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Restore Last Session - But not if I close last tab

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I searched this forum but couldn't find an answer. I have "restore last session" turned on, but I'd like Firefox wouldn't reopen my last visited site after I close the browser by closing the last tab. In other words: if I close the browser by a regular means (by clicking the rightmost upper X, or by right-clicking the taskbar and choosing close window) it goes to the last viewed site when I reopen the browser – and that's ok – but when I close the last tab and the browser closes, I don't want to see this site again when I reopen Firefox. Is there a way to achieve this? By the way, this is the standard behavior in Google Chrome.

I searched this forum but couldn't find an answer. I have "restore last session" turned on, but I'd like Firefox wouldn't reopen my last visited site after I close the browser ''by closing the last tab''. In other words: if I close the browser by a regular means (by clicking the rightmost upper X, or by right-clicking the taskbar and choosing close window) it goes to the last viewed site when I reopen the browser – and that's ok – but when I close the ''last tab'' and the browser closes, I don't want to see this site again when I reopen Firefox. Is there a way to achieve this? By the way, this is the standard behavior in Google Chrome.

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All Replies (5)

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I think your search results (or lack thereof) are correct: I cannot think of a session restore setting that distinguishes between closing a window by using one X button versus the other X button.

Perhaps there should be a new preference (doesn't currently exist) like:

browser.sessionstore.restore_single_tab_window => true by default

During session restore, if Firefox sees that the only window open at shutdown had a single tab, and this preference is set to false, then Firefox would open a new tab and treat that last open tab as a closed tab (the user could restore it from the menu if desired).

Or something like that.

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I have this problem too and I'm just quitting Firefox really for this reason. It's kindn of funny but I really want a fresh new start when I open the browser after having closed everything.

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Manos said

I really want a fresh new start when I open the browser after having closed everything.

The closest feature is to have Firefox open a new blank tab when you close the last real tab in a window:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste lasttab and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab preference to switch the value from true to false

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I am also disliking this bevahior. I now created a thread here: https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/restore-last-session-but-not-if-i-close-last-tab/74340

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You can set browser.startup.page = 0 and leave browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab = true to always start with a blank tab. You will have to restore the previous session manually via the "3-bar" Firefox menu button drop-down list or the History menu.

  • browser.startup.page
    [0:blank; 1:home page; 2:last visited page; 3:restore previous session]