Hi, you will have to try and find this as I do not think it is global to include Linux :

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data

Sessions are stored in :

• sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)

If there is corruption may get something out of it : https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/scrounger_json.html

Suggest you : try a Refresh but Note that this does more than uninstalling and re-installing does. Normal uninstalling does not remove some preferences which may have become corrupt. Please Refresh but do this 1st: Delete your Cookies and Cache and TEST.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/export-firefox-bookmarks-to-backup-or-transfer
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles

then

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-add-ons-and-settings

TEST....... If no issues then Extensions which need to be added back in 1 at a time and tested ..... Or it is your Profile : Make a new one and test ...:

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles

If is your Profile :

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox

Note: Any customization will revert back to default, you will also need to reinstall Extensions.

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

E.T.Smith said

If for whatever reason more than one window of FS was opened previously, the "restore previous session" tab will default to the last window closed. Which means that when someone opens up an additional browser on the desktop (it's a household machine) or I myself open multiple windows on start-up and forget about them, all open tabs I want to keep are lost if I don't close the windows in the right order. After experiencing this multiple times I'm very frustrated. Is there any way to restore the lost tabs I actually want? And a way to get Firefox to stop doing this?

Sorry you are having that problem, but session store works primarily for the last open window when the user closes windows one at a time. Using the Exit command will close all windows at the same time and typically saves all tabs in all open windows.

As far as the issue with other users of that computer opening their own windows and upsetting what you were doing on that computer.

How about using separate "user accounts" in the operating system so that every person who uses that computer has their own personal "section" of that computer, where everything they do on that computer only affects their own "section". Using that computer with the features provided by the operating system allows each user in the household to log-off their (section) user account and save what they were working on, while then allowing another user to open their user account.

I don't know how easy switching logon user accounts in Linux Mint works, but on Windows OS's it takes about 10 seconds to save the user account settings and data, to suspend their use of the computer. And that can be done thru keyboard commands as a user "steps away" from the computer to allow another logon user to use that computer.

Pkshadow said

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

It looks like you're advocating a complete reinstall, which seems excessive for the problem I'm describing. Its not that there's something wrong with FF, its that how it's structured to do something on purpose is annoying. However, I tried some of the steps you described and found an old list of open tabs in the indicated directory. Weirdly, it was from about six months ago, and no other files of that type seem to exist, so I could backup from hat point, but no other.

the-edmeister said

Sorry you are having that problem, but session store works primarily for the last open window when the user closes windows one at a time. Using the Exit command will close all windows at the same time and typically saves all tabs in all open windows.

I can't find the "Exit" command in any drop-down. Where is it?

As far as the issue with other users of that computer opening their own windows and upsetting what you were doing on that computer. How about using separate "user accounts" ...</blockquote>

Indeed, the machine is set up with multiple accounts. As said, sometimes I have reason to have multiple windows open on the same account and sometimes ... somebody's in a rush and oesn't bother to change users just to "check one thing" online.

I recall that in past versions, if the browser dumped my tabs, I could just look them up in the history from the last browser launch and restore them directly, but the current version of FF doesn't seem record those tabs unless they're clicked on during the session. Can this be changed?

3-bar button that shows Open menu on cursor-hover "tool tip"= all the way at the bottom of that menu is where one Exit command is located.

Also, at the bottom of the File menu on the Menu Bar is another Exit command. The Menu Bar can be revealed by hitting the Alt key (which should work on Linux as it does in Windows, which is what I use), then hit F to see the File menu drop-down. x should be the hot-key for the Exit command.

To speed things up using the keyboard alone; hit Alt, then hit F, then hit x .

the-edmeister said

3-bar button that shows Open menu on cursor-hover "tool tip"= all the way at the bottom of that menu is where one Exit command is located. Also, at the bottom of the File menu on the Menu Bar is another Exit command. The Menu Bar can be revealed by hitting the Alt key (which should work on Linux as it does in Windows, which is what I use), then hit F to see the File menu drop-down. x should be the hot-key for the Exit command. To speed things up using the keyboard alone; hit Alt, then hit F, then hit x .

Do you mean "Quit"? That's what's in both those locations, not "Exit."

Yes, you need to use "File -> Quit" to close Firefox and close all open windows at once. If you use the close X to close each individual window then only the last closed window will be restored, although you can check "History -> Recently Closed Tabs/Windows". Using "File -> Quit" is the proper way to close Firefox properly and avoids issues with unnoticed or forgotten additional windows.