ac_cloud said

Firefox launches with restore session

Let's start with this;

You may have corrupt sessionstore [v56] sessionstore.jsonlz4 file(s). Delete all sessionstore* files and the sessionstore-backups folder.

Type about:support<enter> in the address bar.

Under the page logo on the left side, you will see Application Basics. Under this find Profile Folder. To its right press the button Show Folder. This will open your file browser to the current Firefox profile. Now Close Firefox.

Locate the above file. Then rename or delete it. Restart Firefox.

Don't delete the files if you need to rescue any data from them, just move them out of the profile folder to some location where Firefox doesn't look for them. You can try to read out their contents using this tool: https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/scrounger.html

ac_cloud said

Firefox is slow and sluggish and often freezes.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link} by holding down the <Shift> (Mac=Options) key, and then starting Firefox.

A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Is the problem still there?

If you close firefox and try to launch it again a few seconds later then it wont launch because there's still a version in the background trying to close which can take up to 20 seconds.

The program has to save its current data before it closes. Give it about 20 seconds.

The bookmarks toolbar is always hidden on launch. You have to right click and show toolbar to retrieve it everytime.

Type about:customizing<enter> in the address bar. Look for Show / Hide Toolbars at the bottom left.

There is also a Restore Defaults button at the bottom middle.

Note: about:customizing is no longer present in Firefox 47+ releases.

• Press Alt or F10 to bring up the toolbar.
  Then View > Toolbars > Customize.
• Right-click on a blank spot in the toolbar and select Customize.

Hi, thank you for the prompt reply, starting with the restarting browsing session issue, I have removed the following files: sessionstore.jsonlz4 sessionstore.bak sessionstore.bak-20140716183446 sessionstore (jscript file)

Unfortunautely the issue still occurs, something I have noticed though, is that there are now two firefox shortcuts on users desktops, 'Mozzila Firefox' which now does not launch, and just a 'Firefox' shortcut which launches okay but has the "We're having trouble getting your pages back" issue.

Thanks

The bookmarks toolbar is always hidden on launch. You have to right click and show toolbar to retrieve it everytime.

Type about:customizing<enter> in the address bar. Look for Show / Hide Toolbars at the bottom left. There is also a Restore Defaults button at the bottom middle. Note: about:customizing is no longer present in Firefox 47+ releases.

• Press Alt or F10 to bring up the toolbar.
  Then View > Toolbars > Customize.
• Right-click on a blank spot in the toolbar and select Customize.

Using the right click - customise method I can't see a Show / Hide Toolbars option at the bottom, I see a Toolbars drop down box, when I select this I have the option to choose 'Bookmarks Toolbar' and 'Done' However on the firefox next launch the bookmarks toolbar is minimised again.

Thanks

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-to-fix-preferences-wont-save

Note: Some software, like Advanced SystemCare with Surfing Protection, can protect files in the Firefox profile folder against changes. If you have such software then check the settings or uninstall this software.

Use one of these to close Firefox if you are currently doing that by clicking the close X on the Firefox title bar.

• "3-bar" menu button -> Exit (Power button)
• Windows: File -> Exit
• Mac: Firefox -> Quit Firefox
• Linux: File -> Quit

FredMcD said

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-to-fix-preferences-wont-save Note: Some software, like Advanced SystemCare with Surfing Protection, can protect files in the Firefox profile folder against changes. If you have such software then check the settings or uninstall this software.

Thanks for this, I've tried these steps including deleting the prefs file and doing a complete firefox refresh, Still no luck unfortunately.

I think all these issues are somehow linked, and feel that it may be something to do with where firefox is storing users profiles, may profile is stored locally on my c drive and I have no issues. However the users that are experiencing issues all have the profile on a network (with acts as a dc) and have a roaming profile and redirected folders, could the issue be linked to this somehow? (There wasn't any issues with older versions of firefox or other browsers)

Use these links to create a new profile. Use this new profile as is. Is the problem still there?

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Navigating_to_the_profile_folder

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles

Type about:profiles<enter> in the address bar.

What security software do you have?

You can check for security software related issues.

Use one of these to close Firefox if you are currently doing that by clicking the close X on the Firefox title bar.

• "3-bar" menu button -> Exit (Power button)
• Windows: File -> Exit
• Mac: Firefox -> Quit Firefox
• Linux: File -> Quit

FredMcD said

Use these links to create a new profile. Use this new profile as is. Is the problem still there? http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Navigating_to_the_profile_folder https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles Type about:profiles<enter> in the address bar.

Thanks, tried these but the problem still remains.

cor-el said

What security software do you have? You can check for security software related issues.

---

Use one of these to close Firefox if you are currently doing that by clicking the close X on the Firefox title bar.

• "3-bar" menu button -> Exit (Power button)
• Windows: File -> Exit
• Mac: Firefox -> Quit Firefox
• Linux: File -> Quit

We use AVG, I've tried disbaling this and tried the Quit method of firefox, still launches with could not reover tabs.

Thanks

Before shutting down Firefox, please launch the problematic profile folder into Windows Explorer -- you can 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 "Open Folder" button.

Then you can exit Firefox normally.

After Firefox shuts down -- allow 15 seconds -- check the session history files:

(A) Firefox should have created a file at the main level of the profile folder called sessionstore.jsonlz4

(B) The profile folder might contain a sessionstore.js file from the Firefox 55 days; most likely you could delete that

(C) The profile folder might contain a sessionstore.bak file from Firefox 32 (or so); you definitely could delete that

(D) The sessionstore-backups folder should contain:

• 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 (there could be a few of these)
• various .js files from Firefox 55 or earlier (you likely do not need these)

These files should no longer be present in the folder if Firefox shut down normally:

• 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

How does it look?

ac_cloud said

The bookmarks toolbar is always hidden on launch. You have to right click and show toolbar to retrieve it everytime.

This could be caused by removal of the xulstore.json file from the profile folder, which would revert Firefox to default toolbar area layout, but I can't think of any reason that would happen.

ac_cloud said

We use AVG, I've tried disbaling this and tried the Quit method of firefox, still launches with could not reover tabs.

Last week's Avast/AVG updated caused severe performance degradation in Firefox, but there was an update earlier this week that resolved that issue. I don't think that problem would have affected session history behavior or the Bookmarks Toolbar.

ac_cloud said

...something I have noticed though, is that there are now two firefox shortcuts on users desktops, 'Mozzila Firefox' which now does not launch, and just a 'Firefox' shortcut which launches okay but has the "We're having trouble getting your pages back" issue.

What are their respective paths?

Did Firefox upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit, changing folders from Program Files (x86) to Program Files, and fail to clean up an old shortcut?