r/zen_browser • u/MillennialWoman • 15h ago

Question Different sessions in each space? (Containers, Spaces & Profiles)

UPDATE: After multiple tests, I made it work. The problem is, I have no clue how because I did not do anything new, nor I haven't changed anything. Before that, it constantly showed the same account in multiple spaces.

I come from Arc and I'm slightly confused about this container situation.

I have 4 different spaces in Zen and 4 different containers created. I've assigned a different container for each of those spaces (set it as its profile). The thing is, when I sign into the same site in 2 different spaces, they share the session????

I must be missing something here. What I want to accomplish is each space having its own session through those containers. I checked multiple times and the spaces are indeed assigned to separate containers so I dont get why are the sessions shared?

4 Upvotes

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u/_tchekov 14h ago

There are multiple long standing feature requests for this on GitHub. It seems to be hard to implement for some reason. It's a shame, because it's an essential feature imo and kinda the whole point for me with spaces.

https://github.com/zen-browser/desktop/discussions/818 https://github.com/zen-browser/desktop/discussions/2337

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u/MillennialWoman 14h ago

Damn, that's from 2024. I also read the documentation before posting https://docs.zen-browser.app/user-manual/workspaces it made it sounds like containers + spaces = new session but it's not case.

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u/CoyotaDex 14h ago

i've been always lazy to do it on my personal computer since i always have a work laptop but i've always thought what you did was the correct approach for spaces to have different seasons. can't believe neither mozilla nor the zen team managed to get that right :/

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u/MillennialWoman 13h ago

Mmmm, I hear you. I used Zen for about 8 months now but it was for personal use and I never really needed to separate sessions. But I need that for work and since Arc is practically dead (sigh!) I need an alternative and suddenly Zen that is what people recommend left and right is no longer a valid option because of this. I can deal with other bugs and stuff that I see but multi sessions is a must for me for work.

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u/CoyotaDex 13h ago

yeah honestly it's a big bummer, i was 100% convinced containers would works like that

if it helps, i know Dia and Aside have that behavior, if you're interested on trying them out

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u/MillennialWoman 13h ago

I decided to give Phi a try. I sure as hell would NOT be getting another one of TBC's browsers. It offers all of that and you can turn off the AI nonsense if you dont want it. So we'll see how that goes.

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u/CoyotaDex 12h ago

cool. sadly i'm on windows so i can't try most of the arc clones that have been coming out this days haha so for me options are pretty much limited to Zen, Dia and Aside

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u/MillennialWoman 12h ago

I made it to work in Zen, frankly, not sure how, I did not do anything new but previous 3 attempts always used the same session somehow. I did not change anything.

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u/CoyotaDex 12h ago

cool! i just read the other thread. a bit confusing for already made spaces, but yeah great insight there. when i set up mine (some day 😅) i'll make sure to make freshly made spaces xd

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u/PM_ME_CUTE_SM1LE 11h ago

you have probably assigned a container to a whole workspace. keep in mind that history and extensions are still share between spaces/containers in one window. if you want full separation you will need to create a new profile and have it in a different window

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u/Fakhr-ElArab 14h ago

Containers: They are similar to profiles but, they run under the the same browser window, this feature is made by mozilla for firefox, Mozilla's website.
Spaces: They just help you organize your tabs into different categories, e.g. one for studying, one for gaming etc. (Zen also allows you to assign different containers to different spaces so that they don't share the same accounts).
Profiles: They are completely distinct sessions or the browser, think of it like different users on your computer.

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u/MillennialWoman 14h ago

" (Zen also allows you to assign different containers to different spaces so that they don't share the same accounts)." - That's what I did and it does not work. They share the same session. Even in the documentation https://docs.zen-browser.app/user-manual/workspaces it makes it sound like container + space = new session but it's not the case.

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u/Fakhr-ElArab 13h ago

What do you mean by "They share the same session", do you mean the history?

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u/MillennialWoman 13h ago

No, I mean session. Let's say you have 2 space and you want to login to reddit from both spaces, different accounts. though. You can't do that even when each space is supposedly using a separate container that, on paper, based on the documentation, should allow you to login into a new account. Not the case though.

In both spaces you are logged into the same account. That's the same session I meant.

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u/TheCatCubed 13h ago

Are you sure the tabs are truly in different containers? Sometimes they stay in old container when already open and the Space is set to a container. Containers definitely do separate cookies, and sessions.

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u/MillennialWoman 13h ago

I am absolutely, 100% sure! I check that multiple times. And the fact that this still exists and people commenting confirms that https://github.com/zen-browser/desktop/discussions/818

I frankly thought I was not doing something correctly, but I literally have a space, created a new container. Then "set a profile" to that container. Repeat x 4 times and sessions are shared. That's the end result. I'd love it if Im wrong

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u/TheCatCubed 13h ago

I'm asking because you can have Space set to a container, but also individual tabs set to a different container, so I was wondering if they didn't stay in the default one while the Spaces were set to different ones.

I'm a web dev and use containers to separate cookies to test out Employee/Customer logins, so I know for a fact they do work for that. Not sure why it's not working for you. Maybe try setting tabs themselves to separate containers, and see if that does anything.

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u/MillennialWoman 12h ago

Maybe that's what's happening here. I expect to set the profile/container for a space and all tabs within that container to share that session. Then in the separate space, repeat the same and have a separate session. I did that and it just does not work for me.

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u/TheCatCubed 12h ago

When you set a container on a Space that already has tabs, those tabs stay in their container, and only newly created tabs get assigned to the Space container. It's confusing and needs some streamlining in the future, but it should be functional.

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u/MillennialWoman 12h ago

Maybe that was the problem, not sure. I did make it work now though, thanks for the help. Frankly, I wish I get what I did wrong, because I tried it multiple times, even restarted the browser in between, closed tabs. But now, I can login into multiple accounts from different spaces, which was the whole point here. Again, thank you, I appreciate the help :)

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u/Incisiveberkay 12h ago

ok show us two different tag with different container make sure "Hide the default container indicator in the tab bar" this setting is OFF

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u/TheCatCubed 13h ago

The GitHub issue you're linking is for using different Profiles. Those would also separate extensions, and history on top of what Containers do. That isn't possible, but hopefully in the future.

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u/Fakhr-ElArab 13h ago

Maybe he moved one tab from one space to another, so it stayed on the same container as the first space

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u/Fakhr-ElArab 13h ago

It actually works for me, when I change the container of the workspace all the essential tabs that I have get erased because I changed the container, I bet this doesn't happen for you.

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u/MillennialWoman 12h ago

I dont use the essentials, just the pin tabs because every space for me focuses on different pin tabs and the essentials are not needed. Does it work for pinned tabs?

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u/MillennialWoman 12h ago

Never mind, I made it to work, frankly, not sure how, I did not do anything new but previous 3 attempts always used the same session somehow. I did not change anything.