452177 - Session restore data is often corrupt, should use Session Manager

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(Firefox :: Session Restore, defect)

Description

[Liam K.]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1

Before I installed Session Manager, my tabs weren't being saved. I kept getting a corruption error. If Firefox used the session restore of Session Manager by default, it would be much more dependable. I also like the "Save Session" and Undo Close Tab options. Why don't you replace the Firefox session restore with this extension by default?

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open a whole bunch of windows.
2. Kill Firefox.
3. Open Firefox; select to restore tabs.
Actual Results:  
I get a corrupt data error.

Expected Results:  
It should restore them in the same way as Session Manager.

I'm using the following extensions currently, but haven't tested Firefox's built-in session restore in quite a while:

Adblock Filterset.G Updater 0.3.1.3
Adblock Plus 0.7.5.5
Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper 1.0.5
ChatZilla 0.9.83
Fasterfox 2.0.0
FEBE 6.0
Firebug 1.2.0 [DISABLED]
FireFTP 1.0.2
Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer 2.1.0.14
Java Console 6.0.05
MinimizeToTray 0.0.1.2006102615+
Nightly Tester Tools 2.0.2
NoScript 1.7.9
OpenDownload 1.0.0
Prism for Firefox 0.2
RAMBack 1.0
Session Manager 0.6.1.13
Torbutton 1.2.0
Web Developer 1.1.6
wiki auto-discovery button 1.1
wikiHow Toolbar 1.1

I don't know whether to categorize this as Minor or Enhancement, as it is both.

Comment 1

[Simon Bünzli]

(In reply to comment #0)
> Before I installed Session Manager, my tabs weren't being saved.

This sounds like bug 435055.

> I kept getting a corruption error.

Where? What did the error say exactly? And are you sure that it isn't caused by one of your installed extensions?

> If Firefox used the session restore of Session Manager by
> default, it would be much more dependable.

Actually, Session Manager uses Firefox's built in Session Restore component, making this bug INVALID.

> I also like the "Save Session" and Undo Close Tab options.

"Save Session" is (among others) bug 416040 and Undo Close Tab can be found under History -> Recently Closed Tabs in vanilla Firefox.

Comment 2

[Liam K.]

Alright, I suppose I didn't really think about this bug before posting it.

The error just said that the file that saves the tabs was corrupt. I can't remember exactly what it was.

Oh, and by Save Session that's not what I meant. Sometimes Firefox restores my tabs, but they aren't completely updated. If you could update the tab save file with a save session button, I would be sure not to miss tabs. This actually happened me today, where when Firefox crashed it would reopen to a previous session.

Vanilla Firefox? I'm not familiar :P

Comment 3

[Simon Bünzli]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Sometimes Firefox restores my
> tabs, but they aren't completely updated.

That's usually due to extensions interfering with how SessionStore works. E.g. the Torbutton extension ships its own version of SessionStore which might contain bugs we don't. OTOH we do have several improvements scheduled for Firefox 3.1 to make SessionStore more robust.

Anyway, a Save Session button as you want it wouldn't help most users at all, as we're already supposed to save all your data in regular intervals and should rather fix the bugs preventing us from doing so than offer hacky work-arounds (which BTW might fail in the same way if a back-end issue is preventing us from collecting all data in the first place).

> Vanilla Firefox? I'm not familiar :P

"vanilla" just means "without modifications" such as installed extensions, etc. Before filing bugs against Firefox, you should always make sure first that your issue isn't caused by an extension and thus run Firefox in Safe Mode or even create a new profile for the testing.

Comment 4

[Liam K.]

The save session helps, as you can choose which session to restore and name sessions. But I understand if you don't implement it.

Thank you for the explanation. I'll see if I have less problems in 3.1.

I thought vanilla was a typo :D