Open tabs used to open upon restart or coming out from 'hibernate'. Now, just the home page opens and others were forgotten. How to fix this?
I don't recall changing anything that would have caused this to happen suddenly. It is frustrating to me because I open a lot of tabs and sometimes can't finish reading or ordering or studying what I need, so I like to leave them open until I can get to them. This is especially disconcerting when, for example, an open tab is lost that contained a half-completed order form that took hours of decision making and note taking to decide what to order. Thanks for any help you can offer.
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Hi,
You can try to restore the tabs via Restore Previous Session in History (Alt + S) immediately after Firefox startup. Session Restore
You may have to make sure Never remember history beside Firefox will: or Always use private browsing mode are not selected in Tools (Alt + T) > Options > Privacy. Also, if Settings (on the same tab) is visible or active, make sure that Browsing History is not selected. Options > Privacy
The setting for Firefox to automatically restore the previous session or tabs is Show my windows and tabs from last time beside When Firefox starts: in Tools (Alt + T) > Options > General. Options > General
Thank you very much for your help. I was confused because I already had the 'Show my windows and tabs from last time' selected but it had no effect. I found that hundreds of people were complaining about how stupid this change was that inconvenienced so many...they seemed to be able to work out a fix, and maybe their complaints were heard because when I just now upgraded to Firefox 9 the problem doesn't happen...BUT - I still have the problem upon starting FF after logging off my computer. If I EXIT and restart FF, the tabs I was using do show again. If I lof off and restart FF, tabs are NOT saved. Can you help? I can't stay logged on to my computer but NEED to save my tabs. Thanks!!
You have to log into the same user account. Otherwise if you want to synchronize across accounts or computers (including open tabs), you may have to setup Firefox Sync or use an add-on like Xmarks that provides the functionality.
Thanks very much for your help...but I'm actually only using one computer at home. I'm simply working online, want to log off to keep my computer secure, then logging back on. First, I don't know why when I simply log off that Firefox would not remain as it was.
I have never seen it exit automatically like this. Like many users with these problems, I'm just about ready to try another browser or at least revert back to a previous version.
At this point, I still don't know what to do since the 'Show my windows and tabs from last time' is selected but has no effect, and not only that, but the 'restore previous session' option is grayed out - I can't even use it. I know you must be tired of replying, but I appreciate your help. Thank you.
Is it logging off or Switch User? I think log off would be half similar to shut down in that the current user account and all programs in it will be closed or force-closed while Switch User holds everything in memory like Standby. So logging off before exiting Firefox would forcibly close it. But even then I think Firefox would try to revive the tabs as if after a crash. You can also try about:sessionrestore in the location (address) bar and check if the previous session exists. Also, please try this: Help (Alt + H) > Troubleshooting Information > Open Containing Folder, exit Firefox and delete all files starting with sessionstore.*.
Wilfred, thanks again...but it still didn't help. I did delete sessionstore.sj (only this one file was sessionstore.*) after exiting FF. Then started FF again, opened several tabs.
1) Exited FF. Tried simply windows button + L (shortcut to lock computer) and then logged on again. FF brought back my tabs.
2) Exited FF. Logged off using Start button and the option to log off (which says it exits all programs even if you don't). Logged on again, started FF but it didn't restore my tabs. As before, the restore session option is grayed out and I can't use it.
I can stick with simply Windows + L but it means my machine will be on all day wasting electricity while I'm gone for 9-12 hours from home. Are FF people just DUMB? I mean, what POSSIBLE reason would there be to get rid of a useful feature. Already thousands of people are complaining if the posts I've seen are a good indicator. Sorry for the caps...but this is frustrating and ridiculous. I've never wasted this much time (not to mention your time) on something like this, but other than this I always loved FF.
After opening two or more sites please do an End Process for firefox.exe in Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and restart Firefox. Does Firefox restore the tabs?
Additionally, can you also check if this repeats in Safe Mode or after creating a new profile. i.e open two or more sites and then log off.
Make sure that you do not use Clear History to clear the Browsing History when you close Firefox.
- Tools > Options > Privacy: History: [X] Clear history when Firefox closes > Settings
If you use cleanup software like CCleaner then check the settings for the Firefox application.
Can you send me a link to the work-around? I just lost my tabs (sigh), possibly my own faul, possibly not. I recommend a warning pop-up before allowing a user to alter the settings so that a restart of FF would nuke his/her tabs. Is this the right place to make that suggestion? Cheers.
Hi flyntstone,
You can use this link for suggestions: https://input.mozilla.com/en-US/feedback/
You can try to restore the previous session via History (Alt + S) > Restore Previous Session, even if the option is not explicitly set in Tools (Alt + T) > Options > General When Firefox starts:, provided the other settings were correct (please see cor-el's post above and my first post).
For starting a new thread please use this link: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/new?product=desktop