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previously opened tabs open empty as New tab

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I had some opened tabs for my work and everytime I was opening firefox, all of those tabs were opening without problems. I am on windows 7 64bit and mozilla firefox 32.0 I am not sure if this happened after a firefox update. Since yesterday, when I open firefox the tabs open but they are all empty (New Tab) This is how it looks http://i.imgur.com/NN8RIVB.png

I also receive a message in a popup A script on this page may be busy, or it may have stopped responding. You can stop the script now, open the script in the debugger, or let the script continue.

Script: chrome://global/content/bindings/tabbox.xml:441


How can I get my previously opened tabs to work again?

thanks

I had some opened tabs for my work and everytime I was opening firefox, all of those tabs were opening without problems. I am on windows 7 64bit and mozilla firefox 32.0 I am not sure if this happened after a firefox update. Since yesterday, when I open firefox the tabs open but they are all empty (New Tab) This is how it looks http://i.imgur.com/NN8RIVB.png I also receive a message in a popup A script on this page may be busy, or it may have stopped responding. You can stop the script now, open the script in the debugger, or let the script continue. Script: chrome://global/content/bindings/tabbox.xml:441 How can I get my previously opened tabs to work again? thanks

Chosen solution

As I was afraid to proceed, I searched some more and found the solution which was really easy. I went to sessionstore.js and right clicked, went to properties and then went to previous version tab. I found a system restore before the problem date, clicked that and firefox restored to previous session. I then opened firefox and my lost tabs were all there.

Thanks again for the information !

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All Replies (10)

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It's possible that your session history file is corrupted. As the first step, could you back up all of the sessionstore files in your currently active profile folder? Here's what I mean.

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
  • Help menu > Troubleshooting Information

In the first table on the page, click the "Show Folder" button. This should launch a new window listed various files and folders. For best results, change the view to "Details".

Then scroll down and copy all of the sessionstore files to a safe location (e.g., Documents) so Firefox doesn't overwrite them. Then if we are not able to get those tabs to load again, you might be able to use one of the older files.

In addition to sessionstore.js, which stores the windows and tabs in your currently live session (or if you closed Firefox, your previous session), you may find sessionstore.bak, sessionstore.bak-datetime from your last update, and other sessionstore files. Could you report back on what you found?

Note: If Windows hides the .js file extension from you, you can change a setting so that you can see all file extensions (this helps when renaming files). This support article has the steps: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/show-hide-file-name-extensions

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Hello thanks for the assistance.

I have Sessioncheckpoints.json sessionstore.bak sessionstore.bak-20140825202822 sessionstore.js

I have copied those to a safe location.

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In case you are using "Clear history when Firefox closes":

  • do not clear the Browsing History

Note that clearing "Site Preferences" clears all exceptions for cookies, images, pop-up windows, software installation, passwords, and other website specific data.


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

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

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how do I proceed after jscher2000 reply? What do I have to do next?

thanks

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Hi nulius, if Firefox can't properly read/process the sessionstore.js file, you could try switching in one of the older files. When Firefox starts up, it will read sessionstore.js, so that would involve this:

  1. Exit Firefox
  2. Rename sessionstore.js to sessionstore.old or other identifiable name for possible later recovery
  3. Copy in the file you want to try and rename it to sessionstore.js
  4. Start Firefox and see whether it worked

As an alternative, you could extract the URLs from one or more of your sessionstore files. This is less convenient but would allow you to set up the tabs in that window again. Assuming the file is not corrupted, one of these should work:

(1) Using Firefox's "Scratchpad" web developer tool

(A) Original script: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=622036&start=60&p=12098147#p12098147

(B) Variation: http://dev.jeffersonscher.com/sessionstore_reader.html

(2) Online tool (third party website): https://firefox-session-restore.herokuapp.com/

Do any of those work on your file(s)?

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jscher2000 thanks I will try it in a while

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Chosen Solution

As I was afraid to proceed, I searched some more and found the solution which was really easy. I went to sessionstore.js and right clicked, went to properties and then went to previous version tab. I found a system restore before the problem date, clicked that and firefox restored to previous session. I then opened firefox and my lost tabs were all there.

Thanks again for the information !

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Glad to hear Windows took a snapshot at the right moment for you to find it that way. Luck happens!

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I have the same problem, all tabs are blank even after i choose Undo close tab or i click on a link in history, please explain in basic terms as i am no sure i will follow, I can't find sessionstore.js, i know in the past i had other problems and i went to some place where i changed settings in firefox, (in a document like page changing numbers etc, i don't remember where it was. I just remember: about:config, is there anything i need to change there?

Thanks in advance.

Modified by ramon247

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Hi ramon247, the problem addressed in this thread was that a previous session was restored, but the tabs had lost their addresses and the question was how to dig up that information.

It sounds like you have a different issue if you are loading pages fresh and the content area is blank. Could you start a new question and include your system/settings information (the forum will push an add-on to assist with that). You can start here:

https://support.mozilla.org/questions/new/desktop/fix-problems

You can scroll down past the suggested solutions to continue with the form.