I would like you to submit your bug report so that we can respond to this issue.

I'll assume you mean here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi

Just to be sure as I have not filed a bug for FF before.

Thanks.

1. I can find no way including in about:config to enable lazy tab loading. In other words, open a group but not load each tab until it is clicked on.

How are you opening a new tab group? For example, is this where you right-click a bookmark folder > Open All Bookmarks?

2. This one is more unique. I have a desktop install of ESR and a portable ESR install on a thumb drive. For MANY years I backed up bookmarks on my desktop and restored them to FF on my thumb drive. Now, after I shut down the portable (which takes a very long time) there are multiple bookmarks. Html files that seem to merge on shutdown. Problem is, on the thumb drive this is not completed before FF shutdown and the processes closed. Results in damaged bookmark files and a crash EVERY time. IF I drag the copy of FF ESR portable to my desktop and perform the same procedure, no problems. So somehow on a USB 3 thumb drive the process of merging bookmarks. Html files is too slow and will cause a crash consistently.

What does the merging? I know Firefox can export a bookmarks HTML file, but I don't think it ever imports a bookmarks HTML file without that being manually initiated. ??

Thanks for the reply.

1. My normal way id to use Tab Session Manager, but that has a built in Lazy Opening feature. So in looking for a FF feature 9which I could not find as a setting) I test opening a group of bookmarks.

Just to clarify a bit, what was behind that is I had 91 working very well but 102 would peg CPU usage at 100% for a long time, sometimes as long as it took to open all tabs. Lazy is one solution if it worked smoothly and quickly enough. Having Performance set to 1 in 91 worked, but that setting is gone in 102 and the about: Config for dom. Ipc. ProcessCount defaulted to 8 and setting to 1 made no difference in the amount of running processes.

Maybe the background on why I was looking for this is helpful.

2. FF does the merging. Watch the profile when closing. There will always be a bookmarks. Html, but when closing there appears a second. On a desktop installation, you can see the two merge or combine quickly. But when on a USB device it may not complete, or if it appears to it crashes FF. EVERY time. So my guess is that either the merge process is not fast enough or the closing process has not been told to wait until the bookmarks merge is complete.

Install a FF 102 portable on a thumb drive. Backup bookmarks on desktop installation (mine is 6612 KB) Open the thumb drive version Restore bookmarks View the profile in Explorer and watch the bookmarks. html file(s) Close FF Wait for the crash

Normally, when restoring the previous session, Firefox will create all the tabs but only load content from cache (or from the web) for selected tabs:

• All pinned tabs load
• The active non-pinned tab in each window will load

If you need to check the preferences for those:

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

More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox. The moderators would like us to remind you that changes made through this back door aren't fully supported and aren't guaranteed to continue working in the future.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste on_demand and pause while the list is filtered

Firefox should display two preferences (ignore the bar to create a new one):

• browser.sessionstore.restore_on_demand = true => this means Firefox should only restore regular tabs when they are made active
• browser.sessionstore.restore_pinned_tabs_on_demand = false => this means Firefox should restore the content of all the pinned tabs without waiting for you to make them active

As far as I know, Firefox does not create a bookmarks.html file unless you modify the browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML preference to true. That feature doesn't get a lot of use and certainly could have bugs. I suspect it doesn't merge files but simply replaces the last one. However, I haven't tested or checked the code.

Portable Firefox is a third party build created by PortableApps with numerous differences from Firefox. You might want to check on their forum whether this is a supported feature: https://portableapps.com/forums/support/firefox_portable

Thnks for the continuing dialog.

I do not reload anything from the cache. Always fresh. Things change. I would not want a stale page. And if opening from bookmarks should always be fresh. Cache is cleared each time I close FF.

The on demands are set as you say. Makes no change. Restore on demand does not work. They all open anyway.

FF creates a bookmarks.html file every time it is used. At least in 102 ESR. It does not replace, it merges. When closing DESKTOP FF, two files appear and merge to one on closing. It is not a Portable Exclusive feature.

These are facts, not guesses. Just so you know.

There is an issue.

There was not in 91. For either of these issues.

To be clear, these work differently:

Session Restore

When you have Firefox set to restore your previous session windows and tabs at startup (first option on the Settings page), it should only load the content of the pinned tabs and active non-pinned tabs at startup. It should not load the content of non-pinned inactive/background tabs.

Tab Session Manager

How add-ons open tabs is up to them (add-on authors have the option to load background/inactive tabs in a suspended state to save on bandwidth if they like).

Bookmarks

Loading bookmarks will load the content. They do not behave like session restore.

Regarding bookmarks.html, have you customized the browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML preference to true in about:config? Otherwise, I don't know why Firefox is creating that file. Bookmarks are stored in the Places database (places.sqlite) along with history.

Are you submitting the crash reports? You can share crash report IDs with us in case they provide useful information. See: Firefox crashes - asking for support. If the crash report signature is about a shutdown timeout -- i.e., shutdown was taking so long that a watchdog process simply killed Firefox -- then the reports might only tell us that exporting the HTML file took a long time and not explain why that is the case.

Well, let's take peices since we are getting away from core issues I think.

I did not modify browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML yet it is set to true. I wonder what did. I will test wioth that to false.

I have submitted MANY crash reports.

Thanks. Let's see where that leads.

If you set the preference back to false, Firefox will stop exporting that bookmarks.html file. If you don't use that file for anything, you can delete the old one.

Note that enabling browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML to create an HTML backup creates this backup when Firefox is closed unlike the JSON backup that is created when you start Firefox for performance reasons to make closing Firefox as fast as possible. In your case the bookmarks.html file is quite large (6 MB) and writing to an USB drive isn't very fast compared to a hard drive.

If you set the preference back to false, Firefox will stop exporting that bookmarks.html file. If you don't use that file for anything, you can delete the old one.

Yep. Did both. No idea why that was set to true. I did not do it. Unsure of any addon that would. But it crashes half the time now. Not every time. So progress. Would posting the crash report here help in any way?

Note that enabling browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML to create an HTML backup creates this backup when Firefox is closed unlike the JSON backup that is created when you start Firefox for performance reasons to make closing Firefox as fast as possible. In your case the bookmarks.html file is quite large (6 MB) and writing to an USB drive isn't very fast compared to a hard drive.

Thanks. So true. I have no idea as I said why that was enabled. Will try (but not too hard) to find out.

The about:crashes page should have a link to the report. You can use that to view it online and if you think it will provide some insight, share the URL (or the bp- code) here.

Unfortuntely that has been cleared with syncing profiles. Will do at the next crash!

browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML set to true.

I did not make that change, nor can I find an addon that did or even could have. But with that change to false and deleting the bookmarks.html file, everything runs smoother and the portable versions seem much more stable. Maybe not 100% but definitely 90%.

So scratching my head how that setting could have been changed.

Still would love to know where in about:config I could set lazy tab opening.

Thanks! You folks have been very helpful. Appreciate it.