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67.0 (64-bit) update lost 100 tabs. How do I get them back? Win7 desktop

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Firefox 67.0 (64-bit) update lost most of my 100+ tabs. It only kept the first 12 tabs I need them all back.

Win7 desktop

Firefox 67.0 (64-bit) update lost most of my 100+ tabs. It only kept the first 12 tabs I need them all back. Win7 desktop

All Replies (15)

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Hi paul90260, I'm sorry to hear about this problem. I have several suggestions for you, but first, I'd like you to back up some files to make sure that they are preserved, and then I'll suggest how to check whether you are using a new profile instead of your regular one.

Part 1: Back up Session History Files

Firefox creates numerous session history files, but because session history is only for the immediately previous session, it is unfortunately too easy to lose it. Could you start by making a backup of your existing session history files? Here's how:

Do not exit Firefox, or if you closed it, don't re-open it.

(1) To open your profile folder...

If Firefox is still running:

You can open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, click the "Open Folder" (or "Show in Finder") button.

If Firefox is closed:

Type or paste the following into the Windows Run dialog or the system search box and press Enter to launch Windows Explorer:

%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

In that folder, do you see a semi-randomly-named folder? If so, click into it. If you find multiple such folders, find the one that was most recently updated.

(2) Copy out session history files

In your profile folder, double-click into the sessionstore-backups folder. Save all files here to a safe location such as your Documents folder.

(3) What files did you find?

The kinds of files you may find among your sessionstore files are:

  • recovery.jsonlz4: the windows and tabs in your currently live Firefox session (or, if Firefox crashed at the last shutdown and is still closed, your last session)
  • recovery.baklz4: a backup copy of recovery.jsonlz4
  • previous.jsonlz4: the windows and tabs in your last Firefox session
  • upgrade.jsonlz4-build_id: the windows and tabs in the Firefox session that was live at the time of your last update
  • possibly some .js files from Firefox 55 or earlier

We'll come back to these files if needed.


Part 2: Profile Manager Page

Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.

This page should list at least one profile and could list many. Each will show links to a pair of folders; please ignore those for now.

The profile that Firefox is currently using will have this:

This is the profile in use and it cannot be deleted.

Actually, please do not delete anything here, don't use any Remove buttons.

Do you have another profile named default or default-longnumber listed on this page? If so, you can check whether it is the one you were using recently by clicking its Launch profile in new browser button.

If it isn't what you want, simply close that new window.

If it IS what you want, back on the about:profiles page, click the Set as default profile button for that profile so Firefox uses it automatically at the next startup.

Any progress so far, or do we need to keep looking for your data in some other places?

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The instructions were not clear and I didn't want to lose history so I decided to recreate tabs by looking through history and find the URLs. I built it back up to 30 tabs and I could close and reopen Firefox and the new tabs were all there until today when there were only 10 tabs. I've been using Firefox since the early days but this build is so destructive that I'm about ready to give up on Firefox.

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Hi paul90260, are you able to make a backup before OR right now, or were those instructions not clear enough?

Can you find any closed windows/tabs on the menu:

  • "3-bar" menu button > Library > History > Recently Closed Windows (and within each restored window, Recently Closed Tabs)
  • "Library" toolbar button > History > Recently Closed Windows (and within each restored window, Recently Closed Tabs)
  • (menu bar) History > Recently Closed Windows (and within each restored window, Recently Closed Tabs)

Since this feature doesn't seem to be working well for you, you could consider using a session management extension to independently save your tabs as a backup. These are the ones I'm aware of that you might investigate/try out:

Use database storage:

Use bookmark storage:

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Recently Closed Windows only had a couple pop-up windows such as for for logging into disqus. There was no window containing my lost tabs.

Since Firefox 67 broke their 'restore previous session' feature Mozilla's solution is to install a session management extension instead of fixing what is broken?

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Hi paul90260, I -- an individual support volunteer -- suggested a method to protect against data loss and you can use it or not, your choice.

I can't read every thread, but as far as I know, your symptoms are unique. So unfortunately, I don't have enough information to tell you what is going on. We did have two Mac users report that Firefox didn't restore ANY tabs after ANY restart, which might be related to your issue. But compared with losing tabs randomly and incompletely, I couldn't say it's the same problem, and any way, we haven't figured out what caused the issue for those Mac users.

If you spot a pattern to the problem, we might have some more ideas.

Either way, you can file a bug and see whether the developers can identify the source of your issue: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/

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I filed a bug report. Is there any way to revert back to the previous version of Firefox? I don't want to switch to the evil Google Chrome browser.

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paul90260 said

I filed a bug report. Is there any way to revert back to the previous version of Firefox? I don't want to switch to the evil Google Chrome browser.

The developers might ask you to do some tests in Firefox 67, so it might not be the best time to downgrade. However, you have to do what you have to do.

Is your Firefox already set to alert you to updates before installing them? That is on the Options page and needs to be set first before downgrading. See: Install an older version of Firefox.

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I would not call previous version "downgrading". It worked fine! Yes, alerts tell me when updates are available and I choose when to download.

What happens to my history file if I go back to the older version? I need history intact to restore certain tabs.

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Bug 1555755

How long will it take to fix?

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Did you check for possible upgrade.jsonlz4 files in the sessionstore-backups folder ?

  • upgrade.jsonlz4-<build_id> (backup created during an upgrade of Firefox)

You can copy a file from the sessionstore-backups folder to the main profile level and rename the file to sessionstore.jsonlz4 to replace the current file with Firefox closed (make sure to backup the current sessionstore.jsonlz4).

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

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paul90260 said

What happens to my history file if I go back to the older version? I need history intact to restore certain tabs.

I'm not aware of a format change between Firefox 66 and Firefox 67. However, if the format changes, then the older version may rename your places.sqlite database file and start your history from scratch. That is different from your session history files contained open/closed windows/tabs. I am not aware of any change to their format, either, but I have not compared them myself. Earlier in this thread I described how to back up those files so you can have them to recover closed tabs just in case.

paul90260 said

Bug 1555755 How long will it take to fix?

The first step is to identify the conditions that cause the problem. Since I haven't heard of any other reports along these lines, it might take some time to figure that out. Then a patch can be created. If that happens very promptly, it might come out in the first interim update to Firefox 67. However, if it takes a couple of weeks, it might not be until Firefox 68 or later.

For purposes of updating the bug, could you try:

Clean Profile Test

This takes about 3 minutes, plus the time to test the lost tabs issue.

Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.

Click the "Create a New Profile" button, then click Next. Assign a name like May2019, ignore the option to relocate the profile folder, and click the Finish button.

After creating the profile, scroll down to it and click the Launch profile in new browser button.

Firefox should open a new window that looks like a brand new, uncustomized installation. (Your existing Firefox window(s) should not be affected.) Please ignore any tabs enticing you to connect to a Sync account or to activate extensions found on your system so we can get a clean test.

Does Firefox retain all open tabs between restarts in the test profile? You can open the tabs, exit, then use "Launch profile in new browser" again to restart it, etc.

When you are done with the experiment, you can close the extra window without affecting your regular Firefox profile.

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Today I was seeing tabs created yesterday but just now after closing and reopening they were gone! After 15 years of using Firefox almost exclusively I might be forced to abandon it like Netscape.

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Hi paul90260, have you customized how previous session tabs are restored by forcing Firefox to load them all at once instead of when you activate them individually?

That would have involved using about:config to switch this:

browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand => false

Another user reported only 10 tabs restoring, and has customized that setting, so I wondered whether it could be a relevant factor.

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Did you look in the sessionstore-backups folder for a recent upgrade.jsonlz4 with a <build_id> appended?

  • upgrade.jsonlz4-<build_id> (backup created during an upgrade of Firefox)

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

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This might be helpful:

All of my Firefox tabs were lost on July 7. I use Firefox Quantum, 64 bit, on a laptop with Windows 10. My Firefox was updated to v. 67.0.4 (20190619235627), prior to that, on 6-25. I checked Library, History, Recently Closed Tabs, and no tabs were listed--it was empty.

I tried cor-el's advice (in this thread, 5-30-19, 11:57 am,) except that I didn't use the session backup file. Instead, I replaced the sessionstore.jsonlz4 ("lazy Jason") file with the same file from my most recent hard drive backup. When I opened Firefox, however, my older tabs did not appear. This trick had worked for me in a much older version of Firefox, years ago.

Next, I closed Firefox and deleted my Profiles folder (files and all--I had nothing to lose) and replaced them with the Profiles folder from my HDD backup. After restarting Firefox, all of the prior tabs from my last session (before the HDD backup,) reappeared, and all of the tabs that I tried, opened properly.

Of course, none of the tabs, that I had opened after the HDD backup, were there, but I'm O.K. with that.

Lastly, my Update History (in Tools) shows that Firefox updated to v. 68.0 (20190705220548), without my being aware of it, on July 10. This was after my tabs were lost, but before I replaced the Profiles folder.