Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Private Browsing History

  • 1 reply
  • 0 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by Paul

more options

For some reason my browser occasionally jumps over to a private browsing tab and I may never realize Firefox has performed this action. I may continue with my research for any length of time when I may need to look at something other than my browser, say jump over to a Note or some other function not having to do with Firefox, when I return I find maybe an hour of research has automatically been closed and of course there is no record of that lost work. This function is really frustrating additionally it's tricky that a link to another site or page of information can cause the Firefox Browser to open the following tab in Private Mode, then automatically close when it becomes necessary to look at some other functions on my Android device, everything is wiped out gone lost no way to retrieve the info.

What ever happened to Lazarus, the app that always brought back lost work, private or otherwise? That was an excellent and very helpful tool. Is there some other way unknown to me where I can retrieve those closed private tabs, how do I stop the links from auto-opening privately, and I'd like to know how to stop private tabs from closing when I leave those tabs to focus on something other for a split second.

Please advise. Thank you.

For some reason my browser occasionally jumps over to a private browsing tab and I may never realize Firefox has performed this action. I may continue with my research for any length of time when I may need to look at something other than my browser, say jump over to a Note or some other function not having to do with Firefox, when I return I find maybe an hour of research has automatically been closed and of course there is no record of that lost work. This function is really frustrating additionally it's tricky that a link to another site or page of information can cause the Firefox Browser to open the following tab in Private Mode, then automatically close when it becomes necessary to look at some other functions on my Android device, everything is wiped out gone lost no way to retrieve the info. What ever happened to Lazarus, the app that always brought back lost work, private or otherwise? That was an excellent and very helpful tool. Is there some other way unknown to me where I can retrieve those closed private tabs, how do I stop the links from auto-opening privately, and I'd like to know how to stop private tabs from closing when I leave those tabs to focus on something other for a split second. Please advise. Thank you.

All Replies (1)

more options

Hi Trevor

If you need to retain browsing history, I recommend not using private browsing mode.

I am sorry but I cannot help you with the "Lazarus" that you mention.