News Firefox user loses 7,470 opened tabs saved over two years after they can’t restore browsing session

[Admin]

Hazel keeps over 7,000 open Firefox tabs for nostalgia but lost them all after the browser encountered an issue.

Firefox user loses 7,470 opened tabs saved over two years after they can’t restore browsing session : Read more

 

[USAFRet]

"Losing two years' worth of browsing tabs is no laughing matter."

Yes it is.
I can, and will, laugh mightily

 

[Notton]

I, on the other hand, like to keep open tabs to a minimum.
Instead, I put pages I want to read later into a bookmark folder.

 

[hotaru251]

+1 for firefox

but for real I will never understand people who have that many tabs...like just bookmark stuff x_x....

 

[peachpuff]

she keeps all those tabs open because she likes “to scroll back and see clusters of tabs from months ago — it’s like a trip down memory lane on whatever I was doing/learning about/thinking about.”

I don't think i have enough free time to do that.

 

[USAFRet]

2 years

Never updated her FF browser
Never updated the OS
Never powered off or rebooted the system
Zero backups
7,000+ tabs open!!

Sorry, but this is 100% self inflicted.


But wait...."Hazel retrieved those tabs-of-treasure thanks to the X community explaining how to restore an old Firefox browsing session from the profiles cache."

 

[zanessepp]

I mean that's a novel way of combining history and bookmarks! Very clever (or not so clever).

I personally use the workspaces feature in Vivaldi and I can still bookmark sets of tabs into specific tasks/research/funnies in both.

But if someone were to wipe out my bookmarks in all of the places then I'd be sorely pissed off.

 

[USAFRet]

So, apparently ignoring this for 2 years?

 

[slurmsmckenzie]

I have 4-5 tabs I keep open all of the time and I update as normal, Firefox is set to auto-restore the session when it restarts. I assumed that was the case with this story also, and they got lost when it failed to restore eventually. I'd be impressed if Firefox was running for 2+ years with over 7,000 tabs and didn't crash!

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

So, apparently ignoring this for 2 years?

Maybe she didn't want to be "forced to use" a Firefox account?

 

[USAFRet]

I have 4-5 tabs I keep open all of the time and I update as normal, Firefox is set to auto-restore the session when it restarts. I assumed that was the case with this story also, and they got lost when it failed to restore eventually. I'd be impressed if Firefox was running for 2+ years with over 7,000 tabs and didn't crash!

Right.

It will usually auto-restore.
Usually.

Not something I'd trust for "years".

 

[USAFRet]

Maybe she didn't want to be "forced to use" a Firefox account?

You do NOT have to.
I don't. Never had a FF account.

But often, you do need to restart the browser.
Usually, it will restore what you had open. Key word, Usually.

 

[Sleepy_Hollowed]

I thought that Firefox has a feature that it remembers recently closed tabs for a time, that's how I get around closing tabs on accident.

That being said, at that point, if they require that many tabs, save a chunk as sessions and name them, that's insane for number of tabs.

 

[COLGeek]

I'm sorry, but in no way is keeping 7000+ tabs open is useful in any sense. Really, how can anyone take seriously?

 

[USAFRet]

I thought that Firefox has a feature that it remembers recently closed tabs for a time, that's how I get around closing tabs on accident.

Yes it does.

But 7,000+ ?

 

[35below0]

When you're too smart for fool-proof design, but not smart enough for common sense.

 

[USAFRet]

How does anyone find anything in that pile of junk?

The Chicken Kiev recipe....was that on tab 2,128, or 6,009?

 

[USAFRet]

When you're too smart for fool-proof design, but not smart enough for common sense.

 

[PEnns]

At first I thought it was a joke. But it's pure insanity!!

How does she even remember where a certain really important tab is in that 7000+ mountain of tabs??

But that also speaks volumes about Firefox's great memory and tab management.

 

[NonZeroNeutrino]

I drag tabs to the bookmarks section labeled computer and every 6 months or less I (export)save bookmarks to two different places(HD, flash). A number of times I go back to an old site and it is no longer there. Also old utube music need to be updated to a new one. I sill use Firefox even though Google browser will auto save everything.

 

[M0rtis]

And I thought that I was bad with my 200 odd open tabs in Firefox....

 

[Makaveli]

That is 100% a laughing matter.

 

[Dr3ams]

How much RAM would you need to have 7000+ tabs open at the same time?

On my system the average YouTube tab uses 400MB of memory, so 7000 tabs would need 2.8TB of RAM.

The average web page (such as a news site) uses 200MB of memory, so 7000 tabs would need 1.4TB of RAM.

 

[USAFRet]

How much RAM would you need to have 7000+ tabs open at the same time?

On my system the average YouTube tab uses 400MB of memory, so 7000 tabs would need 2.8TB of RAM.

The average web page (such as a news site) uses 200MB of memory, so 7000 tabs would need 1.4TB of RAM.

A while ago, I tried this.

Once I got to 600-700+ tabs, things started to fail.
This was with 32GB RAM.

But...completely inactive tabs don't really use much, if any, RAM. They are not actively doing anything.
A tab displaying a utube video, that goes directly to the next, and next.,...that is different Lots of RAM for that particular tab.

 

[eye4bear]

I think having more than about 10 taps open is crazy, so to me, she is nuts... I kept thinking " is this a late April Fools joke? .... and why the hell isn't she backing these up?? The whole story has too many holes in it, so I assume it was a planted story to show just how great their browser handles large number of bookmarks because otherwise it makes no sense.