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Tabs losts after crash, no restore option

  • 6 cavab
  • 4 have this problem
  • 13 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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Hopefully someone is able to help! I am running OS 10.6.8, and version 31.0 of Firefox. I have quite a few tabs open, and generally when Firefox crashes, I simply restore previous session from the "Well, this is embarrassing tab" that comes up. However, after the most recent crash, only my homepage came up. Restore previous session is greyed out, and the History tab reveals there is no history. Any suggestions as to how, if at all, I can get my open tabs back in some way? The most recent crash does not even show up in the crash reports, the most recent crash recorded was three days ago.

Hopefully someone is able to help! I am running OS 10.6.8, and version 31.0 of Firefox. I have quite a few tabs open, and generally when Firefox crashes, I simply restore previous session from the "Well, this is embarrassing tab" that comes up. However, after the most recent crash, only my homepage came up. Restore previous session is greyed out, and the History tab reveals there is no history. Any suggestions as to how, if at all, I can get my open tabs back in some way? The most recent crash does not even show up in the crash reports, the most recent crash recorded was three days ago.

All Replies (6)

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Don't exit out of Firefox... open your profile folder and back up all sessionstore files for possible recovery. Here's how -- either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
  • Help menu > Troubleshooting Information

In the first table on the page, click the "Open in Finder" button

Scroll down and copy all files whose names start with sessionstore to a safe place (outside this folder).

Do you find any whose date/time stamps are from before the crash?

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Also, in case Firefox performed a Reset, could you check for an Old Firefox Data folder on your desktop.

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Thank you, yes, there are two files with such information that just pre-date the crash: sessionstore.bak-20140716183446 and sessionstore.bak How can I utilize either of these files to restore the session?

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To have Firefox start up automatically with your previous session windows and tabs, you can select that option in Preferences dialog. See: Startup, home page, tabs, and download settings.

Then, to substitute sessionstore.bak for the current sessionstore.js file, you can:

  • Quit out of Firefox
  • Rename sessionstore.js to sessionstore.old
  • Copy sessionstore.bak into the folder (if needed) and rename it to sessionstore.js

When you start Firefox, it should read sessionstore.js and restore those windows and tabs.

Please note that in some cases, you might also need to use these:

  • "3-bar" menu button > History > click individual windows under "Restore Closed Windows"
  • (menu bar) > History > click individual windows under "Recently Closed Windows"
  • "3-bar" menu button > History > click individual tabs under "Restore Closed Tabs"
  • (menu bar) > History > click individual tabs under "Recently Closed Tabs"

Any luck?

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I renamed the sessionstore.js to sessionstore.old, moved the desktop sessionstore.bak into the folder, and then changed its name to sessionstore.js. When I reopened Firefox, it restarted with the most recent tabs, and not the ones from a week ago.

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If you use the Time Machine on your Mac then you can look for older copies of the sessionstore.js file.