536166 - After automatic update, open pages and tabs are not restored from session before the update

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: Session Restore, defect)

Description

[spike.robinson]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9.1.6) Gecko/20091201 Firefox/3.5.6 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9.1.6) Gecko/20091201 Firefox/3.5.6 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)

This is similar to https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=447709

However, I get no warning box when doing automatic nor manual shutdown of Firefox to permit updates. And the behaviour is the same, regardless of whether I shut down manually or automatically - all previous session tabs are lost. Instead I get a default set of 4 tabs, my home page tabs.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Receive an auto update
2. Ensure multiple tabs are open and not just your defined home page tabs
3. Shutdown either manually or automatically when prompted by Firefox.
4. Restart Firefox and check which tabs are opened
Actual Results:  
Only home page tabs are open after restart, none of the other tabs that were active in the previous session prior to the restart. 

Expected Results:  
The problem creates a strong disincentive for people to install updates. In user psychology, keeping my session tabs is "my problem", doing updates is "Firefox's problem". This problem forces users to choose between the two alternatives. If forced to choose, they will choose not to update. 

The software should remember, and restore, all tabs from the previous session, even after a Firefox update.

Comment 1

[Tim (fmdeveloper)]

Reporter -> Are you still experiencing this issue with the latest version of Firefox 3.6.13? Does the issue occur with the latest nightly? http://nightly.mozilla.org/

Comment 2

[Tim (fmdeveloper)]

Closing bug as Incomplete - if you are still experiencing this issue or have more information to provide feel free to post back here and we can re-open the bug. You can also get assistance by visiting the Firefox help site -> http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Ask+a+question

Comment 3

[Carlo 'Carcarlo' Carmagnini]

I just experienced this bug (or a very similar one) just after the first run after the latest update from FX 14 to 15, but involved just one profile of the two I am using. I was not using automatic update but updated it manually. The first profile has restored the session correctly, the other one did not. It shows just the predefined Firefox tab, all the Panorama tabs are missing. I tried to make a copy of the sessionstore.bak of the previous day, close Firefox, restore the session by renaming the file, open Firefox, but it does insist with the single tab and sessionstore.js file is just 4kB. I try to force session restore with "about:sessionrestore", it does not show the old session but just an empty table with no tabs at all. Is there a way to restore the session as it was the last time I used it? I don't get why renaming the backup file (when FX is closed) is does not work.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:15.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/15.0

Comment 4

[Carlo 'Carcarlo' Carmagnini]

I have searched for a way to restore the session as the usual methods were not working. It seems that's a problem occurring to many people. This page http://dag.wieers.com/blog/what-if-firefox-loses-your-tabs taks about this same problem and the solution provided by "Ziad" among the comments is the one that worked for me.
Briefly: I opened the sessionstore.bak, cut all that was inside "_closedWindows" and pasted into "windows", renamed into sessionstore.js. At the following startup, it finally appeared the Restore Session dialog.

I still don't know why this bug happened. Maybe it helps: on the last session I had 3 windows opened and 2 of them where pop-under, I noticed them only now after restoring the session but I am quite sure there weren't yesterday (I usually close them as they appear or else before closing the main window). Just a hypothesis: could be something related to the Firefox script that automatically closes unwanted pop-ups that in some cases "flags" as so also the current window? In that case at the following startup there will be no windows to restore.