I want to save history between sessions, but this causes the error message "Sorry. We’re having trouble getting your pages back."
I started getting the message "Sorry. We’re having trouble getting your pages back." on startup after a recent update. After a search I discovered that setting history to be cleared on exit prevents the error message on the next start and I verified that is the case. However, I don't want to clear history! Even when I check "clear history" and go into the settings to not clear browsing and download history while clearing everything else, the issue remains.
Chosen solution
Hi coopecb1, if I understand what you want: you want Firefox to restore your previous session windows and tabs automatically without getting the screen that makes you choose between restoring and starting a new session.
That should work.
The "We're having trouble" screen should only appear when:
- Firefox believes, based on the state of its session history files, that it did not shut down properly after your last session -- it thinks it crashed.
- Firefox tried to automatically recover from the crash, but was unable to do so.
So that raises a number of questions.
First, how do you shut down Firefox? For best results, use the menu and allow 30 seconds or so for Firefox to complete its file maintenance. By menu I mean either:
- "3-bar" menu button > Exit
- (menu bar) File > Exit
Second, do you use any software that touches Firefox data between sessions? That may include Advanced SystemCare, CCleaner, or other programs. If you can think of anything like that, make sure they don't touch session or history data. Or anything.
Read this answer in context 👍 1All Replies (5)
Did you check your History Options settings. I seen where some of those settings where checked marked and if you closed the Browser it wipes clean those links and history.
Chosen Solution
Hi coopecb1, if I understand what you want: you want Firefox to restore your previous session windows and tabs automatically without getting the screen that makes you choose between restoring and starting a new session.
That should work.
The "We're having trouble" screen should only appear when:
- Firefox believes, based on the state of its session history files, that it did not shut down properly after your last session -- it thinks it crashed.
- Firefox tried to automatically recover from the crash, but was unable to do so.
So that raises a number of questions.
First, how do you shut down Firefox? For best results, use the menu and allow 30 seconds or so for Firefox to complete its file maintenance. By menu I mean either:
- "3-bar" menu button > Exit
- (menu bar) File > Exit
Second, do you use any software that touches Firefox data between sessions? That may include Advanced SystemCare, CCleaner, or other programs. If you can think of anything like that, make sure they don't touch session or history data. Or anything.
WestEnd said
Did you check your History Options settings. I seen where some of those settings where checked marked and if you closed the Browser it wipes clean those links and history.
The point is that I want to save my history.
jscher2000 said
Second, do you use any software that touches Firefox data between sessions? That may include Advanced SystemCare, CCleaner, or other programs. If you can think of anything like that, make sure they don't touch session or history data. Or anything.
It was CCleaner. Even though it wasn't actively running, simply having items selected for Firefox under Applications was enough to trigger the error response. However, I had been using CCleaner for a long, long time without this happening until recently, so in a way the problem remains.
coopecb1 said
It was CCleaner. Even though it wasn't actively running, simply having items selected for Firefox under Applications was enough to trigger the error response. However, I had been using CCleaner for a long, long time without this happening until recently, so in a way the problem remains.
Firefox 56 changed the file names and file formats of the session history files, so CCleaner's cleaning function for session data was only working partially, causing Firefox to think it should do a crash recovery with an old session file at every startup. A fix for CCleaner was issued around mid-October 2017. I don't know why you only started experiencing this recently, unless you stayed on Firefox 52-55 for a long time and just jumped to Firefox 58 recently.