Dear Firefox: Stop restoring my previous sessions, if you please!!
Using Ubuntu 20.04 and Firefox 98.0, I keep running into the problem of Firefox offering to restore my previous session.
I don't want it to do that. I've gone to the Settings pane, then Startup, and unchecked the "open previous windows and tabs" box. That doesn't work.
I even got ambitious and went to about:config and set "browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand" to false; and "browser.sessionstore.restore_tabs_lazily" to false.
Still happens. What is it about my old sessions that Firefox just can't let go and has to act like a clingy ex about them?
Alla svar (1)
Possible causes are that Firefox isn't closing possible or that there is a problem with the sessionstore files (files in sessionstore-backups folder or sessionstore.jsonlz4) or that Firefox is set to restore the previous session.
You can check if you have a user.js file in the Firefox profile folder that sets the browser.sessionstore.resume_session_once pref to true.
- about:config => browser.sessionstore.resume_session_once
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox
You can check for problems with the sessionstore.jsonlz4 file in the Firefox profile folder that stores session data.
- rename/remove sessionstore.jsonlz4 and sessionstore.js
You may also have to rename/remove the sessionstore-backups folder.
When sessionstore.jsonlz4 is deleted you lose pinned-tabs and open tabs and you will have to recreate them, so if necessary make a note or bookmark them. sessionstore.jsonlz4 is only present in the Firefox profile folder when Firefox is closed.
You can use the button on the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page (Root directory).
- Help -> More Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Folder/Directory:
Windows: Open Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data