Hello, install 52 ESR from here: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/all/

I just downloaded the 52.5 version linked, and not only did that not restore my previous extensions configured FF setup -the objective clearly defined in my OP, it seems to have deleted my entire bookmarks archive/web history...

FF extensions shaped my browsing experience at a fundamental level. If I wanted a "faster/compact/streamlined" experience I would have switched to another browser, which I am now strongly considering. Is there some kind of FF "panic button/system restore" function to fully revert everything back to the way they were 48 hours ago, which was my only intent by posting here?

Short answer : No.

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

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

The first line of my post explicitly states is it possible to SAFELY downgrade FF to previously configured settings. Safely as in no additional data loss incurred. The only "solution" I receive not only does not resolve the original problem, it compounds it, forcing me to dedicate time and energy to restore voluminous data accumulated over a 10+ years, all for an "update" I did not ask for and has added literally nothing to my experience other than arbitrary stress and busy work.

FirebirdForever said

The first line of my post explicitly states is it possible to SAFELY downgrade FF to previously configured settings. Safely as in no additional data loss incurred. The only "solution" I receive not only does not resolve the original problem, it compounds it, forcing me to dedicate time and energy to restore voluminous data accumulated over a 10+ years, all for an "update" I did not ask for and has added literally nothing to my experience other than arbitrary stress and busy work.

Sorry for your problems with Firefox 57. A piecemeal recovery of your Firefox user data would be needed to move forward with an older version of Firefox.

I am curious what you were thinking when many of your add-ons where visibly classified as Legacy with a yellow highlight with Firefox 55 and 56?

No concern at that as to what was going on and how that might affect your use of Firefox in the future?

No questions submitted here to this support forum asking what Legacy was all about?

Had you asked before yesterday when Firefox 57 was released you would have gotten an answer and solution to install the Firefox 52 ESR version to be able to keep using your Legacy extensions. Had you done that reverting to an older version would have been seamless.

Overall, there has been almost a 3 year process leading to where "we" are today with the demise of Legacy extensions; which I peg as starting with Fx34 in Dec 2014. The "handwriting has been on the wall" since then, with new extension API's coming out and the related older API's being deprecated, resulting in increasing numbers of older extensions needing a rewrite to keep working. Some extensions never got a re-write and "died".

Bottom line is given your "demands" there is no solution that you would find acceptable. As I already stated, a piecemeal recovery of your Firefox user data would be needed to move forward with an older version of Firefox.

the-edmeister said

FirebirdForever said

The first line of my post explicitly states is it possible to SAFELY downgrade FF to previously configured settings. Safely as in no additional data loss incurred. The only "solution" I receive not only does not resolve the original problem, it compounds it, forcing me to dedicate time and energy to restore voluminous data accumulated over a 10+ years, all for an "update" I did not ask for and has added literally nothing to my experience other than arbitrary stress and busy work.

Sorry for your problems with Firefox 57. A piecemeal recovery of your Firefox user data would be needed to move forward with an older version of Firefox.

I am curious what you were thinking when many of your add-ons where visibly classified as Legacy with a yellow highlight with Firefox 55 and 56?

No concern at that as to what was going on and how that might affect your use of Firefox in the future?

No questions submitted here to this support forum asking what Legacy was all about?

Had you asked before yesterday when Firefox 57 was released you would have gotten an answer and solution to install the Firefox 52 ESR version to be able to keep using your Legacy extensions. Had you done that reverting to an older version would have been seamless.

Overall, there has been almost a 3 year process leading to where "we" are today with the demise of Legacy extensions; which I peg as starting with Fx34 in Dec 2014. The "handwriting has been on the wall" since then, with new extension API's coming out and the related older API's being deprecated, resulting in increasing numbers of older extensions needing a rewrite to keep working. Some extensions never got a re-write and "died".

Bottom line is given your "demands" there is no solution that you would find acceptable. As I already stated, a piecemeal recovery of your Firefox user data would be needed to move forward with an older version of Firefox.

Normal browser usage is not contingent upon routine auditing of the FF add-ons panel to verify the current status of a given extension. I was not aware of the "legacy" status of these functions because that information was completely immaterial to my experience as a Firefox user. I am not a Firefox developer nor a member of the community beyond the fact that I have used it (and its predecessors) as my primary browser for a long time. I have put up with the various issues endemic to FF over the years almost exclusively due to the uniquely robust flexibility/ease of access afforded by customization via extensions.

Given that in a one-two punch I have now lost not only all of my painstakingly tailored extension facilitated presets, but adding insult to injury via a supposed "fix" I have also had my volumes of organized bookmarks wiped as a result of this update, I really see no reason to continue dealing with FF anymore. If i'm going to end up working from scratch to restore some approximation of the browsing state I had before, I may as well start elsewhere. Given some of the postings on this board over the past 24 hours, I suspect I'm not alone in this sentiment.

the-edmeister said

FirebirdForever said

The first line of my post explicitly states is it possible to SAFELY downgrade FF to previously configured settings. Safely as in no additional data loss incurred. The only "solution" I receive not only does not resolve the original problem, it compounds it, forcing me to dedicate time and energy to restore voluminous data accumulated over a 10+ years, all for an "update" I did not ask for and has added literally nothing to my experience other than arbitrary stress and busy work.

Sorry for your problems with Firefox 57. A piecemeal recovery of your Firefox user data would be needed to move forward with an older version of Firefox.

I am curious what you were thinking when many of your add-ons where visibly classified as Legacy with a yellow highlight with Firefox 55 and 56?

No concern at that as to what was going on and how that might affect your use of Firefox in the future?

No questions submitted here to this support forum asking what Legacy was all about?

Had you asked before yesterday when Firefox 57 was released you would have gotten an answer and solution to install the Firefox 52 ESR version to be able to keep using your Legacy extensions. Had you done that reverting to an older version would have been seamless.

Overall, there has been almost a 3 year process leading to where "we" are today with the demise of Legacy extensions; which I peg as starting with Fx34 in Dec 2014. The "handwriting has been on the wall" since then, with new extension API's coming out and the related older API's being deprecated, resulting in increasing numbers of older extensions needing a rewrite to keep working. Some extensions never got a re-write and "died".

Bottom line is given your "demands" there is no solution that you would find acceptable. As I already stated, a piecemeal recovery of your Firefox user data would be needed to move forward with an older version of Firefox.

I want my old Firefox back ....

about 2 years ago at one time Firefox was slow and found that i opened too many tabs in fact while closing it asked me if i wanted to close all 4250 tabs

then after many many updates i found it similar slowing down when i had about 1000 tabs open

now after the upgrade to 57 and i have 200 tabs and it does not slow down but it crashes ...

it became just like stupid chrome.

because in the past although Firefox was slow or crashed it didn't effect the rest of the computer but now i really have to restart the whole computer

before i was just restarting Firefox ...

i want my old Firefox back ....