I used to be able to "restore" all my Firefox open browsers (about 30) and tabs (about 20 in each browser), but now the browsers are gone. Help?
Hello,
I like Mozilla Firefox, and have used the browser for years.
I like to have a different Firefox browser for each major subject (for example, each upcoming trip). I have about 30 different Firefox browsers open at once in my computer memory. Each of these 30 browsers has about 20 different tabs open in my computer memory. So in total, I have about 30 x 20 = 600 different tabs (websites) open at any one time. I refer to these often. Since I have spent the time to search and find these websites, I want to read them very easily in the future. I also have about 100 bookmarks, but bookmarks are not as organized as browsers and tabs. At night, I put my computer to sleep. In the morning, I turn on the computer, and all the browsers and tabs are there. If I had to restart my computer, (for example after installing Windows updates), then Firefox used to ask if I want to restore the previous session, which I did, and I got all 30 browsers x 20 tabs = 600 tabs back no problem.
But recently, I cannot restore all of those browsers; they are gone. How can I restore all the browsers I had open previously? I see the tabs under "History", but they are not organized within all the browsers that I had open. I reset Firefox to the factory default, but that has not helped.
Thanks, Craig Seattle, Washington, USA
Vahaolana nofidina
Hi craigfmiller,
A reliable restoration is to have all of the 600 tabs open and have the options set to "remember tabs from last time" in you Firefox preferences. If the restore previous session on the current about:home, does not have all of the tabs that open up I recommend Also having an add on that manages the sessions. Session Manager might be a good one to check out.
I hope this helps.
Hamaky an'ity valiny ity @ sehatra 👍 2All Replies (6)
Vahaolana Nofidina
Hi craigfmiller,
A reliable restoration is to have all of the 600 tabs open and have the options set to "remember tabs from last time" in you Firefox preferences. If the restore previous session on the current about:home, does not have all of the tabs that open up I recommend Also having an add on that manages the sessions. Session Manager might be a good one to check out.
I hope this helps.
rmcguigan,
Thank you so much for your help. Per your recommendation, I just installed Session Manager. But you also suggest "have the options set to 'remember tabs from last time' in your Firefox preferences." I looked for that, but could not find it. Exactly where will I find that in Firefox?
Thanks, Craig
See:
- Tools > Options > General > Startup: "When Firefox Starts":
"Show my windows and tabs from last time"
You can try to restore a previous version of the sessionstore.js file.
- Right-click: Properties > Previous Versions
I would add that bookmarks may be organised into folders and subfolders. You may wish to make more use of bookmarks if only to ensure you do not loose everything if your session restore becomes problematic.
Bookmarks are a bit more robust than the session restore system. Firefox backs them up automatically and you may do so manually. Possibly Firefox will behave better and faster with hundreds of bookmarks but only tens of tabs open. There is also the tabs groups, but that is something I think development has ceased on and may have similar issues to session restore / or open tabs.
Tab groups are stored in the same sessionstore.js file as Session Restore data (open and closed tabs).
Thank you everyone for your wonderful help. I think I solved it now. After the next crash, I will know whether I can restore all the windows and tabs! :)
Craig