How do I reinstate Tab Groups that were removed by the automatic "upgrade" to v57.0?

[TonyCPalmer]

The automatic upgrade to v57.0 has removed my extensions, in particular my Tab Groups. Unlike the upgrade to (I think) v45.0 there was no alert that this was going to happen so I couldn't save the Tab Groups. All my current research has gone. Is there a way to recover the contents of the Tab Groups that have disappeared? This has really stuffed me so any help would be appreciated.
I appreciate that Tab Groups are now a thing of the past but is the Tab Group data stored somewhere that I can get to, copy the URLs and get the info back to bookmarks?

[rpasta42]

Here are steps to get all the lost tabs recovered. If you don't do it immediately after upgrade, then grouped tabs might be lost forever.

Note that my instructions are aimed at Linux and you will have to adopt it to your own OS.

1. First, we make a back-up of your firefox data folder (cp ~/.mozilla ~/DOTmozilla-backup)
2. remove Firefox from your system (sudo apt remove --purge firefox)
3. Download and install Firefox 56 on your computer from here.

Now when you start Firefox 56 all your tab groups should still be there. Bookmark them. But firefox will try to auto-update itself which will cause you to lose the tab groups again after restart.

I tried to disable auto-updates in about:config but Firefox updated before I could disable it. So instead we will modify configuration file directly, but you need to do this before you run Firefox 56 or it will still auto-update.

In Firefox data folder, which we copied earlier (~/.mozilla on Linux), you have to find user profile folder for your main profile (should be named something like ~/.mozilla/firefox/<j51dsfsdf.default>). In user profile folder, edit prefs.js and add the following lines:

user_pref("app.update.auto", false);
user_pref("app.update.enabled", false);

Now Firefox 56 will not auto-update and you will be able to continue using Tab Groups.

I want to add that I'm extremely disappointing with Mozilla. I'm loving all the work they're doing with Rust, but breaking old extension API and taking out SQLite interface was a very bad idea

[4hx0]

@rpasta42s method worked, big thanks for that!, but I think this method to downgrade (I wrote a guide, original credit goes to Ask Ubuntu) Firefox seems simpler:

• How to downgrade Firefox on Ubuntu

When you've re-retrieved and saved, using whatever method you like, your lost tabs, you can remove and then install Firefox the regular way again.

[TonyCPalmer]

Thanks for your reply. I fixed one Linux Ubuntu device, the second one is not so important. My main issue is still my Windows10 install of Firefox. I’m going to try and remove, install 56.0.2 and try and retrieve the tab info. I’m a bit nervous about this as it is our main multi user machine and I don’t want to mess this up. Thanks. From: Anony Moose [mailto:notifications@github.com] Sent: 19 November, 2017 6:22 PM To: Quicksaver/Tab-Groups Cc: TonyCPalmer; Author Subject: Re: [Quicksaver/Tab-Groups] How do I reinstate Tab Groups that were removed by the automatic "upgrade" to v57.0? (#560) Here are steps to get all the lost tabs recovered. If you don't do it immediately after upgrade, then grouped tabs might be lost forever. Note that my instructions are aimed at Linux and you will have to adopt it to your own OS. 1. First, we make a back-up of your firefox data folder (cp ~/.mozilla ~/DOTmozilla-backup) 2. remove Firefox from your system (sudo apt remove --purge firefox) 3. Download and install Firefox 56 on your computer from here <http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/> . Now when you start Firefox 56 all your tab groups should still be there. Bookmark them. But firefox will try to auto-update itself which will cause you to lose the tab groups again after restart. I tried to disable auto-updates in about:config but Firefox updated before I could disable it. So instead we will modify configuration file directly, but you need to do this before you run Firefox 56 or it will still auto-update. In Firefox data folder, which we copied earlier (~/.mozilla on Linux), you have to find user profile folder for your main profile (should be named something like ~/.mozilla/firefox/<j51dsfsdf.default>). In user profile folder, edit prefs.js and add the following lines: user_pref("app.update.auto", false); user_pref("app.update.enabled", false); Now Firefox 56 will not auto-update and you will be able to continue using Tab Groups. — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#560 (comment)> , or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AgPQn3_eZvrtAL7fKQcgNDreVDUdG-0kks5s4HHCgaJpZM4QjXTb> . <https://github.com/notifications/beacon/AgPQnwVVIvr4z6sHSrBjQX6h-n9rM5eYks5s4HHCgaJpZM4QjXTb.gif>

[TonyCPalmer]

Thanks for your reply. I fixed one Linux Ubuntu device, the second one is not so important. My main issue is still my Windows10 install of Firefox. I’m going to try and remove, install 56.0.2 and try and retrieve the tab info. I’m a bit nervous about this as it is our main multi user machine and I don’t want to mess this up. Thanks. From: 4hx0 [mailto:notifications@github.com] Sent: 22 November, 2017 5:37 PM To: Quicksaver/Tab-Groups Cc: TonyCPalmer; Author Subject: Re: [Quicksaver/Tab-Groups] How do I reinstate Tab Groups that were removed by the automatic "upgrade" to v57.0? (#560) @rpasta42s method worked, big thanks for that!, but I think this method to downgrade (I wrote a guide, original credit goes to Ubuntuforums) Firefox seems simpler: * How to downgrade Firefox on Ubuntu <https://github.com/4hx0/eo/blob/master/firefox_downgrade_ubuntu.md> When you've re-retrieved and saved, using whatever method you like, your lost tabs, you can remove and then install Firefox the regular way again. — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#560 (comment)> , or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AgPQn__e__7FY1Cdv81SsV0YjvDumcEwks5s5FvIgaJpZM4QjXTb> . <https://github.com/notifications/beacon/AgPQn5hPRbSEPwPGCaRHKX2CSM0AFMsiks5s5FvIgaJpZM4QjXTb.gif>

[teerapap]

I dig a bit and found that in OSX,
the tab groups are in inside session backup at ~/Library/Application\ Support/Firefox/Profiles/{random string}.default/sessionstore-backups/previous.js. I guess that other platform may found something similar. It is a JSON file.

I write a quick nodejs script to parse it and pretty-print as html file.
https://gist.github.com/teerapap/6146aa031558283f1f78c5ea358eb315
Hope it is useful.

[tomas-eklund]

Thanks @teerapap! That was very useful information. On Windows 10 it seems that the location is:

C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\{random_string}.default\sessionstore-backups

[TonyCPalmer]

Thanks for all your comments. I've recovered my Ubuntu tabs and most of the tab group urls under Windows 10 by following @tomas-eklund's comment.
Thanks everyone.

[boberj]

For other readers who end up here, if you just want to restore your tabs (not the groups) without having to downgrade Firefox you can follow the instructions here. In order to be able to follow those instructions you need to enable the Browser Console command line, which is disabled by default. To enable it set the devtools.chrome.enabled preference to true in about:config, or set the "Enable browser chrome and add-on debugging toolboxes" (Firefox 40 and later) option in the developer tool settings.