Old closed tab randomly reloads - multiple devices
Many, many months ago I did mundane search and opened a webpage in a new tab, as per normal. Nothing particularly stood out about this search and when I was done, I closed the tab. I didn't do anything different. I didn't save a bookmark or change any settings. I just looked at the webpage and then closed it when I was done. (It was a web article on some random tech site, if that matters)
Anyway, now whenever I open up my Firefox browser there seems to be a random chance that this previously closed tab will open on loading. And when I say random chance, I'd say about 1 in 5 chance. It doesn't always happen.
Just to be clear: I do have the browser set to restore my previous sessions. This is a setting I want to have on. However, this tab was not part of my previous session as I specifically closed it - and continue to close it every time it opens itself. Also, my Homepage is set to default and nothing else.
Not only that, but there are two very peculiar details about this case that make it very, very strange: 1. When I originally opened (and closed) this tab, I was using normal Firefox. I have since switched to Firefox Nightly. All of my other tabs that I like to keep open had to be searched and loaded up manually, one by one, after I did the switch. This one tab, however, is just showing up on its own. 2. Opening Firefox on a separate devices (second desktop PC, laptop, android phone) will occasionally load up this tab.
I do have my browsers set to sync, which is what I'm assuming is why it's following me around. But I don't understand why nor how to stop this specific page from loading after I keep closing it time and time again. Plus, why aren't any of my old tabs from my old Firefox browser following this same behavior after moving to Nightly? - I've closed hundreds, if not thousands of tabs. Why is this one following me around?
Réiteach roghnaithe
I've discovered the source of the problem! And now I feel incredibly stupid!
So the context of the site that kept loading was actually important. The site that would keep randomly loading up was an article related to a browser extension called "Internet Download Manager." This site was directly connected to this browser extension that I completely forgot that I had tried (I thought I had uninstalled it because I couldn't get it to work).
When I saw it listed in my extensions menu, I clicked to uninstall it and it opened up a tab with the site in question. So, I'm assuming what was happening was this extension would sometimes get called somehow when the browser loaded up and this caused it to load up the webpage. Perhaps whenever it was updated or something? And since this was an extension, it carried over to different browsers via the sync functionality. It had nothing to do with restoring previous sessions!
Anyway, thanks for the help.
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Does this also happen if you disconnect Sync ? What other devices and Firefox versions are connected ?
Use one of these to close Firefox if you are currently doing that by clicking the close X on the Firefox Title bar, especially if you have multiple windows or Private Browsing windows open to prevent losing tabs in unnoticed windows.
- "3-bar" menu button -> Exit (Power button)
- Windows: File -> Exit
- Mac: Firefox -> Quit Firefox
- Linux: File -> Quit
You can check for problems with the sessionstore.jsonlz4 file in the Firefox profile folder that stores session data.
- rename/remove sessionstore.jsonlz4
You may also have to rename the sessionstore-backups folder.
When sessionstore.jsonlz4 is deleted you lose pinned-tabs and open tabs and you will have to recreate them, so if necessary make a note or bookmark them. sessionstore.jsonlz4 is only present in the Firefox profile folder when Firefox is closed.
You can use the button on the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page (Root directory).
- Help -> More Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Folder/Directory:
Windows: Open Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data
Since this is a seemingly random occurrence, it's hard to tell what is or isn't working. I don't believe I've tried turning off sync before, but then again this has been happening on/off for months, so maybe I have and just don't recall. If you're thinking that one device just happens to have this page open and all of the other devices are just trying to sync with that, then no, I can't think of any device that I have where I haven't immediately closed this tab on load.
Off the top of my head, I can think of 5 devices where I would log into Firefox. 3 desktop PCs (my primary PC as well as two media PCs that are rarely turned on), 1 laptop PC and 1 android device. The tab will open randomly even if these other devices are off, which they are most of the time. Also, I don't know if this counts but on my main PC I have two versions of Firefox browsers: normal Firefox and Firefox Nightly.
This issue is the kind of thing where I just forget about it for a while and then it suddenly happens out of nowhere. So I realize that this makes troubleshooting very difficult.
One thing that I did earlier today when this happened was to go into my history and selected the option to "Forget" the site. I don't know if that will do anything. Either way, I made backups of the session recovery files in a separate directory. I'd honestly prefer to avoid trying things that could wipe my session as I have a ton of tabs that I keep track of that I don't want to forget about. Regardless, I won't be able to verify anything immediately since I don't know how to reproduce the issue as it seemingly happens at random. I'll have to make a followup response sometime in the future.
Thank you.
Athraithe ag R3 ar
Réiteach Roghnaithe
I've discovered the source of the problem! And now I feel incredibly stupid!
So the context of the site that kept loading was actually important. The site that would keep randomly loading up was an article related to a browser extension called "Internet Download Manager." This site was directly connected to this browser extension that I completely forgot that I had tried (I thought I had uninstalled it because I couldn't get it to work).
When I saw it listed in my extensions menu, I clicked to uninstall it and it opened up a tab with the site in question. So, I'm assuming what was happening was this extension would sometimes get called somehow when the browser loaded up and this caused it to load up the webpage. Perhaps whenever it was updated or something? And since this was an extension, it carried over to different browsers via the sync functionality. It had nothing to do with restoring previous sessions!
Anyway, thanks for the help.