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whenever I start Firefox I get the following message: "Well, this is embarrassing. Firefox is having trouble recovering your windows and tabs.

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  • 63 have this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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Whenever I start Firefox I get the following message:

"Well, this is embarrassing. Firefox is having trouble recovering your windows and tabs. This is usually caused by a recently opened web page. You can try: "Removing one or more tabs that you think may be causing the problem "Starting an entirely new browsing session"

Problem persists when relaunching FF in safe mode. Problem is temporarily solved by resetting FF, but repeats and persists after navigating to any page (such as wikipedia.org), closing all tabs, quitting FF, and relaunching FF. FF pref "When FF Starts" is set to home page by default, and FF home page is set to Mozilla FF start page by default. Changing this pref "Show Blank Page" has no effect on the behavior.

Mac OS System Pref "Close windows when quitting an app" is ticked (by default). Unticking this box does not change this FF error.

2011 13" MacBook Pro Mac OS 10.8.3 Mountain Lion Firefox 20.0

Whenever I start Firefox I get the following message: "Well, this is embarrassing. Firefox is having trouble recovering your windows and tabs. This is usually caused by a recently opened web page. You can try: "Removing one or more tabs that you think may be causing the problem "Starting an entirely new browsing session" Problem persists when relaunching FF in safe mode. Problem is temporarily solved by resetting FF, but repeats and persists after navigating to any page (such as wikipedia.org), closing all tabs, quitting FF, and relaunching FF. FF pref "When FF Starts" is set to home page by default, and FF home page is set to Mozilla FF start page by default. Changing this pref "Show Blank Page" has no effect on the behavior. Mac OS System Pref "Close windows when quitting an app" is ticked (by default). Unticking this box does not change this FF error. 2011 13" MacBook Pro Mac OS 10.8.3 Mountain Lion Firefox 20.0

All Replies (20)

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Hi tracy You do not have to make any changes if you do not want to. All you have to remember is DO NOT close the window by clicking on the red traffic light , just go straight to the name Firefox , click on it , then select Quit Firefox. That way you will not have to remember to put things back to how they where after the next update, when Mozilla should correct the problem they created.

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Thanks, I'll give it a try!

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Thanks Phillip, quitting from the Firefox menu works! I hope they fix the bug in the next update.

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Ctrl-Q is the shortcut keystroke(s) for the same action, and much faster for me.

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The about: congif suggestion did not work for me. And, when I restarted my computer the setting reverted to true.

However, I have tried quitting FF from the Firefox menu and that did not work either, however, it appears the ctr-q will work.

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About.config ... Scary message! Same here. This is a very annoying problem. Nothing works. Have used FF for years, but now I fear it is unstable and no support on this. So, think I need to find some one who wants my business.

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When I type about.config into the location bar, FF puts a www. in front of it and then tells me it can't find such a site. Please let me know how to do this properly. Thanks

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I am sticking to the ctr-q and that seems to be working. I didn't find the change of settings worked once you restarted your computer.

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Thanks. Looks like I have to follow your example.

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I have a Mac. Doesn't the about:config work only for Windows?

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Apparently, I also have a MacBook Pro. I have resigned myself to using command Q. When I forget, I get the message stated above. I hope Firefox gets this ironed out, but have had no word from them. I could go to Chrome, but I am comfortable with FF, but don't like this problem.

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This worked for me.

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I have a Mac, too. Until FF eliminates the problem in FF 21.0, I just close out of FF with command-Q and reboot it. FF takes me right to my home page.

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Well, at least they're embarrassed! An embarrassed they should be. Come on FF lets get that fix going.

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Hey! This was great! I had downloaded the Firefox 20 and was already to go to Safari but the about:config and rest of your directions worked! The page is no longer coming up. The hard thing is that if one doesn't know where to type in the about:config then they can't fix it. I didn't realize you meant the address bar was where I was to type it in. I just guessed! But thanks all the same that is GREAT! thanks.

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By the way just for the record I have a MacBook Pro also.

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That worked for me, but only until I restarted my computer.

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I RESTARTED my computer (my mac) and FIREFOX is still working fine and back to NORMAL ! YEAH !  :)

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Looks like a fix for this will be coming up soon. The fix is in the Beta version of Firefox right now (Firefox 21).

Until the fix makes it into the main Firefox update, try quitting Firefox *without* closing all the tabs and windows.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=845681

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I started to try the "about:config" suggestion, but the message warned me that to do so could void my warranty!

Modified by sallyrg

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