Firefox restore goes back to very old sessions, not most recent one
What used to happen: When Firefox crashes or I stop Firefox from the Mac Activity Monitor, it restores all the old tabs exactly as I had them last time.
What happens now: It keeps going back to one specific session. If I make any changes and then restore again (crash and restart for example) it goes back to this same old version.
I went to ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/<profile folder> and took out all the sessionstore files (I moved them to another folder).
But STILL it is hung p on this version - and behind that it sees another older session.
So I figure it must be keeping some sessions stored somewhere else. But I can't find any other Firefox Profiles folder.
I'm really getting quite frustrated by this.
How do I get Firefox OUT of Groundhog Day mode and back in to remembering sessions as they were at the time of last closing / crashing Firefox?
Thanks!
All Replies (5)
see the following article for starters:
How do I restore my tabs from last time?
Restting firefox will probably help:
The Reset Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its factory default state while saving your essential information. Note: This will cause you to lose any Extensions, Open websites, and some Preferences.
To Reset Firefox do the following:
- Go to Firefox > Help > Troubleshooting Information.
- Click the "Reset Firefox" button.
- Firefox will close and reset. After Firefox is done, it will show a window with the information that is imported. Click Finish.
- Firefox will open with all factory defaults applied.
Further information can be found in the Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings article.
Athraithe ag smo ar
Yep, thanks. I looked at the obvious stuff before posting ...
OK I think I have some more detail.
The problem seems to stem from:
1. I did a restart of Firefox 2. I just started creating new tabs etc before doing the restore from session 3. AFTER restarting that session, I wanted to go back to what I had previously - so I did one restore which brought up the restore screen + a few tabs then I did the restore from there that bought up everything I had open that I REALLY wanted to restore. So far so good. 4. I then made changes - opened new windows, tabs, etc. 5. Next time I do a restore, it goes back to the first restore from step 3 - not the last state it was in.
So it seems like opening a previous session (2 or more levels back) stops it 'recording' any activity as part of a new session.
You can check for problems with the sessionstore.js and sessionstore.bak files in the Firefox profile folder that store session data.
Delete the sessionstore.js file and possible sessionstore-##.js files with a number and sessionstore.bak in the Firefox profile folder.
- Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Multiple_profile_files_created
Deleting sessionstore.js will cause App Tabs and Tab Groups and open and closed (undo) tabs to get lost and you will have to recreate them (make a note or bookmark them if possible).
Hi
I deleted all these files (well, moved them to another directory - I don't know if that's the same thing) before posting.
I think the problem is more a design flaw - if I go force a quit for Firefox then do a restore, I get a set of tabs including another restore screen. If I restore that one, none of the changes I make (new windows and tabs) then count towards the session any more. It is always the 'top leve' restore and that doesn't change after I open up the 'restore' below that. ie it doesn't track changes any more.
What I'm confused about though is where it gets these deeper restore levels from. I can restore, click the new restore screen that opens up when I open up the first restore, get a whole bunch of new tabs and windows open from months ago, and keep going with nested restore opportunities.
I don't know where it's getting them from. Are these all stored in the one sessionstore.js file (it's pretty big - 227MB)? Because I moved all other sessionstore-##.js files to a different directory. And the last edited date for them was in 2011 anyway so I doubt these ones are being used.
You only can get an older set if Firefox is restoring them from an older copy of sessionstore.js.
It is possible that some security software is protecting files against changes and silently restores this file.
Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.
See "Creating a profile":
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Profile_issues
If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from an existing profile to the new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.