Restore Last Session - But not if I close last tab
I searched this forum but couldn't find an answer. I have "restore last session" turned on, but I'd like Firefox wouldn't reopen my last visited site after I close the browser by closing the last tab. In other words: if I close the browser by a regular means (by clicking the rightmost upper X, or by right-clicking the taskbar and choosing close window) it goes to the last viewed site when I reopen the browser – and that's ok – but when I close the last tab and the browser closes, I don't want to see this site again when I reopen Firefox. Is there a way to achieve this? By the way, this is the standard behavior in Google Chrome.
Modified by ravipegolo
All Replies (5)
I think your search results (or lack thereof) are correct: I cannot think of a session restore setting that distinguishes between closing a window by using one X button versus the other X button.
Perhaps there should be a new preference (doesn't currently exist) like:
browser.sessionstore.restore_single_tab_window => true by default
During session restore, if Firefox sees that the only window open at shutdown had a single tab, and this preference is set to false, then Firefox would open a new tab and treat that last open tab as a closed tab (the user could restore it from the menu if desired).
Or something like that.
You have many choices to submit feature suggestions, depending on your desired style of interaction:
Discussion Sites/Advocacy
- Mozilla Discourse: https://discourse.mozilla.org/
If none of the categories seem to fit, try https://discourse.mozilla.org/c/firefox-development - Reddit (monitored by Mozilla): https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/
- I saw someone created a Change.org petition but I don't know who sees those
Limited Length Comments
- Feedback site: https://qsurvey.mozilla.com/s3/FirefoxInput/
- Twitter (Mozilla official): https://twitter.com/firefox
Bug Tracking System
- Unfortunately, new feature requests tend to get a low priority: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/
- See: Bugzilla Etiquette
I have this problem too and I'm just quitting Firefox really for this reason. It's kindn of funny but I really want a fresh new start when I open the browser after having closed everything.
Manos said
I really want a fresh new start when I open the browser after having closed everything.
The closest feature is to have Firefox open a new blank tab when you close the last real tab in a window:
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.
(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste lasttab and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Double-click the browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab preference to switch the value from true to false
I am also disliking this bevahior. I now created a thread here: https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/restore-last-session-but-not-if-i-close-last-tab/74340
You can set browser.startup.page = 0 and leave browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab = true to always start with a blank tab. You will have to restore the previous session manually via the "3-bar" Firefox menu button drop-down list or the History menu.
- browser.startup.page
[0:blank; 1:home page; 2:last visited page; 3:restore previous session]