Yesterday all my Firefox history got deleted by mistake-now I need it back.
My gf inadvertently deleted all of my Firefox history. Long ago I had asked her not to ever delete my Internet history, because I use that stuff for my writing and editing work, but I take that she did it today by accident, because she usually does not do this on my computer - she does do it on her computer, regularly.
I'd like to get this stuff [info] back.
Someone told me to look for the places.sqllite files - I found those, fortunately, and I copied them to a different subdir as well, for safekeeping.
But I have not yet figured out how to load this profile info back in to ff.
ყველა პასუხი (9)
Hello JamesZh, Use the Profile Manager to create a new Firefox profile and then move the Places.sqlite file to the new profile.
see for more info : Transferring data to a new profile - Firefox
thank you
Thanks Ideato. Have been trying your solution, but I'm not sure of what to do now. See attached screenshot. It seems that I am on the right track
A copy of places.sqlite won't help unless it was made before deleting the history.
Your screenshot shows several profile folders.
Did you create those yourself and are that recent profile?
For future prevention, see:
- History Export: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/history-export/
I don't think that it is possible to import history, apart from revisiting websites.
That places.sqlite is big [40 mb] and it might be that I 'caught' it just in time. It is not the current nearly empty places.sqlite. Yes, I just created those profiles.
The places.sqlite gets incremented with chunks of 10 MB when necessary, but Firefox never reduces the size when items are deleted, but merely deletes the involved records to null bytes.
How/where did you get this copy of places.sqlite?
If this copy has your deleted history then copying this file to a Firefox profile folder should make the history appear in the History Manager (Library).
Cor-el,
I got it via Windows Explorer search - within about an hour from when the history was deleted.
I'm pretty sure that it does have the old info because I tried to [generally unsuccessfully] read it with some facility. It did seem to have some of the links from before.
Saved a copy in a special subdir because my hope was that the new instance of ff would not write over the data.
Thanks for link.
Hi,
I would like to know how you did that. I need my history back. I'm not sure how you searched for it. Could you tell me what you did? Thanks.
Hi GilCarlton
Which Windows version are you using?
If you run Windows Vista or later then you can try to restore a previous version of the places.sqlite file in Windows Explorer.
- Right-click: Properties > Previous Versions
You can use this button to go to the Firefox profile folder:
- Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)
Hi again,
I have windows XP Home Edition. I'm still not sure what you mean. Could you elaborate on all the buttons I need to push when I get into My Explorer. Thanks.
Gil carlton