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Closed Two Separate Instances of Firefox - Open Tabs and All Groups Lost

  • 5 replies
  • 7 have this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I had two instances of Firefox 16.0.2 open and closed both with the "X" box at the top of the window and shut down windows. When I opened Windows XP this morning I came up with only one of the two Firefox sessions with the tabs restored and lost all the groups I had created over the last year.

The original groups are important to me, the tabs less so.

I was able to recover previous versions of sessionstore.js from the profile directory for Firefox and have the several days prior of them.

I saw in other postings of similar nature that the information is in the sessionstore.bak or a previous deleted sessionstore.js. I've attempted to figure out the procedure for running scripts but I don't think I'm getting it. When I open sessionstore.bak in notepad I can see the links that were in the groups that I'd like back.

My questions are:

1). Can & how do I restore the groups? (I'm not understanding the procedures I saw in: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=10768811&start=45)

2). Are the tabs gone? How do I restore them?

3). Is having two open Firefox windows a no-no for keeping groups and tabs remembered?

4). How do you backup groups so if things go south you can recover easily?

5). How many tabs can you safely have open in Firefox?

6). Any other hints or procedures I should know about.

Thanks!

Ron

I had two instances of Firefox 16.0.2 open and closed both with the "X" box at the top of the window and shut down windows. When I opened Windows XP this morning I came up with only one of the two Firefox sessions with the tabs restored and lost all the groups I had created over the last year. The original groups are important to me, the tabs less so. I was able to recover previous versions of sessionstore.js from the profile directory for Firefox and have the several days prior of them. I saw in other postings of similar nature that the information is in the sessionstore.bak or a previous deleted sessionstore.js. I've attempted to figure out the procedure for running scripts but I don't think I'm getting it. When I open sessionstore.bak in notepad I can see the links that were in the groups that I'd like back. My questions are: 1). Can & how do I restore the groups? (I'm not understanding the procedures I saw in: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=10768811&start=45) 2). Are the tabs gone? How do I restore them? 3). Is having two open Firefox windows a no-no for keeping groups and tabs remembered? 4). How do you backup groups so if things go south you can recover easily? 5). How many tabs can you safely have open in Firefox? 6). Any other hints or procedures I should know about. Thanks! Ron

All Replies (5)

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Did you check if there are entries in History > Recently Closed Windows ?

App (pinned) tabs and Tab Groups (Panorama) are stored as part of the session data in the sessionstore.js file in the Firefox profile folder, so if you have a backup copy of a sessionstore.js that has those tabs then you need to check that.

If you close a window via the close X on the title bar then you only close that window and all pinned tabs and tab groups that you created in that window will be gone (each window has their own tab groups and pinned tabs).

Use "Firefox/File > Exit" (Mac: "Firefox > Quit"; Linux: "File > Quit") to close Firefox if you are currently doing that by clicking the close X on the title bar to make sure that you do not lose tab groups.

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The information is not in History > Recently Closed Windows.

I do have a sessionstore.js that seems to have the information I'm looking to recover when I view the tangled mess in Notepad. How do I get that info back into Firefox? (Open Tabs & more importantly, the saved Groups).

Thanks!

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I reviewed the link:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/sessionstore.js

but it does not tell how to restore the session state from the undeleted sessionstore.js file to resurrect the groups and open tabs.

How do I use the prior sessionstore.js to restore the tab and group state? Copying over the current one doesn't do anything.

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How do I use the prior sessionstore.js to restore the tab and group state? Copying over the current one doesn't do anything.

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Did you check if there are recently closed windows available after restoring the sessionstore.js file?

You can use this button to go to the Firefox profile folder:

  • Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder

See also this thread:

  • [/questions/942628] Firefox crashes immediately upon trying to Restore my last session