Losing pinned tabs on browser restart, MacOS, FF137

[mgrimace]

Hello, I'm having a hard time finding the pref/setting to allow my pinned tabs to return on browser restart. In the FF settings I have 'Open previous windows and tabs' selected (true). No changes to the default user.js values, and the following overrides:

// PREF: show weather on New Tab page
user_pref("browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.showWeather", true);

// PREF: disable the Firefox View tour from popping up
user_pref("browser.firefox-view.feature-tour", "{\"screen\":\"\",\"complete\":true}");

// PREF: Vertical Tabs
user_pref("sidebar.verticalTabs", true);
user_pref("sidebar.revamp", true);

// PREF: MacOS theming
user_pref("widget.macos.titlebar-blend-mode.behind-window", true);
user_pref("browser.theme.native-theme", true);

//PREF: Windows theming
user_pref("widget.windows.mica", true);
user_pref("browser.theme.native-theme", true);
user_pref("browser.tabs.allow_transparent_browser", true);

//PREF: DOH 
user_pref("network.trr.mode", 5); // OFF

// PREF: remove AI
user_pref("browser.ml.chat.enabled", false); // AI chat and sidebar

// PREF: hide dropdown suggestions when clicking on the address bar
user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.topsites", false);

Any advice for how to have pinned tabs persist?

Additional details:
FF 137.0.2
MacOS Sequioa 15.3.2

[yokoffing]

Do you mean new tab page thumbnails? You shouldn't need this for new profiles with the v.137 user.js, but I've left this here for all current and previous setups: https://github.com/yokoffing/Betterfox/wiki/Common-Overrides#new-tab-shortcuts. The key one being:

// PREF: restore Top Sites on New Tab page
user_pref("browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.feeds.topsites", true);`.

Or do you mean pinned tabs literally? Check browser.sessionstore.restore_pinned_tabs_on_demand.

[philg-dev]

Just as a sidenote: browser.sessionstore.restore_pinned_tabs_on_demand only controls the loading behavior of the websites in pinned tabs. When it's set to true the websites in pinned tabs will not be loaded after a browser restart, only once you visit / activate the respective tab. So in other words, having it set to true can save you some RAM if you're not frequently visiting ALL of your pinned tabs, but still want to keep them pinned for whatever other reason.

Edit: Also if your entire session doesn't restore to begin with, then the issue is most likely not specific to pinned tabs. I'm not sure if this could be the cause, but might be worth a shot looking at: Did you configure Firefox to delete your browsing history when closing in about:preferences#privacy ?

[yokoffing]

@philg-dev Yes, this is correct. And since the issue is "allow my pinned tabs to return on browser restart", I'm trying to discern what that means exactly. It's a lot easier to diagnose if the entire session doesn't restore.

[mgrimace]

Does this happen after browsing awhile, or are you opening the pinned tabs and immediately ending the session?

Also, on macOS, are you right click > Quit on Firefox or just hitting the red X to close the window?

Ok, good question, I'm not on the mac a lot and I don't pay as close attention as I should. It reliably happens right now when I red X then right-click-quit. It seems to happen when I logout or restart the computer, after I've been away but I'm not sure if they're fully closing or what.

edit: open tabs/session also does not restore on red-x close (FF is still 'active' in the dock, marked with a 'dot')

To clarify, its that my pinned tabs physically disappear from the top of the vertical sidebar. It doesn't matter to me whether they load/unload on click. My issue is that when I launch FF, I have to browse to each pin, then re-pin it, and it doesn't reliably persist.

Edit: Also if your entire session doesn't restore to begin with, then the issue is most likely not specific to pinned tabs. I'm not sure if this could be the cause, but might be worth a shot looking at: Did you configure Firefox to delete your browsing history when closing in about:preferences#privacy ?

This is how I have it set, and yes the entire session also doesn't restore, so I'm possibly conflating two issues here.

[yokoffing]

then I red X then right-click-quit

If you want to retain your tabs for next session, you need to right-click-quit. Do not click the red X.