PS, I have not previously used Firefox Sync, nor do I want to store all my personal and private information on Firefox servers

What about the rest of your profile? Settings, bookmarks, history, passwords . . . .

Sometimes when the browser thinks there is a problem with the profile, it will create a new one.

Look on your desktop. Do you see a folder called; Old Firefox? Look inside. Look for the folder with the latest creation date.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recover-user-data-missing-after-firefox-update

Firefox 80+ has a logins-backup.json file in the profile folder that can be used in case of issues with logins.json or to undo an accidental delete of a login, so you can check if you can find this file in the profile folder or in a backup and replace the current logins.json. Make sure to keep a backup copy of all involved files (logins.json and key4.db and logins-backup.json)

You can use the button on the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

Help -> More Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Folder/Directory: Windows: Open Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data

If you use a Primary Password then you can prevent losing passwords by canceling the PP prompt. You need to logout beforehand by canceling a PP prompt, e.g. by clicking the eye icon in Lockwise (about:logins).

In the event that the passwords information is lost, you should record all information in a separate text file somewhere else on your hard drive, or written down. You can easily copy and paste if you need to do so. If you are concerned about someone else looking at that file, you can compress it using a password.

Looks that you have downgraded Firefox because your user agent shows Firefox 77.

• User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:77.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/77.0

That would explain why you can't use your previously used profile and why you lost the logins.

You can find the full installer of the current Firefox release (93.0) in all languages and all operating systems here:

• https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/#product-desktop-release
• https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/93.0/releasenotes/

Verify that you meet the System Requirements (GTK+ and GLib) for the current Firefox release.

• https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/93.0/system-requirements/

Thanks to everyone for super prompt helpful replies.

I am running Parrot Sec and do the update every day. Firefox was on the list last night, and upon restarting, it refused to accept the old profile, so I used the various online help articles (entered about:profiles) but the new version would not read the previous profiles, no matter what. So my next course of action was to make a full backup copy of all the contents of the previous profile and store it somewhere safe. So I have my old log-ins and passwords, so far, I just cannot open them. I will read carefully your suggestions, and after two cups of coffee, i will make an attempt to get myself sorted. I will report back on here in case it helps anyone else.

Re downgrading, yes, I did downgrade in hope that I could get back to the previous version before upgrade and it would then read my profiles The lesson to be learnt is not to store passwords in a browser environment, I have Onepassword, but convenience and laziness took over, - it seems neither pay off in the long term !

What about the rest of your profile? Settings, bookmarks, history, passwords . . . . Sometimes when the browser thinks there is a problem with the profile, it will create a new one. Look on your desktop. Do you see a folder called; Old Firefox? Look inside. Look for the folder with the latest creation date. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recover-user-data-missing-after-firefox-update

I do not have Old Firefox anywhere I have moved logins.json to the currently active profile, but its not reading it - open the logins tab and its empty. I opend logins.json with a text editor, it has everything in it, all my old logins, but cannot read passwords, I guess they are encrypted

Can I open my old profile info with some other tool Should I upgrade Firefox to latest again, because downgrading one version has not solved the problem

You can check the compatibility.ini file in a profile folder to see what Firefox version (build) last used this profile.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data

The crisis is over, but this is not resolved. Downloaded the earlier version of Firefox, started it from its own directory and then in a tab used about:profiles to find my original profile. Clicked on launch in new browser and all my logins and passwords, bookmarks, etc are back where they should be. Used this opportunity to save everything to csv and then import into KeyPass.

My question now is how to move my bookmarks, logins, passwords from the previous version of Firefox to the new version of Firefox, so I can use the latest version? What I do not find acceptable is that I have to sync everything onto a Firefox (Mozzilla) server in order to then use it on the new Firefox. It is unacceptable that I have to share my private and personal information on a Mozilla server simply to move it from one version on my computer to another version on my computer. There is a moral, ethical and security issue here.

So, how can I use the latest version of Firefox AND use my stored logins and passwords, without exporting to a third party server?

You can copy certain files with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to transfer or recover personal data. Note that best is to avoid copying a full profile folder.

• bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
• favicons: favicons.sqlite
• bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
• cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
• formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
• logins.json (encrypted logins;32+) and key4.db (decryption key;58+) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
  key3.db support ended in 73+; to use key3.db in 58-72, make sure to remove key4.db
• cert9.db (58+) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
• persdict.dat for words added to the spell checker dictionary
• permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
• sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)

I think I have solved the problem, I have found two firefox versions, both claim to be the latest one of 78.15 the other is 93.0 If I download and run version 93.0, I can get everything moved across. I think Parrot is using the ESR version, and the latest is 78.15 Anyway, downloading 93.0 and unzipping and then putting the contents in a folder, linking to my Firefox desktop icon, all is well Thanks everyone phil