Question

Firefox Restore Sessions recovery

Asked by: shaunwingin

Say, I have about 15 firefox windows with many tabs. Firefox crashed and offered to restore the sessions. I Didn't do so but continued to work. It crashed again and offered to restore sessions but this time only displayed the new tabs. Can I get back the previos 15 windows or so....?

C:\Documents and Settings\admin\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ez4c4uc8.default
Has a file sessionstore.bak - would they be in here?

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Asked On
2009-11-03 at 23:43:08ID24870018
Topics

Firefox Web Browser

,

Mozilla Web Browser

,

Disaster Recovery

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
9

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Answers

 

by: pramodbugudaiPosted on 2009-11-03 at 23:48:14ID: 25737205

Hi. The tabs you can't get automatically if you lost once. but you can get the sites you opened.
The procedure is menu history -> Show all history. it give you another dialog listed with last visited sites+ time + details etc.

 

by: shaunwinginPosted on 2009-11-03 at 23:59:51ID: 25737244

Tx, but I'm interested in my 15 windows....

 

by: pramodbugudaiPosted on 2009-11-04 at 00:51:53ID: 25737470

That dialog will give you in details all the sites you browsed on particular dates like today, yesterday,last 7 days etc.

 

by: shaunwinginPosted on 2009-11-04 at 02:41:50ID: 25738001

Tx I know. The sites I'm after span about 6 months. I'm trying to get back the automatic Firefox restore option... Please can you try direct this query to Firefox themselves...

 

by: pramodbugudaiPosted on 2009-11-04 at 03:46:25ID: 25738334

Ok. Tnks. Surely I will do that.

 

by: mtz1of4Posted on 2009-11-05 at 05:19:17ID: 25749068

First thing to do is stop using this Firefox Profile, until you recover what you are looking for.  Especially if you haven't made a copy of the profile yet. If you continue to use and Crash, it will overwrite your history, which it very well already could have done.

What are the dates of your sessionstore.bak? and how many do you have? And how often is firefox crashing?  

 

by: mtz1of4Posted on 2009-11-05 at 05:30:45ID: 25749175

Sorry,  you are out of luck.  From http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?locale=tr&comments_parentId=284674&forumId=1#threadId284700

"There is one sessionstore.bak which is automatically created, it gets overwritten everytime Firefox closes. sessionstore.bak is just a copy of the previous sessionstore.js"


Sounds like you might want to get in the habit of Bookmark All Tabs, if you are counting on Firefox to keep all of your browsing history automatically. Another option is to extend your History, but it will only work going forward, it won't recover  the past.  Go to Tools->Options->Privacy->History and select  "Use Custom Settings for History which gives you a new view. Change the default days of 90 to a higher number, keeping in mind, that will add more files to your system (cache), so if it's already slow, it will continue to get slower.





 

by: shaunwinginPosted on 2009-11-05 at 05:48:48ID: 25749354

Tx. I have the sessionstore.bak with the info. Link you sent doesn't answer this question below.... Any ideas?
"I have done whatever suggested above, i.e., renaming sessionstore.bak to sessionstore.js. But the firefox opens itself as if there's no old session. The tab for 'Restore session' or 'Start new session' simply doesn't pop up and the firefox turns on a new session automatically. What can I do to force firefox to read the recovered sessionstore.js and let me choose 'Restore session'?

 

by: mtz1of4Posted on 2009-11-05 at 06:14:19ID: 25749615

You cannot Force Firefox to offer you the Restore Session option simply by copying that file. It may be a multiple step process if you aren't using the Options->General->HomePage When Firefox Starts->Show My Windows and Tabs from Last Time.


1.  Are you working inside your Profile folder while Firefox is running or not?  You shouldn't be.
2. Make sure you have "I have the sessionstore.bak with the info." copy someplace where it won't get overwritten (not In your profile folder at the moment)
3. Open Firefox and set your homepage as Options->General->HomePage When Firefox Starts->Show My Windows and Tabs from Last Time.
4. Close and make sure Firefox is not running at all.
5. Go to your profile folder and delete the sessionstore.js.
6. Copy your sessionstore.bak to that same location (profile folder).
7. Rename the sessionstore.bak to sessionstore.js
8. Close Profile Folder.
9. Open Firefox - you should be presented with the Windows and tabs that are in that sessionstore.

If not, then you don't have the correct sessionstore.bak, and unless you have a backup copy somewhere else, like on your external backup drive,  I don't think I can help.


Note: there is also a Bug regarding Session Restore not working after forced lockup. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=501995
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Session_Restore

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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