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How to utilize previous.js or restore.js to recover tabs/groups?

  • 4 replies
  • 4 have this problem
  • 8 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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Hello, I would greatly appreciate any help. I have VERY important tabs (over 150) and put into groups using TabGroupsHelper. My firefox session closed and when it opened I had only a single page. ...I'm sure you have heard that before. :) I'm not sure if I opened/closed FF too many times before making a backup of the session files,...however, the "restore previous session" is greyed out, bummer :( I do have backups of restore.js and previous.js and ATTEMPTED to copy the restore.js to the profile folder, which I assume is one level up??? I renamed it sessionstore.js and restart FF, However FF appears to delete the sessionstore.js file.  :( I tried this a second time because I was not sure it deleted it...but indeed it did I watched it go bye bye. :) So, to ease my mind a bit I opened the copied restore.js in word and I am able to see it contains the latest tabs and group from earlier today. Is there a way I can use this file to recover the session tabs/groups? Did I place the file in the proper folder (its under >>Appdata, Roaming, Mozilla, FF, Profiles, a78smah2.default) before renaming it to sessionstore.js? So to be clear, I placed it in the "a78smah2.default" folder...is this correct? Thanks for any guidance you can provide, I would be deeply grateful!!

Hello, I would greatly appreciate any help. I have VERY important tabs (over 150) and put into groups using TabGroupsHelper. My firefox session closed and when it opened I had only a single page. ...I'm sure you have heard that before. :) I'm not sure if I opened/closed FF too many times before making a backup of the session files,...however, the "restore previous session" is greyed out, bummer :( I do have backups of restore.js and previous.js and ATTEMPTED to copy the restore.js to the profile folder, which I assume is one level up??? I renamed it sessionstore.js and restart FF, However FF appears to delete the sessionstore.js file. :( I tried this a second time because I was not sure it deleted it...but indeed it did I watched it go bye bye. :) So, to ease my mind a bit I opened the copied restore.js in word and I am able to see it contains the latest tabs and group from earlier today. Is there a way I can use this file to recover the session tabs/groups? Did I place the file in the proper folder (its under >>Appdata, Roaming, Mozilla, FF, Profiles, a78smah2.default) before renaming it to sessionstore.js? So to be clear, I placed it in the "a78smah2.default" folder...is this correct? Thanks for any guidance you can provide, I would be deeply grateful!!

All Replies (4)

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Did you check the content of the file in a text editor to make sure the file isn't corrupted?

If you replace a sessionstore.js file with an undamaged file from the sessionstore-backups folder like restore.js then this should recover that session.


A possible way to inspect a sessionstore.js file or a file in the sessionstore-backups folder is opening the file in a Firefox tab and evaluate this JavaScript code in the Web Console (Firefox/Tools > Web Developer). Paste the code in the command line of the Web Console and press the Enter key to evaluate the code.


eval("ss = "+document.body.innerHTML.replace("<pre>","").replace("</pre>",""));
sd='';
for (var i = 0; i < ss.windows[0].tabs.length; i++) {
 var ent = ss.windows[0].tabs[i].entries;
 var last = ent[ent.length-1];
 sd+="["+(i+1)+"]:"+"<a href="+last.url+">"+last.url+"</a><br />";
}
document.body.innerHTML=sd;
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Hello Core-El, thank you for the prompt reply. I haven't programmed in almost 20 years so some of this is foreign to me :) I was able to open in a text editor but I really don't know what to look for to determine if the file is corrupted. What I can say is I knew the previous tabs/groups I had created and they are all in the file. However, when I replace the sessionstore.js with previous.js or restore.js it does *not* open any of the previous tabs which I know are in the file, it's like it's starting a new session. I did as you requested and opened web console and the output I received is in the attached file. Not to be disrespectful to you in any manner, but I'm more than a little astonished that the developers of FireFox would only save the last two sessions in "memory"..basically users can't open a session after crash or it will overwrite and lose their session history....considering how often firefox must be shut down for its excessive use of memory...it seems that the developers are a little out of touch with their users and not respecting their time by not have a solution like "Session manager" embedded within its capabilities. I have learned the hard way :) to ALWAYS utilize Session Manager .. however, in this case I was on a new PC and it was not utilized. So anyone reading this I would encourage them to use Session Manager add-on app or something similar. So back to the matter at hand, I'm still not sure if the file is corrupted, is there any way to retrieve the tabs/groups info considering the output I received from inspecting the file? I'm happy to share the file if it will help as well. Please advise and thank you again for taking the time to assist me.

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Hello Cor-El, I understand you are very busy and appreciate your insights and assistance. I am sure this issue is something many users face, unfortunately. So I followed your directions above, is there a way to tell if the file is corrupt, and if it is or isn't, is there a way to recover the tabs/groups within the restore.js file? Look forward to hearing from you, Thanks!

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I've never used tab groups, so I don't know how they show in the sessionstore.js file.

The docs doesn't mention tab groups, so you would have to check that out yourself.