516605 - After closing browser with a blank last tab the last sessions recently closed tabs are deleted

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 495123

(Firefox :: Session Restore, defect)

Description

[randomjunk123]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-GB; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-GB; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3

When browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab = false and all tabs are closed so only one blank tab remains, then the browser is closed and opened again, the Recently Closed Tabs list is blank.

This problem appears to be that sessions are not being stored when there is no active tabs, but it is very annoying and I personally can't see any downside to storing/restoring a session which ended with a blank tab, therefore restoring recently closed tabs as well.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Set browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab = false
2. Close all tabs to only one blank tab remains
3. Close the browser
4. Open the browser
Actual Results:  
When the browser is opened again, the Recently Closed Tabs list is blank.

Expected Results:  
The expected behaviour is the Recently Closed Tabs to be remembered from the last session, as was present in 3.0.x and can be reproduced in 3.5.x by the following steps:

1. Set browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab = true
2. Close all tabs so the browser windows closes
3. Open the browser

When the browser is opened again, the Recently Closed Tabs list is restored from the previous session.

Comment 1

[Nickolay_Ponomarev]

I can't reproduce this on Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 Firefox/3.5.3

As far as I can see, no matter what the value of browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab is (that pref controls what happens when you close the last tab with CTRL+W), the behavior is the same:
- if the session is restored (when the browser shuts down normally, it is only restored when "When Firefox starts" option is set to "Show my windows and tabs from last time" in Tools->Options->General->Startup), the Recently Closed Tabs list is restored too.
- when the session is not restored (e.g. when the "When Firefox starts" is set to the default value of loading the home page and the browser shuts down properly), the Recently Closed Tabs list is never restored.

Please try to reproduce the problem starting with a clean profile and provide the precise steps needed to reproduce it (including all settings you change and with detailed description of how you "Close all tabs").

Comment 2

[randomjunk123]

My apologies, it looks like it's a profile problem my end.

I had checked it using firefox's safe mode, but hadn't realised this doesn't use a clean profile. Also, I was sure I had double checked it on another computer a couple of weeks back but I obviously didn't as it does indeed work as expected.

My apologies again for this erroneous bug report, I have changed the status to resolved>invalid but please change/delete as appropriate.

Comment 3

[randomjunk123]

As a side note, I have just tried creating a clean profile, which resulted in the same problem.

I then tried uninstalling firefox completely, including removing the Mozilla directories in Program Files and my AppData folder (both Local and Roaming) and removing HKLM\Software\Mozilla in the registry. After reinstalling I was faced with the same problem again.

I will be reinstalling windows in the not too distant future so I can put up with it until then, but out of interest if there is anything I have missed in my clean up that might help please let me know, thanks.

And for information, from a "clean" install the only settings I changed were:

1. browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab = false
2. "When Firefox starts" option is set to "Show my windows and tabs from last time"

Comment 4

[Nickolay_Ponomarev]

No need to apologise, thanks for contributing!

I'm not sure what "it does indeed work as expected" meant given comment 3. Did it work for _you_ as expected? And then (per comment 3) you reproduced the problem again?

(As for your question, usually creating a new profile and using it is enough, but there shouldn't be anything other than the location you mentioned.)

Comment 5

[randomjunk123]

Sorry, the worked as expected was when I tested it on another computer, so after that I assumed your suggestion of a clean profile would work on my computer, however it doesn't, so there is obviously something else going wrong on my computer.

I should note that it only started this behaviour after upgrading to version 3.5 and has continued through to 3.5.3

It's a strange one since it only occurs when the closeWindowWithLastTab setting is false and the last tab has been closed (to leave a blank tab), if a page is left in the last tab it restores it and the recently closed tabs list fine.

I will do some more investigating, there has to be something I'm missing that's causing this!

Comment 6

[Paul O'Shannessy [:zpao] (not bugmail, email directly)]

This is the same problem as bug 500315 which is a dupe of bug 495123.

Comment 7

[randomjunk123]

Thanks, my head was starting to hurt there, glad to know what's causing it!

I had a read through bug 495123 comments, hope you find a suitable fix.