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I want to quickly restart Firefox, not losing any tabs or windows that are still open before the restart.

There used to be several add-ons for Firefox in order to add a restart button. So far (as of January 2018) for Firefox Quantum (Version 57.x or up) none of them work. Is there a different solution to quickly restart Firefox? The only usable URL I found on this topic so far is this post on Reddit but it doesn't give a "one click" solution. I don't care if it's an add-on or if I have to set it up manually. It could be even 3rd party software as long as it can be accessed from "within" Firefox (through a button etc.).

In my scenario I need to use several browsers. One main installation (only one profile) and several portable Versions that run parallel to the installed Firefox. The solution should work for this scenario.

So far I could only find the following work arounds:

  • Set Firefox to reinitialize all tabs for the last session on the next startup, then close, and reopen Firefox (Problem here is that you have to wait for all the processes to end before you can start FF again. And it doesn't work for multiple Windows)

  • Shift+F2 - Type restart (problems here are, that I can't remember the shortcut Shift+F2 and for some reason it does not work every single time and it's "click" (keyboard shortcut) plus typing which takes more time but still beats the solution where I have to wait for FF to close) NOTE: the developer toolbar Shift+F2 shortcut was removed with V62

  • Thanks to fixer's answer there is a "two-click" solution for the main installation, unfortunately it does not work for a portable version.

  • DavidPostill has a addon/3rd party software solution in his answer, unfortunately it's not freeware (anymore).

  • 3rd party solution like Autohotkey. (Problem here is, that it can not be accessed from within Firefox. In FF Quantum some extensions use Python e.g. OpenWith. I figure it might be possible to start a Autohotkey script using an addon. That could be a solution as well.)

My reason for this question is that I find it annoying have to close Firefox wait until all the processes come to an end and then reopen Firefox again. In my view a good UX or rather UI should give you the option to restart with one click. In my case the restart is necessary when Firefox gets buggy, uses up to much memory or if I install certain addons for test purposes that require a restart. Not being able to restart quickly is one of the reasons I switched to other browsers for my main work but I would like to switch back to Firefox.

Albin
  • 11,950

7 Answers7

11

Two-Click Solution

Firefox Quantum has a restart button. Here's a way to make it accessible so you can restart with two mouse clicks (and no add-on required).

  • Type about:profiles in the URL window. This opens a profiles dashboard. You can do all kinds of profile-related things (even launching another Firefox instance with a different profile); it's a generally handy tab. At the top are two restart buttons, one to restart normally and one to restart with add-ons disabled.
  • Right-click on the tab, and select Pin Tab. This will move the tab to the left end of the tab bar and affix it there as a miniature tab with just the Firefox icon. It will always be there until you decide to unpin it.

To restart with two clicks:

  • Click on the pinned tab.
  • Click the Restart button.

Regardless of whether you have Firefox set to restore the previous session on startup, you will be back where you left off after restart; restart restores the session.

Community
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fixer1234
  • 28,064
7

Ctrl+Shift+J to open Browser Console, then Ctrl+Alt+R to restart.

The restart command only works when the Browser Console window is open and has the focus. This method works out-of-the-box with zero configuration and may be the only way to restart the browser if the interface locks up (unable to click any UI elements).

Quolonel Questions
  • 183
4

Just paste

about:restartrequired

and hit restart. Works on Firefox portable installations with previous tabs restored.

Quolonel Questions
  • 183
PeaceByJesus
  • 232
2

I want to quickly restart Firefox, not losing any tabs that are still open before the restart.

Use the Restart Browser add-on:

Allows to restart the browser with a button.

Confirmed as working with Firefox 61.0.1:

enter image description here

DavidPostill
  • 162,382
1

No one-click solution but for this task I suggest the use of a session manager like Tab Session Manager. Advantage: You can save different sessions for later use.

Michael S.
  • 4,217
1

Open the Browser Console (Ctrl+Shift+J)

Type BrowserUtils.restartApplication() and press Enter

paa
  • 972
1

There seems to be a new method. You can use the Actions search shortcut > (check your settings) in the address bar and then just type restart and select the suitable action, but you have to activate it first by setting browser.urlbar.quickactions.enabled to true in about:config.

external reference: https://www.makeuseof.com/enable-quick-action-commands-firefox-edge/

illustration

T Nierath
  • 557