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I don't want my tabs from previous session loading before they are selected. How can I change this?

  • 6 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 41 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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I have many tabs open at once and use the setting "Show your windows and tabs from last time" so every time I launch Firefox the old tabs are still there. It used to be so that the tabs didn't load until they were selected, which made starting Firefox faster. Now for some reason all tabs start loading right away and this is especially annoying if there are tabs with videos so they start playing and I need to browse through my tabs to pause and silence those videos. What can I do so the old tabs don't start loading before I select them?

I have many tabs open at once and use the setting "Show your windows and tabs from last time" so every time I launch Firefox the old tabs are still there. It used to be so that the tabs didn't load until they were selected, which made starting Firefox faster. Now for some reason all tabs start loading right away and this is especially annoying if there are tabs with videos so they start playing and I need to browse through my tabs to pause and silence those videos. What can I do so the old tabs don't start loading before I select them?

Chosen solution

can you try to refresh firefox and see if this is making a difference?

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hi, this should still be the default behaviour. could you enter about:config into the firefox address bar (confirm the info message in case it shows up) & search for the preference named browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand. check that this preference is set to true.

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browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand is set on true, but the tabs are loading and videos playing automatically on startup. This also happens on both of my computers.

Modified by mko_

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Chosen Solution

can you try to refresh firefox and see if this is making a difference?

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That worked! Thank you!

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Refreshing firefox..... what a hopeless answer. Why in the world would anyone want to reset all his options to the defaults? (easier is creating a new "vanilla" profile.) There has to be something more specific that would resolve this issue.

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You can check whether this is caused by one of the installed extensions if the pref settings are correct.

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

  • switch to the DEFAULT theme: "3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Appearance
  • do NOT click the "Refresh Firefox" button on the Safe Mode start window

You can check for problems with preferences.


There is also a restore pref for pinned tabs.

  • browser.sessionstore.restore_pinned_tabs_on_demand