Can't rename tab groups and bookmarks disappear

*** I began writing this thinking I found an acrobatic work-around to renaming bookmark tabs in Tab Groups. I did write down my troubleshooting as I went, but to save yourself some time... skip to the end before you read the body. Thanks.

Hello. I arrived here with the same general issue (M1 MacBook running Sonoma 14.2 & Safari Tab Group issues). For more complex work-related bookmarks & tabbing I use Chrome/Firefox, which work seamlessly of course. But for at-home things I thought I'd move over to Safari for a different visual and more 'Appley' appearance. It's refreshing that way.

One thing that may be the issue here is that people moving from Chrome/Firefox likely often manage a big bookmark list by opening an independent bookmark manager page in their browser. From there, doing everything you can want with bookmarks in that bookmark manager page is a relative breeze. So, in Safari, my first impulse is to do the same.

With that said, I agree with most here that managing tabs and the Tab Group thing upon opening the Safari bookmark manager page is a bit unpolished & frustrating.

My simple goal was to change the bookmark names after I added them to the Tab Groups. Which, I could not do.

Agree with the previous:

• Bookmarks in Tab Groups do not show up when opening the Safari Bookmark manager. It says "0 items" or bookmarks are contained within these Tab Groups. Closing and re-opening Safari did not correct this.
• My intent was to edit several bookmark names in these Tab Groups for easier recognition. But if you cannot see these bookmarks in the Tab Groups, edit a bookmark isn't possible.
• And while I was writing this post... I discovered that like another author here I seem to have lost the bookmarks in the Tab Groups in the SAFARI SIDEBAR. I had them minutes ago. Then, like another author suggested, when I recycled the little arrows (<) next to the "BOOKMARKS" folder in the Sidebar which took me back to the general Sidebar, all of them returned. So, I guess you cannot see Tab Groups in the Bookmarks section/folder in the Safari Sidebar. Nice.
• Finally, maybe I'm blind but I don't see any "add bookmark" icon in the Safari toolbar. So, I type "cmd-D" to do that. Like other browsers, you can immediately change the name of the bookmark. OK, good. But then you have only two choices of where the bookmark goes. Two choices: Favorites or Bookmarks, no sign of any tab subdivisions created by the Tab Groups you made. Kinda weird.
• SO, summing it up, when using Tab Groups and you want to rename the tab for easier recognition, you are thwarted in that if you:

1. Add your bookmark using the ol' "cmd-D" since you can rename there, but cannot directly add it to a Tab Group, and
2. use the Safari interface to add your tab to a Tab Group, where you cannot edit the tab name (rename) since it's nowhere to be found in the Safari bookmark manager page.

Work-around for the weirdness:

• If you want to edit names of tabs in Tab Groups, you can "cmd-D" and change the name (rename), put it in the general bookmarks folder. In that folder, you can then (a) edit the name (rename) if you already haven't, and (b) then move the renamed bookmark tab to a Tab Group of your liking.
• But the fun isn't over. If you do that, the newly moved newly renamed tab in the Safari Bookmarks manager page AND in the sidebar's 'Bookmark folder' section. yay! --- BUT... *as you well know* appearances can be deceiving (Matrix 2 Mr. Smith quote). The renamed bookmark tab doesn't show up in the general sidebar where the sidebar indicates the number of open tabs as well as the Tab Groups.
• Amazing.
• As a final Hail Mary pass, I did cmd-D, renamed the tab, added it to bookmarks, saw the new tab only when I opened the bookmark folder, and voila, there it was. But --- as you well know, the added tab/bookmark doesn't show up in the Tab Group when you switch your sidebar back to the general sidebar landing page.

Sorry folks. Appears that if adding a bookmark tab to a Tab Group by clicking on the tab and adding it there, it goes into a "special Tab Group" that seems dissociated from the other bookmarks (ie., in the bookmark manager page, and when you start by adding it via the keyboard's cmd-D.

Yow. And ouch.

Ok. a quick follow-up. Here's what does work:

1. Add bookmark via cmd-D. You can rename here. Since you cannot directly place it in a Tab Group here, put it in the 'Bookmarks' section.
2. There, in an opened Safari bookmarks manager page, you can rename it if you'd like if you didn't rename it right away
3. All "almost normal" so far.
4. Then, in an open Safari page for managing your bookmarks, you can drag & drop you renamed bookmark from the general section to a specific Tab Group.
5. But... you cannot see this dragged & dropped bookmark in the Tab Group in Safari's sidebar page UNLESS you transfer to the Bookmarks section of the Safari Sidebar. There it will be.
6. Where it will NOT be is in the general Safari Sidebar landing page under your "open tabs" and Tab Groups" area.

It's weird, in the sense that it's weird one of the wealthiest companies in the world cannot dedicate the software time to create the proper linkage so the Tab Group bookmarks operate correctly in the two Sidebar sections.

Who wants this to work seamlessly? Everyone who likes to organize their browser I imagine.

Other than that, pretty browser, but it reminds me of the old days when iCloud was young-ish and someone really smart called it a feature instead of a business. And comparing Dropbox then to iCloud then was like day & night. iCloud (then) was an old cripple compared to Dropbox. Then. Now? I don't know since I don't use iCloud except for machine(s) backup.

Akin to the old Dropbox vs iCloud days, I know Safari isn't a power user browser -- but jeez man. "Tab Groups don't work smoothly" in 2024. Puzzling, in light of Apple's general powers of optimization.

I have to share MrMonoboy's disbelief, who was motivated to write in to forums.

Me? First time forum writer. Because this is a weird glitch man...

... is this ever going to be fixed?

Nobody really needs Safari when we have superior browsers like Chrome and Edge with far more intutive features and functions that actually behave as expected.

For starters, you appear to be looking in the wrong place, under "Tab Group Favorites" under your Bookmarks. Tab Group are managed from the parent view that looks like this:

Tab Groups are great (though a little buggy in places), a much more effective way of managing a large number of pages you deal with on a regular basis than bookmarks.

So I think I figured it out. It looks like you are in the bookmarks view. Click the arrow in the top left next to Bookmarks. It should then have the start page at the top, then your tab groups which when you hover over the right side will have the circle and three dots to rename, delete, etc..

Thank you for posting this. Your answer is correct. I had to back out of the Bookmarks to reach the "parent" section. The parent group not only the tab groups, but the bookmarks, reading list, Shared with You, and iCloud tabs at the bottom. There, I was able to see & edit all of the tab groups.

It makes no sense why they would put it here and not within Bookmarks, but there it is. Thank you!