FAQ

Not yet. TabControl is a macOS Safari Web Extension paired with a macOS app. Safari on iOS and iPadOS supports extensions, but the native app half of TabControl is Mac-only, and several features (iCloud sync, Apple Intelligence) depend on it.

If an iOS/iPadOS version is on the roadmap, it’ll be announced on tabcontrol.app.

No. TabControl is Safari-only. The extension is built against the Safari Web Extension APIs and distributed through the Mac App Store.

Other browsers have their own tab manager ecosystems; they’re all good at what they do.

That’s the tab suspend feature at work. Safari had discarded the tab to free memory, and clicking it wakes it up — which means reloading its content.

If you’d rather a specific site never get suspended, add it to the suspend deny list (Settings → Tab Suspend → Excluded sites). If you’d rather suspend didn’t happen at all, turn it off entirely in the same pane.

See How tab suspend works for the full mechanism.

TabControl’s crash recovery usually catches this. Open Safari again and watch for a Restore tabs from your last session? prompt — click Restore.

If the prompt didn’t appear, the snapshot might not have been fresh. You can still try Restore Latest (⌃⌥R) to get back your most recently saved session, or check Trash in case a session was soft-deleted.

If you save sessions regularly (or enable auto-save, in Settings → Tab Save/Restore), crash recovery becomes a backstop you rarely need.

No. Safari’s iCloud Tabs and TabControl’s iCloud sync are separate systems.

• Safari iCloud Tabs shows your currently-open tabs on your other Apple devices. It’s ephemeral.
• TabControl iCloud sync syncs your saved sessions — the snapshots you’ve deliberately captured. It’s persistent.

You can use both. They don’t conflict; they just solve different problems.

Yes, but not through iCloud (CloudKit private databases aren’t shared by design). Instead:

• Copy as Markdown (right-click a session) puts a formatted tab list on your clipboard you can paste into Slack, Notion, or email.
• Export the session (or your whole database) as JSON and send the file.

A cleaner share feature may come in future versions.

• Saved sessions stay put. They live in the TabControl app’s local database, not in extension storage.
• Keyboard shortcuts stop working. They depend on the extension being active.
• The popup is unavailable. You can still open the TabControl app directly from /Applications to access sessions.
• Tab suspend stops. Tabs Safari hasn’t already discarded will stay awake.

Re-enable the extension and everything comes back.

Dragging TabControl to the Trash removes the app and its App Group container, which includes:

• Your sessions database.
• Your settings.

It does not automatically remove:

• Keychain items for your API keys (if you’ve set any). Wipe them via Keychain Access, search for “TabControl.”
• iCloud-synced session data (if you had sync enabled). Wipe it via System Settings → Apple ID → iCloud → Manage → TabControl → Delete data.

The settings page lives inside the TabControl app, not inside Safari. Open /Applications/TabControl.app directly, or click the gear icon in the extension popup — both point to the same place.

If the gear icon isn’t there, your Safari extension might not be activated yet. Revisit Enable in Safari.

The extension and app aren’t open source today. Specific components may be in the future.

The contact form on tabcontrol.app is the fastest route. Include:

• Your macOS version.
• Your Safari version.
• The TabControl version (see Settings → About).
• A short description of what you expected vs. what happened.

Screenshots of error messages help a lot.

Release notes for each version are in the Mac App Store listing. The in-app Settings → About pane shows the version number you’re on today.

Covered on tabcontrol.app. Pricing lives on the main site so it stays current; check there for the up-to-date answer.

If nothing above covers your question, reach out through the contact form. A human reads every message.