Choice between start new session and restore previous session

I have refused to update firefox since 2.0.0.14. That's mid 2008. The reason? Because EVERY update I have seen has a critical flaw and I am sick of it never having been addressed. Oh, I have tested it many times. I am impatient in general. I have allowed it to update just now for instance with the naive hope that MAYBE you'd put it back the way it should be, and NOPE, you STILL have the critical epic fail that you introduced some time after 2.0.0.14, and I then had to uninstall firefox and reinstall my copy of 2.0.0.14 and restore my passwords and bookmarks from the key3.db and bookmarks.htm files (which also aren't compatible with the later versions, and that's bad too since it was more efficiently done and more comprehensible and more compatible with common knowledge that way, what the hell is a .json file anyway????), and I am sick of it. It's getting harder and harder to use 2.0.0.14, things constantly say snide things like 'upgrade (downgrade) to a modern browser, your browser is not supported', 'you are using md5 for certificate validation, are you insane?', that sort of thing, and things often don't work right, but it is WORTH every bit of it to avoid the critical epic fail.
Ok, enough suspense. That critical epic fail is this: when I start firefox after the previous session crashed (or was killed by the task manager), it does NOT give the NICE CHOICE 2.0.0.14 does between "begin new session" and "restore previous session". It automatically restores the previous session. Do you have any idea how many times I have gone to a webpage only to observe it is infected with a virus which it tries to put on my computer, or just a horrible page with a horrible script that seems to involve an infinite loop or at least something incredibly excessive and inefficiently coded that totally eats up the CPU processing power and I BARELY managed to KILL firefox with the task manager? Do you think I want it to go right back to loading that page when I start firefox again? Do you have the BATSH*T INSANE notion that I should always WANT to restore my previous session? Well I DON'T! I killed it with good reason in the first place. 100% of the time mozilla gets killed by the task manager and 90% of the time it crashes, I don't WANT to restore my previous session. Is there some secret hidden feature representing providing this choice that 2.0.0.14 provided that is by default DISABLED that I can maybe enable, or do I have to continue using 2.0.0.14 and watch as more and more and more things refuse to work with it?
Also, you need to have the "stop" button within reach of the bookmarks and the left side of the address bar, not on the far right of the screen. And I'd also rather not have it be in the same place as the refresh button, though I understand the justification for having the stop button become the refresh button. Is there any way I can also have the "forward, back, stop, refresh" buttons all together and in the most convenient place as they were in 2.0.0.14 while I'm at it?

Set the pref browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes to 0 on the about:config page to get the about:sessionrestore page immediately with the first restart after a crash has occurred or the Task Manager was used to close Firefox.
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes
That will allow you to deselect the tab(s) that you do not want to reopen, but will allow to reopen other tabs.
See:
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Session_Restore#Restoring_a_session_after_a_crash
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes

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Unable to get my tabs back after power outage and "restore previous session" doesn't show up.

Well, I've spent most of my day trying to figure out how to fix this. My power unexpectedly went out overnight and I left my computer on. When I woke up, i saw that the computer was off. So I started my computer, but when I went to get onto Firefox, none of my windows and tabs were there. (and I did have a ton of tabs open.) There wasn't even a "Restore Previous Session" icon to press on the Firefox homepage or a "Well, this is embarrassing" window. I tried opening "sessionstore.js" and "sessionstore.bak", but then a window came up titled "Windows Script Host" and said "Microsoft JScript Compilation Error." Then all there is to do is press "Ok". (By the way, at another time today when I tried opening a .js file, it said "Windows can't open this file" and it wanted me to choose the program I wanted to use to open the file, or use the internet to find a program. I chose Notepad, but then it was just a bunch of letters, words and symbols.)
I've also tried entering "about:sessionrestore" to get my windows and tabs back and then it says "Well, this is embarrassing." and "Firefox is having trouble recovering your windows and tabs." And there are no windows and tabs showing up below that sentence, with check marks, like it is when session restore has worked for me in the past. The only thing that worries me is that I did restart my computer between when I first started it this morning and now, when I'm writing this. I wanted to see if the "Restore Previous Session" icon would bring up my missing windows and tabs from before. But all it brought up automatically were the current windows and tabs that I have open right now. So now I'm wondering if I've permanently lost those tons of tabs that I had open before the power went out.
The other thing is that when I first got onto Firefox today, I could see all of my history from the days, weeks, and months past. Now I can only see today's history. I know I pressed something when I was trying to fix things but I don't remember what I pressed. Maybe that changed whether or not I could see the previous months' history. I did try "places.sqlite", "places.sqlite-shm" and "places.sqlite-wal" to restore my history, but again it said "Windows can't open this file" and it wanted me to choose a program to open the file. So again I chose Notepad, and it was just a bunch of letters, numbers, and symbols.
Hopefully someone may have an answer for me. Thanks!

Yes I can understand you being confused there is an awful lot of information you need to take in and learn as you encounter such a situation. I will try to expand my explanation to cover the points you ask.
''right click the file and select "restore previous versions", right?''
That is correct when using Windows to try to recover for instance files where the working fie is corrupted, but a previous version worked
If you have no previous versions available from Windows you need to work on whatever you do have. With any file restore operation it is always a good idea to make copies of not only the originals but also the restored files.
If you restored the ''places.sqlite'' with Windows that could possibly have resulted in a copy overwriting your working file that is even worse than the original file.
When you restore a file using the Windows OS it restores the files in their ordinary working location and they should function as expected without needing to do anything else. Generally it is probably best to try such restores when the files are not in use and in this instance that means when Firefox is closed.
For the benefit of any other readers of this thread note : The places.sqlite is in the Firefox profile and easiest to find before closing down Firefox as the ''troubleshooting information page'' (''about:support'') may be used to find it.
* [[Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data#w_how-do-i-find-my-profile]]_how-do-i-find-my-profile
The ''places.sqlite'' database is the only file Firefox itself has with the full ''History'' information in it. The database also contains bookmarks but Firefox should have some other backups of those. If the database is deleted Firefox will restore the database but all it can do is add back bookmarks information from its backups the History is lost.
There is almost no chance of getting the History back unless there is another copy of that database. Either one Windows is able to recreate, or one that was somehow created by another method, that normally being the user deliberately making a manual backup of your profile or places file in advance. Or maybe having in place other backup procedures.
'' am I supposed to double-click the file?''
That is not going to help in these circumstances. There are advanced methods of studying the files but right clicking does not help in this instance.
Open tabs information is stored in the series of files ''sessionstore.*'' It may take rather a lot of messing about to to get any useful information out of whatever files you have. It would normally probably be a lot quicker just going back to the sites concerned, but that is made more difficult if you have overwritten the History database so you may need to try if the tabs were important to you. I can give more details in another post if you need to try that
We could have a lot more luck with your bookmarks. Did you bookmark most of the sites concerned ? If so then at least you have a good chance of finding the sites again.
Have you already got a fairly complete listing of your bookmarks in the Firefox bookmarks library/menu ? If you need to try to get back lost bookmarks that existed in the last few days but not are not present right now make a backup copy
*Of the profile folder called '''''bookmarkbackups''''' ( With its contents ! )
* ''places.sqlite'' Remember whenever attempting restoring bookmarks always backup the database file ''places.sqlite'' first.

Is there a way to restore to a prior point in time? I somehow lost all Tab Groups and Tabs...and Restore Previous Session is grey, so that's not an option.

I've gone through all support pages, and still can't find a solution. I'm needing to restore to a specific day/time period. I lost literally hundreds of hours of research...and MUST find a way to get those Tab Groups and Tabs restored.
Again, for some reason, the Restore Previous Session option is greyed out...and not an option.
From what I've read, there may be some files in the Firefox profile folder that can be used, but it's not clear the steps to take to see if this would do what I need, and before I mess with those files, etc... I'd really need someone from tech support to review all this and assist me.

You can try to restore a previous version of the sessionstore.js file.
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/sessionstore.js
*http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Previous-versions-of-files-frequently-asked-questions

Hi, after about half an hour I can't select any open tabs or see new tabs. When I reboot and restore previous session the new tabs appear.

Existing tabs can't be activated. I have no problem with restoring a previous session or opening previous tabs, but although new tabs are created - because I see them when I restart Firefox - they are invisible until I restart. Also, some, but not all of the menu options are not accessible until I restart.
Any advice would be appreciated,
Cheers,
Ian

Boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test to check if other software is causing this.
*http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/how-to-start-windows-in-safe-mode/

Some tabs don't restore sometimes and 'restore previous session' in history appears disabled then too

It stated to happen when i converted to firefox5. it happens sometimes when i close firefox and open it back, it doesnt display all my last session tabs.. when i try to restore them through history, the option remains disabled.. this is a major problem and very annoying considering that i do a lot of research work and always have over 20 tabs opened! i lose a lot of work.. i hope this problem gets solved or i get a resolution to this.. cant afford to lose this much work, so will have to switch to chrome till then.

Sorry if this comes to late, I just now came across this thread. I have rtorrent and rutorrent sunning successfully on my x64 Arch Linux install.
Try putting the "SCGIMount /RPC2 127.0.0.1:5000" line in your httpd.conf file right after the LoadModule lines (it's line 124 for me).
I seem to recall it not working when I put it at the end of the file.
Best of Luck!
Martian

Since updating to firefox 25 my "undo closed tab", "restore recently closed tabs", and "restore previous session" are greyed out, I have tried resetting default

I have only had this problem since updating to firefox 25. I have already tried resetting the ff deafaults. it did restore the "undo close tab" for a short while. but when i exited and restarted ff i have the same problem again. I don't want to have to keep resetting the defaults, because it is too time consuming to then set all my preferences again.

I had the same difficulty. Could not use the Ctrl+Shift+T combo to undo close tabs. The solutions mentioned here did not work. I turned off the add-on "Tab Mix Plus" and the keystroke combo worked. Updating to the latest version of Tab Mix Plus solved the issue.

After updating adobe flash and restarting firefox for mac, as requested, can't restore previous session

using macbook pro with os 10.7.5, was recommended to update adobe flash while in firefox (22.0). did so, which required closing and restarting firefox during flash update. when complete, firefox opened automatically to adobe flash window and restore previous session was grayed out. can't figure out how to find and restore the tabs i had been using. related questions and answers don't find a solution. my settings are all normal and do not appear to have any relation to the problem. rather, it seems to be the closing and reopening of firefox associated with the updating of flash that nuked any memory of my previous session. is there a solution?

i found my own solution to my problem! first of all, DON'T QUIT FIREFOX -- to be sure the current undesirable session doesn't become the "previous session". instead, open a new window (command-N). in my case, it opened to my usual default url and, while in that window (either before or after closing the first browser window that had opened automatically after updating adobe flash), the "restore previous session" option in history menu reappeared! clicked on it and, from then on, things just worked normally.

How to restore previous session (with sync on)

My lights went out and after restart Firefox lost my previous session. "Restore previous session" option is greyed out. I had Sync on at all times, would this help? This pc is my only synced device, though.
This is, like, the fifth time Firefox screwed up my previous session. Seriously, you guys.

averagefailguy,
Hey, no need to be rude.
Your question was:
<blockquote> I had Sync on at all times, would this help? This pc is my only synced device, though. </blockquote>
As the-edmeister pointed out, no, you can't. If Firefox closed improperly or was forced to shut down due to a power outage, Sync probably wouldn't have synced it over and if it did, it was likely corrupt.
<s>You said Firefox crashed? There may be some crash reports left over to see what caused the crash</s> 
EDIT: Forgot Firefox didn't crash but force closed.

My browser won't remember my tabs, even using restore previous session;how do I fix this?

Opening the browser, it goes straight to my home page even though it's set to open the previous session, the restore previous session in the history menu is greyed out. I cannot even look in recent tabs or windows because those are empty too.

My settings have been set to reopen tabs from previous session. y privacy is set to remember history, and the browser remembers site history just fine. The browser simply loses my tabs.

Windows XP crashed and Firefox 5.0 closed improperly. When I relaunched it, I mistakenly clicked New Session button instead of Restore previous session. How can I get that session back now? Thanks

I am on Windows XP/Firefox 5.0 Computer crashed overnight closing Firefox improperly. When I relaunched I got choice to restore previous session. By mistake I clicked on Start New Session. Now I cant restore that session through Menu, relevant buttons are greyed out. I cant see any pertinent information online either. I appreciate any help. Currently I am digging through the history but for some of these tabs I dont know when I opened them (may be a while ago).

I don't have a good sense of what is going wrong.
Was Firefox stable in step 3 -- open with no sessionstore.js file and then exit?
If that was stable, it might be easiest to cull the open URLs from your sessionstore.js file and re-open the most important ones manually. You will lose the ''detail'' of your session on those pages (e.g., data you had entered into a form), but if that's okay, it might be the next step.
I found a script on mozillaZine that will extract URLs from the sessionstore.js file; I just changed the formatting of the output. To run the script:
(1) Return to your profile folder and rename sessionstore.js to sessionstore.old again, then copy it to a convenient location
(2) Start Firefox (it should be in a new session)
(3) Open the following link, select all (Ctrl+a), copy (Ctrl+c) to copy the script to the clipboard: http://dev.jeffersonscher.com/sessionstore_reader.txt
(4) Open the <s>Error Console</s> Browser Console (Ctrl+Shift+j), click next to <s>Code</s> the caret (>>) and paste, then press Enter <s>or click Evaluate</s>
(5) A file selection window should appear. Navigate to the convenient location and open sessionstore.old from there.
(6) As long as the file is not corrupted, a new tab should open with a list of all the URLs the script found in the file. You can save this page for future reference if desired. Also, you can close the <s>Error</s> Browser Console now.

How can I restore previous session while fixing Bookmarks and History will not be functional...error?

I was working with two windows and 8-10 tabs in each window when my Firefox became unresponsive, and I received a string of JavaScript error prompts when I attempted any activity in the browser (such as scrolling). After about an hour of being unable to interact with Firefox at all, I Force Quit (on a Mac) the application.
When I opened Firefox again, it was taking a very long time to boot, and the process was locking up my computer, but eventually, I did receive a Restore Previous Session option. I tried restoring, but one tab in each window would stick and fail to load, causing the browser to freeze up yet again (one of the tabs was a Google search result page, which is completely benign). I had to Force Quit *again* and then a couple more times as I kept encountering the same issue.
Finally, I decided to restart my computer. I ran into the same problem. Then, I restarted again. Once more, the same problem. I actually tried restoring my session maybe 20 times before I ended up with the error: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/fix-bookmarks-and-history-will-not-be-functional?esab=a&as=aaq
I've followed step 1, which didn't work. I haven't proceeded to step 2, because I know I will definitely lose my previous session along with all recent history. I *need* to bookmark at least two of the tabs as they are of critical importance--one of which is a special URL that I cannot recover by any means.
Before I continue to step 2, is there any way that I can grab the URLs that were in my previous session and stash them somewhere to manually restore after fixing the error?
By the way, the crashing started when I tried to visit mail.google.com--typing that address in a new tab started the JavaScript errors when things had been running smoothly. I actually closed out several tabs when attempting to reopen my session, just trying to get things up and running again (and Save All Tabs) before I ran into the database error. I never got the opportunity to save my tabs.
I'm running Mac OS X Lion. Help?

Follow-up: I'm worried about performing any actions without input, because I don't want to back myself into a corner.
Will resetting Firefox fix the problem (instead of creating a new places database)? https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/reset-firefox-easily-fix-most-problems
According to this article, a reset will keep browsing history, which should allow me to access my lost tabs IF it will also fix my database problem.

The Firefox about:home page always shows "Restore Previous Session" and opens random things even after a clean exit.

I don't like anything opening automatically when I start Firefox, so before Firefox 4 I set Firefox to open a blank page when it starts. I still had set a page I visit frequently as my home page, so I could get to that page quickly by pressing the home button. If I needed to close Firefox it was nice and easy to have the option to save my session and close (I've already searched and read another post and answer on how to restore this feature in about:config). I understand that Firefox 4 always saves your session and you can restore it from the history menu, but then I would have to remember if I had anything open and click menu/History/Restore Previous Session.
Now in Firefox 4 I have left the home page set to about:home so if I had tabs open when I closed it I would see the Restore Previous Session "button" the next time I start it. However, when I close all windows and tabs before exiting Firefox, the Restore Previous Session "button" will be sometimes be there. If I click it, it will open a random tab or window that I visited the previous day, which was NOT the last tab/window that I had open.
If I do have tabs open when I close it, it does correctly re-open them when using the Restore Previous Session button, it only does this if I do a clean exit (close all tabs/windows before close).
I tried deleting the sessionstore.js and sessionstore.bak files from my Firefox appdata directory (there were no other sessionstore.* files). This is a clean install of Firefox 4, I didn't install on top of Firefox 3.6.xx. I uninstalled Firefox 3.6.xx before installing and made sure to delete any leftover files in my appdata, programdata and program files directories.

I thought about that before and tried it, and it doesn't seem to make a difference. I did it just now, I opened a blank tab and closed everything else, waited a minute then closed Firefox. I waited another minute and launched Firefox. The Restore Previous Session box was there on about:home. I clicked it and it opened a new window with about:home in it.

How do you get firefox 4 to save tabs and windows and restore them? Don't say set preferences to open them on startup or use restore previous session under history; those do not work. Or is it no longer possible to save windows and tabs?

Question
How do you get firefox 4 to save tabs and windows and restore them? Don't say set preferences to open them on startup or use restore previous session under history; those do not work. Or is it no longer possible to save windows and tabs?

'''IT'S A EASY AS IT SHOULD BE.'''
This is essentially paulbruster's answer, but I've added the steps some might assume, but which aren't so obvious to those of us who are new at this, like me.
This solution might ''appear'' to be long and complicated, but after you follow the directions once, you'll find it's quick, clean, and simple. Almost like they designed it this way.
# If you haven't already, open a bunch of tabs on a few different subjects.
# Click the List All Tabs button on the right side of the tab strip.
# Select Tab Groups.
# Create a few groups as described [http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/what-are-tab-groups#w_how-do-i-create-a-tab-group here] , i.e. just drag them out of the main thumbnail group into the new groups they create.
# Now click on any thumbnail in any new group, but not the original big default group you may have left some tabs in.
#A regular Firefox window will open, but'' only the tabs in that group will be visible.'' You also now have the Tab Groups button in the tab strip.
# Right click on any tab, and there it is: Bookmark All Tabs. Click on it in the list of options. Or you can hit Ctrl+Shift+D instead and go straight to the dialogue box from the tab without any clicks. But don't go looking for this familiar option anywhere else, 'cause it's not there.
# Now pick an existing folder or create a new one just like you would have before and '''shlpam!''' there they are. New folders are supposed to end up in the Unsorted category all the way at the very bottom, but for some reason mine show up at the bottom of my last sorted category.
# DO NOT CLICK THE UPPER-RIGHTMOST X to close this group of tabs. This will close ALL of your tabs in all groups, currently visible or not. At least it asks if you're sure first. Instead, click your new Tab Groups button to return to the Boxes 'O Thumbnails window, and click the X in the group box you just bookmarked.
# Click on another thumbnail to repeat the process with another group, or click on a thumbnail in the big default box to return to the original FF window. You can also click the Tab Groups button at the upper right, or Ctrl+Shift+E, which will also get you ''into'' the Boxes 'O Nails window ''from'' FF.
# So now when you reopen FF after shutdown, simply select your folder from your Bookmarks and Open All in Tabs. '''Just like paulbruster said. '''

Can't restore previous session (greyed out); lost all tabs and groups

I've had a similar problem with FireFox version 30 as found in the following question: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/997956?esab=a&as=aaq
I lost all my tabs including those in two groups (maybe 100 tabs) that I'd been keeping for a couple of years and in some cases much longer. Very occasionally I'll get the "oops this is embarrassing" message from FF and when I click on the Restore Previous Session button they reappear.
What happened this time is that when booting my computer (Windows 7), Adobe Flash wanted to download an update, and instead of waiting for the boot to finish as I normally would, I clicked on the Adobe Flash Download Update button. It then opened FF and hung, so I eventually used Task Manager to end FF. After the computer finished booting, when I opened FF it had no open tabs or groups, and the Restore Previous Session option (and each of the other options in that grouping in the History menu) was greyed.
When investigating, I find I do have the sessionstore.js and sessionstore.bak files from yesterday (each about 4.5 mb), but I don't know how to access them because the Restore Previous Session option is greyed.

Awesome. And maybe back up your sessionstore.js and sessionstore.bak files somewhere outside of your Firefox settings folder in case you need them for a future recovery. (That would involve copying them back to your active profile folder while Firefox is closed so it finds them when it starts back up again.)

Since replacing hard drive, "restore previous session" button doesn't work, can only do it through history tab. Also will not start up from task bar icon.

Hi, been using Firefox for some years, had to replace hard drive recently and re loaded Firefox. Since then, the restore previous session button doesn't work, but I can do it from the History tab. Also Firefox itself won't start from the task bar or desktop, only the start menu.
Using Windows XP

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Choice between start new session and restore previous session

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