To clarify, I keep two Firefox windows open at all times. One on each screen. Neither are signed into an account and I have never had issues with recovering an accidentally closed window until this recent update. I occasionally open private tabs for various reasons and occasionally close the wrong window in the process, but I have always been able to recover the window from recently closed windows since it's not private. When I close applications I often use Alt+F4, which is most likely how this window got closed accidentally. But there is no history--it's just gone.

Could you try launching a non-private window using the jump list: right-click the Firefox Taskbar icon, then click Open New Window. Does that one show anything on the History menu?

It opened the window just fine, which loaded my home page per settings, but the history menu was still empty. Did you intend for me to do this with Firefox still open or possibly closing it first? (I usually only close via shutdown, so all my tabs will reopen on their own upon restart).

Actually, some strange findings when doing this. If I open a new tab in a current window, it doesn't matter how many links I click within that tab, nothing shows up in history. If however I close the tab, it will show up in recently closed tabs. But, if I click "recently closed windows" which is now empty, then I can no longer click "recently closed tabs" until I close the entire menu and reopen it.

My download history on the other hand has not cleared (which is set to clear upon closing firefox), and still shows downloads from yesterday.

For clarification I have included an SS of my history settings.

I don't know why your Firefox isn't recording history during your session. Do the URLs appear in the History Sidebar (Ctrl+H) or Library window (Ctrl+Shift+H)?

I see you have Firefox set to dump your browsing history when it closes. That also clears your session history -- the file that stores your open tabs -- so it should prevent restoring your previous session. Have you always had that setting?

Thanks again for your response jscher2000.

These settings have been in place for at least a year without issue. The history clears upon restarting my computer as expected, but not during use. Currently I have no history visible in either windows, or the menu drop-down, despite having actively used firefox off and on for the last 5 hours without closing it. I'm wondering if this is some kind of glitch and if the history will start accumulating after I restart firefox--though I currently have about 30 hours of video that is mid-conversion, so I'll have to reboot later to verify. But I was also thinking if it is in fact a glitch that will go away upon restart then it would be hard to track it down after I do so.

Okay. After having restarted I've checked all of this again.

History: still remains blank regardless of what I do.

Recently Closed Tabs: still showed tabs I closed before the restart and is updating. (note that this mostly defeats the purpose of clearing the history when firefox is closed if every closed tab is still accessible here)

Recently Closed Windows: after opening a new window, adding four websites/tabs, and then closing it, this still remains unclickable and/or blank. Once I click this menu I can no longer click "recently closed tabs" or even the menu back button to get to the parent menu.

Hmm, history and open tabs are stored in different files. Perhaps there is a problem with the Places database that stores history and bookmarks. Are you able to save any new bookmarks?

If that doesn't work:

Start with a normal shutdown and/or restart of your system. Restarting Windows can help by freeing up locked files, completing any deferred updates, and resolving temporary file permission issues.

Next, run the "Verify Integrity" diagnosis and repair function. That's here:

Open Firefox's Troubleshooting Information page using any of these methods:

• "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

Near the bottom, there is a section titled Places Database -- that's the file which stores history and bookmarks. Click the button labeled Verify Integrity. There may be a 10-15 second delay before results appear.

If all is well, the report that appears below the button should start with:

> Task: checkIntegrity
+ The places.sqlite database is sane
+ The favicons.sqlite database is sane
> Task: invalidateCaches
+ The caches have been invalidated
> Task: checkCoherence
+ The database is coherent
...

Does yours say that, or something else? You can select and copy the report, and then paste it into a reply for review and comment if it mentions problems.

It looks like everything is fine, just no history. The one thing I do notice is that the pragma_cache_size is a negative value which doesn't seem right. You can't cache data in negative space that I'm aware of. Not sure if this is a normal value from FF or not.

> Task: checkIntegrity + The places.sqlite database is sane + The favicons.sqlite database is sane > Task: invalidateCaches + The caches have been invalidated > Task: checkCoherence + The database is coherent > Task: expire + Database cleaned up > Task: originFrecencyStats + Recalculated origin frecency stats > Task: vacuum + Initial database size is 5120KiB + The database has been vacuumed + Final database size is 5120KiB > Task: stats + Places.sqlite size is 5120KiB + Favicons.sqlite size is 1440KiB + pragma_user_version is 69 + pragma_page_size is 32768 + pragma_cache_size is -2048 + pragma_journal_mode is wal + pragma_synchronous is 1 + History can store a maximum of 112348 unique pages + Table moz_origins has 126 records + Table moz_places has 188 records + Table moz_historyvisits has 0 records + Table moz_inputhistory has 2 records + Table moz_bookmarks has 224 records + Table moz_bookmarks_deleted has 0 records + Table moz_keywords has 0 records + Table sqlite_sequence has 0 records + Table moz_anno_attributes has 1 records + Table moz_annos has 3 records + Table moz_items_annos has 0 records + Table moz_meta has 4 records + Table sqlite_stat1 has 17 records + Table moz_places_metadata has 0 records + Table moz_places_metadata_search_queries has 0 records + Table moz_places_metadata_snapshots has 0 records + Table moz_places_metadata_snapshots_extra has 0 records + Table moz_places_metadata_snapshots_groups has 0 records + Table moz_places_metadata_groups_to_snapshots has 0 records + Table moz_session_metadata has 0 records + Table moz_session_to_places has 0 records + Table moz_previews_tombstones has 0 records + Pages sequentiality: 100 + sqlite_schema: 32KiB (1.9%), 30.4% eff. + moz_origins: 32KiB (1.9%), 15.2% eff. + sqlite_autoindex_moz_origins_1: 32KiB (1.9%), 14.4% eff. + moz_historyvisits: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_inputhistory: 32KiB (1.9%), 0.2% eff. + sqlite_autoindex_moz_inputhistory_1: 32KiB (1.9%), 0.1% eff. + moz_bookmarks: 32KiB (1.9%), 56.8% eff. + moz_bookmarks_deleted: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + sqlite_autoindex_moz_bookmarks_deleted_1: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_keywords: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + sqlite_autoindex_moz_keywords_1: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + sqlite_sequence: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_anno_attributes: 32KiB (1.9%), 0.1% eff. + sqlite_autoindex_moz_anno_attributes_1: 32KiB (1.9%), 0.1% eff. + moz_annos: 32KiB (1.9%), 0.4% eff. + moz_items_annos: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_meta: 32KiB (1.9%), 0.7% eff. + sqlite_stat1: 32KiB (1.9%), 2.8% eff. + moz_places_metadata: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_places_metadata_search_queries: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + sqlite_autoindex_moz_places_metadata_search_queries_1: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_places_metadata_snapshots: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_places_metadata_snapshots_extra: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_places_metadata_snapshots_groups: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_places_metadata_groups_to_snapshots: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_session_metadata: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + sqlite_autoindex_moz_session_metadata_1: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_session_to_places: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_previews_tombstones: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_places_url_hashindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 8.1% eff. + moz_places_hostindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 13.9% eff. + moz_places_visitcount: 32KiB (1.9%), 4.6% eff. + moz_places_frecencyindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 5.2% eff. + moz_places_lastvisitdateindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 4.6% eff. + moz_places_guid_uniqueindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 11.5% eff. + moz_places_originidindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 5.8% eff. + moz_historyvisits_placedateindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_historyvisits_fromindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_historyvisits_dateindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_bookmarks_itemindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 7.3% eff. + moz_bookmarks_parentindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 7.6% eff. + moz_bookmarks_itemlastmodifiedindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 12.6% eff. + moz_bookmarks_dateaddedindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 10.8% eff. + moz_bookmarks_guid_uniqueindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 13.5% eff. + moz_keywords_placepostdata_uniqueindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_annos_placeattributeindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 0.1% eff. + moz_items_annos_itemattributeindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_places_metadata_placecreated_uniqueindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_places_metadata_referrerindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_places_metadata_snapshots_pinnedindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_places_metadata_snapshots_extra_typeindex: 32KiB (1.9%), 0% eff. + moz_places: 96KiB (5.6%), 42.1% eff. > Task: _refreshUI

Thank you for checking that. Mine also has

+ pragma_cache_size is -2048

So that may not indicate a problem.

You have

+ Table moz_historyvisits has 0 records

which is what you would expect to see immediately after clearing history. But this persists as you browse in regular windows?

It just seems weird from a programming standpoint. A file / cache / db can't be a negative size on the drive. But it could just be a miscalculation.

Even after having opened a good three dozen tabs since the last restart, it still remains 0 history.

> Task: checkIntegrity + The places.sqlite database is sane + The favicons.sqlite database is sane + Places.sqlite size is 5120KiB + Favicons.sqlite size is 1472KiB + pragma_page_size is 32768 + pragma_cache_size is -2048 + pragma_synchronous is 1 + Table moz_origins has 126 records + Table moz_places has 188 records + Table moz_historyvisits has 0 records + Table moz_inputhistory has 2 records

If the argument N is positive then the suggested cache size is set to N. If the argument N is negative, then the number of cache pages is adjusted to be a number of pages that would use approximately abs(N*1024) bytes of memory based on the current page size and the sign is discarded.

• https://www.sqlite.org/pragma.html#pragma_cache_size

Could you take a look under the covers:

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

More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox. The moderators would like us to remind you that changes made through this back door aren't fully supported and aren't guaranteed to continue working in the future.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste places.history and pause while the list is filtered

Normally, Firefox will display a single preference named places.history.enabled with a value of true. (See top half of the below composite screenshot.)

If yours is not set to true:

Double-click the preference (or click that button with the two arrows) to toggle the value to true.

If your Firefox displays any other preferences starting with places.history., what are they?

If they relate to expiration (see the lower half of the below screenshot), do they have a low value that could cause Firefox to constantly remove pages from history?

Note: If you want to remove an optional preference, use the trash can button at the right end of its row.

@cor-el -- I appreciate the informative information.

@jscher2000 -- Good catch! I had completely forgotten about:config as an option. Thank you. It would appear my history.enabled setting is set to false, even though it is technically enabled in the settings and I disabled the option to clear my history on restart a few days ago with no change. I will adjust the config manually and see if it starts picking back up.

Immediate success. And it does appear my windows are being tracked properly now. I'm guessing there is a limit to three previous windows, as it seems to delete the last one each time I close a new window. But this is better than a 50/50 chance it won't show up. (actually I see a config setting, browser.sessionstore.max_windows_undo: 3)

It is odd that everything was working fine until this most recent update (107.0), and then suddenly it started failing. In the off chance it had an effect or this could be used for troubleshooting later, I have the background update task disabled, and I manually approve the updates upon reboot/reopening FF.

I will wait a couple days and then reenable delete on exit and see if it acts up. But for now I think you've finally helped me get to the root of the issue. Thank you very much!

Note that places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages has been removed in Firefox 85 (#1677969) for performance reasons, so you can click the trashcan icon to remove this leftover pref.

Firefox determines how many pages can be kept without affecting performance. In current releases you can find this value if the click "Verify Integrity" on the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page.

• History can store a maximum of xxx unique pages

places.history.expiration.max_pages is still supported to override this maximum unique pages.

It would appear my history.enabled setting is set to false, even though it is technically enabled in the settings and I disabled the option to clear my history on restart a few days ago with no change.

I realize now that I would have spotted the problem earlier if I had squinted harder at the dark area of your earlier screenshot:

Having "Remember browsing and download history" unchecked matches places.history.enabled being set to false. At least we got there in the end?

Yes! There was no rush since there was no way to recover the window I lost. It was just strange how it happened out of nowhere when I haven't been in the settings in months. Either way I appreciate your help and tenacity.