Prevent tab unload

[valinmalach]

There used to be an option in the tab context menu to prevent a tab from being unloaded. This option is now gone? There are certain tabs that I need to be able to not unload, even if I don't open them in a while. I can't find anything about this in the settings or even in about:config

[frank-weinberg]

I found a workaround that allows doing this with existing tools. It's not super comfortable and I expect having to redo it every time I restart zen, so I still hope this feature returns to the UI sooner rather than later. But at least it makes the new unloader usable for me.

1. Go to about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox
2. Click on the "Inspect" button for any of the extensions listed. This will open Developer Tools in a new window. (It doesn't matter which extension you click on. We just need a console that runs in an extension context in order to access the extension API.)
3. In your main window select the tab you want to protect.
4. In the developer console type: "browser.tabs.update({autoDiscardable: false})" (without the quotes).

If you want to protect more tabs, repeat steps 3 and 4 as needed.
If things worked as expected, the protected tabs should now be listed with a priority of - at the bottom of about:unloads (I had to reload the page to see updated priorities.)

If you want to do your own research instead of blindly typing commands into your browser that a stranger on the internet gave you (which would be a good idea) you can find the API documented at https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/tabs/update

[gaardhus]

should you want to disable all pinned tabs from being auto unloaded

const tabs = await browser.tabs.query({});

for (const tab of tabs) {
  if (tab.pinned) {
    await browser.tabs.update(tab.id, { autoDiscardable: false });
  }
}

[SheepDomination]

Could this be compacted to a script which could just be run ? I like this idea have unloading a folder to save memory, as I will have dozens of tabs in one folder.