How to do a manual session restore

Hi Everyone! Firefox froze and I had to quit (through task manager) and when I tried to get back in I needed a Session Restore. Unfortunately the option is greyed out and I didn't get the "oops this is embarrassing" screen or anything. I had a crud ton of tabs open (so I can't go through the history and simply restore the tabs- some of them had been open for quite awhile so they're not "recent" anymore anyway) and I do need them back for some things I was working on. I read a few of the forums here but I wasn't sure what everyone was talking about with renaming files and folders and where to look. I was hoping I could get step-by-step instructions that would be like "here is the answer for idiots/a baby." Any thoughts?

The presence of a sessionstore file with a number (sessionstore-1.js) indicates that at one time there has been a problem with accessing sessionstore.js and that Firefox wasn't able to rename sessionstore-1.js to sessionstore.js
You can see by the file date of sessionstore-1.js when that has happened and if it an old file then you can remove it or you can try to copy that file to sessionstore.js to see which session it brings back.
Make a backup copy of all sessionstore.* files elsewhere to be sure that you do not lose a session before doing that.

Similar Messages

How do I PREVENT tabs/sessions restoring when restarting Firefox after a forced close/crash?

So... I'm running, say, a Google search, and I click on a link I think will be useful. But unfortunately, I've been taken! I get redirected to some scary Website I don't want to be at. I try to close the page, but a dialogue box pops up saying, "But wait! Don't you want to download our dangerous trojan horse? Y/Y?"
I don't want to click ANYWHERE on the dialogue box for fear of making the stupid situation I've gotten myself into worse. I can't close Firefox because it's "waiting for a response from you" so I force-close it from Task Manager. Whew!
EXCEPT then when I restart Firefox, it "helpfully" tries to restore my session... with the scary site with the scary dialogue box.
If I force a close a second time with Task Manager, Firefox fails to restore it again, so I can continue on my merry way and remember to be more careful on my searches, but it's damned annoying when it happens!
How do I make Firefox NOT want to restore sessions/tabs? All support info is about ENSURING session restoring, not prevent it!
And frankly, I can't think of a single time I'd actually want to restore a session after a crash. Worse comes to worse I'd rather just start from scratch anyway.
This doesn't happen often (I like to think I'm not entirely a moron and can avoid obviously harmful sites most of the time), but it's annoying when it does. I can keep Task-Manager closing until it won't restore, but I'd rather just have nothing restore at all!

You can do this by changing a hidden preference.
# Type '''about:config''' into the location bar and press enter
# Accept the warning message that appears, you will be taken to a list of preferences
# In the filter box type '''resume''' to bring up a small number of preferences
# Double-click on the preference '''browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash''' to change its value to '''false'''
That change will stop Firefox trying to resume the session after a crash

How can I disable the session restore feature after I have closed the broweser window myself?

I don't want to disable ANY other feature at all (e.g. restoring session after a crash), I only want when I close Firefox and restart it to start new on my home page, without any restored tabs whatsoever. I have tried everything on about:config and it won't seem to do the trick.
This is a big privacy concern and I'm really puzzled why Firefox was programmed this way without an easily accessible option to change it.

hello kayjay76, this sounds like a problem caused by some sort of adware on your pc. please go to ''firefox > addons > extensions'' & remove any suspicious entries (toolbars, things that you have not installed intentionally, don't know what purpose they serve, etc). also go to the windows control panel / programs and remove all toolbars or potentially unwanted software from there and run a full scan of your system with the security software that you have in place and different other tools like the [http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free free version of malwarebytes] & [http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/ adwcleaner].
[[Remove a toolbar that has taken over your Firefox search or home page]]
[[Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware]]

How can I do a Session Restore after a crash from a week or so ago (i.e. not most recent)

After a recent FF crash (Vsn 13.0.1 - I know) on the next start up it asked if I wanted to restore session, said yes - then realised all previous tabs were missing. Shut down and re-started nothing happened so checked Task List and found multiple versions (2) of FF in memory - ended those sessions.
Tried to rename/re-use sessionstore.js and sessionrestore.bak but didn't contain tabs wanted, so I need to know if there is a way to 'undelete' previous sessionrestore.js files and use the one from a week or so ago to restore the tabs from then? I presume the same renaming procedure is used - could someone direct me to the procedure to do this?
Thanks.

I can find multiple (deleted) Sessionstore.js files with different dates and times in the n33mpvib.default folder, in 'good' condition. I have tried to save 1 from last week (to a different drive, E:) and then renamed sessionstore.js to *.old and copied in the recovered sessionstore.js from E: into n33mpvib.default folder, and restarted FF - didn't work.
I can see all the tabs I had previously opened in the History, but can't remember which were still open (active) at the time of the crash.
Is there something I am not doing correctly in the first paragraph procedure?

Is there any way to do a manual session restore if Firefox doesn't open your previous session - and doesn't give you that option?

I've got Firefox configured correctly and it always opens my last session. However, sometimes when the computer crashes and a second Firefox window is open (this time it was either a pop-up window or the Firefox update window), Firefox only recognizes that window as the "last session," and it loses the most recent multi-tab session. (Hmm, maybe what I need is "re-open recent sessionS" or "last multi-tab session" ?!)
Anyway ... is there any way I can retrieve yesterday's open tabs without picking through my history and finding them one-by-one?

The presence of a sessionstore file with a number (sessionstore-1.js) indicates that at one time there has been a problem with accessing sessionstore.js and that Firefox wasn't able to rename sessionstore-1.js to sessionstore.js
You can see by the file date of sessionstore-1.js when that has happened and if it an old file then you can remove it or you can try to copy that file to sessionstore.js to see which session it brings back.
Make a backup copy of all sessionstore.* files elsewhere to be sure that you do not lose a session before doing that.

How to DISABLE post-crash session restore?

I'm not sure whose idea it was to remove (or move) the configurable option that controls this.
HINT: when Firefox crashes with 40+ windows or tabs open, not only do I NOT want my computer to have an aneurysm trying to re-open them all simultaneously after a crash, BUT SURPRISINGLY ENOUGH, forcing the browser to re-open all of the pages it was browsing when it crashed seems to INVITE THE PROGRAM TO CRASH AGAIN.
("Oh, you crashed while loading that page? Well then let's automatically open the exact same page after you've recovered from the crash!")

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 the other tabs.
See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Session_Restore#Restoring_a_session_after_a_crash
Load Tabs Progressively: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/91919/

My new version of Firefox crashes as soon as it opens, even in safe mode, at the 'restore session' page. How can I get that session back?

I updated to the newest version of Firefox and restarted the internet. When it reopened the browser, it had the 'about session restore' tab open, but when I clicked on it, it crashed. I've restarted the computer three times to no avail.
The browser opens, then says 'Not Responding' before you can click on anything, then crashes.
The Mozilla Crash Reporter appears, and I click to restart (or quit - same results) then it suggests to open in safe mode, which I do, but the same thing happens repeatedly and I get nowhere.
It wasn't even generating a crash report but finally one went through to my email: bp-0a80049a-6643-452d-b3b2-d8c622130823.
I want to restore my previous version, as I had tabs open that I need to go back to.
Could you please advise me how to proceed?
Thank you.

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 do I disable the bleeping RESTORE PREVIOUS SESSION box

Every time I open Firefox, the RESTORE PREVIOUS SESSION box appears - even if there has been no crash. I've tried the about:config fix and it made absolutely no difference. Please tell me how to get rid of this feature without having to delete all my browsing history every time I turn off my computer.

If you want to completley disable session restore about:config
set browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo and browser.sessionstore.max_windows_undo to 0
Then Options > General > When Firefox Starts select home or blank tab.
Set browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash to false to stop it restoring after a crash.

How to Stop Firefox 18 From Restoring the Previous Session After a Crash

Firefox 18.0.1 running on Windows 7
When Firefox crashes, the next time it opens it tries to restore the previous session. I do not want Firefox to restore the previous session after a crash. How do I prevent Firefox from restoring the previous session after a crash?
Please note:
1- My home page is set to "blank page"
2- I have configured Firefox to NOT remember my browsing history, download history, form fields and passwords.
3- Even in Safe Mode (i.e., with all add-ons disabled), Firefox STILL restores the previous session after a crash.

hello Bulldogger, please try the following in order to switch off sessionrestore completely: enter '''about:config''' into the firefox location bar (confirm the info message in case it shows up) & search for the preferences named '''browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo''' and '''browser.sessionstore.max_windows_undo'''. double-click on those entries and change both of their values to '''0'''.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.sessionstore.max_windows_undo

Didn't restore last session following a foxfire update and install, I need the last session restored, how?

the computer shut down sometime in the middle of the night, maybe a windows update- how knows. There was a foxfire update install pending. When I got to the computer this morning I had to restart foxfire and it did the install. But I never had a "restore last session" question or opportunity from foxfire. Favorites is OLD information, not what I use day in, day out; I use the tabs for that. I need last session restored.
== This happened ==
Not sure how often
== this morning (last night)

That's not a lot of help, corel. 'It's gone.'
May 2012 and it's still happening, especially after a version upgrade; that's not anything like a crash, it's just an upgrade, handled by the user. But the programmers seem so preoccupied with their creation that they fail to notice that a close of one version and an opening of a new is just an ordinary operation to a user [if you're an administrator]. We expect stopping and starting to work, and our last sessions to be remembered over that 'great divide'.
What's so radical about respecting a user's environment?
Not pretty, Mozilla.

Firefox crashed and now when I try to open it, all it ever says is session restore and not responding. How do I stop this?

When I downloaded the latest version about a week ago, this started. Any time it is opened, it goes to session restore. When I click anywhere on the screen, the tab says not responding.

Try updating your QuickTime to the most recent version. Does that clear up the DEP errors in iTunes?

How stop youtube, swf files sound on session restore

On session restore, all hell breaks loose: every youtube, swf file sound blasts in cacophony; I thought the open tab only on select would fix this. Worse, I now have sound but no picture, so I unable to even find which tab is making all the noise.

I use Flashblock. Most YouTube videos are still Flash. That would help the situation a lot anyway.
* https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashblock/?src=search

Why are internal pages giving the error message "The address isn't valid" (New tab and session restore)?

Upon restarting firefox today, I was met not with the usual session restore page to which I have grown so accustomed, but an error page stating:
"The address isn't valid
The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded.
Web addresses are usually written like http://www.example.com/
Make sure that you're using forward slashes (i.e. /)."
This also appears when I open a new tab. I've lost all of former tabs (of which I had a TON) and my easy access to my most visited sites that new tab usually gives me. Manually punching in about:sessionrestore, about:welcomeback or about:newtab all give this same error message.
I've already tried restarting in safe mode, and have reset firefox through the troubleshooting page- neither helped in the slightest. In fact, I "fixed" the about:newtab by changing it to :blank instead, and that got reverted in the Reset. Did the most recent update change how the internal pages are handled or something?
I'd like to fix things back to how they're supposed to be. I end up having to reset Firefox about 5 times a day whenever it gets greedy with my memory, which has never been more than a minor annoyance thanks to the good system restore. But if I can't repair this then it may be time to move on.
Any ideas?

Hi.
I stated in my initial question that I already went through safe mode (and had also tried the theme thing), but regardless, I have tried again. No dice. They're still not fixing the problem.

Turn off session restore permanently

I want to turn off session restore permanently. Although I have set resume_from_crash to false several times, Firefox keeps setting it back to true.
Can I ask please specifically for an answer to the question - not a list of links to web pages that just happen to mention the terms 'session restore' but don't answer the question.

Do you want to prevent Firefox from storing session data at all, i.e., disable both automatic and manual restoration of the earlier session? Or do you want your choice about browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash to actually stick?
'''(1) Regarding preference changes that are overridden'''
Check out this article, particularly the part about the possible presence of a user.js file: [[How to fix preferences that won't save]].
If you find numerous settings being reset to default, consider whether you have any systemwide cleanup utilities such as CCleaner running which might be helping you out by doing that.
'''(2) Possible workaround: After a crash, view window and tab list screen instead of resuming automatically'''
To prevent Firefox from automatically resuming your entire previous session after a crash, you can display a screen with a list of windows/tabs to restore. This may be helpful to avoid problem pages.
(i) In a new tab, type or paste '''about:config''' in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.
(ii) In the filter box, type or paste '''session''' and pause while the list is filtered
(iii) Double-click '''browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes''' and change the value from 1 to 0 (that's a zero) and click OK.
'''(3) Remember nothing (also disables manual restore feature)'''
In about:config, set these to zero:
* browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo
* browser.sessionstore.max_windows_undo

I Can't Get Session Restore to Work Today

Session Restore has always worked fine for me until today. I have opened this question up in a second window as I don't want to risk closing the Restore Session window until I can get some advice. I have had a look on the forum for similar questions but I am a bit confused by the responses and I don't want to do anything which might be irreversible.
This is what happened. I got a popup for a new version of the AVG toolbar. I wasn't sure if I wanted to install it or not (I didn't like the look of the new version as it forces the choice of search engine and home page) so I clicked on Learn more and Firefox Immediately crashed, without bringing up a crash report panel. Note that I did NOT attempt to install the new version at all. I then tried to restart but when I clicked on the Restore button Firefox crashed again, bringing up the report panel, which I filled in. This repeated more than once so I decided to shutdown and restart my computer, which usually solves my problems. This did not work.. After restarting and attempting yet again to restore my session the Restore session window has hung completely and now just sits there.
I next did a FEBE backup (just in case it might be useful) and then I did a bit of reading on the forum to see what I could find out. That lead me to the file sessionrestore.js and this is where I get very confused. I can't seem to follow the instructions given in the other threads which touch on this topic but this is what I can find on my computer with Superfinder -
2014-08-27 12:18:16 39,909 KB sessionstore.bak C:\Documents and Settings\User_2\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\3e4h8dlg.default\
2014-08-27 12:18:16 39,909 KB sessionstore.bak C:\Users\User_2\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\3e4h8dlg.default\
2014-08-27 13:36:24 40,027 KB sessionstore.js C:\Documents and Settings\User_2\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\3e4h8dlg.default\
2014-08-27 13:36:24 40,027 KB sessionstore.js C:\Users\User_2\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\3e4h8dlg.default\
It looks like I could simply rename session store.bak to sessionstore.js but I am confused by the two occurrences of each file. Should I rename both of them? one or the other? How should I go about fixing this? Any tabs I have opened since the disaster are only those I am using to research this problem, so I could just bookmark them temporarily - even if I lose them it wont matter so much as long as I get my old tabs back. I will check back in a little while and see if anyone knows what I should do
Hoping to hear from you soon,
Jacq.
Edited to fix typo and add crash report addresses -
bp-d764067e-eb9d-44c5-8892-c66f82140827 27/08/2014 12:40 PM
bp-6b44917b-bf77-4404-adcc-cbbf12140827 27/08/2014 11:46 AM
bp-b82a7d99-399f-4922-b204-362ae2140827 27/08/2014 11:45 AM
bp-9b783c26-aba8-46fe-bbae-c7ae62140827 27/08/2014 11:33 AM
dded8bc3-cded-4c78-803e-d5f29b98768d 27/08/2014 11:24 AM!

Yes it is about 40 mg - I didn't know there was a size limit? How can I change that?

How to do a manual session restore

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