You spent an hour sorting 30 tabs into colored groups, and after a restart they're gone. It's one of the most common Chrome complaints, and it usually has a simple cause.
Why groups vanish
- They were never saved. A group that hasn't been explicitly saved lives only in the current window. Close the window and it can disappear.
- Sync isn't on. Saved groups sync through your Google account, but only if Chrome Sync is enabled.
- A crash or profile reset. If your profile is rebuilt, anything stored only there goes with it.
- Restoring from another tool. Some session tools and bookmark exports flatten groups into a plain list of links.
How to keep them
- Save each group. Right-click the group label and choose Save group.
- Turn on Sync. Check Settings → You and Google → Sync and Google services.
- Set startup to Continue where you left off so your last windows reopen.
- Snapshot the whole window. Chrome's saved groups cover one group at a time. A session manager that preserves group titles, colors and collapsed state gives you a restorable copy of the entire window.
KeepIt saves exactly that: press Alt+Shift+S (Cmd+Shift+S on Mac), and later restore the session with every group back as it was.
Quick checklist
- Saved the group? Yes / No
- Sync on? Yes / No
- A second copy outside the browser profile? Yes / No
If any answer is No, that's where the next loss will come from.