Hi,

You can try choosing Show my home page beside '""When Firefox starts in Tools (Alt + T) > Options > General. If the setting is not being saved, please see this.

Options

If the problem persists you can reset Firefox and start afresh.

The Reset Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its factory default state while saving your essential information. Note: This will cause you to lose any Extensions, Open websites, and some Preferences.

To Reset Firefox do the following:

1. Go to Firefox > Help > Troubleshooting Information.
2. Click the "Reset Firefox" button.
3. Firefox will close and reset. After Firefox is done, it will show a window with the information that is imported. Click Finish.
4. Firefox will open with all factory defaults applied.

Further information can be found in the Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings article.

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

If you would like to take a listing of the add-ons, changed preferences/settings etc. to quickly replicate the previous profile, please Copy all to clipboard (on the left of the reset button), and paste it into MS Office Excel, or OpenOffice/LibreOffice Calc, or notepad. However, it would be a good idea to check for the existence of the issue immediately after the reset.

Make sure that Firefox closes properly and that there are no hanging Firefox processes left.

Use "Firefox/File > Exit" (Mac: "Firefox > Quit"; Linux: "File > Quit") to close Firefox if you are currently doing that by clicking the close X on the title bar.

See:

• "Hang at exit": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_hangs
• "Firefox hangs when you quit it": https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Firefox+hangs

See also:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Session_Restore
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Session+Restore

I have the same problem: Firefox will not go to my home page at the start of a session. Instead, I get either the last page open in previous session or a page with the message: "This is embarrassing. Firefox is having trouble recovering your windows and tabs. This is usually caused by a recently opened web page." Please do not tell me how to set my home page: I know how to do that. I have never had this problem before: could it be caused by a recent updating? I tried resetting and reinstalling Firefox, several times, to no avail. I use Mac OS X 10.6.08 and Firefox 20.0. I have spent hours already looking all over for an answer and this is beginning to drive me crazy. Thank you.

Have same problem even after resetting Firefox.

You can check if you have a user.js file in the Firefox profile folder that sets the browser.sessionstore.resume_session_once pref to true.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.sessionstore.resume_session_once
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/user.js_file

What does that stuff mean? I am not a computer scientist. After extensive search for an answer to this question, all I find is: either instructions on how to set my homepage (as if I hadn't tried that to begin with!) or highly technical information, such as that found in the 2 links above, which is completely meaningless and useless to me. I guess all I can do is forget about Firefox and use another browser. Thank you so much.

Does this solution add to the user-friendly image you wish to convey for Firefox?

Which "solution" are you talking about?

jweissgerber:

Replying to:

You can check if you have a user.js file in the Firefox profile folder that sets the browser.sessionstore.resume_session_once pref to true.

   http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.sessionstore.resume_session_once
   http://kb.mozillazine.org/user.js_file

Thanks for responding. I don't have a user.js file. I have a prefs.js file, which I opened (= get info) to make sure "lock" is unchecked, as instructed elsewhere. Problem not solved.

Did you try to rename the prefs.js file?

You can check for problems with the sessionstore.js and sessionstore.bak files in the Firefox Profile Folder that store session data.

Delete the sessionstore.js file and possible sessionstore-##.js files with a number and sessionstore.bak in the Firefox Profile Folder.

• HT > Profile Directory: Open Containing Folder
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

Deleting sessionstore.js will cause App Tabs and Tab Groups and open and closed (undo) tabs to get lost, so you will have to create them again (make a note or bookmark them).

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Multiple_profile_files_created

I renamed the prefs.js file. I dragged the sessionstore.js and sessionstore.bak files into the trash and emptied the trash. Nothing helped.

Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See "Creating a profile":

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Profile_issues

If the new profile works then you can transfer some files from an existing profile to the new profile, but be careful not to copy corrupted files.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox

Fixed in Firefox 21

And when is Firefox 21 coming out with this fix? I anticipate this fix eagerly.

Try the latest beta while waiting :)

One thing you should note is that with Firefox the correct method of closing Firefox is to use the Firefox menu, or Firefox button options.

(You may well run into problems if you just kill processes or close Firefox windows using the Operating System's icons/options)

It happens even if you always close Firefox using the menu (or CMD+Q)

A possible cause is that you are first closing all Firefox windows and then close the Firefox application.

Some have reported that closing Firefox (Firefox > Quit) while the browser window is still open works for them.

• Bug 845681 - Closing all windows and quitting Firefox afterwards leads to about:sessionrestore to be shown on next startup

(please do not comment in bug reports: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html)

"I have the same problem: Firefox will not go to my home page at the start of a session. Instead, I get either the last page open in previous session or a page with the message: "This is embarrassing. Firefox is having trouble recovering your windows and tabs. This is usually caused by a recently opened web page." Please do not tell me how to set my home page: I know how to do that. I have never had this problem before: could it be caused by a recent updating?"

I have the same problem. When I loaded 17 it started to happen. When will this be fixed with a new version? Lots of wasted time trying fix a bug that's in this version.