Hi, always exit a application properly. Yes it means loosing tabs. Or use a Session Manager and still shut a application down properly. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search/?platform=windows&q=Session+Manager

If the backups are empty, they are empty. Nothing to restore. Shut down properly again as it's like pulling the plug on the whole computer when you do not shut a program down properly.

Always backup and you would have something to restore :

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/export-firefox-bookmarks-to-backup-or-transfer

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

In the address bar, type about:crashes<enter>. Note: If any reports do not have BP- in front of the numbers/letters, click it to submit them.

The crash report is several pages of data. We need the report numbers to see the whole report.

Using your mouse, mark the most recent 7 - 10 crash reports, and copy them. Now go to the reply box and paste them in.

For more help on crash reports, see; https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-crashes-asking-support

Thanks for the response. Hope that I have done everything correctly as required by your instructions.

cec0a348-434b-4163-919e-3c7aef0dd237 08/05/2018 22:14 5f23cd6b-053a-4464-96d9-8ad652622bbb 08/05/2018 22:14 d7d65ba6-3831-497c-bac5-0650f7962b8b 08/05/2018 00:25 e6904bc5-c4e9-496f-9f01-753c2ddf17a0 08/05/2018 00:25 bcf2033d-bf9e-4b2f-90f7-0137cbcb40e7 08/05/2018 00:25 2f57d2fa-da38-4112-b712-f0b5a52ca42d 08/05/2018 00:25 57261638-38a5-4573-aaca-18488a298350 03/05/2018 16:24 c2627c9f-f071-4c78-aa9d-da33dcdb813e 02/05/2018 22:22 d7bd8997-617f-4610-ab94-8232680426f2 02/05/2018 22:22 01f4e2ef-b484-42a2-a40e-0f1a6798817c 02/05/2018 22:22

Hi, you can edit your above as no it was not done correctly :=}. They must start with bp- so they turn out as URL's on this end, as per instructions, and just need 3-5 of them please.

Do Not Add the bp- yourself.

FredMcD said

Note: If any reports do not have BP- in front of the numbers/letters, click it to submit them.

Sorry for the time-lag. We have quite a time difference.

Could not find any with BP- in front of them.

So I opened a few of them. No idea how they will get to you then

Regards

You are Not reading the instructions. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1216918#answer-1109780

I have read the instructions here And on the suggested page several times!

It might be more helpful if you would try to tell me where I am going wrong

Thank you

Perhaps you might consider that I am Not a computer professional. I am an ordinary user who knows just a little bit.

Thank you again

In the address bar, type about:crashes<enter>.

<unsubmitted reports> Note: If any reports do not have BP- in front of the numbers/letters, click it to submit them.

The crash report is several pages of data. We need the report numbers to see the whole report.

Using your mouse, mark the most recent 7 - 10 crash reports, and copy them. Now go to the reply box and paste them in.

Hi Jozzig, while you work with FredMcD on the crash angle, let's discuss the missing session history files. Your screenshot doesn't show the usual things one would expect to find in that folder, such as the snapshots captured when Firefox updates. This could indicate that there is another profile folder with your old data in it.

If you haven't already, you may want to do a normal system shutdown and startup to release any file locks and complete any pending updates.

If your Firefox data does not magically reappear, the most likely scenarios for complete data loss are:

(1) A Refresh started but the migration of data from your old profile to your new profile was incomplete, or
(2) Your old profile was locked, so Firefox ignored it and created a new one.

It's a lot of things to check, but if you go step by step, it's not too bad.

Did Firefox perform a Refresh?

Unless it was interrupted in progress, you should find a folder on your desktop named Old Firefox Data. Inside would be a semi-randomly-named folder with freshly updated files. Do you see anything like that?

If so, we'll suggest how to rescue key files or completely restore the earlier profile folder.

If not...

Does the Profile Manager list your immediately previous profile folder?

To check on that, 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?

If it's not there...

Did Firefox orphan your old profile folder?

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 > "?" Help > 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, and any session history files they contain.

Thank you jscher2000 - your instructions were stunning. Very clear indeed.

I did a shutdown and a restart - sadly not the desired result upon opening Firefox.

No "Old Firefox Data" on the desktop

I found next to nothing on the profiles page, see attached image

Orphaned profile folder - see attached image again, inside the C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\m75w7tl7.default folder heaps of information can be found. Attached screen-shot shows but some of it

So it seems we are still nowhere

There is one more thing I wanted to mention: When I go to the Firefox icon on the taskbar every tab has its own small preview. I had this happening once before, many months ago

Looking forward to hearing from you again

I don't see any extra profile folders in your Profiles folder. So...

Windows may have backed up your profile folder (or a different one) in a recent restore point. Do not use Windows System Restore!! But you can use a utility program to search inside shadow copies of your user data to try to locate an old file. Here are the steps:

(1) Set Windows to show hidden files and folders:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14201/windows-show-hidden-files

(2) Download and run one of these programs:

• ShadowExplorer: http://www.shadowexplorer.com/
• System Restore Explorer: http://nicbedford.co.uk/software/systemrestoreexplorer/

Within the most recent restore points shown in the program, you can explore along this path to see whether you can find a recent shadow copy of your profile:

\Users\your-user-name\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

(3) Export any useful-looking files to a convenient location such as your currently live desktop. Then when Firefox is closed and file locks released, you can try to use them to restore your missing tabs.

Success?

Good day, this was quite some session for me.

Applied Hidden Files and Folders

Downloaded Shadow Explorer and opened it and tried to find my way around

First problem: Don't know how to recognize a Restore Point

Problem 2: Can't see my user name anywhere! Is that my Firefox user name or my general user name?

If I were to find the correct folder, how do I recognize useful-looking files?

I am sorry about all the complications.

Thank you for your patience

You're right there.

The sessions folder was a folder maintained by the legacy extension Session Manager. It would only have data from before Firefox 57-58-59-60 (depending on when you upgraded from Firefox 56).

Just below that, the sessionstore-backups folder has Firefox's session history files:

• recovery.jsonlz4: the windows and tabs in your currently live Firefox session (or, if Firefox crashed at the last shutdown and is still closed, your last session)
• recovery.baklz4: a backup copy of recovery.jsonlz4
• previous.jsonlz4: the windows and tabs in your last Firefox session
• upgrade.jsonlz4-build_id: the windows and tabs in the Firefox session that was live at the time of your last update
• various .js files from Firefox 55 or earlier

You can export whatever looks useful. To preview the contents of a file, you can drag and drop it onto this page, then click Scrounge URLs: https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/scrounger.html

That tool is on my site, so please let me know if it doesn't work for you.

OK, latest report back.

ShadowExplorer showed me 5 files (took me a while to realize that one cannot drag and drop fromShadowExplorer)

So I found sessionstore-backup directly in file explorer. Oooops, there are only 2 files available. Dragged and dropped those individually to JS. They only have the 4 tabs after supposed crash!

Befuddled again

Sorry!

Oh, and I wish, I wish, I wish that the session manager of old would still be around. What a helpful tool.

Surely something must be able to be written for the new, current Firefox structure?

The substitutes offered a while ago were sub-par.

The files you see in Windows Explorer are your live files. The files you see in ShadowExplorer (8th May 2018) are the ones you want to right-click > Export.

Words fail me absolutely..

You aren't a star, you aren't a star of stars, you aren't a super star...

You are simply a Miracle Star, Jefferson

Thank you very much for your expertise, your kindness and your patience. You have all of these in a very good measure!

Off course, problem solved to perfection!

THANK YOU

Thank you for your enthusiastic report back, I'm glad it worked for you.