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I'm logged in with the same Chrome account at two laptops sitting next to each other. Often I want to transfer tabs/windows from one to the other. I could copy&paste the URLs to a .txt file, then use Homegroup sharing to access that .txt from the other PC and copy&paste the URLs into the browser there, but that's inconvenient.

Any easy way to do it?

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  • If you are using the same Chrome account; Try bookmarking the URL then syncing your account on the other machine.
    – Cheesus Crust
    Mar 8, 2017 at 13:43
  • I used to do this all the time with instant messaging. Pasting URLs to myself, most messengers let you open a chat with your own user. It's been a few years and there are now other options such as synched bookmarks, but this worked very well for me.
    – Tyson
    Mar 8, 2017 at 14:50

11 Answers 11

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  1. Open the History tab: you can use Command+y on Mac (I guess that Super+y on Linux/BSD and Win)
  2. On the left side you should see "Tabs from other devices" -- click it
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  • 8
    I have always found the "Tabs from other devices" to be unreliable (missing tabs, showing closed tabs), even when it claims to have completed a sync "a few seconds ago".
    – Attie
    Dec 29, 2017 at 15:20
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    Another problem: it seems to only show 5 tabs. I would like to transfer all tabs from one device to another or seamlessly keep switching from one device to another and see the tabs as I'd left them on the device I last used.
    – Heimdall
    Feb 17, 2018 at 16:49
  • @Heimdall The issue you described was resolved for me by deleting the sync data, and re-adding all devices. It is annoying, but if you're still seeing such issues, it is your best option.
    – kdb
    Nov 22, 2018 at 10:34
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On the source machine:

  1. Right click on a tab, and select "Bookmark all tabs..."
  2. Enter a name for the new folder that will be created containing a bookmark for each open tab
  3. Pick a location in your bookmarks tree

enter image description here

On the destination machine:

  1. Find the new folder, named above (it can take some time you sync)
  2. Right click on the folder, and select "Open all bookmarks"
  3. Delete the folder if you don't want to keep it

enter image description here

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  • 3
    You forgot the steps "Wait for bookmarks to sync" and "Remove the now unneeded bookmarks to prevent them cluttering up".
    – RoG
    Sep 11, 2018 at 5:58
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    I'm afraid this method no longer works, or at least not on Google Chrome on MacOS. The right click menu on tabs no longer contains this entry.
    – Robert P. Goldman
    Aug 20, 2020 at 18:14
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    True, but it is under "Menu" -> "Bookmarks" -> "Bookmark all tabs..." still, and Ctrl+Shift+D still does the job.
    – Attie
    Aug 20, 2020 at 21:31
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    "Bookmark all tabs..." is still there, but you need to right-click not on a tab, but rather on an empty space on that tab bar
    – nirvana-msu
    Nov 4, 2021 at 9:44
  • @nirvana-msu This is the way!
    – katalin_2003
    Feb 17 at 13:11
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You have two solutions :

1 If you only use Chrome on both devices, and do not need to transfer tabs from Chrome to another browser, then TabCloud could work. Also if you are connected to your google account on both Chrome browsers you may be able to see the tabs opened on other devices via the chrome menu>History (Source)

2 If you use multiple browsers : Surfon seems to fit the bill

Cheers

Source

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You can create a shared folder, attach that as a toolbar on the taskbar for both laptops, and then you can drag the tab into the taskbar folder, which will create a shortcut with the URL, and then you can drag it from the taskbar to chrome. Delete the shortcut afterwards to keep things tidy.

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While on any tab that you want to transfer, click the star icon at the end of the address bar.

chrome favourite star

This will bookmark it, and by default it allocates it to your bookmarks bar.

bookmarks dropdown

Make sure that the bookmarks bar is selected, then click "Done" on the dropdown that appears.

If you are logged into the same google account on Chrome on both PC's, the bookmarks will sync together. The bookmark should pop up on the bookmarks bar of the other PC in a few seconds, simply click on this and go! Make sure you have the bookmarks bar turned on in settings. Once you have loaded the page, you can right click on the bookmark and delete it to keep your bookmarks bar tidy. That's what I would do, hope that helps!

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  • If you're like me and have dozens of open tabs across multiple windows, there's a faster way and that's right-clicking in an open space, next to a tab and selecting Bookmark all tabs... or Ctrl+Shift+D.
    – katalin_2003
    Feb 17 at 13:13
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If you are running two computers side-by-side, I strongly suggest using Synergy. This will let you use one mouse and keyboard to control both computers (just move the pointer to the other screen to switch control). There is a shared clipboard and other nice features. Then the problem you describe, and many others, simply disappear. You just copy the url and paste it into the browser on the other computer.

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Chrome added new feature to send pages to other device in previous version.

If you want to transfer a single page, focus on url bar, enter image description here, click send this page button, then choose the device and send. You can also right click on the page to do this, too.

If you want to transfer multi pages in one time, seems Chrome does not support this yet. If it supports sending pages selected by ctrl, that would be perfect.

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Workona syncs tabs and also manages them.

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What I did was bookmark my tabs first then I right clicked on each tab and selected “send to your devices” and deleted my Chromebook. Hope this helps!

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    you... deleted your Chromebook?
    – Alex M
    May 5, 2021 at 0:28
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Install OneTab extension (free) on both machines/browsers. Export from one. Cntl-C to copy the exported text (the urls of all your tabs), then on the target machine/browser use OneTab import, cntl-V to paste the urls into the import panel. Click import. If you have a lot of tabs, it can take hours. It may even choke if you have 1,000+ tabs. This worked for me with 1,025 tabs moving from Firefox to Edge browsers on the same Windows machine. You can also save the exported urls as a txt file and move it to a different machine, or even a different OS.

I was using the excellent Tree Style Tabs in Firefox to manage tabs, but discovered Edge has great support for tab groups and lets you put the tabs on the left side of the browser (like Tree Style Tabs) only with collapsible tab groups to keep things organized.

Longer term, I highly recommend Raindrop.io to manage the hundreds of tabs we all keep. Paid version adds nested tab groups ... awesome ... and they share easily across multiple devices/browsers. Organized, easy to get to from anywhere, and you don’t use half the RAM on your machine keeping all those tabs active. Very cool. No, I don’t work for Raindrop ... just a fan.

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For those people who do not or can not sync bookmarks via Google Cloud.

  1. Bookmark all (open) tabs to a new folder.
  2. Export (all) bookmarks to a file in Bookmark Manager.
  3. Transfer the file to another computer.
  4. Import bookmarks and keep the folder only.
  5. Right click the folder and choose "open all".
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