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Firefox upgraded — lost everything — can't find old profile data...used help docs

jroberts.ideas
jroberts.ideas
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I'm running MacOs Catalina, 10.15.7.

Firefox auto-updated on a restart. When I clicked it open, everything was gone. Bookmarks, tabs, add-ons, etc.

I looked in profiles and there are three folders, with gobbledygook names. The contents of each seem unique to one another, so I don't think one is the old profile and another is new, simply because the file titles would be the same — right?

I deleted one and restarted, and Firefox recreated it. Everything was still gone.

I looked in "About:Profiles" and there are two. I made both the default and restarted, same results. Everything still missing.

Is it possible that Firefox just got rid of the old profiles on the upgrade?

Is there another place it could be hiding?

Hoping for a miracle here. Thanks

I'm running MacOs Catalina, 10.15.7. Firefox auto-updated on a restart. When I clicked it open, everything was gone. Bookmarks, tabs, add-ons, etc. I looked in profiles and there are three folders, with gobbledygook names. The contents of each seem unique to one another, so I don't think one is the old profile and another is new, simply because the file titles would be the same — right? I deleted one and restarted, and Firefox recreated it. Everything was still gone. I looked in "About:Profiles" and there are two. I made both the default and restarted, same results. Everything still missing. Is it possible that Firefox just got rid of the old profiles on the upgrade? Is there another place it could be hiding? Hoping for a miracle here. Thanks

All Replies (2)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Oh no, please don't delete things at this point. Could you check whether your stuff is available in a non-default profile, as follows:

Profile Manager Page

Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.

This page should list at least one profile and could list many. (Each profile has two folders and one or more buttons. Do not use any Remove buttons!)

The non-default profiles are the ones that have a button labeled Launch profile in new browser. Click that button to check what is in that profile.

If it isn't what you want, simply close that new window.

If it IS what you want, back on the about:profiles page, click the Set as default profile button for that profile so Firefox uses it automatically at the next startup.

Anything useful there?

jroberts.ideas
jroberts.ideas Küsimuse esitaja
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Hi jscher2000,

Thanks for the reply. I did load the About Profiles earlier, and it didn't resolve the issue.

I've also searched for every possible element in the system that might lead to a clue. Not much.

However, I did stumble over an old bookmarks backup and loaded it. From maybe four years ago. While scrolling it, I saw "other bookmarks" and what appeared to be the most current version of the missing tabs. If not, it's close. Can't figure why that would be included with the old backup, but I'm not arguing.

I was able to restore those. That was the biggest issue. I've now created a new backup of the current setup, putting it in three locations including two external drives.

It's not perfect, but about 90% of normal. I can't yet recapture the add-ons (or even remember all of them), but that's for another day to worry over.

Thanks again.