Microsoft Edge workspaces and the account problem they leave open
Microsoft Edge workspaces are now a personal feature: a named, coloured window of tabs that Edge saves and syncs to the Microsoft account it is signed in with. The current version needs Edge 144 or later on a Windows 10, Windows 11 or Mac desktop, and it no longer supports sharing a workspace, inviting anyone into one, or locking tabs. That last change is why so many forum threads ask what happened to the feature. Everything below was checked against Microsoft's own pages on 18 October 2026. This site is run by the developer of SpaceDeck, an app aggregation browser for macOS.
The short version for a Mac user deciding what to do next: workspaces are good at bringing back a set of tabs for one project. They do nothing about which account a site opens with. Those are two separate problems, and most frustration with workspaces comes from expecting the first tool to solve the second.
What the current version actually is
Microsoft's getting started page describes the feature as a way to group related tabs by project or activity so that work can be resumed where it was left. The listed uses are trip planning, research, school assignments and other focused tasks. That framing matters. It is a tab organiser with persistence, not a collaboration space and not an identity boundary.
The requirements on that page are three lines long:
- A desktop running Windows 10, Windows 11 or Mac OS. Mobile is not included.
- Microsoft Edge version 144 or later.
- Being signed into Edge with a Microsoft account (MSA) or a work or school account (Microsoft Entra ID, formerly Azure Active Directory).
Data lives with that sign-in. Microsoft's feature page answers the question of whether tabs are lost after signing out: they are not, and the workspaces come back whenever Edge is signed in with the same account. If a workspace looks missing or stale on a second machine, the fix Microsoft gives is to turn on one sync switch, described in the next section.
Two consequences follow. First, a workspace cannot be used without signing Edge into a Microsoft identity, which rules it out for anyone who keeps Edge signed out on purpose. Second, the workspace belongs to the profile that holds that identity. A personal Edge profile and a work Edge profile each have their own separate list of workspaces.
A workspace is a saved window of tabs inside one profile. Keeping that sentence in mind answers most of the questions people search for.
Setting one up on a Mac, using the names on screen
The steps below follow the wording in Microsoft's support and feature pages. The button labels are the same on macOS and Windows.
Create a workspace
- Open Edge and select the Search tabs icon at the top left of the window.
- Select Manage workspaces.
- Open the New workspace drop-down and choose either Create workspace with X tabs, which moves the tabs currently open, or Create blank workspace.
- Enter a name, choose a theme, and select Done. The workspace opens in a new browser window.
After that, the workspaces menu at the top left lists every workspace in the profile, sorted by most recently used.
Edit, delete and move tabs
To rename or recolour, open the Workspaces menu, select More options (the three dots) beside the workspace, then Edit workspace. Deleting follows the same path with Delete workspace, then Delete to confirm. To move a tab from one workspace to another, right-click the tab and choose Move tab to.
Same window or new window
Microsoft lists this under updates that some users may see first. Selecting a workspace from the menu can open it in the current window, and the button at the top left then shows the name of the open workspace, with an option to return to the default window. To force a new window instead, hover over the workspace and select the upward arrow (Open in a new window), or hold Cmd while selecting it on a Mac.
Turn on sync
Open Settings and more (the three dots at the top right), select Settings, choose Sync under Profile settings, and turn on Workspaces and Tab Groups. Without this switch, a workspace made on one Mac will not appear on another.
Workspace or tab group
The switch name hints at how Microsoft sees the two features: they sync together because they do related jobs at different sizes. A tab group is a labelled cluster of tabs inside a window. A workspace is the whole window, saved under a name. A practical split is to use a workspace per project or client, and tab groups inside it for the stages of that project. Creating a workspace for every small cluster of tabs fills the menu quickly, and because the menu reorders by recent use, a long list becomes hard to scan.
What changed, and why people say the feature was ruined
Microsoft's support page includes a table comparing the previous version with the new one. It is the clearest record of what was removed.
| Previous Edge Workspaces | New Edge Workspaces | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is for | Multiple tasks shared across groups | Multiple tasks for individual use |
| Sharing and joining | Supported | Not supported |
| Inviting others | Possible | Not possible |
| Minimum Edge version | 114 | 144 |
| OneDrive storage | Required | Not required |
| Locking tabs | Supported | Not supported |
| Order in the menu | Creation order, custom sorting allowed | Most recently used |
Read row by row, the complaints in community threads make sense. A team that used a shared workspace to onboard someone, sending one link instead of twenty, lost that workflow entirely. Anyone who relied on locked tabs to keep a reference page from being closed lost that too. And people who arranged their workspaces in a fixed order now see them reshuffle every time a different one is opened, because the menu sorts by recent use.
What was gained is smaller but real. The OneDrive requirement is gone, so a personal Microsoft account without spare cloud storage can use the feature, and the feature is now available on Mac on the same terms as on Windows.
For a reader evaluating workspaces from an older article or video, the practical rule is simple: if the source mentions sharing, live cursors, inviting a colleague or locking tabs, it describes a product that no longer ships in that form.
Microsoft's own documentation still describes both versions
This is the part that catches IT administrators. On 18 October 2026 the Microsoft Learn article for administrators still describes the collaborative version. It says users must have access to a OneDrive for Business license to create a workspace, that the feature is enabled for Entra accounts on Edge 114 or later, that tabs are shared in real time so closing one closes it for everyone, that workspace data is stored in the user's OneDrive for Business, and that workspaces can only be shared inside the same Entra tenant. It also explains locked tabs in its FAQ.
The consumer support page and the feature page, checked the same day, say the opposite on several of those points: version 144, no OneDrive storage, no sharing, no locking.
There are two reasonable readings. Either the admin documentation has not caught up with the consumer change, or managed business tenants are still on a different track. Neither page says which. For an organisation, the safe step is to test with a real managed account on the version actually deployed, rather than planning around either document. The Learn article does still name the policy that controls the feature, EdgeWorkspacesEnabled, which is the setting an administrator would look for in either case.
For an individual on a Mac, the consumer page is the one that matches what appears on screen.
What a workspace does not separate
The most common reason people try workspaces is accounts. A work Microsoft 365 tenant and a client's tenant. A personal Gmail and a company Gmail. Two Slack sign-ins. The hope is that a workspace named for the client will open the client's accounts.
It will not. Tabs inside a workspace use the cookies and sign-ins of the Edge profile the workspace lives in. Two workspaces in one profile open the same mailbox. Naming, colouring and syncing a workspace changes which tabs are in front, not who is signed in.
Edge's answer to the account problem is the profile, and Microsoft's profiles article gives the steps: select the Profile icon at the top right, choose Set up a new profile, pick Personal or Work or school, then Sign in to sync data or Start without your data, and finally Confirm and start browsing. Each profile keeps its own settings, favourites, extensions and themes, and the article states that the new profile opens in a separate Edge window. Switching profiles also opens a window.
So the arrangement that actually works inside Edge has two levels:
| Need | Edge tool | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Two identities signed in at once | Profiles | One window per profile |
| A project's tabs back in one click | Workspaces | Inside one profile |
| Related tabs labelled together | Tab groups | Inside one window |
The cost is that every extra identity means another profile, another extension list and another window to find. With two identities that is manageable. With five client tenants it becomes the main thing slowing the day down, and adding more workspaces only makes the menu longer.
Where a Mac offers other options
Mac users have two choices that do not exist on Edge's side of the problem.
The first ships with macOS. Since macOS Sonoma 14, Safari can turn any page into a web app with File > Add to Dock. Apple's web app documentation states that a web app shares no browsing history, cookies, website data or settings with Safari, that its Dock icon can show an unread count for sites that send notifications, and that it can be added as a login item. Each web app is its own cookie jar, so a second account of the same service can live in a second web app. The trade is a minimal toolbar with no tabs, and a separate Dock icon for every service.
The second is a category of browser built around web apps rather than tabs. Each service gets a fixed place in a sidebar and its own isolated storage, so two accounts of one service stay signed in side by side in one window. A set of those apps can then be grouped and switched as a unit, which is what people often expected Edge workspaces to be. How that grouping works in practice is laid out on Workspaces, and the differences between products in the category, mostly where their free tiers stop, are on Compared with Wavebox.
Neither replaces Edge for general browsing. They address the account layer that workspaces leave untouched.
What to change first
Settle the account question before touching workspaces: one Edge profile per identity that must stay signed in, and no more. Then use workspaces inside each profile for projects, with the Workspaces and Tab Groups sync switch turned on. If the profile count keeps growing past three, that is the point to try an app aggregation browser such as SpaceDeck, whose free plan covers one workspace with up to three apps and whose 14-day trial needs no card, and see whether one window with separated accounts replaces the stack of profile windows.
Frequently asked questions
Can Microsoft Edge workspaces still be shared with other people?
Not in the current version. Microsoft's support page states that sharing, collaboration and joining workspaces are not supported, and that others cannot be invited. The admin article on Microsoft Learn still describes sharing within an Entra tenant, so organisations should test on their own deployed version.
Do Edge workspaces work on a Mac?
Yes. Microsoft lists Windows 10, Windows 11 and Mac OS desktops, with Edge 144 or later and a signed-in Microsoft or work account. There is no workspace feature on iPhone, iPad or Android.
Why did my workspaces change order in the menu?
The new version sorts workspaces by most recently used, while the previous version kept creation order and allowed custom sorting. Opening a workspace moves it to the top of the list.
Can one workspace use a different Gmail or Microsoft account from another?
No. Workspaces in the same Edge profile share that profile's cookies and sign-ins. To keep two accounts signed in at once, create a second Edge profile, which opens in its own window, or use a tool that isolates storage per app.
Why do my workspaces not show up on my other computer?
Sync for workspaces is a separate switch. In Edge, go to Settings, then Sync under Profile settings, and turn on Workspaces and Tab Groups on each device, signed in with the same account.