IE 11 reopen browsing session is always gray shaded

I have Windows 8.1 using IE11 and I am unable to reopen browsing history. It is always gray shaded. It doesn't matter how I close it or if I reboot. If I close IE and reboot, it's gray shaded. If I don't close every tab - just leave them all open and close IE - then open IE again without restarting, it is gray shaded.

I seen some other posts about this that aren't quite the same problem (and/or haven't been resolved) and someone mentioned that it's gray shaded because there is no browsing history to reopen. Trust me, there is. I don't delete my browsing history after each session. Besides, everything is in my history folder - my browsing history is just fine. I just can't reopen previous sessions.

I have not been able to find help anywhere so I thought I'd finally ask.