If applicable, where is the list of open tabs stored?

poettli · 2026-09-01T08:22:58+00:00

I just tried Zotero 10.0.2-beta.2 on Ubuntu 22.04 and it closed all my tabs. I have a backup of the Zotero data directory, so is there a way to restore a configuration file to restore all the lost tabs?

dstillman · 2026-09-01T15:03:21+00:00

It's stored in session.json in the Zotero profile folder. The file is rewritten on close and every five minutes, so unless you have a backup of that, the tabs would be gone.

I don't think there's anything in the beta that would've caused this. Are you running any plugins that interact with tabs?

poettli · 2026-09-02T01:03:54+00:00

I was able to restore a previous version of session.json from a backup. Thank you for the help.

I only have BBT and Zoplicate running. I don't think they interact with tabs.

The only thing that happened is Zotero telling that the database was created by a more recent version of Zotero and that the beta needed to be updated, which I agreed for. After restarting, the tabs had vanished.

dstillman · 2026-09-02T02:03:27+00:00

Ah, you downgraded. Yes, it looks like that can (sometimes?) erroneously clear tab storage. We'll fix.

poettli · 2026-09-02T02:07:56+00:00

Yes, I have separate installation of released and beta versions. So involuntary downgrade. Thank you for looking at it.