We're calling on all EU-based Mozillians with iOS or iPadOS devices to help us monitor Apple’s new browser choice screens. Join the effort to hold Big Tech to account!

This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Session Recovery

more options

Hello, I need to remove all my info from a failing computer/hard drive.

I like to open hundreds of tabs per session. My objective is to somehow copy the complete Firefox data so when I copy to a new computer my session will restore when I open Firefox on the new device. And these tabs/session will not be lost.

What information do I need to copy? Would copying all the Firefox folders in Program Files suffice?

Thank you for all help!

Hello, I need to remove all my info from a failing computer/hard drive. I like to open hundreds of tabs per session. My objective is to somehow copy the complete Firefox data so when I copy to a new computer my session will restore when I open Firefox on the new device. And these tabs/session will not be lost. What information do I need to copy? Would copying all the Firefox folders in ''Program Files'' suffice? Thank you for all help!

All Replies (1)

more options

Hi pdesanctisiii, not the Program Files, but your profile folder. These articles have more information:

Now... Firefox also has a Sync feature when you connect two installations of Firefox to the same Firefox Account. Please make a backup first! But assuming it works correctly, your open tabs should transfer between the two Firefox installations.


Other Session File Notes

When you are looking in your profile folder, you'll notice a lot of different files in the sessionstore-backups folder. Here's a general description:

  • recovery.jsonlz4: the windows and tabs in your currently live Firefox session (or, if Firefox crashed at the last shutdown and is still closed, your last session)
  • recovery.baklz4: a backup copy of recovery.jsonlz4
  • previous.jsonlz4: the windows and tabs in your last Firefox session
  • upgrade.jsonlz4-build_id: the windows and tabs in the Firefox session that was live at the time of your last update

I have a tool to convert one of those files to a clickable list of links you can use as an archive/backup for re-opening tabs if the file copying methods and Sync are not successful:

https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/scrounger.html

After you drop a file on the page, click "Scrounge URLs" to generate the list (hopefully; sometimes it can't handle really large files, in that case reload and try the Unstructured URL list). Use the Save List button to save the results to an HTML file.