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brave / brave-browser

Brave browser for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows.
https://brave.com
Mozilla Public License 2.0
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Sync Open tabs across devices #4412

Closed jtheletter closed 4 years ago

jtheletter commented 5 years ago

My bookmarks sync from desktop browser to iOS browser. But I see no way to access open tabs from one device to the other. I'm not even sure where to look. Omnibar autocomplete? History?

macOS: Version 0.63.55 Chromium: 74.0.3729.131 (Official Build) (64-bit)

iOS: Version 1.9.1 (19.04.02.12)

simonsan commented 5 years ago

Besides syncing of open tabs in general I would also love to see some kind of folder structure where you can move open tabs between device folders.

The folder structure (derived from the “new page overview”) on any open client could be:

Open tabs on mobile devices

Open tabs on desktop devices

With this you could easily send tabs to the other devices "open tabs"-folder. All clients having the same tabs open would be nice from the workflow point of view. Each client having it's own synced "open tabs" folder on all of the clients would make it easy to move/copy open tabs between devices and you could easily "switch" to another working environment.

Could be also making sense to not really divide it by devices but by own created "working environments" like this:

Working Environment 1 (e.g. Project X)

Working Environment 1 (e.g. Android Phone at Work)

Working Environment 2 (e.g. Desktop Home)

The second idea would also make it possible to include the first idea manually but with extending possibilities to your own workflow. Another thing would be how to design it on the desktop. I could imagine that those "working environments" could start as a normal tab. Clicking on it gives an overview of the tabs inside this environment. Double clicking opens the working environment. Changing between the environments could be done by special static/solid tab left next to all the tabs in the tab bar where you could open different environments from a drop down menu either in a new window or in the same window, saving and closing the already opened environment. Moving tabs between environments could be done by right-clicking on a tab and a "send to environment --> list of possible environments" to send more then one tab you could shift-select more tabs and right-click one of them to send all via drop-down menu.

The folder structure could be easier to implement because of the already used structure for bookmark sync. Basically tab sync is a temporary bookmark sync with the possibility to automatically open a folder of bookmarks as a working environment.

edit: Could someone please add that ("Sync open tabs") possibly to Projects/Sync @bsclifton or @rossmoody ?

Thanks for all the great work, people!

s-r-aman commented 5 years ago

+1 Would love to see this feature.

rebron commented 5 years ago

cc: @anthonypkeane

yechs commented 5 years ago

The folder structure seems great, would love to see it implemented. But it might introduce duplicate bookmarks.

Since the users may open bookmarked websites, by treating opened tabs as a special bookmark folder, you are (re)adding the tabs to bookmarks.

simonsan commented 5 years ago

The folder structure seems great, would love to see it implemented. But it might introduce duplicate bookmarks.

Since the users may open bookmarked websites, by treating opened tabs as a special bookmark folder, you are (re)adding the tabs to bookmarks.

Basically using the word "bookmarks" was just an idea how to handle it internally to use the already in use sync engine for bookmarks.. The user itself should not see them as "bookmarks", but as "opened tabs". And there surely could be happening something like this. You will have opened tabs that are congruent to some of your bookmarks, but that's fine as long bookmarks <> opened tabs.

jtheletter commented 5 years ago

Cross-device tab syncing is already a feature on Chrome. To be sure, I didn't mean to suggest a re-invented wheel.

simonsan commented 5 years ago

Restricting ad blockers to enterprise environments will be also a feature in the future of Chrome, but does that also mean you want to see that in Brave?

jtheletter commented 5 years ago

Restricting ad blockers to enterprise environments…

I don't see the relevance of this question.

simonsan commented 5 years ago

It should point into the direction, that things Google does are hard to get rid of if they go that deeply in your infrastructure, because you also get more dependent on them. So I personally could understand if you try to re-invent the wheel, you never want to get dependent on that privacy invader. Less Google, less amazon, less multinational concern structures make a better world, go reinvent the wheel, don't rely on Google.

bsclifton commented 5 years ago

@simonsan I'm going to collapse the comments since your question is off-topic... but to answer your specific question, please check out https://www.cnet.com/news/google-holds-firm-on-chrome-changes-that-may-break-ad-blockers/

Brave, also based on Chromium, has ad and tracker blocking built in and enabled by default and thus will block that content regardless of Google's decisions. But Brave Chief Executive Brendan Eich said Thursday the company will maintain Chrome's older extension interface so uBlock Origin and another blocker from Hill, uMatrix, will continue to work.

"We will support uBO and uMatrix," Eich said.

kangarooo commented 5 years ago

OMG. How then to export it all so i can continue working? How to save and export all tabs?

Snuupy commented 5 years ago

@kangarooo what I've been using personally is this: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/56635/how-can-i-export-the-list-of-open-chrome-tabs

tl;dr Remote Devices feature in the Chrome debugger -> copy/paste -> your tabs are exported! :)

simonsan commented 5 years ago

@kangarooo what I've been using personally is this: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/56635/how-can-i-export-the-list-of-open-chrome-tabs

tl;dr Remote Devices feature in the Chrome debugger -> copy/paste -> your tabs are exported! :)

I added an answer there to manually export opened tabs from mobile android devices: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/214518

While I had 650 open tabs on my smartphone that needed to be manually "synchronized", I want to add a point to this issue: Please don't implement something that automatically opens your tabs (and by this allocates memory) from another device. I think it makes sense to be able to chose what tab exactly you want to open. After doing all of this by hand, I'm even more convinced for a solution looking like my proposal in this issue. Also it would be nice, if you really manage those tabs and not just synchronize them. So you are able to close tabs on you desktop AND on your mobile device if you are in the same working environment. You could make that optional.

itstheandre commented 5 years ago

Hello!

Is there any news on this? Firefox also has their send to device. Seeing that they are open source, couldnt this be something relatively easy to add?

sabbir360 commented 5 years ago

Hello!

Is there any news on this? Firefox also has their send to device. Seeing that they are open source, couldnt this be something relatively easy to add?

I think Chromium already have sync (History, Tabs, Bookmarks) which can be converted though this sync. stuff struggling from a long time. Have to be something quick to make it usable.

ruifung commented 5 years ago

Seriously, this is still not in yet? Like, this is the ONE feature stopping me from switching completely to brave.

simonsan commented 5 years ago

Wild guess: It might be due to #5198 that it's still not implemented and if, it might be in brave-core then.

kangarooo commented 5 years ago

Ok, at least then new Feature would solve- an option of button click to bookmark all opened tabs.

5711

simonsan commented 4 years ago

Any news on this one? @bsclifton @rebron

Seems like this feature holds off some people to switch to or makes them switch away from Brave. https://community.brave.com/t/recent-open-tab-sync-across-devices/49305/

bsclifton commented 4 years ago

No news on this yet, unfortunately - I agree, this would definitely be a nice feature! 😄

simonsan commented 4 years ago

I thought a long time about this, because I liked Brave, but one reason for this was the lack of this pretty basic feature. But also the prioritisation of this feature in comparison to other features (Crypto wallets? brave rewards? Who needs this stuff if not even the basic functionality is working?). So I'm back to my beloved Firefox with tab sync across all devices and to Duck Duck Go privacy browser. Goodbye Brave, we had some good and bad times together - now I'm gone. :-)

To people who want to do the same, here is the instruction how to export your tabs to you computer. ;-)

sabifa commented 4 years ago

Any update on this? Really missing this helpful feature 😢

bsclifton commented 4 years ago

cc: @anthonypkeane @jsecretan

insilications commented 4 years ago

Any news about this?

vigneshr23 commented 4 years ago

I am waiting for this feature to ship. Syncing browser tabs and search history across chained devices is gonna make this browser great!

stevewhitmore commented 4 years ago

I think this may be a huge blocker for mass adoption. It seems to be the only thing that stops people from switching from Chrome when I tell them about Brave. Some can see past it but I think if you guys implement this feature you'll see a big increase in new users.

skal-dB commented 4 years ago

Could be also making sense to not really divide it by devices but by own created "working environments" like this:

Working Environment 1 (e.g. Project X)

  • Open Tab 1
  • Open Tab 2
  • ...

Working Environment 1 (e.g. Android Phone at Work)

  • Open Tab 1
  • Open Tab 2
  • ...

Working Environment 2 (e.g. Desktop Home)

  • Open Tab 1
  • Open Tab 2
  • ...

Makes me feel like the Container plug-in on Firefox allowing you to have multiple tabs open in the same windows, but still related to different sessions.

In my case :

You may also define urls to be always opened in a specific container, and never get worried again about that.

The good point is the fact that workspaces/containers are unconnected from each others (no access to the cookies from another workspace, or the list of opened tabs) wich rises up the level of privacy.

jsecretan commented 4 years ago

Thanks everybody, we are actively working on a version 2 of sync right now, and synced tabs on devices is near the top of our list to include.

thegitparticle commented 4 years ago

Are there any extensions which serve this purpose in the meanwhile?

jsecretan commented 4 years ago

Confirmed that in the new Sync v2, you'll be able to see tabs from and send tabs to other devices.

ckujau commented 4 years ago

Why has this the wontfix label, I thought this will be fixed with PR 5294? Wouldn't something like Fixed be a better tag here?

Oh, and it is already enabled in dev/beta channel - yay!

jsecretan commented 4 years ago

Yes, sorry for the confusion @ckujau

Zvezdin commented 4 years ago

Is there any way to view the currently open tabs in the current beta, or there isn't yet a UI for that? Nothing can be seen in the history tab or anywhere else in the sync menu and settings, however opening the context menu in top right and hovering over the "History" option displays the last few tabs open by all devices, though no way to expand that list.

btlechowski commented 4 years ago

Verification passed on

Brave 1.12.102 Chromium: 84.0.4147.89 (Official Build) dev (64-bit)
Revision 19abfe7bcba9318a0b2a6bc6634a67fc834aa592-refs/branch-heads/4147@{#852}
OS Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Verified Open tabs are synced across devices. The Open tabs can be found in Hamburger Menu -> History image image

brave://history/ does not show synced tabs. Encountered https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/10473 Favicons are not synced. Logged https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/10949

Verification PASSED on macOS 10.15.6 x64 using the following build:

Brave | 1.12.108 Chromium: 84.0.4147.105 (Official Build) (64-bit)
-- | --
Revision | a6b12dfad6663f13a7e16e9a42a6a4975374096b-refs/branch-heads/4147@{#943}
OS | macOS Version 10.15.6 (Build 19G73)
S10+ Android 10 macOS Catalina x64 Win 10 x64
Screenshot_20200811-032306_Brave Screen Shot 2020-08-11 at 3 24 49 AM Annotation 2020-08-11 032412
macOS Catalina x64 S10+ Android 10 Win 10 x64
Screen Shot 2020-08-11 at 3 30 09 AM Screenshot_20200811-033131_Brave Annotation 2020-08-11 032412
Win 10 x64 S10+ Android 10 macOS Catalina x64
Annotation 2020-08-11 033350 Screenshot_20200811-033131_Brave Screen Shot 2020-08-11 at 3 24 49 AM

Verification passed on


Brave | 1.12.108 Chromium: 84.0.4147.105 (Official Build) (64-bit)
-- | --
Revision | a6b12dfad6663f13a7e16e9a42a6a4975374096b-refs/branch-heads/4147@{#943}
OS | Windows 10 OS Version 1903 (Build 18362.959)
Windows 10 VM windows 10
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Windows 10 (physical m/c) VM windows 10 VM Linux mint
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Windows 10 (physical m/c) VM windows 10 VM Linux mint Android 5.1.1
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srirambv commented 4 years ago

This is blocked on Android due to #11077. However, opened tabs from desktop and other devices are sync'd and listed via recent tabs on Android

OnePlus Samsung Tab A
image image
cauerego commented 4 years ago

oh, i see... the name "sync open tabs" is quite misleading!

it's just keeping a list of open tabs, not each tab own history and not an actual tab being synced across devices... so when activating it in one device, the other devices on the chain can see the tabs list under "recent tabs" (yet another misnomer).

the more you know... 🤣

tbremer commented 4 years ago

I don't see a complete list of my tabs, for instance…

Device A: Window 1: 7 Tabs Window 2: 4 Tabs

Device B: Window 1: 2 Tabs

On Device B if I try to open a tab from Device A on Device B I only see a subset of those Tabs.

fredless commented 4 years ago

@tbremer see #11183

tbremer commented 4 years ago

Thanks @fredless!

rijnhard commented 3 years ago

How do I do this on iOS?

anthonypkeane commented 3 years ago

How do I do this on iOS?

iOS doesn't have this ability yet. History is next on the Sync list for iOS and either passwords or Open Tabs will be after that.

HeroHann commented 3 years ago

So just to clarify: Sync between Mac and iOS / iPad OS does not work for tabs even after years of dev work? Brave aims to be a a fully featured browser (now even with its own search engine) but does not have this simple feature?? Tried to get it to work for hours now...VERY disappointing! I guess I will have to stay with safari where this SIMPLE feature is working more or less.

Can someone explain WHY it is not working? I mean if there is a good explanation I might could find my peace with it... SO why is it not working?

My wish would be: Sync all open Tabs all the time (maybe with an option to do so...). I want to open brave on the Mac and have the same tabs open than on my iPad where I left of. Just the same windows...

dpschen commented 3 years ago

I found a way to export the open tabs from Brave iOS:

1) Download and install iMazing and create a backup of your device. Free version is fine for this. 2) Open File System in the iMazing sidebar and navigate to Brave/Library/ApplicationSupport/". 3) There you can find a file named Brave.sqlite. Copy this to your mac with the Copy to Mac button. Screenshot 2021-06-29 at 10 20 50

4) You can open the Brave.sqlite e.g. with a program like DB Browser for SQLite. The tabs are accessible via:

- `Browse Data`
- Select `ZTABMO` Table 
- `Save the table as currently displayed` (small icon next to print button)
- `Export to CSV`. You can open the CSV with Numbers, Excel, etc.
   ![Screenshot 2021-06-29 at 10 30 43](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/6173598/123764779-62a3f000-d8c5-11eb-8ad0-109dd87debf3.png)

The url is in the `ZURL` column, the title in `ZTITLE`.

At last my iPhone feels snappy again and the battery lasts much longer. Having no sync and also no way to export or bookmark all tabs implemented and then not even telling your users (e.g. a small note in the sync setting on iOS) is simply irresponsible. After solving this for me I am switching finally back to Firefox.

GregTheHun commented 3 years ago

Yeah, this is a killer feature I would love to have. This is the one feature missing that makes me consider from time to time going back to Firefox. As long as Firefox is acting the way it is, I really don't want to, but it is something I would use all the time. I know the devs would too if they have to eat their own dog food and use this browser.

Germs2004 commented 2 years ago

This apparently added support for every device type except iOS (which is the one the OP requested). To vote for iOS to support syncing Open Tabs, go to https://github.com/brave/brave-ios/issues/3229.

thorinmesser commented 2 years ago

How can this be closed when it didn't implement the feature requested?

bsclifton commented 2 years ago

@thorinmesser it works for Android <=> Desktop; as shared above, iOS is tracked with https://github.com/brave/brave-ios/issues/3229

DavNej commented 2 years ago

Will tab sync be ever implemented between Mac OS and iOS ?

jsecretan commented 2 years ago

Yes, the team is working on this now for syncing between iOS and desktop.