Restore a Firefox session which is NOT the most-recent one
Hello again.
In 2023, when I had Firefox v110.0.1, an unfortunate hiccup caused my handful of windows and their many tabs to not appear when I restarted Firefox. I asked for help here and jscher2000 was lovely and walked me through some things to do, which are discussed in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1408206 and https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1396868.
Unfortunately, though I now have Firefox v158.0, this happened again a few days ago and I've been trying to retrace his steps the best I can with the newer version, but to no avail, unfortunately, partly because I don't now see a sessionstore.jsonlz4 file that jscher2000 referenced back in 2023.
(As I remember it, a system upgrade was taking place on my PC, and, also, a new version of Firefox {the v158.0 I mentioned} was also being installed, too.)
I found a Profiles folder (C:\Users\Bram\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\p9f543mv.Default User\) that seemed to be relevant, and found a sessionstore-backups subfolder there. However, while that subfolder did NOT have a sessionstore.jsonlz4 file, it DID have files named previous..., recovery..., and (possibly connected to one of those updates), an upgrade... file, too.
When I first found this subfolder (in that "Roaming" area...I looked also in the "Local" area but wasn't confident I found anything more relevant), I copied/renamed previous... (with a timestamp from around the time of that system update, and large filesize) to previousOLD..., and the MUCH smaller recovery... to recoveryOLD, similar to the instructions in those threads. However, even if I also copied that previous... file to sessionstore... (to match those earlier instructions), Firefox would launch but with only the most-recent tabs (i.e., the Advanced Preferences {about:config} tab along with about:support {to provide Troubleshooting Information}) showing, as I'd launched them as part of my efforts to restore the session, and nothing else.)
I have "healthily-sized" recovery... and upgrade... files with the same date/time-stamp and filesize, though my efforts to try to get Firefox to open correctly have removed a similarly-sized previous... from that folder unfortunately -- hopefully the fact that recovery... and that upgrade... file have similar sizes mean they might(?) be valid substitutes for previous... should one be needed.
I hope that this described my situation well, but am happy to answer any questions you might have about it to the best of my ability.
Clearly, Mozilla updated some Firefox characteristics in the intervening three (3) years but I'm not sure how to adapt the new set of filenames to those previous instructions although, as I wrote, maybe one of those larger files will end up being what Firefox uses to try to restore everything...I just don't know what to do with it (i.e., what to rename it and/or where to copy/paste it) in order to make that happen.
Can you please offer some advice in this regard?
Thank you very much, Bram Weiser
所有回复 (6)
The information is still correct to this day and the formats can be user as back then.
jbr said
The information is still correct to this day and the formats can be user as back then.
Hi, jbr, and thanks for responding.
Unfortunately, it's not the same as it was back then because, for one thing, there are no "sessionstore" files now in that Profile folder (just previous..., recovery..., and upgrade...) so I don't know what else to do.
Hopefully you or another user can please provide more information about this.
Thanks again, Bram Weiser
Hi Bram, I think the difference you see this time is not due to version difference, but that the circumstances are just different from back then. However the instructions are still the same:
- make a copy of sessionstore-backups
- pick candidate backup files based on their file size or time stamp to most likely to contain what you're looking for
- upload it to the online scrounger tool to preview its contents
- once you have the one you'd like to restore, put it into your profile as sessionstore.jsonlz4
The current documentation for that is How to restore a browsing session from backup
jbr said
Hi Bram, I think the difference you see this time is not due to version difference, but that the circumstances are just different from back then. However the instructions are still the same:The current documentation for that is How to restore a browsing session from backup
- make a copy of sessionstore-backups
- pick candidate backup files based on their file size or time stamp to most likely to contain what you're looking for
- upload it to the online scrounger tool to preview its contents
- once you have the one you'd like to restore, put it into your profile as sessionstore.jsonlz4
Hi, jbr, and thank you for following up.
Please let me clarify...there is NO sessionstore... file in the Profile folder this time (in case that's something you meant), just files that are named previous..., recovery... and upgrade. I do believe there's a sessionstore-backups folder, however, but would need to double-check (I'm not home right now as I write this).
I also DO consider some of those above-mentioned files to be "candidates" given their size and date/time-stamps, but was apprehensive about renaming one to "sessionstore..." in case they were indeed somehow different from what sessionstore... files would look like.
I'll try this later tonight when I'm home again but I think(!) that I did make one (1) attempt earlier that renamed a "candidate" file to sessionstore.jsonlz4 though that effort didn't work at the time. (I thought that maybe some other file might also need to be there to go along with sessionstore... which could, perhaps, explain why that attempt didn't work, but am not sure if that's so.)
Still, thanks again for following up like this, and I'll let you know if this is successful or not after I try it.
Sincerely, Bram Weiser
Hello Bram,
The `previous`, `recovery`, and `upgrade` files are potential candidates for restoring your missing session. The filenames may differ from what you remember, but the important thing is finding a backup that contains the missing tabs.
1. Make a backup of your entire Firefox profile folder before changing anything. Close Firefox completely first. 2. Check the candidate files in `sessionstore-backups`. Compare their timestamps and sizes, but remember that a larger file isn't necessarily the correct one. 3. Preview the files using the [History Scrounger] Session History Scrounger to see which one contains your missing tabs. Be aware that these files can contain private browsing history. 4. Restore the correct file by following Mozilla's[official session recovery guide] official session recovery guide. Keep Firefox closed during the process and preserve your original backups.
Since you already tried renaming a candidate without success, I'd first check whether the file actually contains the missing URLs. If it does, we can investigate why Firefox isn't loading it rather than risking further changes to your backups.
When you previewed the `recovery` or `upgrade` file, did either one contain the URLs from your missing windows and tabs?
malcolmparked said
Hello Bram, The `previous`, `recovery`, and `upgrade` files are potential candidates for restoring your missing session. The filenames may differ from what you remember, but the important thing is finding a backup that contains the missing tabs. 1. Make a backup of your entire Firefox profile folder before changing anything. Close Firefox completely first. 2. Check the candidate files in `sessionstore-backups`. Compare their timestamps and sizes, but remember that a larger file isn't necessarily the correct one. 3. Preview the files using the [History Scrounger] Session History Scrounger to see which one contains your missing tabs. Be aware that these files can contain private browsing history. 4. Restore the correct file by following Mozilla's[official session recovery guide] official session recovery guide. Keep Firefox closed during the process and preserve your original backups. Since you already tried renaming a candidate without success, I'd first check whether the file actually contains the missing URLs. If it does, we can investigate why Firefox isn't loading it rather than risking further changes to your backups. When you previewed the `recovery` or `upgrade` file, did either one contain the URLs from your missing windows and tabs?
Hi, malcolmparked, and thank you for reading my post and for responding.
I've not yet previewed those files (such as by using that scrounger tool, say) so I don't yet know for certain if they do, or don't, indeed contain my windows and tabs.
I have some (similar) advice to yours here, as you see, from jbr, so I'm looking forward to trying what both of you said later tonight after I get home, and then reporting back.
Thanks again, Bram Weiser