we did our best to mitigate the impact by prioritizing cuts based on usage data and other signals. We also developed a plan to rapidly restore these features. We’ve already issued multiple follow-up releases reinstating most of the missing functionality and are actively continuing to address remaining regressions.

Why does CMD+B open Session Buddy?

This was a mistake. An immediate follow-up (v4.0.1) was released to fix this.

In some cases the shortcut binding may still need to be reset manually. If necessary, follow these instructions: https://sessionbuddy.com/mac-shortcut-bug/

Why can I no longer just click an “x” to close a tab?

Session Buddy v4 introduced the ability to select tabs and links, enabling powerful new capabilities such as opening, closing, or copying multiple tabs at once. As part of this new feature, the “x” was replaced by a checkbox to facilitate selection of individual items.

In response to demand, a follow-up release (v4.0.2) added an opt-in setting (under Settings > Other) to revert this change to once again allow tabs/links to be closed/deleted with a single-click.

A future release will likely remove the need for this setting and show both an “x” and a checkbox on each item by default.

Note that regardless of whether the “x” is present, selected tabs can always be closed either by hitting the Delete key or right-clicking them and clicking Delete.

Pro tip: holding the Shift key while closing/deleting suppresses confirmation. You can also disable these confirmations altogether in settings.

Why does opening lots of tabs from Session Buddy sometimes take a long time?

Prior to v4.0.3, tab loading was automatically optimized if a lot of tabs were being opened at once. Optimizations included suspending tabs and delaying tab load.

After v4.0.3, these optimizations were disabled by default. They can be opted into as needed in Settings > Tabs.

If you choose to turn on tab opening optimization, there are 2 localStorage values that can be added to tweak the behavior:

nxs.experiment.optimized-open-threshold : number of tabs opened after which delay and suspending optimizations kick in, default 60

nxs.experiment.optimized-open-delay : number of ms to delay each open, kicks in after threshold number of tabs have been opened, default 100

To edit localStorage:

1. Open an SB tab
2. Hit F12 to open dev tools
3. Click on the Application tab
4. Expand the Local storage item on the left
5. Select the chrome-extension item underneath
6. Double-click in the area to the right to create a new entry
7. Enter the relevant nxs.experiment key above
8. Hit Tab
9. Enter a numeric value
10. Hit Tab or Enter

Google “chrome devtools localstorage” for more info.

Why does destination selection fail when exporting?

In Session Buddy v4, the export feature normally allows for the selection of a folder to save the export file to.

In some cases, however, folder selection may be unsupported or blocked by a permission setting.

When this happens, Session Buddy as of v4.0.4 falls back to a download option to allow the export to proceed, saving the export file to your preferred Downloads folder.

This limitation primarily affects users of the Brave browser since Brave disables the File System Access API by default.

To learn about enabling folder selection if blocked, see: https://sessionbuddy.com/troubleshooting-export/

Why are tab counts no longer displayed on tiles?

Counts on collection and history tiles were eliminated because of technical complexity related to tab filtering and ultimate support for cloud-based collections, our most-requested feature.

We may bring this back in some form based on feedback.

We recommend using expressive titles when possible to help identify collections rather than relying on tab counts.

When you re-install Session Buddy, you can transfer your collections and history from a backup file created with a previous install by using the Restore feature. You can find Restore in the Session Buddy gear menu.

Restore presents a dialog that you can drag a backup file into. After you drop the file into the gray area, Session Buddy checks it and displays the number of collections and history items found.

Once Session Buddy is done checking the file, click the “Restore” button and wait for the restore to finish.

After closing the dialog, your restored collections and history will appear in Session Buddy.

Why not use Import?

Import and export are intended to make it easy to share collections between Session Buddy and other applications or people. As such, they do not include history.

Backup and Restore, on the other hand, include history as well as other data needed to initialize a new install of Session Buddy.

Key differences:

• Backup and Restore include both collections and history. Import and Export only include collections.
• Restore only creates collections that have not already been restored. Import, on the other hand, will always create new collections, which could result in duplication when the same file is imported again.
• Restore preserves pinned collections, whereas Import removes pins from collections.