Firefox 4 opens multiple windows (15-25) when opening and only once in a blue moon will remember the tabs from the previous session in the first of the multiple windows.
When I open Firefox 4 from either the icon or from a link from e-mail or some other place, multiple windows open up. Usually between 15 and 25 of them. I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate on both my laptop and desktop and have the same issue with both. I tried disabling the plug-ins one by one since they were all up-to-date, to no avail. My laptop has an upgraded version of Windows while my desktop has a clean install. I tried uninstalling Firefox 4 and going back to 3 and then the same thing started happening withe v3 when it wasn't before. Only sometimes, on rare occasions, will the first window that opens have my tabs from the previous session. Most times all the windows have one blank tab. The first one I can tell 'cause it does not have the orange Firefox menu button (since I'd chosen to show the Menu Bar) while the first window shows the menu bar. The troubleshooting info is from my laptop only.
All Replies (10)
This can be a problem with the files sessionstore.js and sessionstore.bak in the Profile Folder
Delete sessionstore.js and sessionstore.bak in the Profile Folder
- Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Open Containing Folder
If you see files sessionstore-##.js with a number in the left part of the name like sessionstore-1.js then delete those as well.
You will have to redo App Tabs and Tab Groups after deleting sessionstore.js.
See:
Thanks, cor-el. These instructions seemed to work. I appreciate this 'cause I couldn't find this answer anywhere.
You're welcome
Worked for a while but it started doing it again. Not as many as before, only 2-3 now, but the previous tabs are never saved. (*sigh*) Think I'm just gonna go back to 3.6.
Are you running Firefox in permanent Private Browsing - Use Firefox without saving history mode or use Delete browsing, search and download history on Firefox to clear the browsing history or other private data?
Did you check the profile folder for problems with the sessionstore files?
Do you have cleanup software (CCleaner) or other security software running that may cause problems with those files?
I have CCleaner but hadn't run it in a bit and I never had issues with it and Firefox 3.6 or earlier.
I've deleted the sessionstore files multiple times with the same results. Didn't help after the first time.
Haven't cleared the recent history since I installed v4 and don't run in private browsing mode or at least haven't tried it yet.
Some programs can still run on a scheduled base and clear data, so you may need to check that.
Unless the schedule it's running on is every single time I open Firefox (including closing it & reopening it right away), I don't think that's the case. Also, I don't have any of these issues on the PC I switched back to v3.6 on. That one runs smoothly whether I run Ccleaner, registry optimizers, clear the cache & history or whatever. I thought after you first gave me the answer of deleting the session files that they must've got corrupted during the upgrade, but it seems that v4 just doesn't do a good job of retaining or maintaining those files without getting them corrupt or something.
If this is not an issue with everyone & I'm having it on both my PCs, then v4 has an issue with something that I install on my PCs that, I guess, many others don't although I don't know what that could be and I use everything I install or have running. So, I'm just going back to what works without having to dismantle my config one prog at a time to try to find what v4 may be finicky about.
By the way, I did check & couldn't find any cleaners that run automatically on my PCs.
Modified by lordkinbote
Did you ever find a fix? I'm having the same problems with FF 4.
I've tried deleting those certain files just as the other poster said to but the problem always keeps coming back.
I deleted those things, ran a registry cleaner, cleared the cache and all that and then upgraded to 4.0.1 and I haven't had the problem since on either my laptop or my desktop.