
I did a restart and all my history and open tabs disappeared
I have no idea why my browsing history, open tabs etc. didn't reopen after this restart. I previously had all the settings correct to reopen all windows after a restart, but now there's not even a history available.
All Replies (1)
Could you check whether either of these are available (not hidden or grayed out):
- "3-bar" menu button > History > Restore Previous Session
- (menu bar) History > Restore Previous Session
If they are missing or grayed, check either:
- "3-bar" menu button > History > Recently Closed Windows
- (menu bar) History > Recently Closed Windows
Anything you can recover there?
Did you lose bookmarks, settings, and add-ons, too?
All personal data/settings gone
Did you do a Firefox Refresh, sometimes called a Tune-up? The usual tell-tale sign is a new folder on your Mac desktop named Old Firefox Data. If you see that folder, check inside to see how recently the files were updated.
If it wasn't that, did Firefox mention having to create a new profile? Even if it didn't mention that, you can check whether your regular profile is available to switch to. Try the steps in the first section of the following article: Recover lost or missing Bookmarks.
Just history / open tabs gone
Could you double-check that Firefox is not set to delete history when it closes? This would be on the Settings/Preferences page:
Privacy & Security panel > scroll down to History section
What is your setting in the selector here?
- Firefox will: Remember history => this should be fine
- Firefox will: Never remember history => not compatible with restoring your session
- Firefox will: Use custom settings for history => need check the details
For custom settings, make sure Firefox is set to "Save browsing and download history", and if there is a check in the box for "Clear history when Firefox closes" click the Settings button on the right and make sure that Firefox is NOT set to clear browsing/download history.
Partial session history recovery from older files
(1) To open your profile folder...
You can open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either
- "3-bar" menu button > Help > More Troubleshooting Information
- (menu bar) Help > More Troubleshooting Information
- type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter
In the first table on the page, find the Profile Folder row and click the "Open Folder"/"Show in Finder" button. This should launch Windows' File Explorer/Mac OS Finder listing the contents of your current profile folder.
If Finder shows a selected folder with a name matching the profile folder name shows on the Troubleshooting Information page, double-click into that folder to view its contents.
(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
Sometimes you can tell from the last modification time which one will have your missing tabs, but not always.
Optional File Contents Preview
These compressed files are a pain to view, so I created a tool on my website to list out their contents. If you want to try that, you can drag and drop it onto the large box on the following page, then click the "Scrounge URLs" button:
https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/scrounger.html
If you don't get a list within 15 seconds, that probably means the script is caught in a loop. You may need to close the tab to avoid a tab crash and then try again in a new tab.
If you get a useful list, use the "Save List" button to archive it as a web page of clickable links for future reference, in case no other approach is successful.