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firefox won't start after update?

  • 4 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 12 views
  • Last reply by wtfftirefow

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Apparently my system crashed during a win7 64 update overnight. I restored to a previous restore setting and was able to get windows back and going again. Then, when I clicked my firefox shortcut to open the browser and restore my previous session it said that the browser was updating and would start shortly. It never did. Several minutes later when I tried to click the usual shortcut I now get the message "The item 'firefox.exe' that this shortcut refers to has been changed or removed..."

How can I go about resolving this without losing my history, bookmarks, and the ability to restore my last session? I had many tabs open that were important and would like to get back to that session so that I can bookmark them.

Apparently my system crashed during a win7 64 update overnight. I restored to a previous restore setting and was able to get windows back and going again. Then, when I clicked my firefox shortcut to open the browser and restore my previous session it said that the browser was updating and would start shortly. It never did. Several minutes later when I tried to click the usual shortcut I now get the message "The item 'firefox.exe' that this shortcut refers to has been changed or removed..." How can I go about resolving this without losing my history, bookmarks, and the ability to restore my last session? I had many tabs open that were important and would like to get back to that session so that I can bookmark them.

Chosen solution

Using System Restore can cause your Firefox installation to get corrupted because only white-listed files are restored, so always be cautious with using System Restore.

You can reinstall Firefox.

  • Download the full Firefox installer and save the file to the desktop
    https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/
  • Delete the Firefox program folder to do a clean reinstall
  • Start the installation with a double-click on the desktop icon
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All Replies (4)

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Hello there,

Can you restart the system and see if that solves the issue?

Keep us posted!

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Chosen Solution

Using System Restore can cause your Firefox installation to get corrupted because only white-listed files are restored, so always be cautious with using System Restore.

You can reinstall Firefox.

  • Download the full Firefox installer and save the file to the desktop
    https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/
  • Delete the Firefox program folder to do a clean reinstall
  • Start the installation with a double-click on the desktop icon
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I have searched and searched for sessionstore.js and sessionstore.bak to no avail. I did however find a folder 'sessionrestore-backups'. I have attached an image of the contents of this file however I figure I am pretty much sol as far as getting my previous session back. Correct?

If I do a clean re-install how do I recover my profile setting, bookmarks, history, add-ons, extensions, etc?

Modified by wtfftirefow

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I have resolved the issue using windows restore. When I tried to restore previously my antivirus program was interfering and the restore wasn't being fully completed. No more issues.

Thanks for the hints and my hint for future readers, is read carefully the message screen after you complete a restore to ensure it was don successfully. Duh...