Close only incognito tabs

With Close only incognito tabs, a close schedule closes matching tabs in your private windows and leaves your normal tabs open. It is useful when you browse a site privately and want those private tabs gone at a set time, while the same site stays open in your normal window.

How closing only incognito tabs works

When the schedule runs, Tab Scheduler finds the tabs that match your Website Link. With this option ticked, it closes a matching tab only if it is in an incognito window. Matching tabs in normal windows are skipped.

Tab Scheduler can only reach incognito tabs after you turn on Allow in Incognito for the extension. If it is off when you tick the option, the box is unticked again and a message asks you to turn it on.

How to close only incognito tabs

Allow Tab Scheduler in incognito

These steps are for Google Chrome.

1. Click the Extensions icon in the toolbar, which looks like a puzzle piece.
2. Select Manage extensions.
3. Find Tab Scheduler with auto open and close and click Details.
4. Scroll down to Allow in incognito and turn on the switch beside it.

Create the schedule

1. Click the Tab Scheduler icon in your browser toolbar and choose Settings.
2. Enter the link in Website Link, for example shop.example.com.
3. Choose how often it should run in Select Frequency.
4. Set Schedule Type to Close matching tabs or Open, then close.
5. Fill in the close fields, such as Close Time.
6. Under More options, tick Close only incognito tabs.
7. Click Save Schedule.

When to use closing only incognito tabs

• Private shopping, closed at night. You compare prices on shop.example.com in a private window. A schedule at 23:00 closes those private tabs, while the shop tab in your normal window stays.
• Every private tab at once. Enter only * and tick Close only incognito tabs. At the time you set, every incognito tab closes and your normal tabs are left alone.
• A private class. Use Open, then close with Open in incognito mode to open a lesson privately at 14:00. Tick Close only incognito tabs so that only the private copy closes at 15:00.

Good to know about closing only incognito tabs

• Without this option, a close schedule closes matching tabs in both normal and incognito windows, as long as Allow in Incognito is on.
• If you turn Allow in Incognito off later, the schedule can no longer close incognito tabs.
• The Close All Scheduled Link button above the schedule list follows the same rule.
• The option is not available with the On Browser Open frequency, which only opens websites.
• Your computer must be awake and the browser must be running at the close time. Power Mode keeps the computer awake.