Safari 15 fails to restore last session. What can I do to fix it?

I have the same issue, and I have tried all the options listed on that link. I even tried restoring the preferences from TimeMachine because apparently worked in prior versions of Safari.

Any solution on how we can restore previously open windows and tabs? Are there different locations for Safari tab preferences?

So far no solution, this needs to escalate. I had planned to clean install anyway so I just kept Safari 14 and left update to Safari 15 pending in settings (it still says Safari 15.0, so no updates have been pushed I guess after initial release).

It's been well over three weeks since we've been told Apple is aware of these issues and a fix should be released "fairly soon"...

More evidence Apple needs to slow their roll on releasing updates before they're tested well enough!

I'm having the same issue. When I quit Safari with several tabs open/active, next time I open Safari those tabs are gone and instead, I have the start page. It keeps the pinned tabs.

This is very frustrating.

@Caleb Mattoon: I cannot wait to try this. If for nothing else, I want to restore my old tabs and windows and see what lost. We'll see how long it takes Apple to fix this problem. I may just need to recreate those old tabs and windows since all the windows and tabs that I have kept open since this problem began seems to restore between Safari relaunches. Thanks!

Have the same issue. Decided to move from another browser to Safari, took a few hours to organize workspaces, transfer reading list and all opened tabs to a workspaces. Lost all of my efforts next morning :/

It makes Safari unusable. Please fix it.

Safari 15.1 has been released, days ago, and I have it. Not sure if any issues have been addressed, and fixed. As this particular issue only happened once, which was bad enough, as it lost nearly 50 open tabs, that I've not yet been able to recover.

TWO AND A HALF MONTHS LATER, one update released, and still this browser loses all open tabs & windows!! Why is Apple asleep at the wheel? Do they want everyone to abandon using their dysfunctional browser? And yes I've complained to Apple directly, as I actually can't believe a bug like this has been allowed to go unaddressed for this long. I just re-opened Safari, and yes, no remaining tabs, only a couple dozen empty Start Pages. I don't understand why it can still retain its History, yet not be able to remember which sites were open....smh

I had issues with restoring tabs from last session before version 15. Now if it restores tabs it restores from a particular session tabs that I had since closed.

I'm trying Calebs solution and I'll see how it goes.

I also have other issues with Safari 15.0. If I drag a JPG from the web page to my desktop the app crashes, when I try to re-open it Terminal pop's up and runs a restore script. (I'll post that issue to another thread though)

Safari is a decent browser, but it's pretty buggy still in January 2022.

No help whatsoever.... Apple once again released an update before working out all the bugs... smh

What's strange is that even Time Machine backups (of the whole /Users/user/Library/Safari folder) do not work! Does Safari 15 have an additional location for storing the previously open tabs?

Anyone tried to reproduce the issue on the latest RC of macOS Monterey which contains Safari 12.0.1?

Which files are you referring to? Which files that we have backed up, that were created & modified before the update?

Thanks nickoterba..

My problem is the "Reopen All Windows from Last Session" option is greyed out. My solution - I'm done with Safari for a while.

it just happened to me, AGAIN.. amazing they can't be bothered getting something so simple reliable.