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Firefox logo I want to restore the tabs from my previous session, but Firefox won't let me

EreBus
EreBus
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For reasons unbeknownst to me*, Firefox started without restoring the tabs from my previous session. Exploring the forum for help, I found that menu "Help" > "Troubleshooting Information" will lead to a page on which one can find the profile folder, which in turn contains a folder called "sessionstore-backup," in which Firefox keeps a history of previous sessions' tabs.

While none of the files in that folder are intelligible, I can see from text snippets that a file called "upgrade.jsonlz4-20210504152106" is the only one that potentially holds a backup of my tabs. This file is just twelve days old. However, I cannot find a way to restore the tabs from that file as Firefox just keeps ignoring any changes that I make to the files name and folder contents. How can I restore my tabs from that file? when im useing "recovery.jsonlz4" on profile folder , i can see just white page on firefox and cant restore without anything but when i open it with notepad its true and have all url and tab

For reasons unbeknownst to me*, Firefox started without restoring the tabs from my previous session. Exploring the forum for help, I found that menu "Help" > "Troubleshooting Information" will lead to a page on which one can find the profile folder, which in turn contains a folder called "sessionstore-backup," in which Firefox keeps a history of previous sessions' tabs. While none of the files in that folder are intelligible, I can see from text snippets that a file called "upgrade.jsonlz4-20210504152106" is the only one that potentially holds a backup of my tabs. This file is just twelve days old. However, I cannot find a way to restore the tabs from that file as Firefox just keeps ignoring any changes that I make to the files name and folder contents. How can I restore my tabs from that file? when im useing "recovery.jsonlz4" on profile folder , i can see just white page on firefox and cant restore without anything but when i open it with notepad its true and have all url and tab

All Replies (2)

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

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
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It's possible there is some damage to your latest session history file, but just in case, could you check whether either of these are available (not hidden or grayed out):

  • "3-bar" menu button > Restore Previous Session
  • (menu bar) History > Restore Previous Session

If they are missing or grayed, check either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > Library > History > Recently Closed Windows
  • "Library" toolbar button > History > Recently Closed Windows
  • (menu bar) History > Recently Closed Windows

As Fred mentioned, I have a tool to decompress and read out the contents of session history files on my site here:

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

After loading a file, click Scrounge URLs to see the contents. You can Save List to have a reference copy of the page.