+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #1563293 +++

(In reply to elliottabarnes from comment #5)

Of course - and I totally understand that it's down to a user to ensure that all of their data (not just Firefox browsing history!) is secure - that's their choice. However, if a user has explicitly unchecked "Restore previous session" from within Options, this would suggest that they know what they're doing; the average user who simply uses the browser without modifying anything would arguably have left this at the default. In this case, should we not take this as confirmation that a user doesn't want their session reloaded upon a crash, and stop recording session data if this is unchecked?

Sure, it's a double-edged sword. I do think it's good to optimize for the generally expected behavior, which is to restore after crash.
So perhaps we should add a bit of messaging to about:preferences to highlight that crashes are exempt from the 'Restore previous session' option?

Hi Aaron, are you the right person to ask for a UX update in this area? Allow me to explain what's going on here:

Problem: a user deliberately chooses not to restore their session on startup - thus starting with only one tab, loading the homepage, due to privacy concerns, being on a shared computer, or some other reason. When Firefox crashes (which is rare, but graphics drivers are still flaky these days) and upon restart, we automatically restore the session, regardless of the user's preference. We currently don't inform our users about this behavior in-product.

Ask: 1) Should we inform our users about this behavior in about:preferences General? 2) If so, can UX provide a mockup that I could use to implement this?

Whether you end up creating the mockup once your schedule allows it or redirect this request to the right person instead: thanks!! :-)

I second this.
I was always wondering why firefox always goes "failed to restore last session" - even though I do not set firefox to restore, and I actually do not prefer it to do so. It finally started actually working for me, and ended up being annoying enough for me to dig into the matter :)

Somehow Firefox (tries to) restore the last session every time after a boot for me, no matter whether I close each windows, or just shutdown the OS while firefox is opened. I'm assuming firefox is somehow taking it as a crash. This confused me a lot, because I believed I closed it properly, the preference is set to NOT restore the session. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-previous-session This document made my mind to click :P (should I file another report?)

So I suggest,

1. Show a tooltip when the user selected not to restore the last session -
   "The last session was restored because it was not closed properly.
   ☐ Do not show this again
   | Okay | Settings... |"

2. Add a messaging in the preference, as the reporter suggests

2-1) Alternatively a checkbox alongside, to set browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash
(Assuming the document linked above is correct)