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Firefox restoring the previous session after the PC boots up

  • 5 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

prashanthwagle360
prashanthwagle360
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Hello, In Ubuntu 20.04 (Firefox 76), there is this strange bug. Whenever I reboot/shutdown and start my computer, and after login when I open Firefox (after bootup), the previous session (i.e. the session which was present at the time of reboot) will be opened at the same ubuntu workspace location.

Eg. I had 3 tabs opened in workspace 2 and I shutdown my system. Then I again boot into Ubuntu and open firefox (in the default workspace aka workspace 1), the browser will resume its previous state i.e. it will open in the workspace 2 with the 3 tabs open. So this is like a state restore.

I have disabled Restore Previous Session in the "Startup" section of preferences.

Hello, In Ubuntu 20.04 (Firefox 76), there is this strange bug. Whenever I reboot/shutdown and start my computer, and after login when I open Firefox (after bootup), the previous session (i.e. the session which was present at the time of reboot) will be opened at the same ubuntu workspace location. Eg. I had 3 tabs opened in workspace 2 and I shutdown my system. Then I again boot into Ubuntu and open firefox (in the default workspace aka workspace 1), the browser will resume its previous state i.e. it will open in the workspace 2 with the 3 tabs open. So this is like a state restore. I have disabled Restore Previous Session in the "Startup" section of preferences.

All Replies (5)

FredMcD
FredMcD
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You may have corrupt sessionstore [v56] sessionstore.jsonlz4 file(s). Delete all sessionstore* files and the sessionstore-backups folder.

Type about:support<enter> in the address bar.

Under the page logo on the left side, you will see Application Basics. Under this find Profile Folder. To its right press the button Show Folder. This will open your file browser to the current Firefox profile. Now Close Firefox.

Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder

Linux: Under the page logo on the left side, you will see Application Basics. Under this find Profile Directory. To its right press the button Open Directory.

Locate the above file. Then rename or delete it. Restart Firefox.


Don't delete the files if you need to rescue any data from them, just move them out of the profile folder to some location where Firefox doesn't look for them. You can try to read out their contents using this tool: https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/scrounger.html

prashanthwagle360
prashanthwagle360 Question owner
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Thank You!

Deleting the sessionstore-backups folder did the trick for me.

FredMcD
FredMcD
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Glad to help. Safe Surfing.

prashanthwagle360
prashanthwagle360 Question owner
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Hello, The above solution works only once. The next time the same thing repeats. I uninstalled firefox, deleted the .mozilla folder and again installed firefox, but no changes seen.

Does the problem happen if we have signed into the firefox account?

Ps. There is no User.js file to try out another workaround as suggested by another answer.

FredMcD
FredMcD
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Use these links to create a new profile. Use this new profile as is. Is the problem still there?

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Navigating_to_the_profile_folder

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles


Type about:profiles<enter> in the address bar.