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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.
All Replies (4)
Thank you for the crash ID. It is linked to a bug that talks about a huge session restore as a possible problem. I'm going to suggest trying to fake out Firefox into thinking it's a normal session resumption.
(1) Back up sessionstore.js and sessionstore.bak
- From Windows Explorer or the start menu search box, open this folder (you can copy and paste):
%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
- Then click into your currently active folder (there might be only one, or it's probably the most recent) and copy the sessionstore files and paste them somewhere safe (e.g., Documents folder).
(2) Back in your profile folder, with Firefox closed, rename sessionstore.js to sessionstore.old
(3) Restart Firefox, then exit again.
(4) Back in your profile folder, delete the new sessionstore.js and rename sessionstore.old to sessionstore.js
(5) Restart Firefox -- does it resume automatically bypassing the crash recovery screen? If not, can you use History > Restore Previous Session?
Hello jscher2000,
Thanks for your advice. I followed all of these steps, but Firefox continues to crash in the same way before I can anything on that screen.
In regards to 5), one session did stay open yesterday but History > Restore Previous Session was not available, although the tab that opens with Firefox is the 'about session restore' tab although it crashes immediately and I am not able to keep the page open long enough to try anything.
Are there any further steps I can take?
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 Error Console Browser Console (Ctrl+Shift+j), click next to Code the caret (>>) and paste, then press Enter or click Evaluate
(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 Error Browser Console now.
Ilungisiwe
Hello jscher2000,
The Mozilla Crash Reporter keeps coming up, and I restart Firefox from there, but it keeps crashing seconds after it opens, after saying Not Responding. Basically, I can't keep Firefox open or stable to try anything further.
Sometimes when I attempt to restart it that way, it seems as though it will work, then gets an 'unresponsive script' and before I can choose to stop it or continue it, the page crashes again.
Do you have any further ideas?
Thanks so much.