Join the Mozilla’s Test Days event from Dec 2–8 to test the new Firefox address bar on Firefox Beta 134 and get a chance to win Mozilla swag vouchers! 🎁

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Recovering missing files after Firefox update

more options

I am running windows 7. Firefox just updated automatically on my computer. When it did I lost the use of the add-on Session Manager. I was saving session files which contained approximately 140 tabs each file. I am frantic because now that Session Manager is gone it appears that I will not recover the tabs that I was saving. Please if anyone knows how I can recover the files I will be extremely greatfull. Can the files be recovered simply by my reinstalling the earlier version? Can I locate the files on my computer? And if so where would I find them? Please help me if you can. These files represent months and months of work.

I am running windows 7. Firefox just updated automatically on my computer. When it did I lost the use of the add-on Session Manager. I was saving session files which contained approximately 140 tabs each file. I am frantic because now that Session Manager is gone it appears that I will not recover the tabs that I was saving. Please if anyone knows how I can recover the files I will be extremely greatfull. Can the files be recovered simply by my reinstalling the earlier version? Can I locate the files on my computer? And if so where would I find them? Please help me if you can. These files represent months and months of work.

All Replies (3)

more options

unfortunately 56.0.2 is no longer safe to use for every day use do to secuity issues, but 52.5.0 ESR is. It will continue to get security updates until May 2018, and you can download and install it from this page: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/all/ Note : Legacy Extensions will be deleted or removed in any version update after May 2018.

You should make a backup of your Profile before going back and just because: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

more options

There is a new extension compatible with Firefox 57 called

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/tab-session-manager/

The third screenshot on the Add-ons site shows an import feature to import sessions saved by Session Manager.

Most likely, Session Manager created its own folder in your currently active Firefox profile folder. Here's how to look for that.

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
  • (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, find the Profile Folder row and click the "Open Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.

It would be most convenient if there was a Session Manager folder right at that level. The sessionstore-backups folder is Firefox's own session history file storage location. Those might also be useful in the future, but Firefox only keep the current and immediately previous sessions, so if you need something older, you'll definitely need to find the Session Manager folder.

Any luck?

more options

I should add:

If you never used the built-in session restore feature, check the History menu (you can tap the Alt key to activate the classic top menu bar) for "Restore Previous Session." After that, check the menu for Recently Closed Windows and (within each window) Recently Closed Tabs.