Did you accidentally reset your Firefox browser and so, you think, lost the opportunity, after closing and reopening Firefox, to recover tabs or windows or pages you had open in Firefox before you closed it?
This most often happens when you close Firefox, planning to reopen it and restore tabs and windows, but before you get a chance to do that you click on a link in an email or text message, and suddenly Firefox reopens to that link.
Usually if you close, or force close, Firefox, when you reopen it directly, you will see something like this:
…from which you can restore your previous Firefox session:
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Now the above is what you usually see if you close Firefox (or if it closes itself on you) and then click on the Firefox icon to reopen Firefox.
But what happens if, after you close Firefox (or it closes), and before you get a chance to intentionally reopen it, you click on a link in an email or a message, and accidentally cause Firefox to open and load the link that you clicked?
In our experience this most often happens when you get an email or message with a link in it and you just click on it without thinking.
For example, Firefox is closed, and you get an email from Amazon with a link in it to track a package.
And you automatically click it, and this happens:
Ruh roh! No ‘restore’ option!
So then you open a new tab, hoping to see the Firefox start page with the restore option, but no such luck.
But, guess what! There really is still a restore option, it’s just hidden away.
How to Restore Firefox Windows or Tabs after Closing and Accidentally Reopening Firefox
The secret to restoring tabs, pages or windows after closing Firefox and not having the Firefox Start page with the restore option is in the Firefox History dropdown.
When you click on ‘History’, you will see, in the dropdown, ‘Restore Previous Session’.
When you click on ‘Restore Previous Session’…voila! You will get a new tab with the Restore Previous Session option..er…restored.
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The Internet Patrol is and always has been free. We don't hide our articles behind a paywall, or restrict the number of articles you can read in a month if you don't give us money. That said, it does cost us money to run the site, so if something you read here was helpful or useful, won't you consider donating something to help keep the Internet Patrol free? |
These options do not work in Firefox 75. I also had Panarama Group Tabs, with a bunch of hidden tabs. I had a window with a survey opened, and closed FF without closing that first: all of my tabs were gone. Every one. Even the Hidden tabs within the group tabs.
Firefox is trash now. They sued to be so awesome, until they switched to Web-something. Extensions are always breaking and restoring sessions is becoming even more problematic. It’s like they WANT you to use Chrome