One way to determine whether it's a crash recovery from Firefox's perspective is to switch from automatic post-crash restore to showing the page that gives you the option to restore after a crash. Here's how:

(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, edit 1 to 0 (that's a zero), then click OK

It is possible that Firefox can't close properly and create a valid sessionstore.jsonlz4 file. In that case only the files in the sessionstore-backups folder are available and those show the running state.

Does Firefox create a sessionstore.jsonlz4 file in the profile folder when you close Firefox? You can temporarily set this startup setting to force creating sessionstore.jsonlz4:

• "Show my windows and tabs from last time"

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
  Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

thanks for bringing this setting to my attention. it helped me discover the source of the problem. somehow, the setting was checked to show tabs from last time. i didn't even realize it has been checked, must have happened somehow during the last update, because i didn't even know the setting existed so i couldn't have manually checked it myself. so as it turns out, the browser was not damaged or virus infected, just needed to change the setting. thanks again.

I started having the same problem about a week ago. Windows 10, 64 bit, Firefox 61.0.2. In Tools, Options, the use last page is not checked and in HOME an item from my Bookmarks is selected. I am 70+ years old and had a little trouble following the other directions, though it does say no crash reports. Can you simplify what else I need to look at? Thanks.

Hi ejpuckett, normally, Firefox will show your home page at startup. The most common exceptions are:

(1) Firefox is set to restore your previous session on the Options page -- it sounds as though you already checked this, and it is not the reason

(2) Firefox is performing a crash recovery -- I'll give you a settings change that can help identify this as the issue, if it is

(3) There is a user.js file in your profile folder that instructs Firefox to restore the previous session just this once, but since Firefox reads that file at every startup, it becomes "every time." This article has a section on how to track down a user.js file: How to fix preferences that won't save.

When recovering from a crash -- or a missing file that makes Firefox think it crashed -- Firefox will try to restore your session automatically. You can change that to displaying a screen that gives you a choice:

(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 above the list, type or paste crash and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.sessionstore.max_resumed_crashes preference and edit 1 to 0 (that's a zero) in the little dialog, and click OK

If you start seeing a screen at startup with a creature apologizing for having problems restoring your session, then we need to try to figure out why Firefox is trying to do a crash recovery.

^3: Note that this can be an issue with the user.js file in the Firefox profile folder that sets the browser.sessionstore.resume_session_once pref to true.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.sessionstore.resume_session_once

None of these solutions helped, though I thank everyone for their help. I finally deleted Firefox and installed from scratch. I use MozBackup every month or two, and after the new install was done I loaded my info back and had the same problem. I then loaded a profile from before I had the problem, and all was well, no more problems with loading last page rather than the Home page.