HI, actually the proper way to Exit Firefox is by going to the 3 Bar Menu --> Exit or if have the Menu Bar up Files then Exit

Could you please check as to what happens when do this  ?

Do you have in Options the restore Previous Session Box checked ?

The same thing happens when I exit that way. Yes, I do have the restore previous session checked off. I open FF, go to about:preferences, delete all other tabs, then delete the options tab. FF exits and when I restart, it reopens the options tab.

Did you try it and did you see the same behavior?

Do you have in Options the restore Previous Session Box checked ? AndyS01 said

Did you try it and did you see the same behavior?

No that is not the expected out come.

I asked : Do you have in Options the restore Previous Session Box checked ?

Your answer was :

Yes, I do have the restore previous session checked off.

So am confused. Does this mean the Box is checked or the box is unchecked  ?

Hi AndyS01, to expand on the first reply:

By default, Firefox starts up with a built-in home page. If you instead get a restored tab or tabs, there are three possible explanations (that I'm aware of):

(1) Firefox is set to start up with your previous session windows and tabs on the Options page.

That looks like this:

You can check that here:

• Windows: "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options
• Mac: "3-bar" menu button (or Firefox menu) > Preferences
• Linux: "3-bar" menu button (or Edit menu) > Preferences
• Any system: type or paste about:preferences into the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it

Firefox should automatically select General in the left column, but if not, click that to display the first panel.

(2) Firefox did not find the expected arrangement of session history files when it started up, so it performed an automatic crash recovery by restoring an available session history file.

If you like, you can change how Firefox performs after a crash to always ask you if you prefer to restore your previous session or start a new one. I'll give the steps for that at the end.

Note that one reason Firefox might not find the expected session history files is if external software cleans up browser data between sessions or at startup. If you have CCleaner or Advanced SystemCare, try setting them not to touch your Firefox data.

(3) A restore command is saved in an optional settings file named user.js in your Firefox profile folder.

The browser data you shared says this is not a factor in your case, but for reference by anyone else reading, the following article has a section on hunting down and removing a user.js file if you have one: How to fix preferences that won't save.

To change crash recovery behavior, as a diagnostic or as a lifestyle:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful or accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste sess and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes preference to display a dialog, and edit 1 to 0 meaning that Firefox should not try automatic crash recovery once. Then click OK.

You guys type much faster than me.

AndyS01 said

Yes, I do have the restore previous session checked off. I open FF, go to about:preferences, delete all other tabs, then delete the options tab. FF exits and when I restart, it reopens the options tab.

That sounds like exactly what you would expect from this feature.

I don't understand the part about opening the Options page and then "deleting" the other tabs. Why are you doing it that way?

I changed the crash setting and got the same behavior.

The problem I'm experiencing is when I'm on the options tab and I do the following to exit FF: 1) I DELETE the last tab (FF exits automatically) 2) with the options tab showing , I select Exit from the 3 bar menu.

In the first scenario, I expect FF to restart in a blank page; in the 2nd scenario, I expect ff to restart showing the options tab.

In the real world, I'm in my email and I double click on an image, FF opens a tab showing the image. I click on the 'x' in the tab and FF exits. The next time I start FF, it opens the image again. I have the 'resume session' checkbox checked.

So uncheck the Resume Session. That is why the tab keeps returning. It is meant for people that want the same pages or are running 35-500 tabs at a time so that they come back again when Firefox is shut down.

Remove the check mark

AndyS01 said

The problem I'm experiencing is when I'm on the options tab and I do the following to exit FF:

1. I DELETE the last tab (FF exits automatically)
2. with the options tab showing , I select Exit from the 3 bar menu.

In the first scenario, I expect FF to restart in a blank page; in the 2nd scenario, I expect ff to restart showing the options tab.

The closest thing is to change what closing the last tab in a window does from closing the window and potentially exiting Firefox to showing a new tab/blank tab instead. If you want to try that:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful or accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste tabs and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab preference to switch the value from true to false

If you use a lot of windows, that probably would get quite annoying, but if you tend to open all your tabs in one window, that might help.

Nope, you don't understand. When I delete the last tab, it should be deleted from any 'last session' info, so when I restart FF, it doesn't reopen it. Any tab I delete should not be opened when restarting the last session. I want all active tabs to be reloaded, and I don't want any tabs that I delete to be reloaded. If you try it in Chrome, that's how it operates.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-previous-session

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-previous-session#w_troubleshooting

If you close each window or tab, only the tabs in the final window that you close are available when you restart Firefox.

So there you have it. It will always open as I mentioned.

Firefox is not Chrome.

AndyS01 said

When I delete the last tab, it should be deleted from any 'last session' info, so when I restart FF, it doesn't reopen it. Any tab I delete should not be opened when restarting the last session. I want all active tabs to be reloaded, and I don't want any tabs that I delete to be reloaded. If you try it in Chrome, that's how it operates.

Instead of "delete" let's use the word "close." It all works as expected until the last tab in the window. By default Firefox treats that as closing the window and, if it's the last window, exiting Firefox and freezing that one-tab window as your session to be restored. Try the setting change I mentioned earlier and see whether that works for you.

OK, I give up. It's not the behavior I expect, but it's not bad enough, so I'll live with it. Thanks for your input