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Firefox never restore my tabs

  • 4 replies
  • 0 have this problem
  • 15 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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Hi, Since few weeks ago, firefox never restores my previous tabs/session (I lost a year worth of tabs..), no matter what/how I tried, it keeps starting with a clean session, not even the history in there. I tried: Deleting profile, creating a new one Resetting Firefox Fully delete FF and delete the profile folder Heck, I even used librewolf, and even FF on linux and also Librewolf, same issue!!

I notice this happen once I enable the sync (login to my account), there's no setting in my account says to never restore the session or something similar.

How to solve it?! I need to have the tabs open again..

Hi, Since few weeks ago, firefox never restores my previous tabs/session (I lost a year worth of tabs..), no matter what/how I tried, it keeps starting with a clean session, not even the history in there. I tried: Deleting profile, creating a new one Resetting Firefox Fully delete FF and delete the profile folder Heck, I even used librewolf, and even FF on linux and also Librewolf, same issue!! I notice this happen once I enable the sync (login to my account), there's no setting in my account says to never restore the session or something similar. How to solve it?! I need to have the tabs open again..

All Replies (4)

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See also:

Does Firefox create and update a recovery files in the sessionstore-backups folder when Firefox is running?

You will normally find these files in the sessionstore-backups folder:

  • previous.jsonlz4 (cleanBackup: copy of sessionstore.jsonlz4 from previous session that was loaded successfully)
  • recovery.jsonlz4 (latest version of sessionstore.jsonlz4 written during runtime)
  • recovery.baklz4 (previous version of sessionstore.jsonlz4 written during runtime)
  • upgrade.jsonlz4-<build_id> (backup created during an upgrade of Firefox)

Make sure Firefox isn't set to run in permanent Private Browsing mode (Always use Private Browsing mode; Never Remember History).

In case you use "Clear history when Firefox closes".

  • do not clear the "Browsing history"
  • using "Clear history when Firefox closes" in Firefox 102+ honors exceptions and keeps cookies with an allow exception, previous versions removed all cookies
  • clearing "Site settings" clears exceptions for cookies, images, pop-up windows, and software installation and exceptions for passwords and other website specific data
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jonzn4SUSE said

Have a look here. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1442499#answer-1642570

I am not concerned now about getting the lost tabs, what's gone is gone, but I need to fix the issue, the sessions are never restored, and it only happens after I login to sync my account, it's a sync issue.


cor-el said

See also: Does Firefox create and update a recovery files in the sessionstore-backups folder when Firefox is running? You will normally find these files in the sessionstore-backups folder:
  • previous.jsonlz4 (cleanBackup: copy of sessionstore.jsonlz4 from previous session that was loaded successfully)
  • recovery.jsonlz4 (latest version of sessionstore.jsonlz4 written during runtime)
  • recovery.baklz4 (previous version of sessionstore.jsonlz4 written during runtime)
  • upgrade.jsonlz4-<build_id> (backup created during an upgrade of Firefox)
Make sure Firefox isn't set to run in permanent Private Browsing mode (Always use Private Browsing mode; Never Remember History). In case you use "Clear history when Firefox closes".
  • do not clear the "Browsing history"
  • using "Clear history when Firefox closes" in Firefox 102+ honors exceptions and keeps cookies with an allow exception, previous versions removed all cookies
  • clearing "Site settings" clears exceptions for cookies, images, pop-up windows, and software installation and exceptions for passwords and other website specific data

>https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-previous-session

Did all of this before, no luck, even the menu is greyed out as if there was no tabs at all.

>Make sure Firefox isn't set to run in permanent Private Browsing mode (Always use Private Browsing mode; Never Remember History).

It is not, all settings are checked to restore the session.

>In case you use "Clear history when Firefox closes".

I keep the history too.

Again, my observation is when I login to the sync, it screw up the profile and it doesn't restore the sessions anymore.. tried with a clean firefox installation on different OS, and even in librewolf, as there's an option to disable the sync, once I have that disabled, deleted the old profile and created a new one, the session restores normally. So what is in the sync or the profile that make it that way?! This only been happening in the past month or so, I'm sure a new update or changes to how sync works caused this.

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What items do you sync? Does removing "Open tabs" from Sync work?