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Start FF or FF Home Key Opens Old Tabs

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In the past, I've had occasional problems with Firefox's forgetting my tabs, even though (a) I have configured FF to "warn me when I attempt to close multiple tabs", and (b) in any case, I always shut down via File/Exit. FF always has the sessionstore .js and .bak files, but when this happens they have no effect. Overwriting them with privately maintained copies likewise has no benefit.

Now I have exactly the opposite problem. FF 28.0 was automatically installed on 28 March. A few days later, FF decided to change my home page to the default (I have no idea why), so I set it back to what it had been beforehand.

Since then (cause and effect? coincidence?), FF always opens multiple tabs whenever I either (a) click the Home icon, or (b) start FF. (When starting FF, this occurs regardless of (1) how it was shut down, or (2) whether it had been in Safe Mode when shut down, or (3) how many tabs had been active when shut down.) The contents of the tabs are familiar, but recent only in the sense that now I can't get rid of them: that is, there were multiple uneventful invocations of FF with different, newer, tabs after I'd used those tabs and before the problem occurred.

I'm reporting this now not only because I'm out of ideas, but because I use Windows XP (SP3) and I know that if I wait until next week then it will be claimed that XP is the smoking gun.

I've tried the following, all without any apparent effect, whether for good or ill. In the hope that some combination might work, I've undone several of the earlier steps and then repeated them after trying the later ones unsuccessfully, but in vain.

• Disable add-ons individually and collectively. • Uninstall add-ons one by one. • Clear cache and history. • Reset FF to default. • Restart with add-ons disabled. • Start FF in Safe Mode. • Change the value of Options/General/When FF Starts from "Show my windows and tabs from last time" to "Show my home page". • Close all tabs but one. (Thank goodness for "Close all tabs to the right"!) • Delete (to Recycle Bin only, not completely) sessionstore .js and .bak files. • Windows System Restore (to a date before these problems, but after upgrading to FF 28.0).

In every case, FF starts with multiple tabs (the same nine in my case). Clicking the Home icon makes it 17 tabs; and clicking it again makes it 25 tabs; and so on.

By contrast, one thing does bring a little benefit. Changing the value of Options/General/When FF Starts to "Show a blank page" causes the home page to be shown. (This action is not what was specified, but is better than opening nine tabs.) Unfortunately, clicking the "Home" icon still causes eight new tabs to be opened.

In the past, I've had occasional problems with Firefox's forgetting my tabs, even though (a) I have configured FF to "warn me when I attempt to close multiple tabs", and (b) in any case, I always shut down via File/Exit. FF always has the sessionstore .js and .bak files, but when this happens they have no effect. Overwriting them with privately maintained copies likewise has no benefit. Now I have exactly the opposite problem. FF 28.0 was automatically installed on 28 March. A few days later, FF decided to change my home page to the default (I have no idea why), so I set it back to what it had been beforehand. Since then (cause and effect? coincidence?), FF always opens multiple tabs whenever I either (a) click the Home icon, or (b) start FF. (When starting FF, this occurs regardless of (1) how it was shut down, or (2) whether it had been in Safe Mode when shut down, or (3) how many tabs had been active when shut down.) The contents of the tabs are familiar, but recent only in the sense that now I can't get rid of them: that is, there were multiple uneventful invocations of FF with different, newer, tabs after I'd used those tabs and before the problem occurred. I'm reporting this now not only because I'm out of ideas, but because I use Windows XP (SP3) and I know that if I wait until next week then it will be claimed that XP is the smoking gun. I've tried the following, all without any apparent effect, whether for good or ill. In the hope that some combination might work, I've undone several of the earlier steps and then repeated them after trying the later ones unsuccessfully, but in vain. • Disable add-ons individually and collectively. • Uninstall add-ons one by one. • Clear cache and history. • Reset FF to default. • Restart with add-ons disabled. • Start FF in Safe Mode. • Change the value of Options/General/When FF Starts from "Show my windows and tabs from last time" to "Show my home page". • Close all tabs but one. (Thank goodness for "Close all tabs to the right"!) • Delete (to Recycle Bin only, not completely) sessionstore .js and .bak files. • Windows System Restore (to a date before these problems, but after upgrading to FF 28.0). In every case, FF starts with multiple tabs (the same nine in my case). Clicking the Home icon makes it 17 tabs; and clicking it again makes it 25 tabs; and so on. By contrast, one thing does bring a little benefit. Changing the value of Options/General/When FF Starts to "Show a blank page" causes the home page to be shown. (This action is not what was specified, but is better than opening nine tabs.) Unfortunately, clicking the "Home" icon still causes eight new tabs to be opened.

Chosen solution

The last thing you mentioned is the first thing to fix. Firefox allows multiple tabs to be saved as your home page. If you used the button in the Options dialog to save your home page -- "Use Current Pages" -- that will grab all the tabs in the current window.

So you can manually edit your home page URL by looking for the first vertical bar character (|) and deleting from there to the end, or clear it all and set your home page from scratch.

Related articles:

Hopefully this will resolve everything but, if not, come back with and update on where you are.

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The last thing you mentioned is the first thing to fix. Firefox allows multiple tabs to be saved as your home page. If you used the button in the Options dialog to save your home page -- "Use Current Pages" -- that will grab all the tabs in the current window.

So you can manually edit your home page URL by looking for the first vertical bar character (|) and deleting from there to the end, or clear it all and set your home page from scratch.

Related articles:

Hopefully this will resolve everything but, if not, come back with and update on where you are.