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My browser restarted and I lose hundreds of tabs. When I use the 3 line menu, "restore previous session" is not an option. How do I get my tabs back?

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My browser restarted and I lose hundreds of tabs. When I use the 3 line menu, "restore previous session" is not an option. How do I get my tabs back? I checked my settings and they're still checked to restore. Whenever I restart, they always come back. I am so upset.

My browser restarted and I lose hundreds of tabs. When I use the 3 line menu, "restore previous session" is not an option. How do I get my tabs back? I checked my settings and they're still checked to restore. Whenever I restart, they always come back. I am so upset.

All Replies (3)

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Sorry to hear about this problem. Why did Firefox restart -- update? crash?

If these are not available --

  • "3-bar" menu button > Restore Previous Session
  • (menu bar) History > Restore Previous Session

-- Firefox might already have restored whatever session file it found. Try these:

  • "Library" toolbar button > History > Recently Closed Windows (and within each restored window, Recently Closed Tabs)
  • (menu bar) History > Recently Closed Windows (and within each restored window, Recently Closed Tabs)

If that doesn't help...

Firefox creates numerous session history files, but because session history is only for the immediately previous session, it is unfortunately too easy to lose it. Could you start by making a backup of your existing session history files? Here's how:

Do not exit Firefox, or if you closed it, don't re-open it.

(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, click the "Open Folder" (or "Show in Finder") button.

If Firefox is closed:

Type or paste the following into the Windows Run dialog or the system search box and press Enter to launch Windows Explorer:

%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

In that folder, do you see a semi-randomly-named folder? If so, click into it. If you find multiple such folders, find the one that was most recently updated.

(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
  • various .js files from Firefox 55 or earlier

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?

To preview the contents of a file, you can drag and drop it onto this page, then click Scrounge URLs: https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/scrounger.html

That tool is on my site, so please let me know if it doesn't work for you.

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Firefox updated but then it froze so I had to close it and restart it.

How do I open the previous.jsonlyz4 folder?

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The previous.jsonlz4 file normally would be what Firefox opens if you use Restore Previous Session. Did you view its contents in the Scrounger tool to see whether it has your missing tabs? I suggest also checking the latest upgrade.jsonlz4... file.