This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

My firefox crashed unexpectedly and session restore isn't coming out when I re-open firefox.

  • 4 iimpendulo
  • 4 inale ngxaki
  • 4 views
  • Impendulo yokugqibela ngu cor-el

more options

I've tried the rename .js to .old and .bak to .js thing, but when I re-open firefox it still directs me to the home page and no session restore. The session restore option is greyed out as well, and going to the session restore page manually just gives me a blank page. I've backed up all my previous .js and .bak files from the firefox profile folder from before, so I still have access to the files, its just that firefox is working with me and will not show me the session restore. What should I do?

I've tried the rename .js to .old and .bak to .js thing, but when I re-open firefox it still directs me to the home page and no session restore. The session restore option is greyed out as well, and going to the session restore page manually just gives me a blank page. I've backed up all my previous .js and .bak files from the firefox profile folder from before, so I still have access to the files, its just that firefox is working with me and will not show me the session restore. What should I do?

All Replies (4)

more options

Save the sessionrestore.js and then put it in the profile folder, then restart Firefox. Then go to about:home and see if it shows up.

I highly recommend: remember tabs from last time in the Preferences > tabs and updating to Firefox 27.0.1 for security updates.

more options

Make sure that you do not run Firefox in (permanent) Private Browsing mode (Never remember history).

  • Tools > Options > Privacy > Firefox will: "Use custom settings for history"
  • Deselect: [ ] "Always use private browsing mode"

Try to delete a possible user.js file and numbered prefs-##.js files and rename (or delete) the prefs.js file to reset all prefs to the default value including prefs set via user.js and prefs that are no longer supported in the current Firefox release.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window.
more options

How can you tell if a .js file is a user .js file?

more options

You can use this button to go to the Firefox profile folder:

  • Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)

A user.js isn't present in the Firefox profile folder by default and on Mac it is less likely that other software creates such a file, so you probably won't have it and resetting all prefs by deleting the prefs.js should be sufficient.

Note that on Mac you also may have the sessionstore.js file in the Time machine.