Fresh install, built bookmark list, firefox gone the next day. Can't open profile bookmark backup. Help!
Just as the title states. Manually created bookmark list from other browser. Closed other browser and completely trusted bookmarks to be saved and for firefox to be stable. I did move installer from desktop to trash bin but did not empty bin. Next day after computer restart, Firefox completely gone. Reinstalled firefox and no bookmarks. Fresh profile created. Went to find old file backups and I get error message: There is no application set to open the document". I search app store for program to open and I am told no program exists. These are important bookmarks for a mental health charity and we desperately need them! Can anyone help? Thank you
All Replies (6)
Make sure you install Firefox properly and that you do not run Firefox from within the DMG (Disk Images) file.
Open the Firefox Disk Images file and drag the Firefox application to the Applications folder on your hard drive. You shouldn't double-click the Firefox application to run it from the Disk Images, but instead drag it out of the DMG folder.
You can check if there are no longer used profiles that you may want to remove because of this.
Note that Firefox uses two locations for the Firefox profile folder, so you need to look at both location. Location used for the main profile that keeps your personal data (Root Directory on about:profiles).
- ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/<profile>
Location used for the disk cache and other temporary files (Local Directory on about:profiles).
- ~/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/<profile>
Modified by cor-el
Thank you very much for the response. I went back and reinstalled using the method you advised. This helped me understand that my previous install and use was in fact from just the disk image as I only double clicked the firefox icon for my previous install. My question now is: will the bookmarks from the previous profile, using only the disk image to run firefox, be saved in the bookmarks backup folder? Unfortunately for me, I do not know how to take advantage of any of the info you posted after the install advice. Are there any tutorials or firefox info pages that can describe what you mentioned, how to access them and how to open and inspect them once I find those files? Thank you very much for your assistance.
I think that a new profile is created each time you start Firefox from within the disk image file, so once you have installed Firefox properly then you should keep the profile it creates and you can restore the bookmarks from one of the recent profiles that have been created.
Location used for the main profile that keeps your personal data (Root Directory on about:profiles).
- ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/<profile>
In Mac OS X v10.7 and later, the "~/Library" folder in the Home directory is a hidden folder.
Edit: I read your last suggestion a second time and believe you gave me a lot more information than I previously identified during the first read! I will report back after I try this suggestion. Thank you.
Edit #2: I should probably explain what I attempted in better detail. I followed the procedure to restore BM backups. I was offered a restore point, but it was from the new install. I needed access to previous back ups. I selected the option to manually choose another file and found the older backup in the profile listed on the troubleshooting page. i was not allowed to simply double click for access and migration.
I then attempted to access the files in the hidden apple library using the instructions from the suggested video, but when selecting the firefox folder as well as the Mozilla folder, there wasn't much there to offer. the selections were limited and the info they provided was not helpful.
Based on this response, can you tell me if I did something incorrectly or still have not executed previous suggestions completely? Thank you again.
Modified by drowssap72
Did you look at other profiles that might have been created (this one has a number '2' appended) ?
You can go up one level to the Profiles folder and check for backups in each profile.
- ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/
Hi... I tried many, many ideas since we last spoke and it all comes back around to accessing the firefox backup folder. I have 3 profiles and just out of curiosity, I did try accessing the data in all profiles. I can find the file but it will not let me open it. The only idea I came across, which I am not nearly knowledgable enough to confidently say is the solution, but it was suggested to an sql file viewer. Does this make any sense and do you feel it will help me? Thanks again for your help.