What about other data, such as history, settings, and extensions. All gone??

I'm going to suggest checking two different locations for copies of your Firefox settings data. However, as a first step, please set Windows to show hidden files and folders: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/show-hidden-files

(1) Firefox's "Profiles" folder

Each collection of settings is known as a profile, and it's possible that Firefox has lost track of the profile folder from the time you reverted to. Let's check whether you have more than one profile folder in the normal location. Here's how:

Open 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

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

In the Windows explorer address bar, make a note (a physical note or a mental note) of the last part of your current profile name. Often it's the word default or default followed by a dash and a long number.

Then click the word Profiles to move up one level. Here you should see that current profile folder name listed. Do you see any other profile folders here? If you do, click into it/them and check the dates to see how up-to-date they are. One way to check that is to click into the bookmarkbackups folder. It should contain files that are dated, for example:

bookmarks-2016-07-19_nnnn_gibberish==.jsonlz4

That backup was created on July 19th and contains nnnn bookmarks (this number depends on how many you had on that date).

If you find a promising backup, right-click > Copy it and then go to your Desktop and right-click > Paste it for easier access.

(2) An "Old Firefox Data" folder

When Firefox's Refresh feature runs, it moves your settings folder to your desktop inside an Old Firefox Data folder. If you have such a folder: click into it and check the dates of the bookmark backups in the same manner.

Before laying out next steps, let me know what you found.

Thanks so much for your prompt reply. I performed the steps you listed and found two "bookmark" folders. One had one bookmark from from today and one folder dated with yesterdays date and the older folder with yesterdays date contained 15 of my old bookmarks but not all of them (I had a lot of them). For the second step, I did find and look in the folder that says "Old Firefox Data" that was on my desktop and it contained the same 15 bookmarks shown in the above folder.

Next steps?

Again, thank you very much.

The jsonlz4 files are compressed, so the only way to know how many bookmarks are in them is from the file name, or if you restore them (restoring a backup replaces the bookmarks you current see in Firefox). Is there one you want to try that looks the most promising?

You might also try using the following program to check for a more recent backup in a later restore point. The program should allow you to extract it without having to roll back/roll forward the system restore you did:

http://nicbedford.co.uk/software/systemrestoreexplorer/

Also, history, settings and extensions are all gone as well. I didn't address this in my post above.

I found a file that looks promising that I would like to use in the profiles. How do I use it to restore the bookmarks? I am not a novice but not super good at computer manipulations.

I prefer not to use the program link to restore them if I don't have to because when I was going to run it, I got a security warning and I don't know if I should trust the program. I have been hacked by using programs that aren't secure before.

You're that best for spending time to help me. Thanks!

How important are the history and extensions? If you have an older profile folder you want to use instead of the current profile folder, that's another option. I'll describe that as the end.

Bookmarks Only

Okay, Firefox can restore the backup, which will replace the set of bookmarks you have now. This is the reason I mentioned copying the file to a convenient location.

This article has the steps for the restore: Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer. When you get to the step where you see a dated list of available backups, click Choose File and open the backup you want to restore from the convenient location you chose.

Switch Profiles

Try this: type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter. Firefox should display all of the profiles it is currently aware of.

Is the old profile you want to use listed here?

If yes: click the Set as default profile button below that profile, then scroll back up and click the Restart normally button. Firefox should exit and then start up using the data in the old profile folder. Is everything back to two weeks ago?

If no: click the Create a New Profile button. Assign a name like TEMP, and skip the option to relocate the profile folder. After creating the profile, exit out of Firefox completely.

Open the Profiles folder by pasting this in the Start menu search box (or Windows Run dialog) and pressing Enter to run it:

%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

Right-click the name of the old profile folder that you want to use, and click Rename. Make sure the entire name is selected, and copy it using Ctrl+c.

In the Windows Explorer address bar, click Firefox to navigate up one level. At this level, you should see a settings file named Profiles.ini (if you do not see the .ini, that's normal, you can force Windows to show file extensions using the steps in this article: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/show-hide-file-name-extensions).

Open Profiles.ini for editing by either double-clicking it or right-click > Edit. It usually opens in Notepad.

Find the TEMP profile you just created and edit the path as follows:

(1) Delete the part after Path=Profiles/ and paste the folder name you copied.

(2) Find the line in the file that says Default=1 and cut and paste that from under the path of the current profile to under the path of the TEMP profile so that Firefox starts up with this one.

(3) Optional: edit the TEMP in Name=TEMP to something more useful.

(4) Save the file but keep it open in case you need to make any corrections.

When you start Firefox, it should read the new information in Profiles.ini and start up using the other profile folder. If you get an error about the profile not being found, that usually indicates a typo (paste error) in the Path.

Hi again. I am back at trying to fix Firefox and followed your instructions to the line:

(2) Find the line in the file that says Default=1 and cut and paste that from under the path of the current profile to under the path of the TEMP profile so that Firefox starts up with this one.

I don't quite understand what to do here. There are two places that show that Default=1. There is one under the (I think) "current" profile and then there is the second "temp" profile. Do I actually "cut" or do "copy it" (the top one) then paste that into the bottom "temp" profile? Sorry, I'm not so computer literate. Is it okay to cut it so that there is nothing showing in notepad under the current profile line?

Maybe I can copy and paste it here to show you where I am having problems:

I am going to shut down Firefox now to re-do the steps so I can copy and show you what I see. I will return and paste it into the next reply window.

This is what shows on notepad:

[General] StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0] Name=default-1423153078923 IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/zwucwjrx.default-1423153078923 Default=1

[Profile1] Name=Temp IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/ptov5x7f.Temp

For Step #2: In your reply I only see one

Default=1

-- it's the last line below [Profile0]. There can only be one default, so you need to move that from [Profile0] to the [Profile1] to cause Firefox to start up in Profile1.

But what about Step #1? The Path still shows .Temp so I'm not sure you effectively edited that line to match the full restored profile name.

Hi.

I did the steps again with a fresh mind this morning and it worked beautifully! Everything is back to normal. I was having a bunch of problems yesterday with websites I was trying to browse on Mozilla and this fixed all - as far as I can tell now.  : )

You are the best! Thank you so very much. How can I give you coo dos?

Trisha