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Why didn't Firefox save (or allow me to restore) my Private Browsing tabs?

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  • Last reply by D. Hoyt

D. Hoyt
D. Hoyt
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I had 2 windows open--one regular and one private--when I signed out of my Windows 10 login, freeing up my laptop for another user account. When I logged back in, Firefox was closed. When I clicked on it to open it, the tabs were restored in the regular window but not the Private Window. My options are set to restore tabs automatically. I never closed the private window and never powered off my computer. Nowhere was there an option to restore previous session. All I could do was open a new private window without my tabs.

I was delaying updates to my Firefox browser and my MS Windows until I could finish a project requiring the Private Browsing tabs. Firefox says it only deletes the tabs when you quit Firefox or close the private window (or the last tab), which I did not do.

I had 2 windows open--one regular and one private--when I signed out of my Windows 10 login, freeing up my laptop for another user account. When I logged back in, Firefox was closed. When I clicked on it to open it, the tabs were restored in the regular window but not the Private Window. My options are set to restore tabs automatically. I never closed the private window and never powered off my computer. Nowhere was there an option to restore previous session. All I could do was open a new private window without my tabs. I was delaying updates to my Firefox browser and my MS Windows until I could finish a project requiring the Private Browsing tabs. Firefox says it only deletes the tabs when you quit Firefox or close the private window (or the last tab), which I did not do.

All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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Private Browsing mode are never stored as part of session data in the profile folder in sessionstore.jsonlz4, so if you close Firefox or Firefox crashes or otherwise is closed like when Firefox wants to restart then you always lose private tabs. That is how PB mode works, so you should bookmarked PB mode tabs if you close Firefox and want to restore them in the next session.

D. Hoyt
D. Hoyt Question owner
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Thanks, but as I mentioned, I didn't close Firefox. Had I known that this would happen, I most certainly would have backed up my tabs to the best of my ability.

I remember something similar happening once before. Like most people who use the internet, I am neither a computer novice nor a computer geek. Nowhere have I ever seen mention that changing logins on the same computer will result in closing out Firefox, or negating the automatic restore option that I have chosen. That is not the case with any other browser I have ever used. If Firefox is going to initiate the closure of my session, it should at least give me fair warning that I may lose data without the ability to retrieve it.

Unlike many other people, I seldom use the internet for things like Facebook, movies, games, entertainment, etc. I rely on the internet for serious business, and switched to Firefox because I thought it was serious as well. From what you're saying, I presume I will not be able to retrieve my important information. It will take me hours to even half-way reconstruct what I have lost. Thanks again for your candid reply, but I don't think the answer reflects very well on Mozilla Firefox.