One of the changes in Firefox 4: by default Firefox 4 does not display the "Save Tabs and Exit" warning message when closing multiple tabs, but it can be turned back on by changing some preferences.

• Saving tabs was not removed from Firefox 4, but it works a bit differently.
  • By default, Firefox 4 will not ask to save tabs, but instead it will always save your tabs on exit. You can restore them next time by choosing "Restore Previous Session" from the History menu, or pressing the restore button on Firefox's default home page.
  • Note: This was a decision by the developers. On this forum, we are all uncompensated volunteers here to help other users. The developes/employees of Mozilla/Firefox rarely, if ever visit here.

Additional information inserted 2011-03-29

1. Be sure that you keep history:
   • Firefox button > Options > Options > Privacy, check "Remember my browsing history"
   • OR, if optionally using the Menu Bar instead of the Firefox button, Tools > Options > Privacy, check "Remember my browsing history"
2. Do not clear browsing history:
   • Firefox button > History > Clear Recent History and, when closing Firefox, Firefox button > Options > Options > Privacy > Settings, un-check "Browsing History"
   • OR, if optionally using the Menu Bar instead of the Firefox button, Tools > Clear Recent History and, when closing Firefox, Tools > Options > Privacy > Settings, un-check "Browsing History"

To display the "Save Tabs and Exit" message when closing multiple tabs, you can do the following:

1. Type about:config in the URL/Location/Address bar and press the Enter key
2. Accept the warning message (promise to be careful)
3. The preferences page/list will open
4. Filter = browser.tabs.warnOnClose
5. If its value is set to false, double-click on it (in the lower panel) to toggle its value to true
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for these following 3 preferences also:
   • browser.warnOnQuit
   • browser.warnOnRestart
   • browser.showQuitWarning
     • Note: last pref is new in Firefox 4b12, may need to add (boolean)
     • Info/Instruction for using about:config: http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config
7. See:
   • https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/785169
   • http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2105039&p=10434467&sid=fd2a35945bb2c633687f7b50d8c53989
   • http://blog.zpao.com/post/3174360617/about-that-quit-dialog

Also make sure that you do not use Delete browsing, search and download history on Firefox to clear the "Browsing History"

Helper7677 Thank you very much this was doing my head in for a while

I followed your instructions Helper 7677 and it asked me if I wanted to save them but then didn't open them again when I reopened Firefox!!

Thanks to Helper7677... the solution you provided worked great!

"I followed your instructions Helper 7677 and it asked me if I wanted to save them but then didn't open them again when I reopened Firefox!! "

I'm having the same issue, any solutions?

Helper7677, you are a lifesaver! Thank you!

I followed your steps and it fixed the problem. As it turned out, the value for the last two preferences (browser.warnOnRestart) and (browser.showQuitWarning) had been set to false. I double-clicked them and changed them to true and that did the trick.

I also notice that if you accidentally click "quit" when exiting, you can still restore your previous tabs by going to "History" and clicking on "Restore Previous Session".

Thank you!

I found one more switch I need to change to get the save tab feature back. It was browser.showQuitWarning Turn it to true.

This solution worked really well for me when I applied it last week. For several days all was well and Firefox 4 worked just like the previous versions used to in asking me and then saving my tabs for reopening automatically at the next session.

Then suddenly it stopped working. The first time, there was no 'restore previous session' available under the menu 'history' item. The second time, I was able to get my tabs back by using the 'restore previous session' option under history. I've rechecked the various configuration settings using 'about:config' and every thing was still as described in the solution above.

This really does not inspire confidence and now, since a few days, I keep getting an update to Firefox 5 message. Does that introduce yet more risk ?

Thank you friend, this really helped!

I too am having this problem now. I have tried all the solutions and none of them worked, not once. Whenever I restart the browser, it's on a different Google homepage and none of the previous tabs open. I can keep telling it to change but it doesn't. Also sometimes the bookmarks bar doesn't bother showing up. I know this is an old topic but it's still relevant in FF 12