Closing main Edge window (with opened tabs but not part of any Workspace) before Workspaces deletes all the current tabs?

Question

Recently I closed my main Edge window with 20-30 Tabs, as I was working on a different workspace. But I can't access my main Edge window now. They also don't appear in "recently closed tabs," so I can't restore them easily. Does, closing the main Edge window (the one not using workspaces) before closing all open workspaces, all my tabs in that main window disappear permanently?

So if what I wrote is true, then that means, if I close the regular window first, those tabs do not come back later, even though I have the setting turned on to reopen previous tabs? Is this new level of stupidity Microsoft has achieved? Honestly, I was better of with groups and if there is a way to close all the workspaces and convert them into groups again, I'd do that. Or how does everyone use Edge (your main window with different workspace) and how do you deal with the constant fear of losing your main edge tabs/window, whenever using a workspace?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Hello Rohan,

What you described can happen with the current Edge session behavior. In Edge, each browser window is treated as a separate session, so “Open tabs from previous session” usually restores the last window that was closed, not every window that was open earlier. This means if the main/non-workspace window is closed first and a workspace window is closed later, Edge may reopen the workspace session instead of the original main window tabs.

Workspaces also behave a little differently from regular windows. Microsoft documents that workspaces open in their own browser window and are automatically saved, while your default Edge window remains separate. (For more information, here's the link references: Workspaces, Getting started with Microsoft Edge Workspaces).

Here's what you can try to avoid this later:

• Close the main Edge window last if you are using both a normal window and workspaces. Since restore is tied to the last closed window, this improves the chance that your main tabs reopen.
• Use Settings and more > Close Microsoft Edge instead of closing windows one by one with the X. This helps Edge close all windows together.
• For important tab sets, press Ctrl + Shift + D to save all open tabs as a Favorites folder before closing Edge.

The most reliable workaround would be:

• Open the workspace.
• Press Ctrl + Shift + D to save all tabs to a Favorites folder.
• Open those saved tabs in a regular Edge window and organize them into tab groups.

I hope this helps clarify why the tabs did not return as expected. Let me know if you need further assistance, feel free to ask me by clicking "Add Comment" or "Add Answer" if you cannot add comment so your response will be visible. Thanks for your effort.

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Answer 2

Closing a non-workspace Microsoft Edge window does not permanently delete those tabs by design, but the behavior depends on which Edge “Workspaces” experience is in use and how it is configured.

From the provided information:

1. There are two different Edge Workspaces experiences:
   • Previous Edge Workspaces (enterprise, collaborative, shared via Microsoft Entra ID, data stored in OneDrive/SharePoint, supports sharing and locking tabs).
   • New Edge Workspaces (personal, non-collaborative, no sharing, no locking tabs, no OneDrive requirement).
   The new Workspaces are explicitly described as “for individual use” and do not mention any change to how non-workspace windows and their tabs are persisted or restored.
2. Workspaces themselves:
   • Group tabs into a workspace so that returning to that workspace restores its tabs and layout.
   • In the previous (collaborative) version, workspace tabs, favorites, and history are stored in OneDrive/SharePoint and kept in sync for collaborators.
   • If a workspace is deleted, its stored contents are deleted for all collaborators.
3. Tabs and closing behavior inside Workspaces:
   • In collaborative Edge Workspaces, tabs are shared in real time. If someone closes a tab in a workspace, it closes for everyone in that workspace.
   • Locked tabs (in the previous Workspaces experience) cannot be closed or moved unless unlocked by the creator or the user who locked them.

However, the context does not describe any mechanism where simply closing a regular, non-workspace Edge window while other Workspaces remain open causes the non-workspace tabs to be permanently discarded or excluded from “reopen previous tabs” or “recently closed” lists. The documentation focuses on:

• How Workspaces organize and persist their own tabs.
• How collaborative Workspaces share and synchronize tabs, favorites, and history.
• That deleting a workspace deletes its workspace contents.

It does not state that:

• Closing a standard Edge window while Workspaces are open will erase those non-workspace tabs.
• There is any automatic conversion between Workspaces and tab groups, or a way to “convert all workspaces back into groups.”

From the available information, the following can be concluded based on documented behavior only:

• Workspaces manage and persist their own sets of tabs; deleting a workspace removes those workspace tabs for all collaborators.
• Closing tabs inside a workspace affects all collaborators in that workspace.
• There is no documented feature to convert Workspaces back into tab groups.
• There is no documented feature that intentionally discards non-workspace tabs when the main window is closed while Workspaces remain open.

Because the context does not describe the exact interaction between the “reopen previous tabs” setting and multiple windows plus Workspaces, it cannot confirm why those particular tabs did not appear in “recently closed” in this case, nor whether this is a bug, a regression, or a configuration issue.

For managing fear of losing work when using Workspaces, the documented, supported patterns are:

• Use Workspaces themselves to organize important sets of tabs that should reliably re-open with the workspace.
• In the collaborative/enterprise Workspaces experience, rely on the fact that workspace data (tabs, favorites, history) is stored in OneDrive/SharePoint and persists until the workspace is explicitly deleted.

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References:

• Microsoft Edge Workspaces
• Getting started with Microsoft Edge Workspaces
• User data and privacy in Microsoft Edge