Firefox Support Forum

I have been using the "Restore Previous Session Option" fairly often for years, but within the last few weeks the option is no longer there.

I had tried to use the Settings > Open Previous Windows and Tabs as a workaround, but it doesn't appear to be consistent.

Did something change in a recent update, or is my installation broken somehow? I tried refreshing Firefox but that didn't bring it back.

The article here shows what I am referring to and has a screenshot of where the "Restore Previous Session" option was: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-previous-session#w_when-session-restore-occurs

[[Knowledge Base Article|https://assets-prod.sumo.prod.webservices.mozgcp.net/media/uploads/gallery/images/2021-05-19-06-31-50-513d15.png]]

Anyone else have this problem? Is my installation broken? And how to fix?

I was running 8 Windows with about 12 tabs per Window. AND I had it set to Continue Where You Left Off, so that each time I closed and launched FireFox, ALL Windows with ALL Tabs would open. No problem. Easy.

This morning, Firefox crashed and LOST EVERYTHING. Why did it happen? And how do I get them back?

Jev

It only backs up the tabs from your last close, so if you had a problem and closed twice, all your tabs are gone. There are many many easy ways to change it so this can never happen to people anymore. Why has this not been fixed after all this time? I am a retired IT pro and this has even happened to me. It is horrible. What can users do to not have this happen, since the developers apparently can't be bothered? And please don't tell me not to keep so many tabs open JUST because the browser sucks at protecting them. Any good news appreciated. Thanks.

I used System Restore in Windows because I lost my Search Engine in Firefox and it didn't exist in "Customize Toolbar" option. I researched how to get the Search Engine back but nothing worked. I thought System Restore would solve the problem. Now I can't restore my previous Firefox session. And I can't find a sessionstore.jsonlz4 file. I read you have to rename a file in sessionstore-backups folder to sessionstore.jsonlz4 but I don't know which file to rename. I also read you can restore a recent upgrade.jsonlz4 but that is dated 3/5/24. I loaded previous.jsonlz4 file using the Scrounger tool but that didn't restore the session I had. (The previous.jsonlz4 file is dated 3/22/24 about 45 minutes ago.) I want to restore the session I was using earlier in the day. And "Restore Session" option has disappeared from the Firefox History dropdown menu. I tried the "Restore Firefox" option but that didn't help anything and it made my dropdown menus disappear. I have no idea how to get the session back that I was using earlier in the day.

I am on a brand-new machine and having trouble setting up the Firefox browser.

When I click on a link it opens in a new window with all the tabs ready opened.

How do I open a tab without opening a new window?

Also, how do I set Yahoo.com as my default search engine?

Thank you for sharing your wisdom

Today when I close many tabs using control w firefox seems to randomly jump around when choosing which next tab to close

I wish to have firefox always close the adjacent tab to the tab I just closed

This should be the default behavior ... I do not see any setting for this ... is there an addon to do this ?

I am using the latest firefox on ubuntu

• • • UPDATE*** below answer for setting `browser.tabs.selectOwnerOnClose` has no impact on this

For ages I've had my tabs automatically restored when opening Firefox. But as of the last few days it won't. The old links are saved so I can restore them one by one through history but that's not automatic. And if I click on restoration in History it will bring up a whole bunch of old tabs not neccessarily from the last session.

I'm on the same computer as I've been for over a year, so I don't know what what the problem is. I've searched on it and tried to re-check the box for this function. But it won't apply...

Hello,

Is there a way to export tabs to a PDF file? I need to rebuild my PC and am backing up everything. I have a ton of tabs open. Can I export them somehow so I can import them after I have reinstalled Firefox?

I've searched but what I find doesn't match what I see in my browser as far as menus, etc.

Thanks for your help

Hi,

I use the latest FF for MacOS.

When I "close" Firefox by clicking the red cross in the top left corner of the window, I lose all open tabs when I start again despite having the option of restoring the previous session checked. When I "close" the whole thing (right click on FF in the Dock, Quit, and then re-open), all my tabs are back normally.

So basically every time i click this red cross, by mistake or not, I lose anything that's open.

Feels like I did not have this issue before.

Anyone has a workaround or experiences a similar issue?

Thanks!

I've tried almost EVERYTHING offered to enable restore the "open previous windows and tabs" function ... to no avail. Very frustrating since I usually leave important tabs open for work. HELP!

I understand that as outlined [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/pinned-tabs-keep-favorite-websites-o...], pinned tabs aren't designed to be closed with ctrl+w.

I would still like that behavior though, is there a way to either assign a shortcut to that funktionality (one that I would just also map to ctrl+w) or remove the protection altogether?

I know that you can change a lot of thing sin about:config, so I have hopes that there might be something for this as well. Alternatively, do you maybe know of a plugin to allow this?

What wouldn't be useful are solutions requiring additional actions (Just unpin first, just use MMB, here is a plugin to give you a shortcut to unpin etc).

If it is just not possible right now, is it likely to become an option later on? If not it seems like a useful feature request. I understand that the current default behavior makes sense, but part of what makes firefox great and different is its customizability, so having what I want be a hidden about:config toggle feels very on brand (or even a setting in the normal settings menue - but even there it might be too niche and cause bloat).

When I click a link either form a web page or from an email I get a whole new window rather than a new tab in the existing Firefox window. This new window is stripped back without the usual menu of options at the top. Is this EDGE taking over my life? I have Firefox as my default browser.

how to permanently keep the warning about closing multiple tabs?

Every so often, probably due to an unseen update, when I press the red X at the top of of a page where multiple tabs are open, to see how many tabs are open, they disappear, and the preference option to not close multiple tabs without warning (which says the # of tabs open), has to be turned back on.

I have Firefox installed on my Windows 11 laptop. When I click on a new tab, I want that new tab to show 4 rows of icons of sites I have visited most frequently like my bank, Amazon, etc. I do not know how to set a new tab to show the 4 rows of icons. These icons show up in Firefox on my Windows 10 desktop computer but not on Windows 11 laptop.

In the tabs column,it is very difficuit to close certain unwanted tabs ie,when we open 9..or 10 tabs simultaneously.There is no close button for each tab when we select to close the particular tab.So we kindly request you to provide close button to each tab bar.(right click option is available,but it's not confortable).

Here the scenario that presents the issue that I'm curious about.

I go to a lot of sports websites to check game times, scores, box score statistics, etc.

While at pages listing the scores of multiple games that are still being played (in-progress), there's an option to click a link on any individual game to see per-player stats about their performance so far in that game, etc.

So, when I click a right-click a link and select to open it in a new tab, fine, it opens okay, no problem there.

However, within the page of the newly opened tab, there is usually a right sidebar column, that is mostly a series of ads and links to related content, yet, there's always at least 1 (and sometimes 2-3,etc) that have embedded video highlight reels in players embedded directly into the page that automatically begin playing when the page/tab loads. It may take a few seconds, maybe up to 30 seconds, but it will eventually start. And, as you probably can guess, yes, of course you have to sit thru a 30-second ad before the real content.

These are little sidebar embedded video players on my 27" 4K screen are no more than a few square inches, with tiny little control buttons, such as pause, volume sliders, etc, the usual array, and a "[+]" expand-icon to expand the player size to full-screen.

So therein lies the nuisance. And it is really annoying. When the tab opens, that little highlights-reel video player is off to the side, very small, barely noticeable to begin with, and at first page load, usually SILENT. But that doesn't mean it's muted, it's not- it just hasn't fully loaded yet and self-started began playing YET.

And then when it finally does, the volume is usually at a default setting of MAXIMUM. And it is LOUD.

It's a pain in the neck that anytime I click a link at any of these kinds of sites by major sports networks that over time you learn to expect that the page is gonna get audio-hijacked whether or not the user is even remotely interested in that content (way over there in that little inky-dinky player on the right), and it just absolutely RUINS the user-experience overall IMHO.

I'm looking for an ADD-ON / EXTENSION that remedies this, ...or-- asking any of you developers who may be reading this to take this post VERY SERIOUSLY. I absolutely can't believe I'm the only user P.O.'d with this horrible "SNAFU" with major sports networks websites. To call it an "inconvenience" is the understatement of the century.

Just to be clear, ad-block has absolutely no effect (ZERO) on this. Cookies ? I'm using Privazer in addition to Firefox's own Privacy & Security settings and built-in cookie cleaning capabilities. And I have used that tandem for years, with remarkably fantastic results, no complaint there, everything works great as far as that is concerned. Except of course the issue of this post/inquiry - this problem doesn't get fixed by clearing cookies or caches, it's apparently loaded & controlled at the server-side, so I'm looking for a way to over-ride that by the client-side by having new tabs open with volume muted as default page-load value (if such a thing is possible).

Also, the above scenario, is my most frequently encountered PERSONALLY, however this issue happens also at quite a number of other website pages where sidebar video content is regularly displayed such as tabloid/ journalism websites, product review websites, and the list goes on and on.....

Getting back to the title of this post ::: "" Is there an add-on that enables when clicked links are opened in new tabs ---> THAT TAB's volume ALREADY muted ? "" .... if there already is an option for this in firefox open new tabs settings please remind me where to find it..... because I am pulling my hair out over this... thanks all.

Version last update :: Firefox Version 112.0.2 (64-bit) Operating System :: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit | Version 22H2 | (OS Build - 19045.4239) Misc Info :: i7-3540M CPU @ 3.00 GHz | 8 GB RAM | Dell Latitude

Hello! Can you help me sort out a little problem? I am reaching out to seek assistance with a specific issue I am encountering in the Firefox browser.

In my previous browser, when opening new tabs, they were considered active even if I did not immediately switch to them. This behavior allowed me to open multiple tabs, for example, by using the mouse wheel to open several videos from the main YouTube page. Subsequently, when closing the main page, the videos would be available in the order they were opened, facilitating a seamless viewing experience.

Upon transitioning to Firefox, I have attempted to configure the browser to replicate this behavior using the Sidebery extension. However, even with the extension, new tabs are not recognized as active unless I explicitly switch to them, making it challenging to maintain the desired tab activation order.

I have explored various settings and experimented with the Sidebery extension but have not been successful in achieving the desired result. In contrast, the Yandex browser, with the "Switch to the previous active tab when closing a tab" option enabled, behaves in the manner I am accustomed to.

Could you please provide guidance on how I can configure Firefox to consider new tabs active immediately upon opening, regardless of whether I switch to them immediately?

I added pictures to make it clearer what I'm talking about.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Hello!

I can't figure out what setting to fix this: every time I click to open a new window, about 35 tabs automatically open up that I have closed several times in the past. I simply want one new window without any previously opened tabs.

I've tried:

• clearing my entire search history several times
• shutting down Firefox and reopening (which opens up all those tabs)
• uninstalling Firefox and reinstalling it
• initiating the latest Firefox updates
• restarting my computer
• turning my computer on and off
• looking through every single preference in my Firefox settings (I've unchecked anywhere it talks about opening tabs)
• reading various articles on Firefox's support page and on other support websites to try to figure this out (there's little info on this problem; the support is mostly about how to save previously opened tabs

Please help! I'm tired of having to close down all these tabs every single time I have to restart my computer or have to shut down Firefox. It slows down everything I'm trying to do.

Thank you!