Firefox restores previous session when set to show home page.

Firefox restores the previous session when it is set to show the home page. It even does this after I restart. I have never had it set to restore the previous session. This is a screenshot of my settings right after I open them (before I change them).
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/17788313/Images/firefox-settings.PNG

This suggests that Firefox actually is crashing during shutdown. To prevent Firefox from automatically resuming your last session after a crash, you can change a setting.
(1) In a new tab, type or paste '''about:config''' in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.
(2) In the filter box, type or paste '''resume''' and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Double-click '''browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes''' and set the value to 0. You're done in about:config.
After future crashes, when you restart Firefox, it should present you with a list of the windows and tabs you had open during your previous session so you can choose which, if any, to restore.

Similar Messages

How can I add the Restore Previous Session button to a custom home page?

Just lost my full post, so, sorry for the abruptness.
Here's what I have:
<pre><nowiki><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html [
<!ENTITY % htmlDTD
PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
%htmlDTD;
<!ENTITY % globalDTD SYSTEM "chrome://global/locale/global.dtd">
%globalDTD;
<!ENTITY % aboutHomeDTD SYSTEM "chrome://browser/locale/aboutHome.dtd">
%aboutHomeDTD;
<!ENTITY % browserDTD SYSTEM "chrome://browser/locale/browser.dtd" >
%browserDTD;
]>
<HTML>
<button class="launchButton" id="restorePreviousSession">&historyRestoreLastSession.label;</button>
</HTML></nowiki></pre>
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

If someone can tell me this forum's tags for posting code, I'll gladly correct my original post so you can correctly see the code that I'm using. >.<

How do I Restore previous session when I have it setup correctly and it did not restore from last session? I have General is set to Show my windows .....

How do I Restore previous session when I have it setup correctly and it did not restore from last session? I have General is set to Show my windows and tabs from last time and Privacy set to remember history.
These to pages do NOT apply: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-previous-session
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-restore-my-tabs-last-time
There is No option to restore previous session when I go into History. There is No Recent history in the History. It will show my history if I click on show History, but it won't restore it!

Hi StuckAtHomeMom
try in PRIVACY panel to set : Firefox will: Use custom settings for history and :
Uncheck: [ ] "Always use private browsing mode"
Uncheck: [ ] "Clear history when Firefox closes"
check everything else and in Accept third-party cookies, set Keep until: they expire
thank you
Please mark "Solved" the answer that really solve the problem, to help others with a similar problem.

I want to Firefox resume previous session when it crashes, but I can't make it to do it when I set it to forget my personal data when closing.

Until the most recent versions of Firefox (let's say FF 10 or 11), when the software crashed I had the option to resume the last session when reopening it. I could do this even when I made it clear all my personal data when closing it in normal ways (i.e., when I quit the program without crashing, Firefox would not keep any personal information).
Now, however, Firefox will only restore the previous session after crashing if I don't make it clear personal data after normal quitting.
How can I fix this? I want it to restore previous session only after crashing, not after a normal exit.

Use these steps to remove saved (form) data from a drop down list:
#Click the (empty) input field on the web page to open the drop down list
#Highlight an entry in the drop down list
#Press the Delete key (on Mac: Shift+Delete) to remove it.
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Deleting_autocomplete_entries
See also:
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Clear+Recent+History
Did you disable to remember form data if you do not want Firefox to remember it? 
Be aware that you still have to remove already saved form data in that case via Clear Recent History.
*Tools > Options > Privacy > History: "Remember search and form history"
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Form+autocomplete

How do I make firefox restore previous session every time it crashes?

I really like the "restore previous session" window that shows up sometimes when firefox crashes, being able to pick and choose which tabs and windows to reopen. My question is are there any add-ons or ways of making it so this happens every time I have to reopen firefox? Right now it only does it occasionally, other times it automatically reopens every tab loading them as I go which makes the process of finding which windows I want and getting back up to speed much lengthier. This is quite an annoyance because you'd think after force quiting firefox would default to this every time, but usually it reopens every tab and I have to try and purposely crash the browser hoping I'll get the "restore previous session" window. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Yes, you can. Firefox will try to automatically restore once. If that fails, then it gives you the screen to choose. To prevent automatic restoration and always go straight to that windows/tabs list, change a setting here:
(1) In a new tab, type or paste '''about:config''' in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.
(2) In the search box in that tab, type or paste '''sessions''' and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Double-click '''browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes''' and change the 1 to a 0 (a zero) and OK that.
(4) You can close this tab now.
Hopefully you won't need to test it any time soon -- if you are crashing a lot, we should try to figure out how to stop that.

Should I "restore previous session" when that one was a viral link which emptied my computer email files?; if not how do a delete that message?

I just opened a link in an email message. It, in turn opened another. I suspected a virus, and did a virus scan. Now when I try to re-open my computer's email program it asks me to create a new account with a new password. I suspect all my email files are lost. And when I open Firefox it asks if I want to "restore previous session", but that one could be the viral link. How do I delete the "restore... message?

Set the pref [http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes 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.
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
See also:
* https://wiki.mozilla.org/Session_Restore#Preferences
You can also delete the file sessionstore.js in the Firefox Profile Folder to prevent a session from getting restored, but that will also remove the App Tabs and Tab Groups that are stored in the same file.
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/sessionstore.js

Can I avoid having "Restore Previous Session" box when launching?

After opening Firefox and then closing it normally (with the red X or using File | Exit), then the next time I open Firefox there is a blue window in the lower middle of the screen to "Restore Previous Session." What if I don't want that window there? There was no fault, no crash of any kind. I've disabled the "restore session after crash" but that didn't help.
I do want the browser to remember my browsing history to help fill in the address bar.

Firefox 4 saves the previous session automatically, so there is no longer need for the dialog asking if you want to save the current session. 
Use "File > Exit" or "Firefox > Exit" if you want to restore multiple windows. 
You can use "Firefox > History > Restore Previous Session" to get the previous session at any time. 
There is also a "Restore Previous Session" button on the default about:home Home page. 
Firefox 4 uses a new build-in home page called about:home
That about:home page only shows some snippets and has a button to restore the previous session if applicable.
If you want a home page without the Restore Previous Session then set another page as the home page like www.google.com or www.google.com/firefox used in Firefox 3 versions.

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. '''

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 I restore a previous session when the Firefox homepage does NOT have the "restore" button and it is grayed out in the menu? menu

My Firefox homepage had a "Restore Previous Session" button but it has disappeared. SO when my Firefox crashes I lose all my tabs and tab groups, and this is very inconvenient. I have checked through all the "Options" seeing if there is some button there to enable this feature, but to no avail. I am frustrated as after a crash I spend hours revisiting all my links in my History menu to reset my tabs. Can you help?

In case you are using "Clear history when Firefox closes":
*do not clear the Browsing History
*Tools > Options > Privacy > Firefox will: "Use custom settings for history": [X] "Clear history when Firefox closes" > Settings
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Clear+Recent+History
Note that clearing "Site Preferences" clears all exceptions for cookies, images, pop-up windows, software installation, and passwords.
Clearing cookies will remove all specified (selected) cookies including cookies that have an allow exception and cookies from plugins.

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.

Session Restore isn't working!!!!!!!! Both my mac laptop and Windows 7 desktop no longer respond when I click "restore previous session" Please get this fixed asap, as it is my most used feature on FireFox!

System Restore is not working!!! Both my mac laptop and now my Windows 7 desktop will not allow me to restore previous sessions.

Try to use the "Restore Previous Session" entry in the History menu instead.
See also:
*[[/questions/892970#answer-271366]]

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.

No restore previous session option available and can't find sessionstore.js in latest firefox version.

After a crash, I turned on my firefox to find the restore previous session option greyed out. So I go to my profile folder to find no sessionstore.js file, I assumed this is because the lastest firefox made changes to where the session store is stored now. Where is the session stored now and is there anyway I can restore my previous session? I really need it.

Firefox still uses the sessionstore.js file in the profile folder.
Only the sessionstore.bak file in no longer used and has been replaced by backups and previous versions in the sessionstore-backups folder.
You can check browser.sessionstore.* prefs including browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash on the about:config page and reset browser.sessionstore prefs that are user set (bold) via the right-click context menu to the default value to make sure that Session Restore is enabled and working properly.
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Session_Restore
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/restore-previous-session
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash
You can also try this startup setting:
*Tools > Options > General > Startup: "Show my windows and tabs from last time"

The restore previous session button is not working on Firefox on any of my three machines. How can I fix this?

I have a desktop at work, and a desktop and laptop at home and just recently the "restore previous session" button that comes up when I use the desktop icon to start a Firefox Web browser session does not work. It is there and I click it but nothing happens. I have Windows 7 on the two computers at home and thought that is what I had on this computer at work, but it may be Vista. It's not XP.

Had this trouble myself, just did some research and solved it!
Go to the '''Help''' menu, go to "'''Troubleshooting Information'''"
On the new window, click "'''Open Containing folder'''" next to ''Profile Directory'' (This opens the folder on your PC where Mozilla stores some settings, like a tab history)
In the new Windows Explorer window, Find the file "'''chromeappsstore.sqlite'''"
You'll want to close Firefox and then '''delete''' that file (don't worry, Firefox will create a new one, and you won't even lose the open tabs)
Start Firefox again and the button should work!
(For completeness's sake, the profile folder for windows7 is: C:\Users\Tiberion\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\c6xu23fh.default\
where you replace Tiberion with your own username, and the random characters in the final folder will be different.)

Firefox restores previous session when set to show home page.

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