about:sessionrestore shows no tabs, though they are in sessionstore.js
Preferences set to restore windows and tabs.
FF crashed recently and showed the about:sessionrestore page, but with now tabs or windows (see image). Figured it was a faulty file, made a backup of old recovery.js in sessionstore-backups-folder.
Closed FF, deleted sessionCheckpoints.json, sessionstore.js and even recovery.js and previous js. Replaced all those (except sessionCheckpoints.json) with the backup of the recovery.js-file.
Still, when opening FF, it shows the usual "Well, this is embarassing!"-tab but no tabs.
Tabs are definitely there in the old recovery.js-file, even found the one I opened right before FF crashed (opened the file in texteditor and did a search, see also images).
Any ideas why the Restoring-windows shows no tabs to restore, even though they are in the file?
All Replies (4)
(couldn't upload pictures in original post)
I think that occurs when you already restored the session. Is "Restore Previous Session" grayed on the History menu? If so, does the menu list tabs and windows that you can restore which you recognize from an earlier session?
Please back up your session history files (recovery.js, etc.) as of course they can easily be wiped.
I have a page you can use to extract the contents of session history files to an HTML document as a backup or workaround: https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/scrounger.html
Thing is, I haven't restored the history. "Restore Previous Session" is also greyed out, "Recently Closed Tabs" and "... Windows" too. Only ones I could "restore" from "History" are the latest 10 shown (or all of course when I go to "Show All History"), but most tabs were already opened for a long time, so they don't automatically show up there.
recovery.js is backed up of course. Thanks very much for the page, it's really neat with the links clickable, got all of my tabs listed. And thanks very much for your PM, I also thought about the "sessionrestore tab in a sessionrestore tab" when I looked at recovery.js. Your scrounger showed two Windows actually: "Window 1" with only one tab: about:sessionrestore and "Window 2" with all my tabs from browsing. Thing is, I'm 100% sure there was no "Window 1" because I never use more than one window.
Additional info: This didn't happen for the first time, it always happens when my battery is going empty and my laptop shuts down itself (though I never checked the file before this one, but it was always the same: about:sessionrestore opens itself after starting up and opening firefox again, but shows no tabs. Will have to check the next time my battery gets empty, this time it was a crash).
Should I report this as a bug?
A bug might not get urgent attention, but it would be interesting for someone to consider how the session restore windows got nested in one another, and try to find a way to prevent from happening.