Can't restore previous session from sessionstore-backups
Today I opened my Firefox and all my tabs are gone. I was able to find a backup in sessionstore-backups, but when I renamed it to "sessionstore.jsonlz4" and replaced the one in the main profile folder, opening Firefox still don't gave me any tabs, just the default "new tab".
All Replies (4)
You can look at this tool to inspect a compressed sessionstore file.
Did you look at "History -> Recently Closed Tabs/Windows" ?
- UPDATE ** Not looking at the current Library/Application Support/Firefox. Still, FF 90 doesn't want to do my little "always display which-tabs-to-restore dialog" thing anymore.
I just updated to version 90.0 (macosx, intel), and there doesn't seem to *be* a recovery.jsonlz4 file anymore.. I used these to backup tabs regularly (I'm a tab-hoarders, fortunately or unfortunately). FF doesn't seem to want to change my prefs to let me always open with the "Choose Tabs To Restore" dialog (*), but FF doesn't seem to want to save the prefs.js changes anymore. (Nor does Waterfox) But I figured if I could save the recovery.lz4 file, I could make a program to extract the urls and allow me to somehow navigate the enormous "url-data-sea" I have managed to not quite drown in.
But if there *is* no recovery.jsonlz4 anymore.. macOS's (Monterey beta) "Sort by Date Modified" on the FF Profile folder is useless - doesn't seem to update at all. Is the "previous session" now stored in the places.sqlite database along with everything (?) else?
(*) By setting: browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash = false, resume_session_once = true, resuming_after_os_restart = true
Modified by Jimw338
Make sure you do not run Firefox in permanent Private Browsing mode (Always use Private Browsing mode; Never Remember History).
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/private-browsing-use-firefox-without-history
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/common-myths-about-private-browsing
- Settings -> Privacy & Security
Firefox will: "Use custom settings for history" - remove checkmark: [ ] "Always use Private Browsing mode"
In case you use "Clear history when Firefox closes".
- do not clear the Browsing History
- Settings -> Privacy & Security
Firefox will: "Use custom settings for history":
[X] "Clear history when Firefox closes" -> Settings - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/delete-browsing-search-download-history-firefox