--- a/browser/components/sessionstore/SessionStore.jsm
+++ b/browser/components/sessionstore/SessionStore.jsm
@@ -3209,16 +3209,28 @@ var SessionStoreInternal = {
 
     let restoreImmediately = options.restoreImmediately;
     let loadArguments = options.loadArguments;
     let browser = tab.linkedBrowser;
     let window = tab.ownerGlobal;
     let tabbrowser = window.gBrowser;
     let forceOnDemand = options.forceOnDemand;
 
+    // If the browser we're attempting to restore happens to be
+    // remote, we need to flip it back to non-remote if it's going
+    // to go into the pending background tab state. This is to make
+    // sure that the background tab can't crash if it hasn't yet
+    // been restored. Normally, when a window is restored, the tabs
+    // that SessionStore inserts are non-remote - but the initial
+    // browser is, by default, remote, so this check and flip is
+    // mostly for that case.
+    if (browser.isRemoteBrowser && (!restoreImmediately || forceOnDemand)) {
+      tabbrowser.updateBrowserRemoteness(browser, false);
+    }
+
     // Increase the busy state counter before modifying the tab.
     this._setWindowStateBusy(window);
 
     // It's important to set the window state to dirty so that
     // we collect their data for the first time when saving state.
     DirtyWindows.add(window);
 
     // In case we didn't collect/receive data for any tabs yet we'll have to