Export / import workspace config or backup

[MorganKryze]

Zen has been one of the project I love the most these past months, and I love what it stands for. But I've been multiple times in the situation of a reset / migration where I had to manually transfer or remember every workspace, every tab i have set up.

In my opinion, this is fastidious. I tried through the discussions and issues to see something similar to this request but did not found what I was looking for.

What I am talking about is a way to export your current config (workspace by workspace) to be able to save it (backup) or share it for example in a data filetype like json/yaml/toml/... And obviously a way to import it afterward.

I deeply think that this would be a major bonus to the project. Thanks for reading me ^^

[vraravam]

yes - this seems like an excellent idea!

[e-adela]

YESS! I have been looking for this for a long time, it would really be helpful to have that!

[martin-braun]

Yes, this is needed. I know there is a work around to backup entire profiles, but I doubt this is what this is all about. I don't care to lose browser data and cache, even stored passwords, you shouldn't use your browser as password manager anyways. It's all about the workspaces and tab containers, the icons and names I picked for them. It is about all the settings you can make in Firefox itself, it is about all the changes I made in about:config, it's all about the pinned and non pinned tabs, maybe bookmarks too (if you are a bookmark user, but I am not).

Why is there no easy way, I hope this will happen somehow. Maybe someone can share at least a manual way to do this.

[hgftrdw45ud67is8o89]

RE: the mods also need export feature in a user friendly way like saved to a file for user to easily copy paste and import.

Ideally might as well solve all settings problem at once maybe like a export all in one zip with:
mods
workspace
firefox settings
etc.

and just put it into a zip and then zen browser can unzip and reimport those one by one.

[mhanuszh]

It would be fantastic if we could copy-to and apply-from the clipboard parts of the browser state.

It could be done incrementally, for example, first only the workspaces:

zen:
  workspaces:
  - name: Default
    pins: []
    tabs: []

And the endgame could look like something like this:

zen:
  config: {}
  extensions: []
  mods: []
  bookmarks: []
  history: []
  essentials: [] # or globalPins
  workspaces:
  - name: Default
    pins: []
    tabs: []

[uncieray]

+1

[diegokoes]

wish it will be implemented at some point

[ArKay74]

Why hasn't this been implemented yet? Every time I install it or re-install it, I lose my setup. And there's just no way of sharing all of the settings between machines. This is really annoying. For example I just want from a local installation on Linux to the Flatpak version of Zen. And guess what? There's just no way of taking over the settings from the old installation to the new one. Not through import, not by moving configurations from the old config directory to the new, nothing.

So I am starting at 0 again even though the configuration was placed where it should be. The software just doesn't use it. Insane. Have to reinstall all mods, open all of the tabs in my 3 workspaces... Why do we have new features if those can't be shared between installations?

[hgftrdw45ud67is8o89]

@mr-cheffy @zen-browser-auto
reping to consider implementing this discussion.

[mr-cheffy]

Like syncing?

[sapphired18]

Sync to mozilla account? Is it safe to implement? Aren't we have workspace sync, or add one more things to sync the folders, pinned tabs and essentials?

[thebitstick]

I created this tool: zen-export.

I don't know JS well so I unfortunately had to rely on AI (local Ollama), but from poking around the Browser Console I was able to find where most the tabs and folder data lives and use specific functions to have it format everything correctly.

[ImreC]

Just installed Zen on my work mac after having been a very happy Zen user on Fedora for the last couple of months. Want to show my support for this idea. I am not looking forward to setting up all the workspaces a second time, let alone on every machine individually. Please consider this and thanks for this great project!

[err0rcat]

A very good idea indeed. I would wish for Zen Sync service since Mozilla's sync still unable to save favicons with bookmarks in 2025 (facepalm).

[Ewster]

Zen Browser is such a great tool and such a breath of fresh air, but then I switch back to my desktop and none of the setup/tabs etc have synced across. It's a clean slate. Becomes a huge impediment for committing to switching over.

Sync maybe a dream too big, but at least the option to export out a setup (and have that auto backup every day), then an option to pull that export into a new install on another device.

[fozboom]

+1