Google Chrome: restoring prior sessions

[Benko]

Changing from firefox to chrome but in firefox if you close browser for any reason e.g. accidentally close browser, application freezes, ransomware pops up, etc and restart firefox all the tabs from last session are there again (if firefox is set correctly). Even though I have Chrome (I think) set properly, when I've accidentally shut down the browser, or had to close it because of ransomware, the old tabs were not there, and were not under recently closed tabs.

Is there a way using chrome or an extension, so that you can recover tabs from prior session under most circumstances.

EDIT: I have the "on start up, continue where you left off" checked, but it doesn't seem to work.

Thanks.

[dragoncar]

Works for me... do you have it set to clear history/cache/cookies when you quit?  Or are your browsing incognito?  That would make it impossible to restore the session

[Benko]

Works for me... do you have it set to clear history/cache/cookies when you quit?  Or are your browsing incognito?  That would make it impossible to restore the session

Not browsing incognito and i don't even see the setting for clear history/cache/cookies when you quit? so don't think this is checked.

[gizmo_rat]

Is there a way using chrome or an extension, so that you can recover tabs from prior session under most circumstances.

Under those circumstances I right click on the new tab and select second option from the bottom of the menu, menu item is "Reopen closed window" or "Reopen closed tab"  depending on how many tabs were open (I think) when it shutdown.

Auto restore of tabs sounds like it might backfire. 

[dualstow]

Maybe it's the ransomware.
It always opens for me, although sometimes if I have a second window of tabs  open before shutdown, I have to go looking for it. It may be minimized or on a second desktop screen. (OS X)

[dragoncar]

I've noticed that it can also fail in this situation:

1) you close a window with 5 tabs open
2) you close another window with 1 tab open

3) you reopen chrome and it only restores the last 1-tab window

Agree you can manually reopen tabs.  Try Ctrl-shift-t

[Benko]

I found the problem.  If I accidentally close the chrome window, it looks like the program is shut down i.e. there are no chrome windows open.  But if I look into activity monitor, the program is still running.  If I click the chrome icon in taskbar AT THIS POINT, a browser windos opens and I can't recover prior tabs.  BUt if I go into activity monitor and force quit on program, then I can re-open it and it will show prior tabs.

Weird.

[dragoncar]

I found the problem.  If I accidentally close the chrome window, it looks like the program is shut down i.e. there are no chrome windows open.  But if I look into activity monitor, the program is still running.  If I click the chrome icon in taskbar AT THIS POINT, a browser windos opens and I can't recover prior tabs.  BUt if I go into activity monitor and force quit on program, then I can re-open it and it will show prior tabs.

Weird.

Sounds like maybe a plugin or something is running in the background that shouldn't be.  Try disabling all extensions temporarily and make sure chrome is up to date.  Does that fix it?

[Benko]

DUh.  Turns out closing all the chrome windows still leaves the program running. All I needed to do is after closing all the windows, go to the chrome menu at the top and click quit.  That fully quits the program and all the tabs restore when I start it again.

Thanks for your help.  One other question if you're a mac person, and don't mind.



Mac with external hard drive for time machine backup.  The time machine backups are working and the external HD connection is intact best I can tell.  I also have carbon copy cloner cloning my hard drive to another external hard drive for redundant backups.

Problem:  whenever i've been away from the machine for long period of time e.g overnight, and I come back to the computer I get the error message:

"Disk not ejected properly.
Eject [name of my external HD used for time machine] before disconnecting or turning it off"

Actually I get roughly 10 copies of that error message with black letters in horizontal white box, stacked vertically down the right side of the screen.  This happens every day.

Any ideas?

Thanks again for your time.

[dragoncar]

Sorry I didn't realize you were on a Mac... Yeah I always use command-q to quit an app on a Mac because it actually closes the program vs just a window.

But I'm not really a Mac person and have no experience with time machine.  Just as general troubleshooting it sounds like the HD connection is getting interrupted while you are away-- maybe because fault cable, controller, or the Mac goes to sleep and stops providing power to the hd

Since you do have another hd, what if you set time machine to back up to the other hd and see if you get the same error?  The you know if it's a problem with the drive or with your settigs

[Mountaineer]

DUh.  Turns out closing all the chrome windows still leaves the program running. All I needed to do is after closing all the windows, go to the chrome menu at the top and click quit.  That fully quits the program and all the tabs restore when I start it again.

Thanks for your help.  One other question if you're a mac person, and don't mind.



Mac with external hard drive for time machine backup.  The time machine backups are working and the external HD connection is intact best I can tell.  I also have carbon copy cloner cloning my hard drive to another external hard drive for redundant backups.

Problem:  whenever i've been away from the machine for long period of time e.g overnight, and I come back to the computer I get the error message:

"Disk not ejected properly.
Eject [name of my external HD used for time machine] before disconnecting or turning it off"

Actually I get roughly 10 copies of that error message with black letters in horizontal white box, stacked vertically down the right side of the screen.  This happens every day.

Any ideas?

Thanks again for your time.

Benko,

I use Carbon Copy Cloner to back up my MacBook to an external USB hard drive but I do not keep it connected all the time - only when I'm doing a back up.  Not sure if this will help your situation, but I used to get the disc error message about not ejecting properly.  I solved it by selecting "unmount destination volume" in the App preferences as shown below.  I also use Time Machine with the built in hard drive on an Apple Airport Extreme.



Good luck.

... M

[dualstow]

Mac with external hard drive ~
Problem:  whenever i've been away from the machine for long period of time e.g overnight, and I come back to the computer I get the error message:

"Disk not ejected properly.
Eject [name of my external HD used for time machine] before disconnecting or turning it off"

I used to have this problem with my older Mac mini (version 3, 1 from 2009). A USB thumb drive would generate that message after just a few minutes of being left plugged in. Strangely, it didn't happen if I put a USB extension cable between the drive and the Mac.

Now I'm on the newest model of Mac mini and I experience no such problems. I can put the computer to sleep -- Sleep is the new Off; I almost never shut down -- and all the external drives are happy to stay plugged in. No error messages.

I really think it's a hardware problem.

[Benko]

I really think it's a hardware problem.

THat does make the most sense.  I deleted the carbon copy cloner item and it still happens.  Plus carbon copy cloner was not backing up to the HD with the error message anyway.  I'll try swapping USB 3 cables and then if necessary swapping exernal HDs and see what happens.

I'll let you know what I find.

[lazyboy]

I don't know if this helps but I recently upgraded my iMac to OSX El Capitan. I use Chrome and I always have stored tabs that I want to save. Now, upon logging off or shutting down there is a check box to save or restore all tabs- it appears automatically. Before the upgrade I used to have to go in and ask Chrome to restore previous tabs after logging in. Also recently, Chrome sent out a notice that appeared before my Mac system upgrade that they were no longer supporting Chrome upgrades in older mac systems (osx 6,7,8,9). The El Capitan upgrade was done because I wanted to up load my iTunes to my new iPhone and that was the only way I could do it- per Apple tech support. So far the new system works fine and is quite stable

[Pointedstick]

Just don't use Chrome. It's getting worse and creepier all the time. Firefox is good, and Safari is serviceable on a Mac.

[Benko]

I tend to work with 30+ browser tabs open* and that worked fine using firefox on my old mac, but recently bought a new mac and with the same or less tabs open firefox was working VERY slowly on the new mac.  Also, I thought there was a thread here telling people not to use firefox.

*great firefox extension which lets you have several rows of tabs (tabmix plus I think). 

[Pointedstick]

Use Safari then. I have like 30 tabs open in my Safari right now. No problemo. It's way faster than Firefox too.

[Benko]

Thanks.