Hi, I had my tabs vanish in the past and what helped me was these steps:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-restore-browsing-session-backup

I hope this will help restore your tabs, good luck :)

Dear Alex,

Thank you for your suggestion. Unfortunately, this doesn't solve my problem:-(. Now I cannot even see the options for restore previous session tabs.

I'd be grateful for any other suggestions. This is becoming desperate, as I've got a critical deadline for which I need the tabs.

kind regards, MLH

Hi MLH, I'm about to log off, so apologies for the dump of multiple ideas here.

Are the missing tabs in a closed window? Check either:

• "3-bar" menu button > History > Recently Closed Windows
• "Library" toolbar button > History > Recently Closed Windows
• (menu bar) History > Recently Closed Windows

If that doesn't help...

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 > 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" button. This should launch Windows' File Explorer listing the contents of your current profile folder.

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 -- if you installed both Firefox 115.0 and Firefox 115.0.1 before your current Firefox 115.0.2 then one of these might be the best bet

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.

Any luck so far? If you find a file you want to swap for the latest one, to roll Firefox back to the earlier session, check out the solution in the following thread: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1396868 (for Windows 10, but Windows 7 was quite similar)

If you do not have those files in sessionstore-backups, you could try checking a Windows restore point. DO NOT USE SYSTEM RESTORE! We just want to extract some files if we can. Here's how.

(1) Set Windows to show hidden files and folders before diving in:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/show-hidden-files-0320fe58-0117-fd59-6851-9b7f9840fdb2

(2) Install a utility program that makes it easy to access restore points (this is much safer than using system restore). For example:

• ShadowExplorer: http://www.shadowexplorer.com/
• Shadow Copy View: https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shadow_copy_view.html

(3) Using that program, open a restore point that is a little older than you earliest backup and explore along this path to see whether you can find a shadow copy of your profile:

\Users\your-user-name\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\your.profile

Check for the sessionstore-backups folder. Are any of these from a relevant time frame? You can export one or more recent files to your Windows desktop (the live one, not the one in the shadow copy).

(4) Session history preview/restoration

See previous reply.

Dear JScher2000,

Thank you very much for your helpful and clear instructions! They gave me the solution I need, and now I have all of my tabs back. I also have a saved HTML listing of those tabs as a back up in case I need them for future reference.

I've also made a copy of your instruction in case I ever have need of them again. Hopefully I won't, but it's always best to be prepared.

Your assistance has been a Godsend, thank you!

Best wishes, MLH

Thank you for reporting back.