If there's any more information that you need from me to be able to help me, please let me know. Thank you.

I've been trying to think if I made any recent changes to my computer (in case you wanted to know about that), and the only things I can think of are that I recently installed Malwarebytes and used it to remove some potentially harmful malware, and I also installed a few Microsoft updates.

If someone can help me, that would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Hi TeresaRudolph71, when you say your search history was wiped out, do you mean your Firefox browsing history, or history specific to the search bar or a particular search website?

I don't think rebooting your router would matter, but shutting down Windows without first letting Firefox do a regular shutdown could cause issues.

Session Restore

Usually Firefox will attempt an automatic crash recovery for a regular (non-private) session.

Could you check whether either of these are available (not hidden or grayed out):

• "3-bar" menu button > Restore Previous Session
• (menu bar) History > Restore Previous Session

If they are missing or grayed, check either:

• "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)

If that doesn't help...

Finding Session History Files

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
• various .js files from Firefox 55 or earlier

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.

You can check in Windows Explorer if there is a previous version of the sessionstore.jsonlz4 file available.

• right-click: Properties -> Previous Versions
• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17119/windows-7-recover-lost-delete-files

You can also look at this utility to browse System Restore points.

• System Restore Explorer
  http://nicbedford.co.uk/software/systemrestoreexplorer/

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
  Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

Firefox uses the sessionstore.jsonlz4 file in the profile folder to store session data. The sessionstore.jsonlz4 file is only present when Firefox is closed. The sessionstore.jsonlz4 file is created from recovery.jsonlz4 when you close Firefox and is removed and copied to previous.jsonlz4 when you start Firefox to make is possible to restore the session at any time.

Backup the session files in the sessionstore-backups folder in the Firefox Profile Folder to make sure not to lose possible important session data. Do NOT close Firefox when Firefox is already running.

You will normally find these files in the sessionstore-backups folder:

• previous.jsonlz4 (cleanBackup: copy of sessionstore.jsonlz4 from previous session that was loaded successfully)
• recovery.jsonlz4 (latest version of sessionstore.jsonlz4 written during runtime)
• recovery.baklz4 (previous version of sessionstore.jsonlz4 written during runtime)
• upgrade.jsonlz4-<build_id> (backup created during an upgrade of Firefox)

You can copy a file from the sessionstore-backups folder to the main profile and rename the file to sessionstore.jsonlz4 to replace the current file (make sure to backup the current sessionstore.jsonlz4).

Firefox 56+ releases compress the files in the sessionstore-backups folder and sessionstore.jsonlz4 with LZ4 (.jsonlz4 instead of .js), so it is no longer easy to inspect a sessionstore file.

You can use this tool to inspect a compressed sessionstore file.

• https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/scrounger.html

Hi jscher2000.

All my browsing history was wiped out. Now that I think about it, I remember that I ran the CCleaner after I rebooted my computer. I do this regularly. But this has never caused my tabs to be wiped out. All the tabs that normally come back up in my Firefox browser when I go back into Firefox, after rebooting, were gone.

But I normally just log off and log back on. This particular time, I had shut down the computer and rebooted the router because I was having connectivity issues. But I think you’re right, this shouldn’t have caused this, because I’ve done that before too, without this happening.

But thanks for the advice. I will have to learn how to shut down Firefox regularly before logging off.

I checked, and the Restore Previous session is grayed out, no matter how I access this option.

I’m not sure where I’m supposed to find the Library toolbar button. I’m not seeing that anywhere in my toolbars.

My Firefox browser is currently open, so I didn’t try the other option.

I did save the files from my sessionstore-backups folder to my Documents folder. Thank you for that suggestion.

I did find one file that looked promising – the recovery.baklz4 file. I restored it to the previous version, and previewed it, using your tool, and it did appear to have closed tabs in it. However, I have not been able to open it, and I don’t know why.

Hi cor-el.

Thank you for your helpful suggestions also. I did manage to restore a file to a previous version, which would be helpful if only I could open it.

I checked, and I currently don't have any restore points.  :( I've noticed that when I do create a restore point, it disappears after just a few hours, even though I have my System Restore configured to save the maximum number of restore points, for a the maximum amount of time.

It appears that I now have Firefox 56+, so I used your tool to view the compressed file. Now, if only I could open it. Why have I been unable to do that?

Thank you both so much for your help. I feel as though I’m close to finally being able to restore my lost tabs. I just haven’t been able to open the file containing them. I have made Firefox my default browser, but that doesn’t seem to be helping. I keep getting a message saying the file cannot be downloaded.

TeresaRudolph71 said

Hi jscher2000. All my browsing history was wiped out. Now that I think about it, I remember that I ran the CCleaner after I rebooted my computer. I do this regularly.

CCleaner if left default will remove cookies and history and clean the Browser.

WestEnd said

</blockquote> CCleaner if left default will remove cookies and history and clean the Browser. </blockquote>

I just took a look at my CCleaner, and I have it set up the way I always do. But I have run it many times before without it wiping out my tabs, though it does clear my search history. So I don't know why it would have wiped out my tabs this time. Is there a particular option that needs to be unchecked for it to not wipe out my tabs?

Hi TeresaRudolph71, Firefox 56 didn't have a Library button, that was added in Firefox 57. However, it did have a History menu on the optional menu bar -- tap the Alt key to activate the bar if you don't normally display it.

There aren't any programs that can "open" recovery.baklz4; it's purely meant for Firefox to use if it has a problem with recovery.jsonlz4. So, next steps:

(A) Re-open tabs from links

You can use the Scrounger tool to save the recovered tabs as a web page of clickable links. That's the fastest way to get back to those pages.

(B) Substitute session history files

It's possible to "swap" the recovery.baklz4 for one of the files Firefox will look for at startup. The main difference from using links is that the file stores session cookies and each tab has its back-forward history. This might be more trouble than it's worth, but I'll spell out the steps:

The standard "manual swap" method is as follows (assuming Firefox is still running):

(1) From inside Firefox, 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" button. This should launch a Windows Explorer window listing the various files and folders in your profile.

(2) Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit, either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "power" button Exit
• (menu bar) File > Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup. A file named sessionstore.jsonlz4 should appear in the folder.

(3) Once Firefox has stopped updating things, while viewing the main level of the profile folder, right-click > Rename sessionstore.jsonlz4 to sessionstoreOLD.jsonlz4

If you see an older sessionstore.js or sessionstore.bak file, move it somewhere else or delete it.

(4) Copy in the other file you want to restore, and rename it with the name appropriate for its format:

• Compressed file such as recovery.baklz4 => sessionstore.jsonlz4
• Uncompressed file such as recovery.js => sessionstore.js

(5) Start Firefox and it should read the swapped in sessionstore file and restore whatever was in the substitute file; if you do not have Firefox set to restore your previous windows and tabs automatically, use History > Restore Previous Session

Any luck?

I ended up deciding that your first suggestion would be the most likely to be helpful to me. I was a little afraid to try the second way, as I didn't know what the result would be. Unfortunately, because life got in the way, my recovery.baklz4 file was updated again (though I never closed Firefox) and I think it became impossible to restore the version that I had up before. I tried, but it just kept reverting to the newest version of that file.

I was finally able to restore my tabs from a previous time, but it was from considerably farther back, at a time when an update had taken place back in October 2017. I had some (most, I think) of the important tabs that I had up before, and I think I will be able to find most of the other tabs that I had up before, with a little searching.

So you were both very helpful to me. I think that in the future, I'll need to save the links to the tabs that I have up, and perhaps just save the links on a Word document and not have so many tabs up at once. Maybe if I do this regularly, I won't have to worry about my tabs being lost, even if something like this happens again.

Thanks again. You really have helped me, though I will still have to do a little searching to get some of those tabs back.

You can check in Windows Explorer if there is a previous version of the sessionstore.jsonlz4 file available.

• right-click: Properties -> Previous Versions

• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17119/windows-7-recover-lost-delete-files

All I got when I did that was the current version, even when it said that it had been restored to the previous version (before I lost my tabs). And when I tried to access an earlier version by following your suggestions, I wasn't able to find one, even when it said that it was an earlier version. It still showed only the tabs that I currently have open.

But thank you anyway. You did help me quite a bit.

It sounds that somehow a new profile got created that doesn't have older data available.

You can look at this utility to browse System Restore points to see if there is data available from an older profile.

• System Restore Explorer
  http://nicbedford.co.uk/software/systemrestoreexplorer/

I think you’re right. A new profile was probably created that doesn’t have the older data available.

I tried using the System Restore Explorer with each of the files that I found in the sessionstore folder, opening the folders in the about:profiles page, and there were no earlier versions available.

Also, I should have told you earlier, before I reached out to the Mozilla Support Forum for help, I had tried opening Firefox again, and nothing showed up, not even the Firefox homepage. At the time, I thought this must have been because I was having connectivity issues, so I logged off and then logged back on a couple of times, with the same result. Finally, after a couple of tries, I did get the Mozilla Firefox search homepage, but that was all I got.

I didn’t think that the previous logons would count as sessions, because not even the Firefox homepage showed up. It was just a blank white page. But apparently I was wrong. I think this must be the reason why I was unable to restore a previous version of those recovery files. I sincerely apologize, as I’m beginning to feel that I’ve wasted your time and I really should have told you this earlier. But now I have some helpful tools to help me, should I have this same issue again, and I was able to recover some tabs from about a year ago, so I did get back most of the tabs that I had before.

So again, I apologize, and thank you so much for your help. I now have the Previous File Recoverer saved as an icon on my desktop, and I also have your JS Session History tool bookmarked, as well as this page.

Thanks again.

Teresa

And now I know that if I ever have this issue again, I don't want to log off Firefox, if I see that my tabs are gone. And even if the Mozilla Firefox search home page isn't showing up, I know that that still does count as a session.

I guess I had to learn this the hard way.

But you did help me a great deal. So again, thank you.

I am not tech savy and would give anything to speak to someone to walk me through this but I accidentally deleted my history to be clear it was my browsing & download history, Cookies, Cache, and offline website data. My Tech Support did this to fix a cookie issue on one of my companies new websites as some images were not showing up properly but they did not ask if I needed my current tabs before doing this.

I am desperately trying to recover my tabs. I have found a folder called webappsstore created today (there are several) the type of file is SQLITE File and it is 21,568 KB which makes me think due to the size it is all my tabs and windows as I had 5 windows and around 60 tabs I am trying to recover.

Is there anything at all that I can do to accomplish this?

Hi LisaMichelleS, unfortunately, the "Clear Recent History" feature that removes History does remove session history very thoroughly. I thought the session history would start rebuilding immediately, but maybe it takes time or maybe you have to reload each of the open tabs??

When I look at what is the webappsstore.sqlite database, it seems to hold values set by websites listed by the top level domain, not the specific URL visited. Also, for some reason, they are written backwards. I don't know how useful this file will be.

How long were the tabs open? Some of course would be quite recent, but if you had some open for a while, a backup might have those. What OS do you use, for example, Windows 7, Windows 10, MacOS, Linux?

Host names are written backwards in databases to make it possible to do a toplevel domain compare (sub domains are at the end of the URL: gro.allizom.troppus <> gro.allizom.ikiw).

Hi Thank you for trying to help and I use Microsoft Windows 10 Pro for work. I'm sorry my reply is so delayed but I did not get the usual notification when I get a response.