Renaming Session Files Not Working to Restore Previous Session after Crash -
I restarted Firefox after crash, and unfortunately it automatically opened a new tab - an add-on update. OS is El Capitan I shut down Firefox normally this morning (Nov 25th) around 8am and crash happened in the evening around 6pm. I have no sessionstore.js file in the session backup folder, only previous.jsonlz4 - created this morning at 8am after normal shutdown recovery.baklz4 recovery.jsonlz4 and three upgrade.jsonlz4-20171112125346 files - these 3 files are from Nov 14, 18th and 22nd.
I tried renaming the previous.jsonlz4 file to sessionstore.js but Firefox still opened to the current session; same thing when i tried renaming the upgrade files. I renamed the files while Firefox was still running, then i quit and restarted. It keeps on recording and restoring the old session as the latest/new session. Am i missing a step?
Each time i open the session backup folder after the restart there's no sessionstore.js file in the folder or in the main profile folder, but i have recovery.jsonlz14.
I can't get the session manager add-on because i have Firefox 58 - does not work 57 or higher
Firefox is set to restore after crashes
I asked my brother, who works with computers, and he said the file renaming is not working because the previous files corrupted when Firefox crashed - is this true? If so, will using Firefox profile backed up on my external hd work? Time Machine backup was on Nov 24th and i haven't backed up since.
My brother also said the renaming isn't working because Firefox keeps overwriting the old ones and that's why when i try to restore old session it opens a new one. Unless this is due to the corruption of the files, this does not make sense to me because it would mean the whole process of renaming session files is pointless if Firefox will just overwrite them.
Is there no way at all to restore the session before the crash? Please advise
Thank you for your assistance
Annette
All Replies (3)
Yes, there is a possibility that a crash can corrupt a sessionstore.js file, due to that file normally getting "written to" as a part of the Firefox shutdown procedure.
Most of the time renaming the last session file does work per what I have seen posted in this forum. Personally, if I have a session that I have to have, I use "Bookmark All Tabs" to make sure the URLs are saved somewhere. But that's just me, and never in your situation with a pending update being installed.
Plus the appearance of the Firefox update and subsequent restart could have been a part of your session getting lost. How big a part - I have no idea. I don't have a Mac and long ago I stopped allowing Firefox to install automatic updates, which all too often seemed to occur at the most inopportune time for me. Like when I was late for work and needed to print a file for work and opened Firefox just to print it and BAM the update get's installed and I have to restart Firefox to print that document making me later yet ...
Plus the update "system" inside Firefox was recently changed unbeknownst to me (in Firefox 55, 56, or 57) since I haven't been thru a Firefox update for many years now. That change was pointed out to me yesterday by a fellow support contributor as being a recent change.
I haven't had add-on updates in quite a while and so didn't even anticipate it. When Firefox crashes I am able to restore but the update made a mess of things.
In the case of corrupted files, can I use Firefox profile saved on my external to restore previous session?
I also expected renaming the last session file to work, and that's why I asked if I was missing a step. Is there a way to open the profile folder when Firefox is not running? Maybe if I rename while Firefox is not running it might work?
Is the fact that Firefox is not creating a sessionstore.js file a factor? I have previous, recovery and backup files in the folder
Maybe I don't understand something but why are you trying to rename *.jsonlz4 to *.js if you have Firefox 58? Firefox 58 no longer uses sessionstore.js, it got replaced by sessionstore.jsonlz4.
So the only thing you have to do is open session backup folder, sort files by last modified date, choose the last modified file with .jsonlz4 extension, rename it to sessionstore.jsonlz4 and move sessionstore.jsonlz4 to the root of the profile folder.