also my pc is in sync with android phone, but doubt that will help.

When you used system restore, how far did you roll back? That feature can have unpredictable results for your Firefox data.

Where did you find the old profile?

The usual places to check are:

(1) Refresh => Old Firefox Data folder on desktop

Inside would be a semi-randomly-named folder with freshly (?) updated files. Do you see anything like that? If you double-click into the bookmarkbackups folder, how old are the files?

(2) Profile Manager

Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.

This page should list all the profiles Firefox is currently aware of. If you see a profile that is not currently set as default that looks promising, scroll down to it and click the Set as default profile button below that profile, then scroll back up and click the Restart normally button. (There are some other buttons, but I think those are still "under construction" so please ignore them.)

Firefox should exit and then start up using the other profile. Is that the right one?

(3) Unlisted profiles

Here's how to check whether there are additional profile folders in the standard location in addition to the one you're using. Start by opening your current Firefox profile folder using either:

* "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
* (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
* type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter/Return

In the first table on the page, click the "Open Folder" button, to launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.

In the Windows Explorer address bar, click the capitalized word Profiles to move up one level in the folder hierarchy. More than one folder here by any chance? Do the files in those folders look like they were last updated around the time of the update?

If you've got any promising looking folders, we can discuss next steps to recover use of them.

System restore only did it for short time before, and i'm not sure it completed. I found the old profile in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

There were 4 profiles inside: the last one which didn't had much (80jkrizf.default)

and the first created (s35z1rdg.default-1368142737500), which i copied and some older stuff did return.

1. old firefox data is in my documents. I don't understand what is semi-randomly-named folder. The files in bookmark backups are from 2013.

2. There is only one profile C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\80jkrizf.default

3. those are the 4 profiles i did findone of the profiles didn't have no much files, the other one i tried nothing much and the fourth is the one i used.

But i found this also: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Firefox\Firefox\Profiles

There are two profiles inside, same profile s35z1rdg.default-1368142737500 but the file places.sqlite is somewhere around the time when everything went wrong 15.37 other folder contains folder extensions

Should i use this profile and how? Copy paste? or something else?

This is the main location for profile folders on Windows XP:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Firefox\Firefox\Profiles

So it sounds as though you found the most recent data in the s35z1rdg.default-1368142737500 folder?

The reason I same the name is semi-random is that the "s35z1rdg" is intended to be unguessable so it's composed of random letters and numbers. default is understandable. The long number refers to a date in May 2013, which most likely is when a Refresh was run and that profile was created.

Oh wait, two more replies. So... hold on, do you want to use the old places.sqlite database file in place of the current one?

In bookmark backup files are from 17.12 to 3.1. jsonlz4 files lots of stuff from 2017 in datareporting/archives jsonlz4 files. so basicly to same name folders s35z.... different pathways C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles is the first i already used

and second C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Firefox\Firefox\Profiles which i hope holds the data i want to retrieve.

waiting for your insight. thanks.

Whoops, I didn't read that carefully before. It should be with Mozilla not Firefox after Application Data:

Normal: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

Not Normal: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Firefox\Firefox\Profiles

To restore a file from bookmarkbackups, I suggest copying it to the Desktop or another more convenient location. Then you can use the Restore menu in the Library window, selecting the "Choose File" item at the bottom of the menu. See: Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer.

But if you need your recent history, too, replacing the currently live places.sqlite database file with the old one -- while Firefox is closed, of course -- would do that for you.

The datareporting folder is not very important, it's related to the Health Report feature which most people don't look at.

If you want to attempt a wholesale resurrection of your old profile, please see the steps in the following thread. The main difference is that your source folder is not in Old Firefox Data.

I did a Reset of Firefox - How do i get add my 'Old firefox data' back?

Hey men complete success, looks like everything returned. Thank you so much, it wouldn't have happened without your help.

I have following up questions.

How to backup my bookmarks, history, settings, passwords, add ons, everything?

And how to switch between profiles, thanks to this problem i learned that i can have different profiles, for different use?

thank you very much.

kojbilo said

Hey men complete success, looks like everything returned.

Great news.

How to backup my bookmarks, history, settings, passwords, add ons, everything?

You can set your backup software to back up your profile folder(s) at regular intervals. If you do not have backup software, you could consider a cloud-based service like CrashPlan, but some of the data is privacy sensitive so you might not be comfortable with that options.

And how to switch between profiles, thanks to this problem i learned that i can have different profiles, for different use?

You can use the about:profiles screen the way I mentioned before.

If you need to run Firefox in two profiles at the same time, that's also possible, but more complicated to set up (multiple icons with various command-line switches).

hey men, sorry to bother again, i lost my history and all again, now i have history from 10th of january till today, and old bookmarks. I don't know what happened, why they are lost again. now i wanna ask you is there anyway i can merge that old profile that contained everything until 5th of january, when problem resolve with this one that i am using? and what is backup software?

I don't know what happened, either.

There isn't a way to merge Firefox data files. There is a program to extract out Firefox history for reference, but I don't think it can import that history into a different places.sqlite database.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/mozilla_history_view.html

kojbilo said

and what is backup software?

Backup software is software that makes copies of your files at regular intervals in case you need them later. Sometimes it comes with your computer, other times it might come with an external hard drive (a common place to save those copies), and you might also get the software with a cloud service like the ones reviewed here: https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2288745,00.asp

Are you still using the same profile folder?

See also:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Opening_a_new_instance_of_Firefox_with_another_profile
• https://developer.mozilla.org/Mozilla/Multiple_Firefox_Profiles

See also "Profile was moved or renamed":

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible

when i go in library, in there are restore options, from all days, should i use that option? Is that just for bookmarks restore or also history?

kojbilo said

when i go in library, in there are restore options, from all days, should i use that option? Is that just for bookmarks restore or also history?

Bookmarks.

The name of an automatically created JSON bookmarks backup in the bookmarkbackups folder includes a total item count (folders and separators included) and an hash value to prevent saving the same backup more than once.

• bookmarks-YYYY-MM-DD_<item count>_<hash>.jsonlz4.