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sessionstore.js ignored by FF 26 (fix for Bug 668359 not applicable)

Mme.Curieuse
Mme.Curieuse
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My computer (running Windows 7) spontaneously rebooted and when I restarted Firefox 26, it opened my home page instead of a Session Restore window.

I have repeatedly copied a recent sessionstore.bak file (3114 KB (I had many tabs open)) and renamed it sessionstore.js--a process that has worked many, many times when Firefox crashed and failed to restore my previous tabs--but this time Firefox repeatedly fails to recognize the new sessionstore.js and keeps opening my home page.

I tried editing the sessionstore.js file as suggested in Bug 668359, but my file already begins with the correct text: 

    {"windows":[{"tabs":[{"entries":[{"url":"https://

    instead of

    {"windows":[],"selectedWindow":0,"_closedWindows":[{"tabs":[{"entries":[{"url":"https://

I also tried to pasting the contents of my large sessionstore.bak file into an Emergency Firefox Session Restore app (http://firefox-session-restore.herokuapp.com/#) suggested in response to a similar question, but this only showed my home page and the current tabs--nothing at all from the sessionrestore.bak file.

Nothing seems to work to make the information in sessionstore.bak recognizable, so I can get back my many tabs.

My computer (running Windows 7) spontaneously rebooted and when I restarted Firefox 26, it opened my home page instead of a Session Restore window. I have repeatedly copied a recent sessionstore.bak file (3114 KB (I had many tabs open)) and renamed it sessionstore.js--a process that has worked many, many times when Firefox crashed and failed to restore my previous tabs--but this time Firefox repeatedly fails to recognize the new sessionstore.js and keeps opening my home page. I tried editing the sessionstore.js file as suggested in Bug 668359, but my file already begins with the correct text: {"windows":[{"tabs":[{"entries":[{"url":"https:// instead of {"windows":[],"selectedWindow":0,"_closedWindows":[{"tabs":[{"entries":[{"url":"https:// I also tried to pasting the contents of my large sessionstore.bak file into an Emergency Firefox Session Restore app (http://firefox-session-restore.herokuapp.com/#) suggested in response to a similar question, but this only showed my home page and the current tabs--nothing at all from the sessionrestore.bak file. Nothing seems to work to make the information in sessionstore.bak recognizable, so I can get back my many tabs.

All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Did you check for History > Recently Closed Tabs/Windows?

There are also some ways to extract links from a sessionstore file in this mozillaZine forum thread.

Mme.Curieuse
Mme.Curieuse Question owner
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Cor-el,

Thank you for your reply and for the link to the MozillaZine thread. Yes, I tried the usual things such as history and recently closed tabs, but these did not help.

I just tried the trick mentioned in the thread you suggested to force Firefox to read a sessionstore.js file by putting it in the current profile's directory and going to about:sessionrestore--but this did not work.

I am interesting in trying another option mentioned there: Extract all urls from the last firefox sessionstore.js file. But I don't know how to edit a command line. I will work on figuring this out. Thank you for pointing it out.

In the meantime, I can at least retrieve individual URLs from the text of the sessionstore.bak file.