Recovering Safari Tabs/Windows Via Time Machine

[jordii]

When Safari crashes, you can choose "reopen all windows from last session" to restore tabs and windows. But if you forget to do this right away, and Safari crashes again, those previous tabs/windows are lost.

Before Yosemite, the solution was to swap in a previous version (from Time Machine backup) of ~/Library/Safari/LastSession.plist

In Yosemite, this no longer seems to work.

I see that the following file exists in Yosemite: ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.Safari.savedState

Is this the file to swap in (from Time Machine) for this situation? Or must we swap previous versions of both files simultaneously? Or...?

 

[jbarley]

I just take the easy way out and go back in TM to before the problem occurred and restore "~/Library/Safari", and yes that is the total Safari Folder, this way I get everything I need back all at once.
Works for me.

 

[jordii]

I just take the easy way out and go back in TM to before the problem occurred and restore "~/Library/Safari", and yes that is the total Safari Folder, this way I get everything I need back all at once.
Works for me.

You don't need to do that. Up to Yosemite, lastsession.plist is the only file you need (so no need to overwrite your latest history and bookmarks files from backup).

But, once again, Yosemite adds : ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.Safari.savedState
...and that seems to play a part (and isn't in the Safari folder). Hopefully, someone will know exactly what that part is.

 

[jbarley]

History, doesn't concern me, and the same goes for bookmarks, it's not like i add new ones every hour or even every day.
As I said earlier, "it works for me", and you, you're still looking for a solution.

 

[jordii]

What also would "work for you" would be throwing away your computer, buying a new one, and doing a full recovery from backup. That'll bring back the tabs, as well.

I've really enjoyed this little chat, but you're unable to answer my question, so I'll ask you to please move on to greener conversational pastures.

 

[Juggleben]

Hi there,

I know the post is old but there was no conclusion and I just struggle 2 hours to find the solution to your/our problem.

So here's what I did:

In finder, press option key then view tab and select library
from there you can find ~/Library/Safari/LastSession.plist
select the file and open time machine
go back to the time you know you had all your windows/tabs open and restore
I decided to replace the file
then back in safari, go to history then reopen all windows from last session and tada! all the tabs I had opened on the day I selected in time machine are back!

Hope it will helped anyone who go through that sh...