Firefox 24: Restore Session error

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Since installing Firefox 24, I have been getting a restore session error tab when starting FF.
It can happen first time after reboot/startup or at random times during use of the computer.
Usually the only tab open at the time of the previous close of FF is the new tab page display.
The image below is what I see:

If I press either the “Restore” or the “Close” buttons, Firefox will display the new tab display
and continue normally.

Has anyone else experienced this behavior and is there a way to stop it?

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Base options for this are under (Alt) Tools > Options > General tab > Startup > When Firefox starts:

You would need to select ‘Blank page’.

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I got the same message recently. Knowing I had closed all programs before shutting down, (as I always do) I treated it as a scam & used Task Manager to end process. To date, it has not reappeared.

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It is a little reassuring to hear that someone else has experienced this problem.

Satrow, using “about:newtab” is a legitimate start page that Mozilla suggested and I have been using since about release 17 when it was defined. This is the first time I have seen this behavior so I have to relate it to release 24 of Firefox.

Also, “about:newtab” is generated internally by Firefox, so it is not clear to me why it is trying to restore anything. I did not save multiple windows that had to be restored.

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Perhaps your Firefox profile has become corrupt? This becomes more likely the more times Firefox has been updated on the same profile.

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Is there any way to check the profile to see if it is corrupt, short of uninstalling/reinstalling and redoing all the options and about:config settings?

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No way that I know of to check a profile for corruption. Incorrectly uninstalled add-ons, for example, can leave behind settings that could cause issues at a later date.

Hold down the Shift key while you open Firefox next time and then create a new profile for testing purposes: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles

Profile Manager.

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I experienced the same problem which drove me crazy and made me switch back and forth between 24 and 23.0.1 whilst I researched for a solution to the problem. Eventually I found someone suggesting I change the startup page to ‘Show my home page’ in tools/options/general/startup when firefox starts and set my Home page to about:blank (since I always wanted to start with a blank page). In addition I also did the following as a workaround;

1. enter about:config (into the firefox location bar)
2. (confirm the info message in case it shows up)
3. search for the preference named;
4. browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash
5. double-click it and change its value to false.

I no longer have this problem and am again a very happy FF user. Trust this bit may help solve your problem as well.

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FYI, this is not new to the latest Firefox versions. I’ve seen it intermittently on both my desktop and my laptop since about version 18 or so. It generally seems to happen with a forced shutdown or system initiated reboot or power outage, all of which tells me it’s an issue when Firefox doesn’t shut down correctly.

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FYI, this is not new to the latest Firefox versions. I’ve seen it intermittently on both my desktop and my laptop since about version 18 or so. It generally seems to happen with a forced shutdown or system initiated reboot or power outage, all of which tells me it’s an issue when Firefox doesn’t shut down correctly.

In my case, it happens even when FF is shut down correctly. I don’t consider it a major problem. Yes, it has happened to me with earlier versions also.

Jim

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Yesterday the restore session error happened right after boot-up. It was very repeatable every time I started Firefox. I tried Satrow’s suggestion of holding the shift key when starting FF and going into safe mode – I still got the restore session error, so the add-on’s are not the problem.

At that point I had work to do and could not attempt an alternate profile (that is a confusing set of descriptions and dire warnings).

This morning when it happened again, I decided to try the suggestion offered by Watergeuz and changed “browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash” to false in about:config.

So far the problem has not occurred since this change. I will post back if this holds or if it fails.

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Try resetting Firefox to defaults: (Alt) Help > Troubleshooting information and click the Reset button on the top right side if it happens again.

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It looks like changing “browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash” to false in about:config corrects the Restore Session Error.

It has been 2 days since I made the change and I have not seen the error screen again. I have opened Firefox on several occasions, rebooted the computer, installed Microsoft updates (with reboot) without incident. The Firefox Help > “Health Report” says that I have 0 crashes, so I don’t know what the relationship is to this about:config value, but it seems to work.

P.S. I am still using about:newtab as my start page. The change described is the only change I made to Firefox.

Also, the error happened to me after normal shutdown of Firefox. I never had an abnormal shutdown as suggested by djbaxter.

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