Tab Activate

4.0 (

273 ratings

)

Extension Workflow & Planning 50,000 users

82 support issues

Brad Houser

Feb 14, 2026

YouTube now requires refresh when opening a new tab

Right-Click to open a video in YouTube and a full screen version of the thumbnail appears. You cannot play the video until you hit F5.

Paul Bajorek

Oct 16, 2025

Chrome startup very slow with Tab Activate extension 3.2.1 enabled

I have run this extension for a long time, without any issues. Recently, when I start chrome, all tabs open but they take a very long time, like 10+ minutes to open. If I disable the Tab Activate extension, and then start Chrome, all tabs open quickly like normal. Then I enable Tab Activate again, the Chrome startup is very slow again. This has been occurring for several weeks.

I am running Windows 11 Home 24H2 26100.6899 and Chrome 141.0.7390.108 release. I first noticed this while on Chrome 140.0.7339.208. I then updated Chrome to 141 and had the same behavior.

How to troubleshoot this?

Gary Quiring

Nov 20, 2024

It stopped working with Facebook

If you right click and open the link in a new tab, it opens the tab but the Facebook page is blank. The URL looks good but no data. I am using Win 10, I disabled my Ad blocker to make sure it was not that. I also rebooted.

Chrome Sync

Nov 5, 2024

Option to enable / disable

It would be nice if the menu icon allowed enabling / disabling this extension, as it has some conflicts with other extensions including Web Developer by Chris Pederick.

Japhy Ryder

Mar 10, 2023

Conflict with Auto Tab Discard

Hi, I recently filed the following conflict with the developer of Auto Tab Discard:
...
I like to report a conflict with another extension, which causes some settings of Auto Tab Discard to be overruled.

Installing the Tab Activate extension (which opens a new tab immediately instead of in the background) will cause Discard Pinned Tabs at Startup and Discard Unpinned Tabs at Startup to break; all tabs will load at startup regardless of the aforementioned settings and overwhelm the cpu. Disabling Tab Activate will resolve this problem.
...
Auto Tab Discard:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/auto-tab-discard/jhnleheckmknfcgijgkadoemagpecfol

R Graz

Mar 5, 2023

Tab is slow coming to front

When I middle click on a link, the tab is slow coming to the front. The webpage should be viewable immediately. I always find myself clicking on the tab to display it faster. I'm using one of the latest Brave browsers. Thanks.

Francesco Cassese

Jun 3, 2022

Groups' Tabs open at launch

Since a couple of weeks ago (perhaps a little more, perhaps a little less, cannot remember, but it's recent for sure), upon launching Chrome for Windows automatically expands ALL groups' tabs. I initially thought it could be a problem of Chrome itself, but now I have certainty about this very extension, since, if I deactivate it, on next launch, this behaviour would not occur.
I REALLY hope you developers could fix this issue: it's very annoying (expecially for those who, like me, tand to laucnh and close Chrome many times per session).
Thank you so much for your attention.

くうこ

Jun 3, 2022

Group tabs aren't kept collapsed after Chrome restart

This extension it's preventing group tabs from being collapsed once you restart Chrome. All the group tabs are expanded right after Chrome loads which is painful and a resource hog since those tabs should remain in background till the groups are expanded and the tabs selected. I hope it can be fixed soon, I has been using this extension since a decade or more.

Regards, thank you for keeping this extension alive.

Sebastian Zander

May 20, 2022

Collapsed tab groups start out expanded when Chrome starts

Before some days ago, previously collapsed tab groups also remained collapsed after Chrome was restarted. However, since a couple of days ago either Chrome or Tab Activate changed in that regard. Now whenever Chrome starts all tab groups are expanded/opened. This is a bit unpleasant.

I had this problem with another extension that does the same as Tab Activate on my company's computer. The reason may be different initialization time points, I don't know. Unfortunately, for now I have to manually collapse them all on start.

M Y

May 14, 2022

TabActivate will not switch to the opened tab after using CCleaner.

TAB ACTIVATE works as expected. I realized that every time I use CCleaner, I need to disable then enable the TAB ACTIVATE extension, otherwise for every new tabs that will be opened, focus will not switch to to that tab. CCleaner must be erasing some settings of TabActivate.