Closed Bug 636777 Opened 13 years ago Closed 3 years ago

No notification of session save or how to restore it

Categories

(Firefox :: Session Restore, defect)

Product:
Firefox
Component:
Session Restore
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
critical

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED WORKSFORME

People

(Reporter: beneficentone, Unassigned)

References

Details

(Whiteboard: [quit-dialog-delayed-restore-fallout]) 

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0b11) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0b11
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0b11) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0b11

Firefox 4 betas no longer prompt the user to save their session on exit or automatically restore it at next startup.  Users with the default home page (about:home) get a 'Restore Previous Session' button on it, but those who have set a custom/blank home page do not.

These users - estimated to number between 50 and 150 million - are at serious risk of losing their session data by believing it not to have been saved the first time they encounter this change.

In fact, all sessions are saved, and then available from the History menu, but this information is not made apparent.

This issue is exacerbated by Bug 636716, as users with a blank home page who don't see their session load up and then close Firefox with the X will permanently lose their saved session.

The default behaviour in Fx4.0b10/11 is to provide no prompt at all on exit.  Bug 629485 will give users the close multiple tabs warning on exit, but still does not tell the user (a) that their session has been saved or (b) that it will be available from the History menu.

The save prompt on quit and automatic restore if they answered 'Yes' was the default behaviour throughout Firefox 3.  If such a behaviour is altered it is absolutely critical to have a surefire mechanism for telling all affected users how to get their session back.  There is no such mechanism currently, and none forthcoming.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Set a custom home page or 'Show a blank page'
2. Exit Firefox with tabs open; you may or may not get a prompt, but it won't mention saving or restoring your session (unless you've tweaked about:config)
3. Restart Firefox
Actual Results:  
Your custom home page or a blank page will be displayed, with no information about how to restore your session

Expected Results:  
Your session is restored automatically, or you're clearly informed how to restore it
The following solution to this issue addresses various concerns about the different ways people use Firefox and their differing desire for prompting or session restore:

1) A new checkbox item in Options > Tabs, below ‘Warn me when closing multiple tabs’: ‘Ask what to do with my tabs on exit’

2) A new Quit Firefox dialog displayed when there’s a saveable session:

Do you want Firefox to restore this session automatically next time?

[x] Do not ask next time

[Yes]   [No*]   [Cancel]

* default

Note that ‘Do not ask next time’ is checked and focus is on ‘No’.  So the ‘path of least resistance’ route would have the user showing this dialog only once after the upgrade, in line with wishes for a more streamlined user experience.

However, users who cared about their session data would be able to click ‘Yes’, and doing so would restore their session as if their startup behaviour was set to 'Show my windows and tabs from last time'.  If, on another occasion, they selected ‘No’, their home page would be displayed.  (The option 'Show my windows and tabs from last time' is unhelpful because it doesn’t make this distinction; thanks to on-demand session restore it could probably be phased out if the solution here was implemented.)

Users who unchecked ‘Do not ask next time’ and clicked ‘Yes’ would never experience an “OMG, did Firefox fail to save my tabs?” moment.  And the Yes/No choice would be helpful versus on-demand restore – see below.

‘Do not ask next time’ would be ‘sticky’, and linked directly to the new ‘Ask what to do with my tabs on exit’ value.  There would be no hierarchy with ‘Warn me when closing multiple tabs’ and no connection with any strange behaviour tied to the pref browser.warnOnQuit.  Nor would there be any difference between X, File > Exit or keyboard shortcut closing: if the user wants to be warned on exit they want to be warned on exit!  Changing that for different exit routes immediately punches a hole in the watertight schema.  (If they have asked not to be warned on exit, but have ‘Warn me when closing multiple tabs’ enabled, that dialog would be displayed.)

Yes, this solution contains text strings.  But it is absolutely essential to address this potential large-scale loss of data, and the alternative that’s been mentioned – changing the user’s home page – by definition loses them data, and is by no means watertight.

The quit dialog solution puts the user back in control: they can choose to restore their previous session with just 1 extra click, as opposed to 4 extra from the History menu (as they’d need to go back and close the parent window – very annoying).  Or choose to restore ad hoc, or not at all.  They can choose to be warned about closing extra windows with multiple tabs or not.  They can choose to be warned about closing Firefox – the behaviour they’ve got used to through an entire generation of browser – or not.

Both the user’s data and freedom to choose are safeguarded, yet they have no difficult or poorly informed choices to make, and all choices can be readily undone.
Version: unspecified → Trunk
The situation in Fx4.0b12:

This bug remains unresolved, with (non-about:home) users neither informed their session is being saved on exit nor seeing it on startup.

Bug 629485 has provided a 'closing multiple tabs' warning on closing the final window, but only using the X.

Restore Previous Session now restores to the current window, which is a welcome improvement.

Bug 636716 continues to affect users with a blank home page.
Version: Trunk → unspecified
Whiteboard: [quit-dialog-delayed-restore-fallout]
Situation in Firefox RC 1:

I had to re-enable these 3 settings:

browser.warnOnQuit
browser.warnOnRestart
browser.showQuitWarning

I was not told about this change.  I lost all of the websites I had last open because of this.  I should NOT have to have made this change.  I liked being asked if I wanted to save my session.  To me it was a given and a VERY useful feature.  Please do NOT change what firefox 3.6 had these set to as I always used them with them all enabled.

If you're gonna make such a drastic change, then at least confirm it with me first.  Do not assume that because they're enabled that I don't use them.

Luckily I had saved the entire tab set to my bookmarks so I didn't lose too much work.  But it was damn annoying having to remember what additional sites I had open that weren't in that bookmarks folder.

I previously was using the session save restore feature in the addon tabs mix plus.  I may go back to that if the firefox guys continue to insist that I don't seem to need this feature enabled, which I do.  At least with tabs mix plus it always saved it for me no matter what.  Right now it's more reliable to me then firefox's one is.
To make Firefox always restore sessions, look to the very first preference exposed in Options | General. When Firefox starts --> show my windows & tabs from last time.
Carl, yes, you weren't told about this.  Same for millions of users who rely on the Firefox 3 behaviour.  And most won't have saved their tab set and will lose their saved tabs if they don't find them before the session is overwritten.  The Mozilla developers are fine with this, as users with the default home page get a button on it.  (Presumably Paul has volunteered to personally inform everyone else!)

You may also be interested to know that, as the dev team hates dialog boxes as much as they hate informing users, they are planning to completely scrap the quit prompt, see Bug 632271.  If you select File > Exit after that's done you'll get no prompt whatever you do to config settings.  (Your session will still be saved.)  Enjoy Firefox 4!
Paul, I never used that option.  Since sometimes I do want firefox to start out fresh.  Other times I didn't.  That's why I had it set to ask me every time.  So that option does not work for me.

When upgrading to firefox 4, do not disable those 3 options.  Simple as that.
Please someone create an extension for this and save my inbox. The reasons for the removal have been made clear and there's nothing been posted contrary to that as of yet.
(In reply to comment #8)
> Please someone create an extension for this and save my inbox. The reasons for
> the removal have been made clear and there's nothing been posted contrary to
> that as of yet.

Made clear?  Would that be the streamlining of Firefox?  Well why can't users have the choice?  Must Firefox now treat users as cattle who must be herded into the imperfect solution that developers have come up with on the fly?

Let's set aside the fact that non-about:home users aren't informed that their session has been saved and are likely to lose the first one after the upgrade.  Here are some of the other problem scenarios:

1) The user has a saved session.  They know how to get it back and intend to but postpone doing so on restart - the whole point of on-demand session restore.  If they forget to before closing it's gone forever.  Even users with about:home only get a reminder about the session on the home page.  No one is warned that their saved session is about to be wiped out with a single click.

2) The user has a saved session but can't remember what they were doing.  They have (perhaps) the button on about:home to tell them there's a session, but have no idea how many tabs it contains, let alone which.  Their choices are (a) hope it didn't contain anything important and exit or (b) restore the session, an impediment to their exiting the program.

3) The user starts Firefox, is called away and so postpones the session restore, closing Firefox - their session is overwritten.

4) Another user jumps on their computer to quickly look something up, not realising there's an important session saved.  They exit Firefox.  The session is overwritten.

Here's the thing: on-demand session restore is about not having to restore your important session immediately on startup.  But with only one session saved, that's the only safe time to do so.  A software solution that relies on Post-It notes is no solution at all!

People are free to come up with whatever add-ons they want.  But Firefox should work without 'band aids' that most users will never find.

Oh, and with apologies for repetition, causing tens of millions of users to lose session data, even just once, is an unforgivable design decision, one for which we have another Paul to thank.
(In reply to comment #8)
> Please someone create an extension for this and save my inbox. The reasons for
> the removal have been made clear and there's nothing been posted contrary to
> that as of yet.

If this bothers you so much, remove yourself from the bug.  If you're one of the developers who decided to remove useful functionality, put it back.  I don't want to have to field tech support calls when we upgrade from firefox 3.6 to 4 about how sessions aren't saved anymore.  I don't want to have to guide users to adjusting their about:config settings since it gives a big warning when going in there.  Just put it back.
This bug is further exacerbated by the fact that the content of browser.showQuitWarning and browser.warnOnQuit variables is apparently ignored on Mac and Ubuntu under certain conditions (see https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=641500). There is literally no way to make the browser warn on quit on these platforms.
Came here to report this as a bug in the official 4.0 final release, yet now I find this is now a much larger issue. I'm disappointed (borderline disgusted) with user-hostile stance the developers appear to be taking here.

I don't think there's much I can add to this aside from I wholeheartedly agree with the posts made by Ben and Carl above (plus I can confirm the uselessness of browser.warnOnQuit on Mac as Timofei mentioned above).
If usage stats dictate that the overwhelming majority of users that had "prompt on exit" enabled, either opted for one option or the other consistently, what would all the complaining here solve? If you like your session saved, save it all the time. What would be nice is if there was a keyboard shortcut to load with no tabs in the same way there is to load in safe mode.
(In reply to comment #13)
> If usage stats dictate that the overwhelming majority of users that had "prompt
> on exit" enabled, either opted for one option or the other consistently, what
> would all the complaining here solve? If you like your session saved, save it
> all the time. What would be nice is if there was a keyboard shortcut to load
> with no tabs in the same way there is to load in safe mode.

There is a tick box on the popup that asks you if you don't want to be asked to save your session when it asks you.  So this exists already.  The point is for those who want to be asked every time, get asked every time.  Why be against something people want?
Is there any data to support that those which want to be asked every time are in the majority? If you're unable to provide such data, rather than stamping your feet in the bug, install an extension.
What is the data you're talking about? If people didn't want to see that dialog, they would just tick "Never ask me again", wouldn't they?

FWIW, here's some data on overwhelmingly negative response to this "feature" that you want: http://input.mozilla.com/ru/beta/search?product=firefox&q=lost+tabs

Also, even if I wanted to save session every time I quit, there's no way to make Firefox warn me before I quit (see bug I mentioned above). So that option is out. And restoring session manually is a pain (there would be less complaints if this option came up in doorhanger notification every time you start firefox).
If you save your tabs even as low as 78% of the time when you quit, surely you should just say "save every time"? At which point what you actually require is a method to invoke non-default behaviour which is the only thing missing here.
What is missing here is a way of telling the four hundred million users of Firefox that their session is still being saved on exit.

A very small percentage of users know how to make changes in about:config so that they can get the save prompt back.  However, all sessions are now saved, so the effect of clicking [Quit] instead of [Save & Quit] is just that the session won't be automatically restored on startup.

On-demand restore is critically flawed while it can only save a single session.  (In fact, Firefox has been able to restore multiple sessions for some time: during multiple crashes nested Restore Session tabs function correctly.)

So the train-wreck is as follows:

1) Many millions - perhaps tens of millions - of users are likely to have their first session after upgrading from Version 3 overwritten before they can locate it.  Users will be angered when they discover this was by design.

2) There are many scenarios that will lose users their session before they get round to restoring it - see Comment #9 for some.  This will disenchant users.

3) Quit prompt behaviour is inconsistent, so many users will get frustrated by accidental exits, and some will lose data there, too.

So Firefox 4 equals anger, frustration and disenchantment.  Which is a pity.
(In reply to comment #18)
> What is missing here is a way of telling the four hundred million users of
> Firefox that their session is still being saved on exit.
Perhaps users can be offered a tooltip when they hover over close. But honestly, I see no problem with sessions being stored. The option exists within the privacy tab of the Options dialog to clear history on exit.
How can a bug with a dupe be unconfirmed? Changing to NEW.

See also bug 641500
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
Ok now with the release version of Firefox 4, it is worse.  Even though I go into about:config and change the 3 settings so it should always ask me, it doesn't.  All it does now is give me the warning when I'm closing multiple tabs.  It shouldn't be doing that.  It should be instead asking me if I want to save or not.

This btw worked in firefox 4 RC2.  What changed?  Was it disabled entirely?  I no longer trust firefox to save my session.  I've gone with the addon tabs mix plus session saver.
The situation in Firefox 4.0 (final release):

- Users are not informed that their session is being saved on exit.

- On next start, users who don't have the default home page are not informed their last session is still available - data loss issue for those not aware of on-demand session restore.

- No users are informed on next exit that their saved session is being overwritten - data loss issue for those who _are_ aware of the feature.

- There is no information about on-demand session restore in the release notes or online help, over 7 months after Paul O’Shannessy first posted Bug 588482.

So less experienced users with their own home page set remain in high danger of losing their first session after upgrade.  But experienced users are being confused also, as indicated by various bug comments and online help requests.  Note that ALL sessions are saved, irrespective of whether you manage to bring up the quit dialog with the 'Save & Quit' button.  The situation on that is as follows:

- The quit dialog should come up on exit if the following conditions are met: (a) your home page is not 'Show my windows and tabs from last time', (b) browser.warnOnQuit is true, (c) browser.showQuitWarning is true, and (d) you have more than one tab or more than one window open.

- It is not necessary to have browser.tabs.warnOnClose set to true.

- In Windows XP, subject to the above, it correctly comes up for all three exit methods: X to close last window, 'Exit' menu item and Alt-F4 keyboard shortcut.

- There is an experimental plugin written by Paul O’Shannessy that could be used to present a quit dialog even if home page was set to 'Show my windows and tabs from last time' or only 1 tab was open: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/always-ask/ Only 0.00016% of the user base are currently using it.

The situation where an instance of Firefox is started by an OLE method such as a desktop shortcut or web link in email message:

- The opened link is merged with the previously saved session.

This at least avoids data loss, but is a really messy solution, and one with privacy issues.  Obviously, the desired behaviour would be to open the one requested link and keep the saved session for next time - the only issue being what to do if the user opens additional tabs at this point.  As with so many other aspects of this mess, the obvious answer is _support for multiple sessions_.  How anyone could have thought on-demand session restore was a good idea without that simple addition is beyond me.

The developers seem to have no plans to sort out any of this mess in Firefox 4.  Paul O’Shannessy, for instance, states that Firefox 4 will not see the issue addressed whereby opening Firefox to the default home page, postponing session restore and immediately closing the browser overwrites the saved session, see: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=637148#c1

In summary: Your session is not safe in Firefox 4.  Nor is your privacy.  Nor your bookmarks (if you revert to a previous version).  And these are the three things of yours a browser is trusted with safeguarding.

Developers should urgently address these issues, or face very bad publicity.  Very bad, because it now seems clear that the reason for rushing the 4.0 launch without addressing such serious data loss issues was the browser war, with Chrome 10 launched just a week after Beltzner's lamentable decision.
Version: unspecified → Trunk
The problem is the bug has no owner (no one wants to take it). So is with the sister bug 641500. Someone took a very bad design decision and it seems there is no peer review any more on the project (or it is badly flawed).

An additional complication is that although I know this is no place for this kind of complaining (especially as we complain to /dev/null), I know of no other.
(In reply to comment #23)
> The problem is the bug has no owner (no one wants to take it). 

This is not completely accurate. Mozilla uses the ASSIGNED state to refer to a developer who is actively coding a solution. Before a solution can be coded, there is a lot of discussion and design that must take place so the correct solution can be coded.

zpao is the lead developer for session store. A while back he added this bug to the [quit-dialog-delayed-restore-fallout] bucket. Rest assured he is actively pursuing the bugs in this bucket and trying to find a solution.
Paul O’Shannessy isn't planning on using the whiteboard entries to fix the issues: "Keep in mind that there are no plans to change anything surrounding this for Firefox 4. I'm merely trying to get all of these bugs together under a single searchable term." - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=636716#c4

There was an 82-comment thread on the developer forum on this issue: http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.dev.apps.firefox/browse_thread/thread/1796b7255f23067a# The result of that was the decision by Beltzner not to address it mentioned in Comment #22 above.

It's all very un-Mozilla.  I appreciate that sometimes certain bugs cannot be addressed before release deadlines.  But when a DELIBERATE change is identified as causing such widespread data loss, could be fixed 'at the flick of a switch' by changing one preference, and is deliberately NOT fixed... I'm at a loss.

I have added Bug 648081 - Add support for multiple session restore from History menu - because with support for multiple sessions, the bugs mentioned here and others would be mitigated.  But I'm not holding my breath.
(In reply to comment #26)
> Paul O’Shannessy isn't planning on using the whiteboard entries to fix the
> issues: "Keep in mind that there are no plans to change anything surrounding
> this for Firefox 4. I'm merely trying to get all of these bugs together under > a single searchable term."
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=636716#c4

Again, not completely accurate. Paul, like many Firefox developers, are working on what's to come in Firefox 5, 6, and 7.  Once a product is released, which Firefox 4 is, we usually stop feature development on that release and focus on security/stability fixes.

In other words, Firefox 4.0.1 will not contain any new features but will stabalize and make more secure Firefox 4.  New features and improvement of current features will continue to be developed on Firefox 5.

I appreciate your passion for Firefox and Mozilla, but please stop spreading misinformation.
If quoting the words of Paul counts as misinformation then blame him, not me!  The stated intention of Paul O’Shannessy and Mike Beltzner has been specifically stated by them as to not address this in Firefox 4.  Now unless they're planning on bringing out Firefox 5 over the next few weeks, I see that as appalling disregard for the welfare of the user.  By Firefox 5 the damage will have been done.

Here's what Beltzner had to say on his decision: "...the feedback from our 2.5 million beta users has not given us strong concern that this will be a problematic change for the *majority* of our users ... some users will be upset and feel like they have lost data. Change is hard, but we feel this change is more for the better than the worse, and will ultimately improve our product for more people than it will unfortunately impact."  In other words, the loss of session data by X million users is collateral damage.  See http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.dev.apps.firefox/browse_thread/thread/1796b7255f23067a/fe077cc89e364ad2?hl=en%19ea6c5ff307346&

Note that Bug 637148 impacts ALL users, not just those who've set their own home page.  How on-demand session restore can possibly be an improvement to the product when that session is so vulnerable is again beyond me.

'Security' includes data security, and this issue should be addressed as a priority.

If you can link to anything that indicates they're working on this for Firefox 4 I will be happy to stand corrected.
(In reply to comment #28)
> If you can link to anything that indicates they're working on this for Firefox
> 4 I will be happy to stand corrected.

As I already stated, Firefox 4 is released; it's done.  Any further changes to Session Restore will happen in the scope of Firefox 5, 6 and 7 (due out in approximately 3 month intervals from when Firefox 4 was released)
Firefox 4 should still receive security and stability fixes. Many people feel this is a major dataloss bug and as such, it must be fixed in the point release. The problem is that the developers of Firefox (who are obviously not affected by that bug since they are familiar with how session restore works) do not realize how severe it is, and such this bug is not given the priority it deserves.
This was a feature that was removed, it worked before.  It was broken intentionally.  We all want it restored to how it worked before.

It was also working in RC2 but then broken in the gold release.  How does something that works in the last release candidate get broken in the gold release?

My homepage is not about:home.  It goes to the secure google search.  Therefore I will not see I can restore my session at all.  I will never use about:home because I want all my searches on google to use ssl.
Here is the other problem that users could face, having to do with session restore. For example, I go on facebook, and I got this habit that I just close the Firefox browser. As I close the browser, the session ends, the cookies get invalidated, and I am automatically logged out of facebook. I did not click on Save Session(which is not available), but when someone get's a chance to go on the computer after me, and see's the restore session button in the about:home page, they could restore. The session gets restored, and now I am automatically logged in to facebook and that person has access to it.
Vitaliy, it's true there is a privacy issue there.  Actually, there is an obscure, undocumented (on Mozilla help) preference to change which cookies are saved, see http://blog.zpao.com/post/1099464627/restore-previous-session - blog post by Paul O’Shannessy.  Note that in final release the prefs default to 0 and 1 instead of 1 and 2 as stated, so your session is less secure than originally planned.  If you manage to get the quit dialog back (see Comment #22) and click 'Quit' instead of 'Save & Quit' your session IS still saved; it's just not automatically restored next time (and saving of secure cookies may vary).

The more serious privacy issue is that someone could view your entire session and then close the browser; that identical session would then be saved, and the owner of the original session would have no idea that it had been viewed.  Also, as noted in Comment #22 above, someone else could unearth your entire session accidentally, just by clicking a link in an email!

There may be an even more serious privacy issue, concerning users who think their session is safe because of operating system login safeguards.  Users concerned about these issues should read up on the above hidden preference and consider enabling private browsing.  If doing that, they should ensure they get a quit prompt, as the session can't be restored once you exit.

Carl, if you're talking about the quit dialog, that should be working correctly in 4.0 final release, see Comment #22.  Note that you can restore your session from the History menu item 'Restore Previous Session'.

Timofei, exactly!
I have the following set to true:

browser.warnOnQuit
browser.tabs.warnOnClose
browser.warnOnRestart

And I do NOT get the quit and save on quit option when closing the browser.  Now if Firefox 4 is now saving sessions by default always no matter what, shouldn't that option be changed?  It should instead say:

Restore session when opened again? Yes or No.

Or something similar to that.
I agree with you Ben. But the problem here is not really my browsing habits, or anything related. I just prefer the old-school way of 'Save and Quit'. Of course, like Carl said in Comment #22, I could change the preferences(note to him, change browser.showQuitWarning to true), but I wouldn't want to do that every time I fresh install Firefox. Why not make that the default? The other thing, a lot of people. I mean A LOT of people have a whole different home page. I use Speed Dial addon, so I have no way to restore session. I wish Firefox would have thought more of this before they released it.
Carl, even with those settings there are cases when the quit dialog - by design - is not shown: (a) If you exit during private browsing (yes, I know - just when a prompt is most important!), (b) if Options > General > 'When Firefox starts' is set to 'Show my windows and tabs from last time' (also nonsensical - people with big sessions select this option, the ones most put out by accidental quits), or (c) if you have only 1 tab open.  Do any of these apply to you?  Yes, a reworded dialog would be a good idea - see Comment #2.

Vitaliy, this bug is chiefly about the tens of millions of users who are likely to lose a session due to believing it hasn't been saved.  Note that my suggested solution in Comment #2 keeps the quit prompt for those who want it, and for those who don't they'd see it at most once.  However, post-release, the most we could probably hope for is the returning of the browser.showQuitWarning default to true.  This would help IT managers trying to deploy Firefox, and critically would save those millions of ordinary users from losing session data simply by upgrading from Version 3 and thinking - quite reasonably - that it had been lost.  Does Speed Dial stop the saved session from being available at History > Restore Previous Session?
(In reply to comment #33)
> Vitaliy, it's true there is a privacy issue there.

You can't expect privacy if you give another person physical access, unless you use encryption.
(In reply to comment #37)
> (In reply to comment #33)
> > Vitaliy, it's true there is a privacy issue there.
> 
> You can't expect privacy if you give another person physical access, unless you
> use encryption.

The thing is that this change has created privacy issues that didn't really exist before.  And these should have been considered.  There's a master password.  This could (optionally) be asked for at the start of every session restore.  Most restorers are going to be asked for it anyway, so that could become the one ask.  The session file itself could certainly be improved (and could easily be - there's an engine for encrypting the sync data, for instance).  But one-click discoverability by someone with zero computer skills is something else again.  It needs to be addressed.  And there are more serious privacy issues as hinted at above that need looking into too.  The password manager is suddenly looking like the old Windows 95 login screen - a door without a wall!
Ok I got the ask to save session dialog back by doing the following:

1.  I have the following set to true:

browser.warnOnQuit
browser.tabs.warnOnClose
browser.warnOnRestart
browser.showQuitWarning

2.  I then went into tools -> options

3.  I then set When Firefox Starts to "Show my Homepage"

The Functionality for this issue has changed a lot, We have the Restore Session in the Hambuger menu now as well as in the Top menu bar : History > Restore Previous Session.

I will close this issue with Works for me but if the user is still unable to restore his previous session we can reopen it or file a new one since this one seems to be 10 years old.

Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 3 years ago
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
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