Window Session Restoration

Experimental feature to manage window sessions

Yoyo currently tracks two key pieces of information for each browser window:

• The window's name

• The tab browsing history within that window

Since browsers either don't support these features or don't expose them through extension APIs, Yoyo handles this tracking manually.

This setup works well during an active session. However, once the browser is closed and reopened, restoring this metadata becomes difficult, as native browser support for such recovery is lacking.

Yoyo is actively developing an algorithm to restore as much of this data as possible after a restart. Still, you may occasionally encounter issues, such as a changed window name or missing tab history, if the recovery process encounters unexpected changes. We're committed to refining the algorithm until it becomes rock-solid - or until browsers offer native support.

Restoration Options

While we improve recovery, Yoyo offers three ways to restore metadata manually:

1. Automatic restoration when a new window is detected

2. Manual attach – the user links a current window to a previous session

3. Manual launch – the user starts a previous session in a brand new window

NOTE:

All restoration options are experimental since they are not supported natively by browser extension technologies.

Thus, these operations can become buggy and slow.

Manual Attach (Advanced)

For this method, the current window must match the old session in the number of tabs.

Yoyo then maps each tab one-to-one, restoring details like the window name and tab-browsing history.

Finally, Yoyo deletes the old session data, since the current window now inherits its data.

NOTE:

If you want to attach another session into the current window, but it doesn't have the same number of tabs due to data corruption or other reasons, you should consider launching the old session and manually drag tabs from current window to old session.

Manual Launch (Recommended)

This method is simpler and more reliable. You launch the previous session in a new window, minimizing the chance of anything going wrong.

Currently, browser extensions can't optimize performance when opening a new window with multiple links. As a result, you may notice some lag during the launch. It also requires waiting for all tabs to finish loading before interacting with the new window.

Recommendation

Given these limitations, we recommend using your browser's built-in session management if supported.

Browsers like Edge, Vivaldi, and Arc offer robust workspace features that are more reliable, as they have deeper access to system resources.

Yoyo is designed to sit on top of your browser, providing enhanced organization and navigation, so we are limited to the technologies of browser extensions.