how to i restore the warning you are about to close multiple tabs?
unfortunately, i closed my browser this afternoon, was greeted with the warning in my question, and when i reopened the browser, it did not relaunch my tabs as it is supposed to do (i did not have internet when i closed, but did when i reopened less than 1 min later). as an added bonus, that window was not in my recently closed windows nor in my user profile folder. this rather sucked for me as i had 500 ish tabs open, many needed as references for some research I'm currently in the midst of. on the bright side, my most recent update was a little over a week ago, and i had most of the tabs open at that time. i was able to restore them using the update session file in user profile folder and the following site https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/scrounger.html and then supplement the rest via my browsing history.
Here is where the question comes into play.
I've always had the restore previous window option checked, yet I still received the warning, and that IS the settings i would like. i want to be warned, and i want it to resume when i open. strangely enough, even though i got the warning when i closed and encountered the issue (along with every other instance in the past couple years), i cannot get my window to prompt me with the warning except under one condition. if i have more than one window open it will still ask, but this was rather anxiety inducing because i had just manually restored about 250 tabs.
i know i'll probably get a few responses saying i need to uncheck the restore previous window option at startup, but i do not accept that conclusion, through example I've had both function simultaneously, so i am asking for a solution that allows me to both receive the warning, and relaunch the tabs at startup. i know this is possible, and this is also evident from the fact that if i have multiple windows open, make sure they have at least 2 tabs, and attempt to close, i still get the warning.
i've checked about:config and made sure the warning was set to true, which it was. also, while my main intent is to get the warning dialogue fixed, i wouldn't mind getting an answer as to why my window was lost entirely to begin with. *edit* i did have a private window open when i attempted to relaunch the standard window, while my testing shows it won't relaunch the tabs ( which is both a new phenomenon and also in disregard for the settings of "restore previous session") it DOES keep this window under the recently closed windows.
Okulungisiwe ngu wesleynemeth
All Replies (9)
Did you check your privacy and security setting or General settings I know it is located in one of those area. And did you try the restore sessions options as well?
the session didn't crash, so there was no restore option, regardless, it SHOULD have been in my recently closed windows, which it was absent from(note, windows from before that session WERE in there).
and you are going to have to clarify your first sentence, but preemptively I'll say there is no setting for the dialogue box, it's in about:config as i mentioned and i made sure it was true. if you are referencing the restore previous session on startup option, that is in the general settings ( not hard at all to check, the very first box) and yes, that is selected. many help articles state this prevents the dialogue box, but this is simply not true. it hasn't in the past up till 5:11p.m. today and a counter example exists: when you have multiple windows open, it WILL prompt with the dialogue box, but will also restore the session if you close all others before opening a new window. this is best seen when opening a normal window with a few tabs-> then open a private window-> close the normal-> you get the dialogue box-> close the private window-> open a new window-> session is automatically restored for the window that was also prompted with the dialogue box.
There are currently these two warn prefs left:
- browser.tabs.warnOnClose
- browser.tabs.warnOnCloseOtherTabs
Note that browser.warnOnQuit is meant for testing: true does not force a prompt; false disables warnings.
I assume you know that Firefox assumes that if you restore the session automatically you usually do not want to get a prompt each time you close Firefox because you wouldn't lose tabs.
Note that there are browser.sessionstore.*undo prefs to set to number of tabs and windows you can restore.
There are also session manager extensions.
both warnings are set to true.
i wasn't aware of that claim until reading several articles after this event, but i maintain my stance that this is a false claim, and that you can indeed have the settings to automatically restore your session on launching a window AND have it prompt the dialogue box warning. my reasoning: this has been the case up till now, in addition, i can demonstrate a unique situation where it does still present itself as functioning with both the restore and the warning.
this is best seen when opening a normal window with a few tabs-> then open a private window-> close the normal-> you get the dialogue box-> close the private window-> open a new window-> session is automatically restored for the window that was also prompted with the dialogue box. *note* opening the window while the private is still up will NOT restore the session, BUT it WILL add it to the recently closed windows. the initial problem was that it did not do this when i closed my window around 5:11p.m. today, so it did not restore, but it also wasn't accessible via recently closed windows. as a result of opening the window without it restoring, it overwrote my 'lastsession' file in user profile. while i'm curious as to how it didn't maintain it's behavior in restoring the session as well as failing to recognize it as a recently closed window, my main prerogative is to have the warning dialogue resume while also allowing automatic restore. true, they assume users would not want to do this, but that's what makes it a user preference. i particularly utilize that dual functionality and appreciate the warning. i often accidentally attempt to close the window, and the dialogue has saved me may times over. in addition, IF you have another window open when you try and restore your session, it will be unsuccessful, such as with the initial problem i faced today. if i'm unlucky enough to not have it add itself to the recently closed windows as happened today, i loose all my work. there is also reasoning as to why i don't close the other windows before relaunching a new one forcing the restore. again, user preference. these are settings and SHOULD be compatible in conjunction with one another. beyond that, it's a functionality that existed for me up until today.
i feel it pertinent to reply directly to this one sentence "Firefox assumes that if you restore the session automatically you usually do not want to get a prompt each time you close Firefox because you wouldn't lose tabs." - i DID lose tabs for whatever reason, so there exist a fallacy in their base logic to the argument, which highlights the important of user preference in having the warning. but again, i maintain it's moot because i have no problem up till today with both receiving the warning and automatically restoring my session. my intent it to return the functionality of Firefox to the way it was over the past several years where i was able to do this.
if your last sentence was suggesting it may have been overwritten or omitted from the recently closed windows due to pref settings, i can't see an argument where my situation would correlate. i know i can have at least 3. i've seen this through my testing. during the event in question, there were only 2 windows showing under recently closed windows. additionally, those two windows were weeks old and the one lost was much more recent, meaning since i can have at least 3, it should have been added, and there is no argument that it was over written by newer windows because the two that showed were not closed today, and were much older. as for the limit on tab restores, i can restore the tabs now and in the past, so obviously the limit wasn't reached. i was only about 8 tabs shy of my complete window while opening each tab from my most recent updatefile in user profile.
Okulungisiwe ngu wesleynemeth
You should always be cautious with closing individual windows. If you intend to close Firefox then ĕst is to use the Quit/Exit menu items and not rely on what happens if you use a close X on the window or possibly closing the last tab. If there are still other windows open then this can easily lead to losing tabs.
This thread is very long, so apologies for repeats:
(1) Recently Closed Windows
Firefox only remembers the last three closed windows by default. To increase that:
(A) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful or accepting the risk.
(B) In the search box above the list, type or paste sess and pause while the list is filtered
(C) Double-click the browser.sessionstore.max_windows_undo preference, type a new value (I use 10), and click OK -- this isn't retroactive, but you'll notice more windows accumulating under History > Recently Closed Windows going forward
(2) How You Exit Firefox
If you use Exit from the menu, the windows that are open at that time are not considered closed windows and don't count against the numbered of closed windows Firefox remembers.
Other methods, such as closing individual windows or using right-click > Close All Windows on the Taskbar icon, will count against the number of closed windows Firefox remembers.
(3) Stuff Happens
There are some add-ons to independently record session history if you find that Firefox's built-in features are not completely reliable. It's fair to say nothing is completely reliable. For example:
^: most of that was more or less covered in this reply:
I don't know what happens if you have Private Browsing mode and regular windows open at the same time and close the mode window as the last window.
like i understand there are addons that can manage the features i am interested in, the trouble I'm having is that this is something i was natively able to do up until today. i didn't update, and no settings were changed, so simply put, i wish to have that functionality returned. it doesn't seem like anyone is able to guide me in the correct direction tho....
i appreciate the information that closing via exit does not add to recently closed windows ( i assume because it 'exits' the session rather than closes it ), this was something i did worry about in context of encountering this issue, but it wasn't the cause. i closed the window via the x in the top right, AND was prompted with the warning , thus indicating it was being recognized as a close which should have filed it under the recently closed window. I'm going to chalk that up to a session error. by and large i was able to fix that (albeit painfully), but it adds to my concern that future windows will now not only fail to prompt me with a warning, but I'll encounter the same issue where my window won't restore and won't be listed under recently closed windows. this particular window is from 2016, I've had many crashes, updates, closes, etc and NEVER had any issues. the fact that two seem to be plaguing me within an hour of each other is worrisome.
i did not reach the cap of windows, i had 2 that were closed weeks before this. so that is not the cause. i suspect it wasn't automatically restored because i had a private window open when launching a new window. my testing seems to indicate having open windows fails to trigger the restore. strangely, having open windows seems to activate the warning that i am complaining is not actively working. while the first scenario could have some logical explanations on it's necessity, the second makes no sense. i view this as a direct contradiction to the assertion that `if you have restore session on startup checked, that the dialogue won't appear. i can make both work, but only conditionally and not under all or particularly my preferable scenarios.
as one user put it, "Firefox assumes that if you restore the session automatically you usually do not want to get a prompt each time you close Firefox because you wouldn't lose tabs." -the problem with this is it's evident that occasionally you will lose tabs, and thus the warning could provide extreme importance. i just want the warning to prompt any time i click to 'close' the window via the x in the top right, as well as restore that session when i open a new window, generally moments after i close.
the reasoning isn't necessary, but i have hardware issues as well as user preference that requires me to occasionally close my window temporarily while i fix the hardware issue. usually less than a minute, then reopen said window. i probably do this daily, so for the past 600+ days, when i close my window, i get the prompt, i accept, i reopen, and it restores. NOT having this sequence work any longer is a problem for me, particularly considering there was an unknown issue in losing the window in it's entirety. in addition, as mentioned in another reply, i do occasionally accidentally attempt to close the window and the warning saves me tremendously. sometimes i'm writing a long and important text on a site, so even if it restores, my writing is lost. sometimes i'm reading a 500pg. article for my research, and i'll loose my place and spend 30 minutes finding it again. the point is there are reasons a user would want this preference, and it did exist, so can it be fixed to have the desired effect i want and claim i had?
Too much to read here, but is the OP aware that FF made a change in version 63 to have 'Warnings' when Exiting FF?
- Firefox now warns about having multiple windows and tabs open when quitting from the main menu.
- The Save and Quit feature has been removed. You can restore your session by ticking the box for Restore previous session in the General → Startup options or by using Restore Previous Session in the main menu.
~Pj
Okulungisiwe ngu Pj