Hibernation
Fully close idle tabs to reclaim memory, then bring them back exactly where you left them — URL, scroll position, tab group, and pin state intact.
Suspension vs hibernation #
Takt manages tabs through a two-stage lifecycle:
| Stage | What happens | Tab strip | Memory freed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suspended | Chrome discards the tab's renderer process. The page is unloaded but the tab entry remains. | Visible, greyed out | Partial — renderer gone, but Chrome still tracks the tab |
| Hibernated | The tab is fully closed. Its state is saved to storage by Takt. | Gone — lives in the Hibernate pane | Complete |
Suspension happens first. Hibernation is the deeper step: the tab is closed and Takt becomes responsible for its state. To get it back, you wake it from the popup or Options page.
What gets saved #
When a tab is hibernated, Takt records:
- Page URL and title
- Favicon
- Tab group name and color
- Scroll position (pixels from top)
- Pin state
- Original position in the window
- Timestamp of hibernation
This record is stored in Chrome's local storage on your device. It is not synced across devices unless you use Drive Sync.
Manual hibernation #
You can hibernate any tab on demand in three ways:
- Popup — open the Takt popup, go to the Hibernate section, and click the hibernate icon next to any open tab.
- Context menu — right-click anywhere on a page and choose Hibernate this tab.
- Options page — go to Options → Hibernate and click the hibernate button next to any tab in the list.
Manual hibernation is free — no Premium subscription required.
Tabs that cannot be hibernated
Some tabs are always exempt from hibernation:
- Tabs playing audio
- Pinned tabs — unless you enable Hibernate pinned tabs in Settings
The active tab in any window can be manually hibernated but is always skipped by automatic triggers.
Waking a tab #
To restore a hibernated tab:
- Open the Takt popup and go to the Hibernate section, or open Options → Hibernate
- Click Wake next to the tab you want to restore
Takt reopens the tab in the same window it came from, at the same position, restores its tab group membership, and scrolls back to where you were.
If the same URL is already open in another tab, Takt will warn you before waking to avoid duplicates.
Auto-hibernation #
Premium feature. All automatic hibernation triggers require a Premium subscription.
Auto-hibernation runs every 5 minutes and checks tabs against the rules you configure in Options → Settings → Tab Lifecycle.
Idle threshold
Enable Auto-hibernate suspended tabs after and set a duration. Any tab that has been suspended (discarded by Chrome) and idle for longer than that duration is automatically hibernated.
Idle time is measured from the last moment you interacted with the tab — clicked, scrolled, typed, or activated it. Tabs you have never interacted with since the extension was installed report an infinite idle time and are treated as the most stale candidates.
Auto-hibernation only targets tabs that are already suspended. It does not directly close active or loading tabs. If you want tabs to reach suspension first, enable Auto-suspend idle tabs in the same settings section.
Per-rule hibernation threshold
In Options → Rules, each rule can have its own hibernation threshold that overrides the global one. This lets you be aggressive with low-priority groups (e.g. hibernate news tabs after 1 hour) and conservative with high-priority ones (e.g. hibernate work tabs only after 3 days).
A tab is hibernated if it meets either the global threshold or its rule-specific threshold — whichever fires first.
Tab ceiling
Enable Hibernate oldest tabs when a window exceeds N tabs and set a limit. Whenever a window goes over that number — including the moment you open a new tab — Takt hibernates the least-recently-used tabs until the count is back at the limit.
When the window drops below the limit (because you close a tab), Takt automatically restores the most recently hibernated tab back into that window, keeping the count at the ceiling.
The ceiling is enforced per window. Having 40 tabs split across two windows with a ceiling of 30 does not trigger hibernation; each window is evaluated independently.
Schedule-end hibernation
In Options → Profiles, each schedule can optionally hibernate all eligible tabs when the scheduled hours end. This is useful for work profiles: when your work hours finish, all open tabs are hibernated, and you start fresh next morning.
Configure it by editing a profile's schedule and enabling Hibernate tabs when schedule ends.
Undoing auto-hibernation #
Each time a tab is auto-hibernated, Takt shows a Chrome notification with an Undo button. Clicking Undo within 10 seconds immediately wakes the tab back. After 10 seconds, the undo window closes — but the tab remains in the Hibernate pane and can still be woken manually.
Exempt URL patterns #
In Options → Settings → Tab Lifecycle, you can add URL patterns that should never be auto-hibernated. Patterns support * as a wildcard:
*google.com*— exempt all Google pages*github.com/myorg/*— exempt your org's repos*localhost*— exempt local dev servers
Exempt patterns apply to all automatic triggers (idle threshold, ceiling, schedule). They do not prevent manual hibernation.
Limits #
| Property | Free | Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Max hibernated tabs | 5 | 200 |
| Manual hibernation | Yes | Yes |
| Auto-hibernation triggers | No | Yes |
| Per-rule threshold | No | Yes |
| Tab ceiling | No | Yes |
| Schedule-end hibernation | No | Yes |
When the hibernation limit is reached, Takt blocks further hibernation and logs the reason. Wake or clear existing tabs to make room.
Browser restart behaviour #
Hibernated tabs survive browser restarts — they are stored in Chrome's local storage, not in memory. When the browser starts, Takt checks whether any hibernated tab's URL is already open and removes the duplicate record if so. All other records remain and can be woken as normal.