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No history, can't go BackPage, No bookmarks, addons all off, etc...help !??

  • 6 replies
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  • Last reply by mnymgr1

mnymgr1
mnymgr1
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Hi All. No idea how this happened, really wish it went away soon. Turned on FF a few days ago, and up popped a red line near top saying another program is using a file of FF's, some stuff won't work. Or a security program is causing this. I have tried everything that I could find in the FF help guides, started in safe mode, disabled all addons, extensions. Still, nothing. I deleted adobe flash and something else adobe, still nothing. I deleted all Java's, reinstalled, nothing. I look in that Task Manager program when you click control/alt/delete, have no idea what is going on there (i'm not a computer geek by any stretch). This is very frustrating, I can't go BackPage, which makes searching Ebay nearly impossible ! Please help

Hi All. No idea how this happened, really wish it went away soon. Turned on FF a few days ago, and up popped a red line near top saying another program is using a file of FF's, some stuff won't work. Or a security program is causing this. I have tried everything that I could find in the FF help guides, started in safe mode, disabled all addons, extensions. Still, nothing. I deleted adobe flash and something else adobe, still nothing. I deleted all Java's, reinstalled, nothing. I look in that Task Manager program when you click control/alt/delete, have no idea what is going on there (i'm not a computer geek by any stretch). This is very frustrating, I can't go BackPage, which makes searching Ebay nearly impossible ! Please help

All Replies (6)

TonyE
TonyE
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Some of those symptoms are indicative of a problem with the file that stores bookmarks and history. See if this article helps - http://kb.mozillazine.org/Locked_or_damaged_places.sqlite

mnymgr1
mnymgr1 Question owner
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Thanks Tony. I have tried several of these fixes. I even uninstalled AVG, that free security program. nothing, nada, zip. I turn FF off, back on after my computer stops crunching, and still get the red line on top. I tried replacing the bookmarks with a backup, but feel like I just replaced them with a blank file from yesterday. lol. I emptied the cache umpteen times, run disc cleaner for windows, etc, etc.

So right now, trying a free cnet program for registry repair, it seems to have found a ton of problems. I'm hoping the 'free' program fixes all the problems too. The link you provided, a lot of that stuff is just way over my head. I can follow it, but if i'm deleting something, no idea what I'm doing. So we'll see.

mnymgr1
mnymgr1 Question owner
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Nope. The registry repair program found over 1600 problems. Still didn't fix FF. Drats.

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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Did you rename or delete places.sqlite?

Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problems.

See Basic Troubleshooting: Make a new profile

There may be extensions and plugins installed by default in a new profile, so check that in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions & Plugins"

If that new profile works then you can transfer some files from the old profile to that new profile (be careful not to copy corrupted files)

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox

Modified by cor-el

TonyE
TonyE
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The following will rebuild the bookmarks file.

  1. Go to your profile folder, for details of how to find it see the profiles article.
  2. Close Firefox
  3. Rename places.sqlite to places.sqlite.old
  4. Re-start Firefox, it will re-create places.sqlite and import the bookmarks from a backup file
mnymgr1
mnymgr1 Question owner
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hey hey, some success. I tried the new profile idea and it seemed to work, I can go backwards now. And I have history too. But looks like all my bookmarks still are gone. As I only had 20, I think, I put in the six important ones and get to start my day. Thanks very much for both of your help. This computer stuff as you can imagine for us non-techies is really stressful. If this all happens again, I will jump back on here.