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Transferring profile didn't work after first Firefox restart

  • 4 replies
  • 15 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by mtnester

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Upgraded Fx, no bookmarks, tabs, etc. Followed the instructions to recover information from an old profile. Restarted Fx. Seemed to work fine--got my bookmarks, tabs--didn't check passwords at the time because the add-ons box had popped up again (after I'd already updated add-ons) but I made a couple more changes by uninstalling some that didn't work with 3.6 and clicked the Restart Firefox button. That's when disaster struck. When it restarted, the darn add-ons box was open *again* AND all my windows (and tabs) which I'd just recovered from the previous session were GONE. No history, either, so I can't even go back and retrieve any of them that way. Are they now lost forever? (I knew I shouldn't have upgraded from 2x).

Upgraded Fx, no bookmarks, tabs, etc. Followed the instructions to recover information from an old profile. Restarted Fx. Seemed to work fine--got my bookmarks, tabs--didn't check passwords at the time because the add-ons box had popped up again (after I'd already updated add-ons) but I made a couple more changes by uninstalling some that didn't work with 3.6 and clicked the Restart Firefox button. That's when disaster struck. When it restarted, the darn add-ons box was open *again* AND all my windows (and tabs) which I'd just recovered from the previous session were GONE. No history, either, so I can't even go back and retrieve any of them that way. Are they now lost forever? (I knew I shouldn't have upgraded from 2x).

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I have been using another browser trying to keep Fx from making any more changes just in case there is a way to still retrieve my old information. Can anyone give me any insight on how/why the problem happened and/or how to fix it? Thanks.

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Did you update form a Firefox 2.0.0.x version to Firefox 3.6.13?

Are you still using that Firefox 2 profile or did you create a new profile?


If you have problems with extension that do not install then delete the files extensions.* (extensions.rdf, extensions.cache, extensions.ini, extensions.sqlite) and compatibility.ini in the Firefox profile folder to reset the extensions registry. New files will be created when required.

See "Corrupt extension files": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_install_themes_or_extensions

If you see disabled, not compatible, extensions in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions" then click the "Find Updates" button (in Firefox 4: right-click the extension -> "Find Updates") to do a compatibility check.

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My problem is not with extensions; it's just that the problem appeared after updating extensions and restarting Firefox. I started Firefox--no problem--all the tabs I wanted were open. I updated the extensions, as suggested by the pop-up. I restarted Firefox as required. When Firefox restarted I'd lost my start page and all the previously opened tabs were gone. I went to Tools and changed my start page back to where it belonged. My bookmarks were gone. I researched the site and found how to get the bookmarks back. But I couldn't find how to get the tabs back or where the history went. Just today I discovered that apparently my preferences had not transferred with the new version of Firefox, as I thought they would and was horrified to see that the box to clear history when Firefox closed was checked.

So . . . is there an old history file somewhere that I can dredge up? How would I find it?

Thanks.

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More specifically, I *wanted* to use the old Fx 2 profile, but apparently a new profile was created for me and the old one got lost somewhere in transition. I tried retrieving a backup of sqlite from Mozy, but they only keep files for 30 days once they're deleted from the main computer (and I certainly never intended for that to happen).