Firefox 12 failed to restore my previous session!

Question

Hi there!
Well, last night I shut down my computer from the Start menu in Vista. I believe I had closed Firefox manually before I proceeded with the shut down. I don't think it has anything to do with the way you exit Firefox, but I'm just saying it.
I usually have several tabs open in Firefox, this time I had about 50 of them and every time I close Firefox it prompts me if I want to save the tabs. I don't think this is a default setting, I think I set this up myself. So I just click the option which saves my tabs so that the next time I start Firefox I can continue where I left off.
I believe I clicked the save button last night as well. But today I started up Firefox and the tabs were gone.
I did follow the procedure for restoring the last session as described here:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Firefox%20does%20not%20ask%20to%20save%20tabs%20and%20windows%20on%20exit?s=Firefox+12+failed+to+restore+previous+session%21&r=1&e=es&as=s
But the thing is I don't have the option to restore last session when I go to Firefox button and History.
Also, I have started and closed Firefox since that several times. So this restore option might only just restore the last tab I closed anyway. As described...
''If you close each window or tab, only the final window or tab that you closed will be available when you restart Firefox.''
Why did Firefox forget to restore my tabs?...
This happened to me once before but I don't remember how I restored the tabs.
And also, it happened once that Firefox failed to prompt me if I want to save my tabs, and instead prompted me with a whole different dialog, the one where it warns me that I'm about to close all open tabs and asks me to confirm.
There was no way around it so I intentionally ''crashed'' the computer, knowing that once I log on to Windows and start Firefox again it will restore my tabs automatically whether it wants to or not. And, of course, this proved to be true, all my tabs were back.
But did I really have to ''crash'' my comptuer for this? Maybe I could have crashed only the Firefox by terminating it's process... but it works either way. One time it asks, one time it doesn't ask to save tabs. Completely disregarding the settings! There is something seriously wrong here!
After that first incident I was again able to save my tabs on exit, it always asked me to save them from that point on, as I would expect it to. Until now...
Now it asks me if I ''want to'' save my tabs, and I say ''yes please'', just to find out the next morning it didn't restore them, as if they never were saved. Haha! LOL! Ridiculous! Haha, that Firefox 12! :) What a clown!
As mutch as this is a call for help in restoring those tabs, it is also a reminder to Firefox developers that something really stinks here! You need to work out the session save and restore mechanism in Firefox 12. Unluckily for me I had not installed the Session Manager extension. That's one tool that does better what Firefox should do by standard.

Answer 1

Yeah, if the tabs were not restored then unfortunately sessionstore.bak was overwritten. But you're taking it surprisingly well. :) Most people are pissed beyond belief, which is expected. :P
Also let me clear up the confusion between sessionstore.js & sessionstore.bak. Sessionstore.bak is the backup file that Firefox makes after every shutdown of Firefox. Sessionstore.js is the main file that stores all the data about tabs, app tabs and recently closed tabs & windows.
You can backup either one of these files but, like you did, it's best to check the modified timestamp on both files and most importantly their sizes. It will let you know how old that file is and the bigger the size of the file, the better. A 2kb file likely has 1 or 2 tabs, where a 500kb one has around 20 tabs or more.
But to keep it simple, just backup sessionstore.js.
And yes, great idea about Shadow Copy. I've used it on Windows 7 and it really is a life saver. I found it had around 20 or 30 backups for the places.sqlite which I was trying to recover. You could try to implement it on Vista with 3rd party software, I'd just read some reviews first.
Or you could install the [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/session-manager/ Session Manager addon] we both discussed earlier. Unless you think adding that add-on is overkill or you don't want to weigh down Firefox with another addon? But in this case, I think it does do what you want, which is backup your sessionstore.js everyday or every few days. I think the setting is customizable.
I'm praying for the day they create a "sessionstorebackups" folder like they have for the '''bookmarkbackups''' folder. That way we can have a better chance to recover the tabs.
'''Edit:''' You replied while I typed this. But great work! I didn't know Shadow Copy kept backups of files on Vista even though the service wasn't running. Anyway that's great news. And I see you'll be using Session Manager from now on. :D
And thanks for clearing up the part about Firefox prompting you to save your tabs at closing. I haven't seen Firefox do that in a while (the last version that showed that prompt was maybe 3.5?) so I was wondering what was going on there. :) Take care and have a good one!