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Downgraded from Firefox 5.0 to 4.01 and can't find old search terms now

  • 8 cavab
  • 2 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by HereWeGo2

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Because there were so many issues with the compatibility between Firefox 5.0 and Norton and Norton toolbar, I decided to downgrade back to Firefox 4.01.

I saved all of my old settings when I did so. However, now when I go to http://www.google.com/firefox and type in old searches that used to automatically come up when I searched them, they no longer come up. I'm talking my own personal searches, not autocomplete. The same thing happens on Bing, which used to have all of my own personal search history there.

When I click on my web site browsing history on the top toolbar on Firefox, it still has all of my old history, going back over a year. I also still have my old bookmarks and everything else.

So I know my old searches must still be somewhere on here. How do I bring them up/restore them so that they automatically come again when I use search engines?

I'd really appreciate anyone's help. This is really bothering me.

Because there were so many issues with the compatibility between Firefox 5.0 and Norton and Norton toolbar, I decided to downgrade back to Firefox 4.01. I saved all of my old settings when I did so. However, now when I go to http://www.google.com/firefox and type in old searches that used to automatically come up when I searched them, they no longer come up. I'm talking my own personal searches, not autocomplete. The same thing happens on Bing, which used to have all of my own personal search history there. When I click on my web site browsing history on the top toolbar on Firefox, it still has all of my old history, going back over a year. I also still have my old bookmarks and everything else. So I know my old searches must still be somewhere on here. How do I bring them up/restore them so that they automatically come again when I use search engines? I'd really appreciate anyone's help. This is really bothering me.

All Replies (8)

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Basically what I'm asking is where would the file that stores my search query history be located on my computer, and then how would I implement that file/the information on that file so that my old search queries start naturally appearing on search engines again?

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Where are you trying to search from the Location Bar without a keyword shortcut, with a keyword shortcut (bookmark), or the Search Bar.

What do you type and where and what search engine do you expect.

If from the Search Bar are you missing your search engines and see none, or just what look like the default engines

Had you installed problematic extensions like ask.com or Yahoo toolbar that mess with searching.

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Is this question solved, if not, your search history a(history) has nothing to do with search engines not working.

Unable to search or add new engines - MozillaZine Knowledge Base http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_search_or_add_new_engines

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Hi, dmcritchie. I use http://www.google.com/firefox to do searches, not any Firefox or Google search toolbar.

It's confusing to explain, but I explain in much more detail here. I think the person I was explaining it to finally got what I was saying, lol: https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/841107

You've got to scroll down a bit in that post to see my posts.

Anyway, I did find that link that you just posted in my many hours of searching to try to solve this problem. Unfortunately, that didn't work for me when I tried it.

I've tried pretty much everything and searched and searched, and so I've resigned myself to the fact that I most likely will not be able to figure out how to get those searches back. I'm ok with that. Thank you so much for your help, anyway!

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Saved form and search data is stored in the file formhistory.sqlite in the Firefox Profile Folder

If you downgraded then you should still use the same profile folder with all the files in it and still have that old search data.

Do you have a problem with other personal data like bookmarks or passwords?

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No, that's the strange thing. I still have all of my bookmarks, and history and everything.

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If you are using Google's page to do your searching then you are not using history stored by Firefox, but by Google. Then it becomes a matter of are you logged into Google and are you logged into the same userid as before.

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As I mentioned, I was using Google through Firefox, not just plain old Google. When I log into my Google account, the searches I made through Google Firefox (www.google.com/firefox) are not there, but the searches I made through just www.google.com are.

All of my history is still saved on Firefox, and I do still see a lot of my old searches when I look through my Firefox history, but obviously it's a lot more time-consuming to find old searches that way. It's better when they just show up as I'm searching, like they used to before I downgraded.

They're still on my computer clearly, but I don't know how to implement them into my searches.

Like I said, I don't think there's a solution. I spent days looking into this. Thank you anyway!