Can I recover lost text?

July 10, 2007 9:21 PM

How do I rescue text typed in an internet field if the window closes?

I use Firefox. I had just put the finishing touches on a ten page email, when somehow the window was closed.

Please don't berate me with advice about saving. I'm just curious whether the text can be recovered?

posted by jefficator to Computers & Internet (14 answers total)

Shift-Control-T will re-open the most recently closed tab, and text in forms is preserved.
posted by flabdablet at 9:24 PM on July 10, 2007

Unless there's an extension I don't know about, something I find quite probable, no. I know if you hit the back button while typing in a text field you can, provide you don't trigger a refresh, go forwards again and find your text intact. I'm reasonably certain this is because the buffer doesn't get cleared until the cache is updated. If that's the case you could try going through your history to find the page you were on (firefox will sort history by last viewed), if the browser itself didn't shutdown your text might be there. But text entered in a text field, as far as I know, only exists in a buffer and isn't written to anything more permanent.

Sorry.

On preview, flabdablet, I did not know that. I've been lamenting the inadaquacy of TabMix plus and the death of the ever peculiar, sadly unstable, infuriatingly lovable TBE, TabMix can reopen closed tabs, but I didn't know Firefox did it on its own.
posted by Grod at 9:31 PM on July 10, 2007

I just tried flabdablet's method right on this page. Closed the tab after entering comment text. Hot Shift-Control-T. Ta daaaa!
posted by The Deej at 9:36 PM on July 10, 2007

(To be accurate, it's Command-Shift-T on the Mac)
posted by The Deej at 9:37 PM on July 10, 2007

That's amazing.
posted by oaf at 10:20 PM on July 10, 2007

And it works for multiple closed tabs. Nice.
posted by oaf at 10:21 PM on July 10, 2007

Firefox will also do it automatically if you hit "Restore previous session" when starting, if you were typing and your computer shut off unexpectedly, or you accidentally quit FF.

Happened to me last night for the first time and I was pleasantly surprised that all my text was still there when it came back up.
posted by Kadin2048 at 10:36 PM on July 10, 2007

Ouch - I've been there.

One solution is to use something like Scribe, which will let you save your entries periodically. I seem to remember another extension that will prompt you with a javascript "are you sure you want to leave" if text areas are filled.

The better method: NEVER NEVER NEVER type anything longer than a few sentences in a web browser. Use a text editor! (open office, notepad, whatever)

If you try to close that window, you'll get a confirmation asking you if you really want to close it. You can also save frequently, in case you kick a power cord or something.
posted by chrisamiller at 10:42 PM on July 10, 2007

If it was the window that was closed, not a tab in a window, I think you can still unclose it. I don't know if it comes with this out of the box now, but I think either the undoclosetab extension or the sessionsaver one would let you unclose windows--you had to enable the option, though.
posted by Many bubbles at 11:01 PM on July 10, 2007

By the way, if that was Gmail you were typing your ten pages into, you should find everything except the last thirty seconds' worth saved in Drafts. Gmail is nice that way.
posted by flabdablet at 11:04 PM on July 10, 2007

Oh--I think the thing that let you unclose a window was somewhere weird. In the right-click menu for the tab bar, or something.
posted by Many bubbles at 11:04 PM on July 10, 2007

Okay, I've got it. It's the SessionSaver extension.

Tools-->SessionSaver-->Settings
If it says "simple" in the corner, click it to expand the options.
Check the "Allow me to 're-open' closed tabs", and then "And windows" boxes.

Then when you need to re-open a window, it's Tools-->Snapback Window. Snapback Window will be right under SessionSaver.

This is all with Firefox 1.5.0.1. Your version may vary.
posted by Many bubbles at 11:12 PM on July 10, 2007

Cmd + F12 or Ctrl and F12 will also recover tabs.
posted by Happy Dave at 11:44 PM on July 10, 2007

Re: SessionSaver. I believe SessionSaver only works with Firefox 1.5. In any event I don't think it's available on Mozilla's site anymore. But Session Manager is and it works with 2.0+. It has the same functionality and will save closed windows even in the event of quitting Firefox. I find it invaluable.
posted by 6550 at 8:45 AM on July 11, 2007