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FF not shutting down properly, trys to open previous tab on start.

  • 11 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 21 views
  • Last reply by Hansl67

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Hi; When I close FF (V96.01) it does not seem to close properly and when restarted trys, usually unsuccesfully, to reopen previous tab. I have , open previous tabs and windows, unchecked in settings. I have tried both the X and exit. If I set, browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash, to false in options it does not happen. as per https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1292610. But when I reset session restore to true the problem resumes. This makes me believe FF is not closing properly Win10 is up to date with all latest updates as is FF.

Is there a fix for this?

Hi; When I close FF (V96.01) it does not seem to close properly and when restarted trys, usually unsuccesfully, to reopen previous tab. I have , open previous tabs and windows, unchecked in settings. I have tried both the X and exit. If I set, browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash, to false in options it does not happen. as per https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1292610. But when I reset session restore to true the problem resumes. This makes me believe FF is not closing properly Win10 is up to date with all latest updates as is FF. Is there a fix for this?

All Replies (11)

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

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


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

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.

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OK tried that, Did not solve the issue. as soon as I turned browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash back to true, opening FF opens previous page.

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Is this how you exit the program? Windows: Menu > File > Exit Mac: Menu > Firefox > Quit Firefox Linux: Menu > File > Quit

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I have used both the exit in the application menu and the X in top right next to minimize. I am not new to FF and this is a recent issue.

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On some systems, using the X has caused problems. Please try using the Exit instead. Is the problem still there?

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That is what I am trying to say,,, but it is not how I am shutting it down, it is not shutting down. I can use file/exit, the X in top right, shift+ctrl+Q,, it still tries to open previous window on restarting. FF is not shutting down properly!

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I called for more help.

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Looks like a bug to me. Can you report it on https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi ? Let's see what devs say. Please share your bug url here.

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I have also seen this problem. I am running Windows 10.

It is certainly happening in 96.0.1 and I'm pretty sure it only started happening in the version before the latest Firefox update - I assume this was V95, but I wasn't really paying attention at the time the issue started. It did not happen with earlier versions.

It does not seem to happen every time I close and restart Firefox. I have not noticed any particular pattern to the startups. I don't think it happens if I reboot the PC between Firefox sessions. But sometimes startup works correctly even without a reboot.

As the original post says, it does not seem to matter how I close Firefox.

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Although mine doesn't crash or lock up, it is reloading previous session tabs even though "Open previous windows and tabs" is unchecked in Settings. It was not doing this before I updated versions. If I check this option and then uncheck it, FireFox opens on my regular home page for a few start ups. Then, it starts going back to open previous session tabs. Quite annoying.

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Some more information:

  • It does not make any difference how I shut down Firefox - the problem is the same whether I use x on the last tab, x on the browser window, or File/Exit from the menu
  • The problem is intermittent - sometimes when I open Firefox it correctly opens my default screen
  • If I close the browser immediately after experiencing the problem, when I reopen the browser one of 2 things can happen: either it correctly opens with my default screen; or I see an error message "Sorry. We're having trouble getting your pages back".
  • If I close and reopen the browser after the "Sorry" message, so far it has always opened correctly at the third attempt
  • "Open previous windows and tabs" is unchecked in Settings
  • After closing the browser, if I check Task Manager before reopening there are no Firefox processes running (as expected!)