Firefox Community Forum

For some time now, when opening Firefox, I do not find the tabs I opened in the previous session. I've checked that the "Open previous windows and tabs" box is checked, but it didn't help. I uninstalled Firefox and reinstalled it from a fresh .EXE file, but that didn't work either. I've searched for resources on the subject but haven't found a solution to my problem. I should mention that I'm not a computer expert and I'm not exactly young any more.

Can anyone help me?

Thanks in advance.

how can i force the active tab to show? i am fairly sure this feature was in a previous edition. I have a large number of tabs and sometimes an app or video will start and i am forced to go back and forth thru all the tabs just so i can stop them.

This has been infuriating me for a few weeks now, I accidentally close tabs all the time when using Firefox and I normally right click the top and click the "Reopen closed tab option. However since this change, I have constantly been miss clicking on the "Turn On Vertical Tabs" options which is incredibly infuriating because It adds 3 more clicks to just reopening a tab. This "Feature" cannot be turned off no matter how hard I try and I am very close to switching to another browser due to this.

Using Firefox 145.0 (64-bit), "Firefox is up to date" on PC with Windows 11 Pro.

I was so pleased when Firefox's Group Tabs arrived. I often have about 12 tabs open to do Railway research. So I thought, Group Tab, great idea. Save a group of tabs as one tab. Instead of creating a Bookmark Folder and each time opening all bookmarks from said folder, what better way to do than opening one tab. Or so I thought. I also created a "SHIP" tab for my hobby in the shipping industry, so I could have two group tabs that could be collapsed making the tab bar tidier. I saved an closed each group tab then closed down my PC. Next on restarting, Firefox starts up automatically as chosen by me. Both RAIL & SHIP tabs reappeared without me doing anything. Great! However yesterday, I inadvertently opened another Firefox window, forgot it was opened. So when I shut down my PC, I closed the Firefox browser and then discovered the over Firefox window I had opened. Closed it shut down my computer. Of course when I opened my PC today, Firefox started automatically, but with the tab that I had open in the last Firefox window. No problem I thought, I will just open the saved Group Tabs. It was a problem, where are the Group Tabs saved? Could I find the location? NO! I looked in Bookmarks, all the various History lists, even the down arrow to list all tabs. Nothing, the Group Tabs are none existent. I have checked on the "about:config" section for Group Tabs and everything is enabled "true". So where are the Group Tabs saved? I have been with Firefox for around 14 years, often citing it as the best browser. But over the last five years I find myself using Chrome more and more. Chrome has Group Tabs which do not not need the users to save them, they are saved automatically, and are easily found on opening the Chrome browser. Why doesn't Firefox have this?

Is there a way to disable tab groups without going through about:config? Because I can't find it and there really should be...I have no idea how that feature works, I don't want it, but I keep ending up with groups unintentionally. I still don't know how I'm doing it. It's incredibly annoying and apparently incredibly easy to accidentally trigger and I'm sick of losing tab space to these random colored boxes for no apparent reason!

Hi,

This is since the last 2 updates.

I usually maintain 2-3 active windows with multiple tabs. Everytime I turn off my PC, when I turn it on again, and I open Firefox, all my windows and tabs would be restored as I last left them. And if I accidentally closed the windows, I can select reopen Recently Closed Windows.

But since the last 2 updates, after I close the window, the option to reopen Recently Closed Windows were still grey.

And it's a hassle that every time I restart my computer, I need to go to Restore Previous Session to have my tabs open again.

And if I or another user opens it and started a new tab/session without restoring, I will no longer be able to restore my previous sessions and would lose all my tabs.

Can you please tell me why the feature is changes, and is there a way I can easily restore my previous sessions without the trouble.

Thank you.

Jennifer

This isn't a feature I ever needed or ever wanted. More than often, I accidentally group two or more tabs and have no idea how to ungroup them (yes, I know, there's some about:studies where I can remove stuff from grouped, BUT it's not a good mitigation). Firefox has been a great browser for decades. This new "feature" is rather disturbing than helpful. I understand some folks might need it, but please, at least provide a way to OPT OUT. Thank you!

Firefox crashed. I am trying to get it to how I had it before this. One of the problems is the new tabs thing. I know about CTRL-T, I have not used it. I have used the + on the tabs for years. I know, big deal, it's just inconvenient, interrupts my train of thought to switch, which is no big deal. But if anyone has a moment and can answer, it would be a blessing for me. Thank you.

I just opened Firefox on my Win 11 pc, and find all my tabs have gone. The setting to reopen last session is active, as before. I think FF updated itself earlier today. I also had occasion to look at it briefly on my synchronised android phone. I would like to: - get my tabs back - find a way to stop this haappening (it's not the first time).

Any advice much appreciated, thanks. Richard

Dear Generous Help Volunteers,

I'm running Firefox 128.13.0 ESR (64-bit) on Windows 11 (Lenovo desktop).

If I use a Private Window, does that mean that "Containers" are redundant/not needed? If not, please explain in depth.

If I use a Private Window, does that mean that, while I have the browser open, any temporarily saved data can be accessed by any website? If so, could I use a Container, in a Private Window, only for those sites for which I need to keep cookie(s) (i.e. bank logins, shopping carts, etc.).

I noticed that SOME container extensions let you select to "Allow in Private Windows" and SOME do NOT. I noticed specifically that "Firefox Multi-Account Containers" will not let you select to "Allow in Private Windows", and my understanding is that this is required for ANY Containers to function. Is that correct? It's a bit confusing.

I have had some sites break using the standard browser (with Containers), that will often work if I use a Private Window. Often, all that seems broken is the "Captcha"; it just doesn't appear and the form will not complete without it. However, it works in a Private Window.

I'm a little confused about which does exactly what. I don't use Google or any social media sites and I don't want any of them to have access to any of my information.

I have also encountered an ongoing problem that is very frustrating and time-consuming: When I click a link in a webpage, 10 to 30 tabs will quickly open, instead of only one, and each has to be closed separately. This happens nearly all the time. Is there a solution to this?

With Appreciation & Kind Regards, Anne Fennell

So far I have accumulated a dozen windows and each window has 1-10 tabs. I would like to be able to see a comprehensive list of all my open tabs and to be able to click on any one. Is there a way?

Hello, with older versions of firefox, it was easy to rank your favorite sites, which could avoid having 50 windows open at all times. Is there a way to do this? Thanks in advance.

Any Ideas what is going on? About July 21st, 2025 I started noticing with a couple of browser tabs open, a new tab opens autonomously and flitters in the new tab name area, what "looks like a TagID", then closes by itself. I define "looks like a TagID" as something that looks like a tag at end of article link in popular newsletters I see, and appears in the url bar of the linked article.

The occurrence of the new tab happens when I open the browser, within 1 minute and occurs randomly during the session, perhaps every 20 minutes.

My first suspect/assumption is I am always signed into Mozilla when I open Firefox 141.0 (64 bit), processing an update now, Aug 5 2025. I have subscriptions to VPN and Monitor and I have sync (passwords and bookmarks) with my mobile instance of Android Samsung Galaxy phone.

My Desktop is set up as Windows 11 pro with one employer InTune acount for Microsoft but I limit that work to Edge browser.

I tried to add maps.coogle.com to a specific container. this ends opening maps forparts of a second in this container displaying the cookie content page. regardles if a agree or not, it opens the cookie consent page in a new tab (looping forever) is there a way to add a site to a specific container using a config file? is here a way to add a site to a container, without having the subsites after the TLD, in the URL

Kind regards

(btw my browser is Firefox Nightly) Don't get me wrong, I love having vertical tabs. It's less busy than the horizontal tabs and I can look through my tabs more quickly. But, the way it's implemented sucks - It makes the layout of the webpage pop anytime I use it; there is no keyboard button attached to opening and closing the tab (I have to go through my horizontal bar to open my vertical bar); and recently my browser forgets the sidebar settings, meaning I have to re-check the "Hide tabs and sidebar" setting.

Bonus request Can the sidebar just go over the webpage (i.e. like the application menu) instead of squishing it? I'm ok with having some webpage features temporarily covered if it means I don't have to see the screen pop into a new rectangular shape every time I switch tabs.