• Unable to bring forward my Last Session links in the beta update


    conceptualclarity
    • Solved

    Since updating to the beta update v.4.9.3.500, I am unable to bring forward my about:last page links after trying every trick I can imagine. I had a whole page full of links.

    I've always had Maxthon set on "Open on startup>Last Session". Maxthon has always been losing my about:last page links a lot after crashes and rough shutdowns. I've learned to overcome that by saving a copy of the lasttabs.dat file after a clean shutdown. Then later when Maxthon would lose my about:last links again, I would duplicate the saved copy to my external hard drive, rename it to lasttabs.dat, put it back in the folder while Maxthon was closed, and when Maxthon reopened I had my links back. You can see in my screenshot from the C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Application Data\Maxthon3\Users\[user's email address]\History folder what I've been doing.

    I see that in the beta update the about:last page has been changed to mx://last-visit/, and lasttabs.dat has been changed to lasttabsa.dat. 
    The proximate cause of my mishap was that in the update to the beta, Maxthon altered my settings, changing Open on startup>Last Session to Open on startup>New tab, or maybe it was to Open on startup>Homepage. Just now I brought up Maxthon and found my settings have been molested yet again, with Open on startup>New tab being substituted for my Open on startup>Last Session. I really wish Maxthon would fix this bug of my Open on startup setting being cast aside. I want my settings to stay set!

    Even after updating, I am having to use the Maxthon forum on Firefox because on Maxthon the forum pages are unformatted or I can't load them at all! See screenshot.

    And where is the box for posting the body of my support request?  All I see is "Required   Drag files here to attach, or choose files..."
    So I'm plagued with four bugs. If I can get any help in recovering my Last Session links that are stored in the 231 KB file "Copy (204) of lastabs.dat", please do provide it.

    Computer:      DELL Dimension 2400
    CPU:           Intel Pentium 4-2667 (Northwood, D1)
                  2666 MHz (20.00x133.3) @ 2658 MHz (20.00x132.9)
    Motherboard:   DELL 0G1548
    Chipset:       Intel 845GEV (Brookdale-GEV) + ICH4
    Memory:        2048 MBytes @ 166 MHz, 2.5-3-3-7
                   - 1024 MB PC3200 DDR-SDRAM - Kingston K
                   - 1024 MB PC3200 DDR-SDRAM - Kingston K
    Graphics:      Intel 82845G/GL/GV Graphics Controller [DELL]
                   Intel i845G(L) Integrated, 64 MB 
    Drive:         WL120GPA872, 117.2 GB, E-IDE (ATA-7)
    Drive:         HGST HTS545050A7E380, 488.4 GB, Serial ATA 3Gb/s <-> USB
    Drive:         SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252S, CD-R Writer
    Sound:         Creative Technology SB Live! Series Audio Processor
    Network:       RealTek Semiconductor RTL8139 PCI Fast Ethernet NIC [A/B/C]
    Network:       Broadcom 4401 10/100 Integrated Controller
    OS:            Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Build 2600
    Antivirus:           ESET Smart Security 9.0.375.0
    Firewall:            ESET Smart Security 9.0.375.0
    Default Browser:     Maxthon

     

    Unable_to_bring_forward_my_Last_Session_links_in_t.txt

    Maxthon difficulty.png

    what_I_get_using_forum_on_Maxthon.jpg


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    Edited your post to add the content attached.

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    And where is the box for posting the body of my support request?  

    Make sure you're using the default useragent. Settings > Advanced, make sure customised useragent string is unchecked.

    For the lasttabs issue, that file size seems overly large. I've got about 40 on my lasttab list, and my file size is only 7kb. Based on the size of yours, you should have about 1300 on your list... and I can't see as that being right?

    I can't recall having any issues with importing older lasttabs, but after playing around a little I noticed that 4.4.8.2000 did have some issues displaying the lasttabs page, worked fine in .1000 - at least in my testing of a clean portable version.

    Assuming you have a backup of the your older install (and the list isn't huge and the PC can handle it), you can do the following if the list isn't being imported properly.

    Open the last version with a known good list of last tabs.
    Open all the links in the browser, then save them all as a favourites folder. (Ctrl+Shift+D)
    Open up the new version of maxthon, open the saved favourites folder
    Exit maxthon, then open again it should hopefully have a full lasttabs list.

    I'm thinking there's something wrong with the file, as 1/ it seems way too big, and 2/ it should just import directly, otherwise there would have been plenty more reports that this was an issue.

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    Thank you for this advice and for thank you for taking time to test my problem and for turning my file into a regular post. :O)

    Why wouldn't Maxthon give me a box to just type in text? I had to use the forum on Firefox because on Maxthon I couldn't even drop a file.

    I'll work on this as soon as possible and report back. I only have occasional backup images with Macrium Reflect that I load when necessary through Hiren's Boot CD. I'm sure I can still get ahold of a setup file for Maxthon from before they transitioned from lasttabs.dat and about:last to lasttabsa.dat and mx://last-visit/. When I get that stable version it will be an easy thing to put my data back in it. The question is how do I have two different versions of Maxthon at the same time?

    There's nothing wrong with the file. I didn't count the links, so I can't estimate how many there are. But that lasttabs.dat file has been steadily growing for months, a little at a time. You can trace the process chronologically on the screenshot. Some days I managed to shrink it instead of grow it, but not most. Let me tell you, Maxthon (and my PC) had no problem handling that size of a lasttabs.dat file. I just could not transition it into the beta update I installed.

    And the main reason I couldn't is because the update didn't respect my setting for "Open on startup" as I explained above. We really badly need updates that don't molest the settings, especially that one, of the user. Firefox updates never alter your settings. I know I need to contact Maxthon support directly about that.

    Another bug you can see is my bookmarks bar was displaying in triplicate.

    I have to say, though, honestly there are too many links too open all at one time. Maxthon on my old resource-poor system can't really handle much more than a couple of dozen open tabs at a time. I think maybe I need to downgrade and then update all over again. But if there is any way I can get my data into this beta build without downgrading I'd like to know that.

    Thanks again!

     

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    16 hours ago, conceptualclarity said:

    Why wouldn't Maxthon give me a box to just type in text?

    Because some useragents cause an issue with this forum software, at least on this site. That's why it was recommended you use the default (unchecked) option. If it still doesn't work, then there is something else going on, but to date that has been the only known cause and fix for that problem. 

    16 hours ago, conceptualclarity said:

    Firefox updates never alter your settings

    Neither does Maxthon.. at least not in my experience. And i'm pretty sure it's designed that all data gets imported properly anyway, otherwise the cloud sync option wouldn't work for those that use that when updating between versions.

    16 hours ago, conceptualclarity said:

    Another bug you can see is my bookmarks bar was displaying in triplicate.

    Noticed that. Only thing that comes to mind is a dodgy skin. Are you using a modified skin by any chance?

    Test with a clean Maxthon portable extraction, and copy over all your userdata into that version. If that works, then it's something else. If the problem is still there, then it's more than likely something in your settings files.

    16 hours ago, conceptualclarity said:

    The question is how do I have two different versions of Maxthon at the same time?

    Use portable versions. You can't run them both at the same time, but you can run them as separate installs, so data in one won't affect the other, unless you use a passport to sync them.

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