How to recover lost or closed tabs using the Firefox History tool
The world is moving at a breakneck pace and seems to be getting faster and faster every day. Because of this, we all work faster, which can sometimes seriously affect our efficiency.
A typical example is Firefox tabs. How many times have you worked like hell only to accidentally close a tab you were working on? Or maybe Firefox decided it was time to blow up the ghost, and by the time you can finally open it again, all your tabs have gone into the ether.
It happens. It has happened to me several times. (My wife has it more often with Chrome.) No matter how careful you are, this problem will haunt you. Luckily, there’s an easy way to get those tabs back, and that’s through your browsing history.
I’m going to show you how to restore these tabs using Firefox’s history feature.
Likewise: Here’s how to transfer photos from your Android phone to a Windows PC
But first, a little side quest.
Connect Firefox to your account
Before we do that, I would suggest that you create a new Firefox account and connect all your instances (mobile and desktop) to that account. Why? Because when you connect Firefox to a Firefox Account, your history is synced across all your devices. Thanks to this feature, you can access tabs opened on other devices, making the history tool even more powerful.
All you have to do is go to the Firefox account page and log in. Once you create the account, Firefox will automatically start syncing your history, bookmarks, open tabs, addresses, and settings.
You can go to Settings > at any time [ACCOUNT EMAIL] > Sync Settings (where [ACCOUNT EMAIL] is the email address you used to sign up for your Firefox Account), click Change and choose what you want to sync.
Make sure you do this for every instance of Firefox you have. However, I would advise against syncing logins and passwords as well as credit card information.
You decide what you want to sync with your Firefox Account. Image: Jack Wallen
Restore closed tabs
Now we come to the good stuff. Suppose Firefox crashed and you lost your tabs. To reopen these tabs, all you have to do is click the Firefox menu button and go History > Recently Closed Tabs. In the resulting menu, you’ll see a list of the tabs you’ve recently closed. Click on one of them to reopen them.
A short list of recently closed Firefox tabs. Image: Jack Wallen
If you can’t find the tab you’re looking for, open the History pop-up window and scroll through all the entries until you see the tab you want. Click on this entry and a new tab will open for this site or page.
To get the most out of your history, click Settings > History > Manage History. In the resulting window, you can search your entire history for over six months, search your history, and even use a tagging system to make managing that history even easier.
Managing your Firefox history is even easier in History Manager. Image: Jack Wallen
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to use my Firefox browsing history to find a lost tab. It’s not that Firefox keeps crashing (it doesn’t), but the speed I tend to work at causes me to regularly close tabs that I need to use. Luckily I can work like this because I know the Firefox history tool has my back.