Restored Firefox profile keeps erasing browsing history
I recently had a computer crash. Thankfully, I was able to save my files, including my old Firefox profile. Trouble is, when I try to restore that profile, I can't get my old browsing history to hang around for longer than about a minute, even though all my other settings are in place.
To be crystal clear about what I'm doing and experiencing:
1. I have my old profile saved on a flash drive. I replace the contents of the existing folder in AppData > Firefox > Profiles with the contents of my old profile from the flash drive. 2. I open Firefox to my old profile's bookmarks, settings, homepage, etc, INCLUDING my browsing history. It's all there. 3. I close Firefox, wait ~30 seconds and reopen it. My bookmarks etc, INCLUDING my browsing history, is still there. 4. I close Firefox again, wait another 30 seconds, and reopen Firefox. My bookmarks etc. are there, EXCLUDING my history, which is gone, and there's only a folder for "Today" with my homepage in it and nothing else.
I've done this process several times with identical results. It won't erase my history while Firefox is open, but if I close the browser and then reopen it again after (approximately) 60 seconds has passed, my history is gone. I'd very much like to have my history back and not have it constantly delete itself every minute or so. How do I fix this?
It's worth noting that I restored this same exact profile on my last machine several years ago, and didn't have this problem.
All Replies (5)
Hi taran1, Try this: Launch Firefox , then Go to: 3-bar Menu button -> Help -> Troubleshooting Information scroll down to Places Database click on the Verify Integrity button restart Firefox.
Hi Robertj,
Gave this a shot, but it doesn't seem to have fixed the problem. The Verify Integrity tool runs fine and doesn't give me any errors, but when I reopen Firefox, my history is erased again.
Update: I located the problem. I have Advanced System Care installed, and the default preferences under Browser Anti-Tracking seem to override the fact that I have Privacy Sweep and all its related settings unchecked. Not a very user-friendly place to put that feature, but Firefox is now remembering my history.
All the same, thank you for your help!
Did you check the read/write permissions and owner of the profile folder and its files that you restored to make sure that Firefox can update files ?
If you use Sync then best is to disconnect Sync temporarily during troubleshooting.
You can check for problems with the places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder.
- use "Verify Integrity" button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page
If errors are reported with "Verify Integrity", close and restart Firefox and retry.
If "Verify Integrity" cannot repair places.sqlite, rename/remove all places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder. Firefox will rebuild places.sqlite and restore the bookmarks from a recent JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.
- keep a backup copy of places.sqlite in case a new places.sqlite database has to be created
See also:
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/fix-bookmarks-and-history-will-not-be-functional
You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.
- Help -> 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
taran1, WoW! Great work! Keep an eye on that Advanced System Care. I've seen other people have different issues with it.
Anyway,
Browse Safe & Keep Healthy !