lost tabs
Something has snuck into my browser even though I always delete any search engine changes etc. when installing programs. I usually have quite a few tabs open and I have ffox set to show windows and tabs on startup but something got in to change my search to yahoo and it apparently deleted all of my tabs. I do not see them in history, only my recent searches. Restore session is greyed out. There was also a ffox update, so I don’t know what did this. I removed anything that may have caused it, have done scans and got my default search engine back (google). Still nothing. I do not see any file called sessionstore.js in profiles; it has files that are called .default. When I rename that file and put in the upgrade.js file (I think it was from that ffox upgrade) it gives me an error so ffox can’t start (no preferences etc). There are other files in the sessionstore-backups but they are from after when this happened. How do I get my tabs back? A system restore won’t do anything for this will it? W7 and 49.0.2. Sick of stuff like this from those helpful people changing things on me.
All Replies (3)
Hi, have a look in the Add-ons Manager (Ctrl+Shift+A) > Extensions/Plugins for anything you don't recognize.
You can also check your Firefox Desktop shortcut for corruption: Right click on it > Properties, and in Target, make sure there is no sign of anything other than Firefox. If there is, delete that part of it. Or if it's easier, you can just delete and recreate a new shortcut: Wrong home page opens when I start Firefox - How to fix.
You can try these free programs to scan for malware, which work with your existing antivirus software:
- Microsoft Safety Scanner
- MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware
- Anti-Rootkit Utility - TDSSKiller
- AdwCleaner (for more info, see this alternate AdwCleaner download page)
- Hitman Pro
- ESET Online Scanner
Note that not all removal programs will detect all malware, so you may need to run several or all of them.
Microsoft Security Essentials is a good permanent antivirus for Windows 7/Vista if you don't already have one. Windows 8/10 have antivirus protection built-in.
Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.
After removal you may need to reset your home page and search, which you can do by running the add-on SearchReset.
If your question is resolved by this or another answer, please take a minute to let us know. Thank you!
I have checked some things I found in other posts on this. No problem with extensions or corruption with my shortcut. Like I say, just in case, I had already run scans, Malwarebytes, superantispyware and my AV Avast. I ran the TDSS, adware cleaner and hitman from your list. I have had no signs of any kind of major malware.
The only thing that has happened is my search was changed to yayhoo and it deleted all of my tabs I had open. Those are all things that I am currently working with and are not in my bookmarks for the most part. What I would like to do is to be able to go back to a file if there is one that has my tabs. Most of these were there just a few days ago when the firefox update was done. Like I said there is that upgrade file that I understand has those included. I just either don’t understand how to do that from the posts on this or something is different from those ideas. If nothing else I would at least like to know how to open that file so I can have a list of the URL’s.
There was the firefox update on 10/20 and I can find that upgrade restore file.
To try swapping in a session history file from your backup folder so Firefox will load it, the "manual swap" method is as follows (assuming Firefox is still running):
(1) From inside Firefox, 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 a Windows Explorer window listing the various files and folders in your profile.
(2) Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit, either:
- "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
- (menu bar) File > Exit
Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup -- these changes should occur:
- recovery.js is moved from the sessionstore-backups folder to the main level of the profile folder and renamed to sessionstore.js
- recovery.bak is deleted from sessionstore-backups
(3) Once Firefox has stopped updating things, while viewing the main level of the profile folder, rename the sessionstore.js file to sessionstore.old
Note: By default, Windows hides the .js extension. To ensure that you are looking at the files I mentioned, you may want to turn off that feature. This article has the steps: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/show-hide-file-name-extensions
(4) Copy in the other file you want to restore, and right-click > Rename it to sessionstore.js -- after the rename, Windows should show it right next to sessionstore.old in alphabetical order
(5) Right-click > Rename the sessionstore-backups folder to sessionstore-old
(6) Start Firefox and it should read the swapped in sessionstore.js and restore whatever was in the substitute file; if you do not have Firefox set to restore your previous windows and tabs automatically, use History > Restore Previous Session
Any luck?