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Restart Firefox Without Saved Session Data

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Josh Berry edited this page Nov 26, 2021 · 11 revisions

Problem

You experience any of the following:

  • Tab Stash is unable to load its UI in a tab (but the sidebar still works).
  • Tab Stash is not able to open or restore any tabs.
  • Excessively high CPU usage after performing operations such as restoring tabs, and/or restoring tabs fails intermittently (tabs don't open).

Explanation

Sometimes, Firefox's saved session data may get corrupted. When this happens, the extension APIs Tab Stash uses to control tabs in Firefox will stop working or report incorrect information to Tab Stash. Any of the following error messages may be visible in the browser console for Tab Stash:

  • Tab ... does not exist
  • Got change event for unknown tab ...
  • Got activated event for unknown tab: ...
  • Got move event for unknown tab ...
  • Got replace event for unknown tab ... (-> ...)
  • Got highlighted event for unknown window ...
  • Uncaught (in promise) Error: Invalid tab ID: ...

Solution

You will have to restart your browser in a way that causes it to forget all open windows/tabs, so first save off any open tabs you have that you might want to keep (you can stash them to Tab Stash, save them to bookmarks, or whatever is most convenient for you).

  1. Open the Firefox menu and choose "Settings" (or "Preferences" on Mac).
  2. In the "General" section, turn off the "Open previous windows and tabs" option.
  3. Completely shut down/exit your browser (make sure ALL open Firefox windows are closed and the application is not running).
    • Mac: Press the Command+Q keyboard shortcut.
    • Windows: Open the Firefox menu and choose "Exit".
    • Linux: Open the Firefox menu and choose "Quit".
  4. Restart Firefox.
  5. Optionally, turn the "Open previous windows and tabs" option back on.

See Also

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