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How can I avoid losing all my open tabs if I refresh Firefox?

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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Firefox says there is a problem and gives me the option of opening in troubleshooting mode or refreshing Firefox. Opening in troubleshooting mode doesn't solve the problem so I want to try refreshing Firefox - how can I avoid losing all my open tabs (I have many)? Thank you for any help/guidance.

Firefox says there is a problem and gives me the option of opening in troubleshooting mode or refreshing Firefox. Opening in troubleshooting mode doesn't solve the problem so I want to try refreshing Firefox - how can I avoid losing all my open tabs (I have many)? Thank you for any help/guidance.

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I think that you will keep open tabs, but to be sure you can keep a backup copy of sessionstore.jsonlz4 in the Firefox profile folder. This file is only present when Firefox is closed.

When you use the Firefox refresh feature then a new profile is created and some personal data (bookmarks and history, Form Data, tabs) is automatically imported. The current Firefox profile folder will be moved to an "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop. Installed extensions and other customizations (toolbars, prefs) that you have made are lost and need to be redone.

It is possible to recover data from the "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.


You can backup certain files in the current profile folder with Firefox closed.

  • bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
  • favicons: favicons.sqlite
  • bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
  • cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
  • formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
  • logins.json (encrypted logins;32+) and key4.db (decryption key;58+) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
    key3.db support ended in 73+; to use key3.db in 58-72, make sure to remove key4.db
  • cert9.db (58+) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  • persdict.dat for words added to the spell checker dictionary
  • permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
  • sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)