When Firefox starts up, presumably it shows your home page, or does it show only one of your previous tabs?

(A) If it shows your home page, check the History menu: is "Restore Previous Session" available? If you select that, does it work correctly? That shouldn't be necessary, but at least it would let us know that session history is being saved correctly and preserved between sessions.

If the "Restore Previous Session" item is grayed out, Firefox either thinks it did restore the session or the session history file was not found. Please continue with "B".

(B) If Firefox only shows one of your previous tabs (or only previous tabs in one particular window), or Restore Previous Session is grayed out, check the History menu for windows and tabs you can restore from the previous session. Anything?

Note: Firefox windows might be recorded as closed in session history if you close out of Firefox using the "red X" button or using the Windows Taskbar icon or Alt+F4 shortcut or allowing Windows to close Firefox at Windows shutdown. To avoid closing individual windows and just close your entire Firefox session, it is best to use the menu. Either:

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

Well the history menu has the previous session greyed out.

I do have it set to load previous session tabs.

I do use the red x or file exit to exit.

It does warn me i am closing tabs. Did not do this before.

Not sure what firefox home page looks like. it loads blank firfox page with logo and a search pane in the middle of the screen. with large greyed out buttons toward the bottom. assume this is their standard blank home page.

I am really perplexed and ready to go backwards. not even sure if that is possible.. but frankly if it is not going to open my previous tabs for me it is of little use... not going to have to go through history and open them separately every time lol...

here is hoping you can help...

thanks

don

Hi Don, the prompt about closing tabs indicates that Firefox is not intending to auto-restore your session. Something is definitely getting lost in translation.

Could you check some settings in the preferences editor here:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste startup and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Make sure browser.startup.page is set to 3 and if in doubt, right-click > Reset the preference and then double-click and change to 3 here.

(4) Edit the search box above the list to sessions and pause while the list is filtered

If any of the preferences whose names start with browser.sessionstore are customized (bolded and indicating "user set"), which ones are they? You can right-click > Copy to grab the preference names and values for pasting into a reply.

Note: The browser.sessionstore.upgradeBackup.latestBuildID preference will always be customized because Firefox changes it after every update.

Anything unusual?

Ok, first one was set to 3 so did not have to do anything for that one...

here are the bolded ones in sessions:

browser.sessionstore.upgradeBackup.latestBuildID;20160604131506

datareporting.sessions.current.activeTicks;664

datareporting.sessions.current.firstPaint;13449

datareporting.sessions.current.main;156

datareporting.sessions.current.sessionRestored;20027

datareporting.sessions.current.startTime;1466289523050

datareporting.sessions.current.totalTime;93696

datareporting.sessions.currentIndex;602

datareporting.sessions.previous.600;{"s":1465836545724,"a":9555,"t":314702,"c":false,"m":1438,"fp":17709,"sr":18696}

datareporting.sessions.previous.601;{"s":1466205584223,"a":1148,"t":83900,"c":true,"m":1374,"fp":15183,"sr":16587}

datareporting.sessions.prunedIndex;599

Those are the only ones bolded, none are italicized... feel like we getting somewhere now lol... but, the first setting was set to 3, thought sure that might be it lol... thanks for helping me and happy fathers day where ever you are....

don

Nothing jumps out looking wrong, but most is greek lol...

Hi Don, nothing seems amiss there. Could you check the files on disk and see whether Firefox is writing them out and updating them. Here's how:

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > 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 "Show Folder" button. This should launch your profile folder in Windows Explorer (the file manager).

Scroll down and double-click into the sessionstore-backups folder. You should see most of the following:

• recovery.js: the windows and tabs in your currently live Firefox session
  • This usually is updated within 15 seconds of any changes, for example opening a new tab, visiting a new site in a tab
• recovery.bak: a backup copy of recovery.js
  • This usually is updated within 30 seconds of any changes
• previous.js: the windows and tabs from your last Firefox session
• upgrade.js-build_id: the windows and tabs in the Firefox session that was live at the time of various updates

Do the update times look reasonable, especially for recovery.js?

Do you see any other files?

Oh, normally Windows hides the .js file extension and says recovery is a JScript file. It's probably best to show all file extensions while troubleshooting this problem. This Microsoft article has the steps: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/show-hide-file-name-extensions

Well something we did opening and checking those files did it. It started working the last two times I shut it down the tabs all came back up... So job well done job well done my firend...

Accept now firefox if like freezing or running so slow it freezeslol then it kind of stops and then spits out what you typed all at once lol ... this is worse that the tabs lol... oh no now what.....

Freezes can take a few different shapes:

(1) No message or Windows displays NOT RESPONDING in Firefox's title bar. See: Firefox hangs or is not responding - How to fix

(2) Unresponsive script message. See: Warning Unresponsive script - What it means and how to fix it -- Another common cause of unresponsive script errors on Windows 7-10 is the protected mode feature of the Flash player plugin. That feature has security benefits, but seems to have serious compatibility issues on some systems. You can disable it using the Add-ons page. Either:

• Ctrl+Shift+a
• "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Plugins. On the right side, find "Shockwave Flash" and click the More link. Then uncheck the box for "Enable Adobe Flash protected mode" and try that for a day to see whether it helps.

Well, it is back to not opening tabs again. I restarted computer and it is back to the old tricks.. no more opening tabs... man, there has to be a way to fix this. What files do you want me to cut and paste here for you to see... we have to be able to fix it... thanks

There are three upgrade.js files they don't have build in the name at all just a number but there is three of them.. the other .js files are there but the previous.js file has a time of 10 a.m. and it is now 1532 hr. so not sure. I thought we had it fixed. just opening up those files earlier it apeared it was working but something changed cus now it is back to not opening tabs... what would u like to see....

don

Hi Don, the fact that the problem returned at Windows startup could be an important clue. There are some utilities that perform various maintenance and cleanup tasks at Windows startup, like CCleaner; malware might also fire up in the background at startup. Do recall installing anything else recently?

If "Restore Previous Session" is grayed but you have a previous.js, that usually means Firefox did restore the file, but possible the window(s) containing your missing tabs were recorded in the session history file as having been closed. Please check the History menu for any closed windows you can re-open.

The date that is appended to the name of the upgrade.js files is the build date

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

previous.js (cleanBackup: copy of sessionstore.js from previous session that was loaded successfully)
recovery.js (latest version of the sessionstore written during runtime)
recovery.bak (previous version of the sessionstore written during runtime)
upgrade.js-<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.js to replace the current file (make a backup copy of the current sessionstore.js).

See also:

• http://www.ghacks.net/2014/06/27/mozilla-launches-improved-session-restore-firefox-33/

You can check for problems with the sessionstore.js file in the profile folder that stores session data. When sessionstore.js is deleted you lose pinned tabs and Tab Groups and open tabs and you will have to recreate them, so if necessary make a note or bookmark them.

You can use this button to go to the current Firefox profile folder:

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