Thegreatsuspender: Recent update totally screwed up my tabs (and yes I tried restoring them)

[mkrier]

Your recent update screwed up my tabs. I used your attempt at a backup before restoring and that was a complete mess- in spite of the time of the supposed store of tabs- some tabs were missing and, more importantly, a ton of tabs opened that I had closed weeks ago.

On top of that, I have Session Buddy, but it's most recent saved update (besides "current") was 2 weeks ago. I know that's not your extension, but nonetheless- if session buddy had asked me first if I wanted to upgrade, I could've at least told session buddy before it did.

So I woke up to fresh hell this morning trying to scramble around which work-related stuff I had in diigo and what was left out from the old session buddy and what suspender had (somehow) correctly restored, and then triangulate the three into something close to what I had the night before.

And if you're going to say "well it's free", well I actually did donate, (I can't remember how much or whether it was paypal or bitcoin).

I can turn off automatic updates in the chrome settings, right? I don't think I'll ever update again. (Or donate.)

Chrome Version 68.0.3440.106 (Official Build) (64-bit)

[deanoemcke]

@mkrier it's situations like this that have made me so hesitant to push an update to this extension over the past year.

you're not the only one to have issues with lost tabs (there's a github issue dedicated to this: https://github.com/deanoemcke/thegreatsuspender/issues/526) and while i realise that's cold comfort, please know that the decision to update has weighed heavily on my mind and i've done everything i can to mitigate casualties.

prior to this i've had a 'no updates' policy, but due to a critical bug (https://github.com/deanoemcke/thegreatsuspender/issues/537) of which i have had a lot of pressure to resolve, i resolved to break away from this policy.

the ability to warn users of an impending update has been added to this latest release. that mean _in future_ you'll be warned before it updates, and given a chance to make a real 'hard' backup of your tabs.

i think you'll find you cannot turn off automatic updates of chrome extensions. if you truly want to protect yourself against a similar issue in future, your best bet is to install the extension locally from the source code here on gitHub. that will prevent the extension from updating automatically in future.

thank you for donating in the past. and i'm sorry i've caused you problems with lost tabs :(

[deanoemcke]

@mkrier Someone else on twitter has actually reported a similar issue to you where the tabs that got restored after the update were from an older period in time.

i wonder, could you let me know what your session history page looks like? is there a 'Automatic save point for v7.1.109' entry?
Does this entry match with the incorrect tabs you saw being restored?
And under 'recent sessions' does this same session match the most recent session recorded before the update? Or is there other _more recent_ sessions recorded there, prior to the update that might contain the missing tabs you are looking for?

any help that you can provide that would help me get to the bottom of this would be most appreciated.

[Anyasia]

@deanoemcke Hi, that was me on Twitter.

The reason I accidentally reported it as being from an update to 6.30 is in fact because my session history _did_ include an automatic save point, but it was labelled 'Automatic save point for v6.30.' This session matched the tabs which were restored following the update, and although it didn't have a date associated with it, comparing it to sessions listed in the 'Recent Sessions' section, it seems to've been from around 19:54 24 August, while the update occurred around 14:37 25 August. In the meantime I'd opened and closed several tabs, as you might imagine, and while nothing too important was lost for me, it was obviously a bit annoying.

Now, three things of note stood out to me:

1. When I checked at the beginning of making this post, there were _several_ identical 'Recent Sessions' dated to 19:54 24 August;
2. There didn't seem to be _any_ more recent sessions under that list, either from before or after the update; and
3. When, because of the above, I decided to take the precaution of making a manual backup of my current session, it cleared all but one of those duplicated 'Recent Sessions.'

I'm not sure when it normally makes automatic backups to be put under that 'Recent Sessions' header, but it doesn't seem to've done so for me recently, which, considering I _have_ had to rely on them on occasion when Chrome itself loses my session after a crash, is a bit concerning. I'll keep an eye on it and report back if I notice the behavior changing.

Thanks for your attention to this issue; it's greatly appreciated! If there's anything else I can do to help, please let me know.

[mkrier]

@deanoemcke

Well, yesterday when the update happened, my session history had an august 25th, I think it was 8something AM. But that was yesterday and so it's not there now. Here's what I have now:

Current session:
26 Aug 2018 9:44pm (11 windows, 162 tabs)
Recent sessions:
12 Aug 2018 3:07am (9 windows, 227 tabs)
30 Jul 2018 2:30pm (10 windows, 176 tabs)
Saved sessions:
Automatic save point for v6.30 (9 windows, 227 tabs)

When I'm warned before updates now, will I be able to refuse?

You say the decision weighed heavily on your mind? I totally know- I'm a developer too, for 20 years. I know where you're coming from.

Something worth mentioning for others:

In the past some of us have recommended Session Buddy. Well, apparently, a year ago, Session Buddy (quietly) changed the frequency of it's updates:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sessionbuddy-discuss/QUb4zqWz5CI

I had installed Session Buddy as a failsafe in case Suspender messed up (such as now). I didn't know that it had somehow been (idiotically) changed by the author (Of session buddy; not you). (You can see why I generally hate "automatic updates" in software in general. Not just extensions, I mean ANYTHING.)

Soooo, first of all you might want to tell your users that, because we had all been mentioning session buddy here on github, right.

So, in light of this recent little disaster, I did a some searching and experimenting with different extensions and now I'm using this:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tabs-backup-restore/dehocbglhkaogiljpihicakmlockmlgd

So far good. Try it... Seems better, right? I haven't tried doing a restore yet, to see if it actually opens the windows and tabs, but, hell, even if that doesn't work and it's just keeping the urls where I can see them, hell, I'll take that, at least something that'd go a long way.

Should I post that as an op post? Might be worth it. (Of if you post it yourself, give props to me :) )

[RobertAb1]

During last The Great Suspender update, Chrome changed order of my tabs. Now, I have a complete mess.

I left computer for 15 min, and when I got back I saw message from extension that it just updated, but it saved my tabs before. And after that I found out that the order of tabs was changed. It is possible that this problem appeared as a consequence of session manager function implemented in the extension. Browser did not restart in the meantime (I checked from what time Chrome processes were running in Process Explorer).

After analysis, I found out that the order of tabs was changed for this which were less than 1-2 months old. Order tabs maintained position. Affected tabs were both suspended and not suspended. The same was about not affected tabs. It seems that no tabs were added or removed.

Addendum:
I am using also other extensions: Sloth, Session Buddy, and more.

[deanoemcke]

@mkrier unfortunately, you will not be able to refuse a new update. this is chrome's policy not mine. i think this is to force users to stay up to date for security reasons (they should not be able to refuse security patches). the only way to remain on an old version of an extension is to install it manually via developer mode.

that's interesting about session buddy. i have actually noticed that it was no longer saving recent backups which was also my primary use-case for it. funnily, i had already switched to Tabs Backup & Restore a few days ago, following a suggestion in another issue.

I guess I'm slightly hesitant to recommend an alternative session manager extension as it may come with it's own issues that I haven't encountered yet. Although perhaps I should also remove any recommendations of Session Buddy too.

You're welcome to create a post for Tabs Backup & Restore. It seems to work great for me so far, even with restoring.

[mkrier]

@deanoemcke

Sure, sounds good (measured response, btw). So, I'll start a new post right now and basically just paste what I said here more or less.

[mopquill]

I also had this happen, and the windows that went missing were "older" windows/tabs I had been restoring for a while. I don't use any extension to do this, I just kill all chrome.exe processes, and it asks me if I want to restore when I next launch. This has been the most foolproof method of getting my tabs back.

_After_ restoring my tabs in this way, all of a sudden a bunch of windows and tabs closed as the Great Suspender tab popped up, just needing to do a little maintenance. Weirdly, it closed _some_ of my tabs on the windows that remained open. Fortunately, the Session Management tab linked to worked to restore my missing windows/tabs, but it was very jarring. Anyhow, just seconding to add data to the pile.

[deanoemcke]

@mopquill can i just clarify with you some things. did you actually lose any tabs permanently after the update? or was it just that some of them disappeared and then came back?

During an update all _suspended tabs_ will be closed automatically. Afterwards the extension will try to reload them all again automatically based on what it remembers you had open before updating.

I agree this is a very jarring experience, and that is why I have tried to limit extension updates in the past. However, its unfortunately unavoidable, and considered _normal_ behaviour.

From what I can tell, the other two posters in this thread are reporting that the tabs did not correctly get reloaded after update. Or more specifically, the tabs that were reloaded were not the same ones that were recently lost.

[RobertAb1]

@deanoemcke
In my case, there were the same tabs, but in different order.
And the order of tabs was changed for some suspended tabs and also for some not suspended tabs. The criterion was rather when the tab was created (1-2 months earlier). But in my case, I restarted Chrome 10-20 h earlier, and Session Buddy did save session during previous Chrome closing.

[mkrier]

Yea, my case is pretty much exactly the same as @mopquill . Some tabs were still open (presumably the un-suspneded tabs), and the rest were gone, and then when I used Suspender's restore, it brought back way old tabs from like weeks ago.

And, yea, as I said here and in my other thread- Session buddy let me down as other users agreed about.

Just wanna add one thing- I know what you mean by killing the process and then chrome lets you restore when you start it back up, but-

A similar thing you can do is manually shut chrome down. What I mean by that- it's counter-intuitive and undocumented but, ok here-

You know how in Windows 10 you can right-click on your task bar and go "Close all windows"?

Yea, don't do that. Use the settings menu in chrome and choose "Exit".

When you do it that way, you get your tabs/windows back. Again- it's counter-intuitive and undocumented. Pro-tip.

(But that wouldn't help in this Suspender disaster.)

[deanoemcke]

@Anyasia If you look in Session Manager, there should always be a single entry under "Current session". This session gets updated any time a tab is added, removed, or its url changes. Whenever the extension restarts (which usually only happens during a chrome restart), whatever was in "Current session" gets moved to the top of "Recent sessions", and a new "Current session" is started with the currently open tabs.

I would hope that you can rely on this functionality in future.

I've been able to identify an issue that could cause the v6.30 restore point to be slightly out of date. But I can't see any issue so far that could cause the current session to not update properly. I'll keep looking.

[mopquill]

@deanoemckeI lost tabs. I used my most recent recovery to get most of them back. The windows/tabs that were missing were ones I have had open for quite a long time -- a few months at least. I have windows of "projects" and if I expect to do that project soon, but haven't gotten to it or received the info I need, I just leave it open and suspended. The Great Suspender only recovered the most recent 3 windows, and not all the tabs from them, either.

It updated while I was reading something on a new window in incognito (I had two other incognito windows open), and all of a sudden I was looking at a partial of my primary window, the incognito windows were gone, and 3/7 of my windows were present. I considered uninstalling The Great Suspender, but I read everything, understood the situation, and was able to get most of my tabs back via looking through some past sessions.

To be clear, the tabs that got reloaded were about 20% of what I had open when it decided to update (15% if you count the three incognito windows I lost, but fortunately those were just searches I could re-type out and find the same results). I didn't get any sort of notice or anything, if that was already supposed to be in the addon. I managed to recover everything but my main window's tabs -- it also closed almost all of my pinned tabs, which was weird. So I had to re-open/pin things, but again, the list was in restored stuff, it was just some tabs I opened that day that I lost entirely.

@mkrier I used to do that, actually, but in some circumstances, that doesn't work! It doesn't seem to restore sessions for one, so I have to log into a lot of stuff again, and I've once had it happen where it hung while it was closing, and killing the process -- ironically, caused it not to restore upon relaunch. I couldn't get any restore addons to work for me, and this does, so, not fixing what ain't broke. XD

[deanoemcke]

@mopquill thanks for the detailed response. When you say "you used your most recent recovery to get them back", and also later on "was able to get most of my tabs back via looking through some past sessions".

What are these recovery/sessions you're referring to? Do you mean sessions in the TGS session manager? If so, were they saved sessions or recent sessions? There seems to be a fair proportion of people that run into this bug due to all their TGS sessions being lost (#659 and here). In these instances there is no way to recover via the TGS session manager, and the cause is clear as to why their tabs were lost (there was no previous session to restore them from).

In your case, did/do you still have your recent sessions? If so, was the most recent session an old one that didn't include your most recent browsing activity (as of the moment when you updated) ?