Support & help

Last updated: 2026-09-23

Retrace is a small, independent product, and we help you directly by email — no tickets, no bots, no call queue. This page covers how to reach us, and how to use Retrace: the free features, the on-device AI, and Retrace Pro (backup & restore and keyboard shortcuts).

How to reach us

• Purchases, license keys & Backup & restore → support@retrace-addon.store
• General or privacy questions → contact@retrace-addon.store

Not sure which to use? Just email support@retrace-addon.store. We're a solo team and reply as soon as we can — usually within 1–2 business days, and every message is answered by a person. If you hit a problem, please email us before requesting a refund — we can usually fix it quickly.

The basics: sessions & Spaces

A session is a saved snapshot of a window's tabs that you can search and reopen later. A Space is a folder that gathers related sessions over time. Retrace opens on Windows — everything open right now — and has three surfaces that share one design — a compact popup, a side panel, and a full page — so you can work from any of them. Press Alt+Shift+R on any tab to open it (change the key at chrome://extensions/shortcuts).

Using the free features

• Save a window — click Save to store the current window as a session, or press the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+S). Saving the same window again refreshes that session instead of creating a duplicate.
• Save just some tabs — in the side panel or full page, tick the tabs you want and the button switches to “Save N tabs.”
• Tab groups are kept — if the window uses Chrome tab groups, Retrace stores their names and colors and restores them when you reopen the session.
• Reopen — open a session in a new window, or add its tabs to the current window from the session's detail panel.
• Pin — pin the sessions that matter so they reopen when your browser starts (you can turn this on in Settings).
• Archive — tuck sessions you don't need often out of the main list without deleting them.
• Rename & delete — rename any session, or delete it; destructive actions show an Undo. Deleted sessions also go to a 30-day trash in Settings, so you can restore them later.
• Sort & multi-select — sort your list by recent, name, or number of tabs, and use Select to archive, delete, or move several sessions to a Space at once.
• Grow a session — use Add this window to fold the current tabs into an existing session, or remove a single tab from it.
• Default spaces & sub-spaces — the Spaces tab offers Work, Personal, Learning, Shopping and Travel once; add them and Retrace files matching sessions into them, now and as you save. Put a space inside another from its palette button (Inside), or use Sub-spaces › New in a space. in:Work searches Work and its sub-spaces.
• Spaces — create folders and move sessions into them to keep related work together. Retrace learns what each Space is about: when you save a window it suggests the right Space (tap Add), and Spaces › Sort unfiled sessions files the rest in a tap and proposes new Spaces. To have clear matches filed for you, choose Settings › Saving › Spaces for new sessions › File automatically when sure (there's always an Undo).
• Space rules, look & notes — open a Space and press the palette button to give it an emoji, a colour and auto-file rules (sites like jira.acme.com or github.com/acme, and words). Saves that match go straight in. A Space also has a note, and can open all its sessions at once — each in its own window, or all in one window with a tab group per session.
• Notes — in a session's details, write a note on the session, or press the note icon on any page to note that page. Notes are searchable.
• Group tabs — press Group tabs on a window in the Windows tab to sort its loose tabs into browser tab groups by topic. Your pinned tabs and existing groups are left alone, and Undo removes the new groups.
• Search & history — search every session by title, summary, note, page title or web address (including the words of a search you made). Narrow it with site:github.com, in:Work, is:pinned, or dates like “last week” and “yesterday” — or type a sentence. Restore recently closed windows, and browse a searchable log of what you did (you can clear it in Settings).
• Save & close — in Settings › After saving a window, choose Close saved tabs and every save also closes those tabs to free up memory (browser-pinned tabs are left alone).
• Keep a session in sync — in a session's details, turn on Keep in sync with its window. While its window is open, the session follows it: tabs you open, close or move are saved automatically. Reopening the session picks the link up again, even after a browser restart.
• Windows — the first tab shows every open window, numbered in the order you opened them, each with a name, a one-line summary, its tab groups and what's playing. Press 1–9 there to jump to a window, or Alt+Shift+W anywhere for the next one (give Go to window 1/2/3 keys at chrome://extensions/shortcuts). On each window: Group tabs, Close duplicates (with Undo), Sleep (frees memory), Select to save just some tabs, and Save. If a window looks like a session you saved, Keep in sync links them. Drag a tab onto another window to move it. Prefer to start on Sessions? Settings › Open Retrace on.
• Kept windows — a window with 5 or more pages, open for 10 minutes, is kept by itself under Sessions › Kept and follows the window. Closed, it stays 14 days, then goes to the trash; Keep for good makes it a normal session, Forget removes it. Windows you've saved aren't kept twice. Turn it off in Settings › Keep my windows automatically.
• Share — in a session's details (or a Space's header), press Share to copy the links (plain or Markdown) or save a Retrace file or a web page of links. Nothing is uploaded. Notes are left out unless you tick Include my notes. To open a Retrace file someone sent you: Settings › Import from another tab manager.
• Tags — in a session's details, type a tag and press Enter (suggested topics appear underneath). Click a tag on any card, or search #tag, to see everything with it.
• Reminders — press Remind me in a session's details and pick a time. When it's due, the session waits at the top of your list and the toolbar icon shows a number; opening it marks it done.
• Recovery timeline — every few minutes Retrace notes which pages are open in each window (never incognito). Open Settings › Recovery timeline and drag the slider back through the day, or search for a page you closed. Press Reopen windows to bring that moment back (after a crash, say), or Save as sessions to keep it.
• Import from another tab manager — Settings › Import from another tab manager accepts a Retrace file someone shared with you, OneTab's exported text (file or paste), Session Buddy and Toby JSON exports, and browser bookmark files.

Using the on-device AI features

Retrace understands your tabs even without AI — summaries, names, Space suggestions and search all work from your tabs' titles and web addresses. On a supported device, it also uses your browser's built-in, on-device AI (Chrome's Gemini Nano, or Edge's own on-device model) to go further. It can:

• write a sharper one-line summary, a name and a few topics for a session (in your tabs' language, when the model supports it),
• show a live summary of the window you're in, under its tab titles,
• group related tabs, and write a short brief,
• read a search typed as a sentence and find what you meant,
• help pick the right Space when the match isn't clear, and write a one-line overview of each Space.

How to use it: it mostly just works — when you save a session, Retrace writes the summary and name automatically, and Ask AI in Spaces › Sort unfiled sessions proposes Spaces. The first time, your browser may need to do a one-time download of the AI model in the background; after that it runs offline.

This runs entirely on your device — nothing about your tabs is ever sent anywhere. It needs a reasonably capable desktop (enough disk and memory/GPU for the model). If your device doesn't support it, everything still works from your tabs' titles and addresses. On-device AI is a free bonus, never something you pay for.

Music

Open Spaces › Music. It's a library of songs — one entry per song, whichever site you heard it on (YouTube, YouTube Music, Spotify, SoundCloud, Bandcamp).

• Add songs: Add songs from this window, Add a link (paste the link and type “Artist – Title”), Add to Music in a saved session's Music section, or Add this song to Music in the popup's Save menu.
• Browse: Recent (by when you last played or added them), Songs (favourites first, then by artist) or Playlists. The search box searches songs while Music is open. Tap ♥ to favourite; a song's ⋮ menu adds it to a playlist, edits its artist and title, or removes it (with Undo).
• Play: click a song to play it — Retrace plays on through that list in one tab, with Next and Previous in the player at the bottom. Play, pause and volume stay with your browser's own media button.
• Bring your history: Import & export reads the files you download yourself — Spotify's data export (StreamingHistory…json) or Google Takeout's YouTube history (watch-history.json). You see what will come in first, and Undo takes it back. Export your songs as CSV, or share a playlist as links or a file.
• Insights (Retrace Pro): the Insights tab shows a month, a year or all time — plays, time listened, top artists and songs, your longest streak and when in the day you listen.
• Automatically (Retrace Pro): turn on Settings › Listening › Remember music I listen to. You can pause it, choose which sites count, and forget today's plays. A song counts once it has played for 20 seconds in a tab; the same song on another site adds a link to the same entry. Retrace reads only tab titles — it never listens to audio and nothing leaves your device. Songs in desktop apps or on other devices aren't seen.

Using Retrace Pro (paid)

Retrace Pro is the one optional paid unlock — a one-time $10, for Chrome and Edge. One license key turns on the whole bundle: automatic music listening, backup & restore (with encryption and a connected-file option), keyboard shortcuts and a command palette, Tidy up, auto-archive, and templates.

1. Buy Retrace Pro on our checkout. You'll receive a license key by email that looks like RTRC-….
2. Open Retrace › Settings › Backup & restore, paste your key, and press Unlock. It's verified offline on your device — Retrace Pro turns on right away.
3. Backup — Export writes a single file containing your sessions, Spaces, history, and settings. Save it wherever you like — it never leaves your device unless you move it.
4. Backup — Import reads a file you pick and merges it: it adds what's new, keeps the newer copy of anything edited on both sides, and never wipes this device. Sessions you deleted elsewhere go to the trash, so nothing is lost for 30 days.

Use backup to move your data to another device, or to restore after a reinstall.

More Retrace Pro features

• Encrypted backups — tick Encrypt the export with a password before exporting. The file is protected with strong on-device encryption; you'll need that password to restore it, and we never store it, so keep it safe.
• Connected backup file — under Backup & restore, choose Connect a file and pick a location. Retrace keeps that file in two-way sync whenever it's open: it merges in changes from other devices, then writes the combined result back. Put the file in a Dropbox/Drive/OneDrive folder and your sessions follow you across devices — still with no Retrace servers. It's encrypted by default: use the same password on every device. Sync now pulls the latest immediately. If the browser drops the file's permission, a Reconnect button brings it back.
• Tidy up — in Settings › Tidy up: your library at a glance, plus one-tap fixes for sessions that mostly overlap (merge), sessions you haven't opened in 90 days (archive), pages saved in many sessions, and duplicate pages. Every action can be undone.
• A longer recovery timeline — Settings › Recovery timeline history keeps up to 30 days (older moments are thinned to four a day).
• Auto-archive — under Settings › Auto-archive, turn it on and choose a window (7–90 days). Saved, unpinned sessions you haven't opened in that long are archived automatically. It's reversible — nothing is deleted.
• Templates — under Settings › Templates, use Save this window to store a reusable set of tabs. Press Open to launch it fresh anytime. Unlike a session, a template is a launcher, not a record.

Using keyboard shortcuts (Retrace Pro)

Once Retrace Pro is unlocked, you can drive the side panel and full page from the keyboard — no mouse needed. Every shortcut is rebindable under Settings › Keyboard shortcuts, and pressing ? anytime opens a cheat sheet.

• J / K — move the selection down / up your list of sessions.
• Enter open the selected session's details · O reopen all its tabs.
• P pin/unpin · A archive/unarchive · R rename · D delete (with undo).
• / jump to search · 1–4 switch filters (All / Pinned / Archived / History).
• ⌘/Ctrl-K open the command palette — a fuzzy search over commands and your sessions.
• Esc step back out · ? show the cheat sheet.

Shortcuts work only inside Retrace's own surfaces, so they add no browser permissions. The two global shortcuts (save the current window, open Retrace) are free for everyone; Settings › Browser shortcuts shows what they're set to, and you can rebind them at edge://extensions/shortcuts (on Edge, saving defaults to Alt+Shift+S, since Ctrl+Shift+S is Edge's Web capture).

When you email us, please include

• the email you purchased with (and your Paddle order number, if you have it);
• which browser and version you're on (Chrome or Edge);
• a short note on what you were doing and what happened — a screenshot is ideal.

We will never ask you to send us your license key — your key is yours alone. To help, we only need your order number and a description of the problem. Anyone asking you to email your key is not us.

Common questions

• My license key hasn't arrived. Keys are issued by hand, so allow a few hours and check your spam/junk. After 2 business days with nothing, email support@retrace-addon.store.
• My key won't activate. Paste the whole key, including the RTRC- prefix, into Settings › Backup & restore › Unlock. Still stuck? Email us your Paddle order number (never your key) and we'll help you sort it out.
• The AI isn't writing summaries. Your device may not support on-device AI, or the model is still downloading. Meanwhile Retrace summarizes from your tabs' titles — that's expected, not a fault.
• A session keeps getting suggested for the wrong Space. Press ✕ next to the suggestion — it won't be suggested there again. A Space's rules always win, so check them in the Space's palette panel.
• A reopened session didn't restore what was on a page. A session is a record of the tabs you saved, not a snapshot of unsaved in-page content — browsers can't capture that.

What our support covers

We help by email, in English. There's no phone line or live chat — keeping support lean is part of what keeps Retrace private and inexpensive. If something is genuinely broken and we can't fix it, you're covered by our Refund Policy.

Pricing · Refund Policy · Terms of Sale · Privacy Policy