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Restoring Previous Session Not Possible

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  • Last reply by danielg11

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I have two opened Firefox windows and automatic restoring of the previous browser session at startup enabled. Once I closed one Firefox window and restarted Firefox (the other window remained open), the session didn't get restored. Also, the button "Restore Previous Session" in the history didn't appear. So, there was no way to restore my session. It would be nice if you could fix this bug since my last session contained some important tabs which are all lost now :(

I have two opened Firefox windows and automatic restoring of the previous browser session at startup enabled. Once I closed one Firefox window and restarted Firefox (the other window remained open), the session didn't get restored. Also, the button "Restore Previous Session" in the history didn't appear. So, there was no way to restore my session. It would be nice if you could fix this bug since my last session contained some important tabs which are all lost now :(

Chosen solution

danielg11 said

Once I closed one Firefox window and restarted Firefox (the other window remained open), the session didn't get restored.

How did you restart Firefox?

Also, the button "Restore Previous Session" in the history didn't appear. So, there was no way to restore my session.

You could check the menu for closed windows. Either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > History > Recently Closed Windows
  • "Library" toolbar button > History > Recently Closed Windows
  • (menu bar) History > Recently Closed Windows

Note: Each window also has its own Recently Closed Tabs list.


If that doesn't help and this occurred recently:

Could you start by making a backup of your existing session history files? Here's how:

(1) To open your profile folder...

If Firefox is still running:

You can open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, find the Profile Folder row. On that row, click the "Open Folder" button. This should launch Windows' File Explorer listing the contents of your current profile folder.

(2) Copy out session history files

In your profile folder, double-click into the sessionstore-backups folder. Save all files here to a safe location such as your Documents folder.

(3) What files did you find?

The kinds of files you may find among your sessionstore files are:

  • recovery.jsonlz4: the windows and tabs in your currently live Firefox session (or, if Firefox crashed at the last shutdown and is still closed, your last session)
  • recovery.baklz4: a backup copy of recovery.jsonlz4
  • previous.jsonlz4: the windows and tabs in your last Firefox session
  • upgrade.jsonlz4-build_id: the windows and tabs in the Firefox session that was live at the time of your last update

Could you take a look at what you have and the date/time of the various files to see whether you think any of them would have the missing tabs?

If you want to preview the contents of one of these compressed files, I have a tool for that on my website. You can drag and drop it onto the box on this page, then click Scrounge URLs:

https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/scrounger.html

If you don't get a list within 15 seconds, that probably means the script is caught in a loop. You may need to close the tab to avoid a tab crash and then try again in a new tab.

If you get a useful list, use the Save List button to archive it as a web page of clickable links for future reference, in case no other approach is successful.

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Chosen Solution

danielg11 said

Once I closed one Firefox window and restarted Firefox (the other window remained open), the session didn't get restored.

How did you restart Firefox?

Also, the button "Restore Previous Session" in the history didn't appear. So, there was no way to restore my session.

You could check the menu for closed windows. Either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > History > Recently Closed Windows
  • "Library" toolbar button > History > Recently Closed Windows
  • (menu bar) History > Recently Closed Windows

Note: Each window also has its own Recently Closed Tabs list.


If that doesn't help and this occurred recently:

Could you start by making a backup of your existing session history files? Here's how:

(1) To open your profile folder...

If Firefox is still running:

You can open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, find the Profile Folder row. On that row, click the "Open Folder" button. This should launch Windows' File Explorer listing the contents of your current profile folder.

(2) Copy out session history files

In your profile folder, double-click into the sessionstore-backups folder. Save all files here to a safe location such as your Documents folder.

(3) What files did you find?

The kinds of files you may find among your sessionstore files are:

  • recovery.jsonlz4: the windows and tabs in your currently live Firefox session (or, if Firefox crashed at the last shutdown and is still closed, your last session)
  • recovery.baklz4: a backup copy of recovery.jsonlz4
  • previous.jsonlz4: the windows and tabs in your last Firefox session
  • upgrade.jsonlz4-build_id: the windows and tabs in the Firefox session that was live at the time of your last update

Could you take a look at what you have and the date/time of the various files to see whether you think any of them would have the missing tabs?

If you want to preview the contents of one of these compressed files, I have a tool for that on my website. You can drag and drop it onto the box on this page, then click Scrounge URLs:

https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/scrounger.html

If you don't get a list within 15 seconds, that probably means the script is caught in a loop. You may need to close the tab to avoid a tab crash and then try again in a new tab.

If you get a useful list, use the Save List button to archive it as a web page of clickable links for future reference, in case no other approach is successful.

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Only the last closed window gets restored. Use one of these to close Firefox if you are currently doing that by clicking the close X on the Firefox Title bar to avoid losing tabs because of an unnoticed pop-up window.

  • "3-bar" menu button -> Exit (Power button)
  • Windows: File -> Exit
  • Mac: Firefox -> Quit Firefox
  • Linux: File -> Quit
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Thank you so much for your detailled answers! I found a backup of my last Firefox update in June 25 and now almost all of my tabs are saved :)