Go into "Options" and click the button to the right of the "When Firefox Starts. You'll see a drop down list that will let you open the tabs from your last session. Select it and then click the <OK> button at the bottom of the panel.

davewan

Thanks--but that just fixes the setting problem, which I know how to do. What I want to do _now_ is get Firefox to restore the open windows from my last session. (My computer installed updates last night, and when I restarted Firefox, mysteriously the option to restore open tabs wasn't given to me. Thus I discovered that Firefox had toggled that setting without asking me!)

See also http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved

That Mozillazine page looks very useful in some contexts, but my situation is much simpler . . . and maybe harder to address?

Normally, after my Firefox closes for whatever reason, when I reopen the application I am given the option to restores all the windows/tabs from my last session. This morning, I opened the application and was not given this opportunity--and I discovered by looking in Options that the application had somehow defaulted/reverted/toggled itself out of the usual setting. However, I still want to _ask_ the application to restore all the windows/tabs from my last session--now, before the application closes again for whatever reasons! How do I do this?

Cor-el, let me know your thoughts on this scenario.

The author states that he can't get the tabs from the previous session. The only time that I have seen this is when FF has been improperly shut down. Then on the next start-up of FF it will 'Oops we're sorry........."

After the message it gives you the option to restart the previous session or start a new session. As I said, this only happens when FF is not properly shut down(loss of power to the PC or even lose of power to his/her house.

If you shut down properly you won't see the message when you restart and the only way to see the tabs from the previous session is to have it set in your options.

Any comments or advice?

davewdan

If settings have changed, like in your case the startup setting, without you doing anything then the Preferences_not_saved article can list some causes and possible solutions of that issue.

If that previous session wasn't restored on the next start then that session is probably lost. You can search the Firefox Profile Folder for a file sessionstore.bak and if present then check the time stamp to see if it is from around the time that you closed Firefox. If that is the case then make a backup elsewhere and rename the file sessionstore.bak to sessionstore.js. That should bring back the session that was stored in the file, assuming that the file is not corrupted.

Firefox will by default try to restore a crashed session automatically once and if that fails because of another crash then you get the about:sessionrestore page to disable some tabs from reloading.

You can set the pref browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes to 0 on the about:config page to get the about:sessionrestore page immediately with the first restart after a crash has occurred or the Task Manager was used to close Firefox.

That will allow you to deselect the tab(s) that you do not want to reopen, but will allow to reopen the other tabs.

See:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Session_Restore#Restoring_a_session_after_a_crash
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes

That gripes me to no end, as well. You might think Mozilla could think this one through, at least to the point of realizing there should be a manual means to recover open tabs NOT restored automatically after a routine FireFox crash.

And if Mozilla cannot stabilize FireFox, it will keep losing users back to IE.

The epidemic of crashes seemed to begin when FireFox "improved" itself with the idea of running 3rd party plugins in a "container", which is still far from reliable. I must run SysInternals Process Explorer at least once per Windows session to keep FireFox from destroying itself.

Aside from FireFox being so unstable, Mozilla should show some concern for users and make the manual restore option very plain from the UI-- such as "RESTORE OPEN TABS LOST SINCE THE LAST (*&&!!! FIREFOX CRASH"

Presumably-- and that may presume too much-- Mozilla leaves the open tabs "log" in place during each update. If that record of open tabs remains untouched from update to update, then why does FireFox screw up, update after update, and routinely fail to recover all tabs?

You might think someone at Mozilla would realize something is wrong. I have let Mozilla "phone home" after each crash, and yet the problem continues.

That may help, but it is a workaround that deprives each user of an automatically loaded home page.

Why can't FireFox programmers understand we users need our custom settings left alone? Wasn't customization the big appeal of FireFox?

Alphaa10, the "competition" for Mozilla's Firefox is no long IE 8/9 or Opera, but rather Google Chrome, which appears set to eat Firefox's lunch unless someone does something about its problems. These not only include the above, but also excessive memory use and/or leakage, freeze-ups ("hangs"), and even crashes. If such problems cannot be fixed quickly, then that is like giving more Firefox users a shove in the direction of Google because their problems are universally addressed and fixed speedily--even ahead of "schedule" when that is possible. That strategy pits them squarely against a weakness of Microsoft's, of course, but whether intended or not it may have the side effect of putting Firefox behind the 8-ball, since MS has the financial resources to meet such competition if it chooses (and there are indications that it has so chosen), putting Firefox in the position of having to defend its market share against not just one but two well-heeled adversaries who are both also equipped with the personnel to timely accomplish their mission. So the question becomes, does Mozilla have what it takes to get the job done? I am not in a position to answer that question, but perhaps someone who sees this would be so kind as to offer some evidence to either support or reject my conclusion that Firefox must do markedly better or else fall by the wayside.

Thanks for reply. Chrome is fast, but Google's entry seems less than full-featured, and most of my users have no interest in learning Chrome. Failing to warm to Firefox, they simply wander back into IE, which itself is considerably improved in versions 8 and 9.