Firefox crashes; restore session unretrievable?

Hi. The other day my laptop ran out of power. I had my one, "main" firefox window up and running, and was just preparing to close the window and shut down the computer... but before I could exit (so firefox could save my tabs) it shut off.
The next time I opened firefox, expecting it to have recovered my session (and my tab groups!!) as it usually does, I didn't even get the restore window (about:sessionrestore) ... just the old homepage. All of my tab groups disappeared as well, and I thought... "this doesn't look good."
Searching around all afternoon on a public forum or two, I found information on the session.bak file - so I searched my computer for it, and found it.
NOW... when I open this file...(in mozilla firefox) I get a pile of HTML on a page --- and have no clue what to do from here. I believe that the session.bak file (dated just prior to the crash/laptop shut off) actually contains everything. I just don't know what to do from here!
Can someone help?

Hello there, i think this might get you started
http://techrant.co.uk/2012/03/how-to-recover-your-firefox-session-when-all-hope-is-lost/

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Tabs lost after Firefox crashed; Restore Session page doesn't load

Firefox 6.02 has been restoring previous sessions fine.
But...
When I had multiple tabs open in multiple tab groups, Firefox started slowing down. This was probably due to too many tabs opened. Eventually, Firefox crashed. Normally, under my settings Firefox launches the Restore Session page. However, this time it somehow bypassed the Restore Session page and took me straight to my home page. All my pinned tabs and tabs in tab groups were lost.
This is the second time I'm experiencing this problem in two different machines, where one was running XP and the other was running Windows 7 x64.
How do I restore my tabs? I need these tabs really bad...

You thought that, it was a bug.
https://support.mozilla.org/tr/questions/959436
BUT, For me it was not bug. it was very good for me.
i want "Well this is embarrassing...." page AGAIN.

Firefox crashes and session restore is blank.

Session Restore is blank. After restart of computer. I know I had to many tabs. How to restore back to was? Other times also computer crashes inmedant shut off when I scroll with the mouse some times with to many tabs on page. Just leaves the power fan on. My computer ram is 704 mb. The older tab history is in the trouble shooting information I notice here. Can that be used to restore also?

Hi shape5, when Firefox closes, it creates the file sessionstore.js at the main level (not in the backups folder). That is the file Firefox reads at startup. After quitting out of Firefox, try renaming the sessionstore.js file to sessionstore.old, and then copy one of the available and promising-looking previous.js or recovery.js files to the main level and rename it sessionstore.js. Then start up Firefox and see whether you can restore that earlier session successfully.

I don't want firefox to restore sessions

All I read about is how to keep pages and restore - I DO NOT WANT THAT - when I close a page or tab I want it to be gone. This is a violation of my privacy!

See:
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Session_Restore
*https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Session+Restore

Usually after Firefox crashes I can restore session but sometimes it won't let me. Is there a way to restore a session once automatic option goes away?

1. Firefox crashes and an error message appears.
2. I open Firefox again.
3. Automatically Firefox asks if I want to restore the last session or start a new session.
4. Usually it works to restore a session, but at random times, it does not and the following happens.
5. I move the mouse toward the restore session button but don't quite get there when my usual home page opens.
Question: once this happens is there a way to get my old session back, like a place where you can manually request Firefox restart the last session?

did not have that extension installed, but did it now and can't find anything there that would concern tab groups. (also referred to as Panorama). This session manager seems to provide a lot of stuff that the browser is supposed to do anyhoo, but with more options of configuration. Hope extension and browser won't cause a mess while attempting to do both the same thing.
Yes, I know that Bookmark all tabs is still available via right click - after a google-search told me so. My feedback was - why remove functionality from the menu? It's really not overloaded - and I'd expect a menu listing me the complete set of functions a software allows me to do, unless it busts the menu. So I was just asking myself - how come it has been removed? Makes no sense to me.
Thanks for your reply.

Firefox crashes on loading; it's trying to restore a previous session. Can't retrieve crash report.

When I try to open Firefox, I briefly see the program trying to open -- the address line says "restore session." Then it crashes. I get a screen saying "We're sorry" "Firefox had a problem and crashed. We'll try to restore your tabs and windows when it restarts."
== This happened ==
Every time Firefox opened
== Today. I had received a message that I needed to restart my system. I think it was to install some type of updates. ==
== User Agent ==
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/4.0; GTB6.5; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 5.0; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; .NET4.0C)

''Seemed'' to be oerating normally is a good choice ow words. I too though the safe mode, plus not restoring session would solve my problem, but then opening certain tabs --I wan't really able to experiment much before a crash, but I thought may sign-in or automatic sign-in ones--it would crash again. I really like and miss Firefox, and wish I knew haow to revert back to the previous version before it automatically udated to Firefox 4...

Firefox crashes whenever I open a session restore. How do i fix this?

So, I am a tab hoarder I will admit that upfront. I have lots of tabs saved. Restore sessions within restore sessions... quite a few of them. But today I tried going through my restore sessions and my browser crashed. I attempted a million things to fix it, but whenever i try and open the restore session it crashes firefox. I even tried taking the profile and moving it to a different computer to see if it would make a difference, but it didnt. Can you help me fix this please?

Hey, I apologize for the delay on this, please make a copy of the sessionrestore.js file before opening Firefox again. This will save the tabs that were in the previous session.
First try about:sessionrestore page with the sessionrestore.bak file.
Technical elaboration
"Firefox typically renames sessionstore.js to sessionstore.bak when starting up in a new session so sessionstore.bak contains your old session and a fresh sessionstore.js contains your new session. This means that normally there is only one previous session available at any given time. (Occasionally due to file locks or other rare problems, Firefox may create files named sessionstore-1.js, sessionstore-2.js, and so forth.) "
There are two things you can do the next time you open FIrefox: you can replace the sessionrestore.back file while it is closed first, or when you open it you can immediately go to History > Restore previous session.
Or a last resort, add hoc way of extracting the urls from the file is elaborated on in this forum thread [http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=622036&start=60]
For the meantime, this [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/session-manager/ Session Manager Add on] helps save and restores sessions after crashes.
However, the issue with the crash seems to crash at a few places. There are 44 threads in some of them which just means it was starting each of those windows on the start up.

5.0.1 Firefox, application froze then crashed. Restarted it, but no 'restore session' and i've lost all my tabs. Help please?!?!

Can anyone help please?
5.0.1 Firefox, application froze then crashed. Restarted it, but no 'restore session' and i've lost all my tabs. Help please?!?!
Done config:restoresession, and nothing.

There shouldn't be any numbered sessionstore-##.js in the Firefox Profile Folder
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
The presence of such files usually indicates that that was a problem with accessing the main sessionstore.js file that prevented Firefox from renaming the temp file with the number.<br />
In this case you may be lucky that the file with the highest number may have that session.<br />
You can try to rename the file sessionstore-3.js to sessionstore.js to see if that brings back the lost tabs.
If you use the Time Machine then you can try to restore a copy of sessionstore.js from around the time that you lost that session.

Firefox wont restore my previous session, for the first time, and I need it back!

I use "restore previous session" religiously. Whenever i shut down, whether due to a problem or just normally, "restore previous session" is there and restores all my tabs. Sometimes after a crash, I get the "well, this is embarrassing" but when I click OK on that dialog to try anyway, it always restores.
There have been a few times in the past when, for no apparent reason, "restore previous session" was greyed out when I restarted. My thankful workaround for this has been to open the library folder on my Mac, locate the Firefox folder in Application Support folder, select the "qqfh38jn.default" folder, go into Time Machine and replace that folder. Or sometimes I go INTO that folder and select "sessionstore.js" and This has always worked, and I breathe a sigh of relief when I restart Firefox and "restore previous session" is available and I can get all my tabs back (even if a few hours' worth of "opens and closes" are missing).
Tonight I had to restart my computer because of a memory problem (got a system error that the OS was out of memory, which strangely happens once in a while). But I was able Firefox quit normally (i didnt have to force quit) and I restarted he computer. Safari started up normally and restored all of my tabs there, even though ironically Safari had hung and had to be force quit.
I am researching a writing project and had six or seven Firefox windows open with 10-25 tabs each (yes, I do this all the time, for years now, and it isnt usually a problem, so no judgment please). I NEED THOSE TABS BACK DESPERATELY. Reconstructing them from history would be excruciating if it could even be done. (In the past, not everything seems to be in history in the order I want it; what I'd want is all of the tabs in the order they opened last time.)
I've lost a lot of time on this already. I would be losing many many hours of work if I cant get those tabs back. if anyone can help re what happened, what is going on, and most of all how I can use Time Machine or a backup (or ANYTHING) to hopefully find the hidden file that saved/recorded my last session, I would be deeply appreciative. Going back a few hours or even days in Time Machine would help.
Thanks so much!
Samantha.

Yes, that's the problem (sorry, I wasnt clear)—when I go to Time Machine, there IS no sessionrestore.js file in any of the previous folders any more (???) and if I try to just replace the whole "qqfh38jn.default" folder, it is greyed out and wont let me. (It has let me do this before.) I tried replacing the sessionstore backups folder—it lets me do that—fro several of the last few backups, but when I reopen Firefox there is still no previous session to restore. :(
Why would there be no sessionrestore.js file in my recent backups? It was always there before.

How to restore a previous sesstion when Firefox crashes

How to restore a previous sessions, when Firefox crashes?

Usually, Firefox restores automatically the previous session at startup when it crashed. If not, try History menu -> Restore previous session.

Firefox just updated to 5.0.1 when it opens it opens two tabs, one a restore session tab and the other Firefox home tab. Nothing appears in the restore tab and everything freezes. Only way to get out is to ctrl, alt, del.

After updating to Firefox 5.0.1 and trying to open Firefox, it opens two tabs. One is the restore session tab and the other is the Firefox home tab. Nothing opens in the session restore tab and once the Firefox home tab loads the browser screen freezes with no crash ID's listed. The only way to get out is thru the task manager and ending the process. Firefox worked fine before updating.

Hi glivezey,
Try typing ''about:home'' into the address bar. Is that the page you are looking for? If so, go to ''Tools > Options > General'' and save it as your homepage. If that home page doesn't show up the next time you start Firefox, you should look at [[Preferences are not saved]].
Hopefully this helps!

Does firefox create multiple restore sessions and save them?

Sometimes my computer crashes twice in a row, or things happen similar to this. When this happens, the "Restore Session" is not available on the history dropdown menu. Why is that? Is there a way to make this happen? No way can I go through the total history - thousands of websites and some don't say what they are when looking at the URL or title. I don't want to save all the time - this is a basic function that could easily be done automatically.
Is there a solution to this?

Firefox should not be crashing, if t is maybe that is something to investigate.
Firefox does try to save Restore Sessions, but if you close down incorrectly or crash frequently they are going to get messed up.
Always try to close correctly, which on an XP will be by using the File option (Newer Windows sytems have the quit option under the new Firefox Button)
Have a look at the article
* [[Restore previous session - Configure when Firefox shows your most recent tabs and windows]]
* and also possibly consider [[firefox hangs#w_delete-duplicated-session-restore-files]]_delete-duplicated-session-restore-files
If you are getting crashes see [[firefox crashes]]

Firefox crashed with no dialog box, none of my tabs were restored.

Firefox crashed with no dialog box. It just stopped responding and disappeared. When I re-opened it, none of my tabs were restored - just my homepage. I had about 10-15 active tabs that I was working on. I'm not too concerned about the crash, but I AM concerned about restoring my lost tabs. Some are old tabs (ie, months old but I still use them and go back to them), so I'd be digging through months of histry trying to find them or remember what they were.

See Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory > Open Containing folder
If you do not have a sessionstore file in the [http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox Firefox Profile Folder] then your crashed session is lost.
Session restore works more reliable if you choose Tools > Options > General > Startup: "When Firefox Starts": "Show my windows and tabs from last time"
See also http://kb.mozillazine.org/Session_Restore
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup

Firefox crashed while automatically downloadingthe latest version, and when I reopened it, it did not give me the option of restoring my lost tabs. Is there any way to recover them now?

I don't know what more details to offer. The browser crashed, all my open tabs were lost, and when I restarted Firefox, it did not give me the option of restoring the tabs. I really want them back. Is there any way to roll back and recover them?

That gripes me to no end, as well. You might think Mozilla could think this one through, at least to the point of realizing there should be a manual means to recover open tabs NOT restored automatically after a routine FireFox crash.
And if Mozilla cannot stabilize FireFox, it will keep losing users back to IE.
The epidemic of crashes seemed to begin when FireFox "improved" itself with the idea of running 3rd party plugins in a "container", which is still far from reliable. I must run SysInternals Process Explorer at least once per Windows session to keep FireFox from destroying itself.
Aside from FireFox being so unstable, Mozilla should show some concern for users and make the manual restore option very plain from the UI-- such as "RESTORE OPEN TABS LOST SINCE THE LAST (*&&!!! FIREFOX CRASH"
Presumably-- and that may presume too much-- Mozilla leaves the open tabs "log" in place during each update. If that record of open tabs remains untouched from update to update, then why does FireFox screw up, update after update, and routinely fail to recover all tabs?
You might think someone at Mozilla would realize something is wrong. I have let Mozilla "phone home" after each crash, and yet the problem continues.

When firefox crashes it not restoring my tabs I once had up ? :(

when firefox crashes it not restoring my tabs I once had up ? :(

You can use this button to go to the Firefox profile folder:
*Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Open Containing Folder
If you get that "Well, this is embarrassing" window then that means that Firefox has crashed more than once and there should be a sessionstore.js and sessionstore.bak file.
See also:
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Session_Restore
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Session+Restore

Firefox crashes; restore session unretrievable?

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