i have inadvertently closed my tabs and 2 previous window sessions. can i retrieve these? the history is intact, but not the tabs.
usually clicking on 'restore previous session', 'recently closed tabs' or recently closed windows opens everything but this time it has not.
All Replies (1)
Hi fftty, sorry for the delay in responding. That could be because you have a difficult problem to solve.
You already checked the obvious things:
- "3-bar" menu button > Restore Previous Session
- (menu bar) History > Restore Previous Session
and/or:
- "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)
So we need to move to next level file recovery.
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
Could you take a look at what you have and the date/time of the various files to see whether you think any of them would have the missing tabs?
To preview the contents of a file, you can drag and drop it onto this page, then click Scrounge URLs:
https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/scrounger.html
That tool is on my site, so please let me know if it doesn't work for you.
Novain'i jscher2000 - Support Volunteer t@