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My computer crashed and i lost all my firefox data and settings

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My computer crashed and i lost all my bookmarks, saved passwords, adds and everything. is there any way to get my old saved stuff back?

My computer crashed and i lost all my bookmarks, saved passwords, adds and everything. is there any way to get my old saved stuff back?

All Replies (10)

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If the hard drive is not damaged, you can have it installed onto another computer as a second drive. Or, have a tech copy the old drive to a new computer.

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FredMcD said

If the hard drive is not damaged, you can have it installed onto another computer as a second drive. Or, have a tech copy the old drive to a new computer.

oh no the hard drive isn't damaged and the computer still working normally, the thing is we had power issues so the computer turned off suddenly and when i restarted it i got the issue with firefox

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Do you only have one profile if you check that in the location used for profiles?

You can use this button to go to the current Firefox profile folder:

You can go up one level to the Profiles folder to check if there is only one profile folder with a random name (xxxxxxxx.default).

  • C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

Do you have an "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop in case you used the Refresh feature and created a new profile?

If you have an "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop then you can recover some personal data from a recent profile in that folder. When you use the Refresh feature to create a new profile then Firefox will try to recover data like bookmarks, history, cookies, passwords, saved form data, tabs, personal dictionary automatically.

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Go to your local department / electronics store and look around for a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) that is useful for you. The lowest price is $50 + -. There are also units on the market that plug into the computer. And if the battery gets low, will shut down the computer to protect it.

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cor-el said

Do you only have one profile if you check that in the location used for profiles? You can use this button to go to the current Firefox profile folder: You can go up one level to the Profiles folder to check if there is only one profile folder with a random name (xxxxxxxx.default).
  • C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

Do you have an "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop in case you used the Refresh feature and created a new profile?

If you have an "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop then you can recover some personal data from a recent profile in that folder. When you use the Refresh feature to create a new profile then Firefox will try to recover data like bookmarks, history, cookies, passwords, saved form data, tabs, personal dictionary automatically.

i have 3 profiles folders, and i'm really confused can you pls tell me what to do to recover

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If you look in the various profile folders at the "last modified" dates on the files, for example, on places.sqlite which accumulates history, which folder looks the most promising?

If that folder is in the usual location, meaning in here --

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

-- make a note of the part of the profile folder name after the dot, for example:

1234abcd.default-9999

Then exit out of Firefox and start up in the Profile Manager. You can do that using the Windows "Run" dialog or the system search box. Type or paste the following and press Enter to submit it:

firefox.exe -P

Don't delete anything here!

Is the profile you want on the list -- it should have the part of the name after the dot?

If so, select it and then Start Firefox in that profile. Does it still work or has the crash broken it?

If it's not on the list, hmm, we may need to copy some files around to resolve that. You can start Firefox in a different profile for the time being.

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jscher2000 said

If you look in the various profile folders at the "last modified" dates on the files, for example, on places.sqlite which accumulates history, which folder looks the most promising? If that folder is in the usual location, meaning in here -- C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles -- make a note of the part of the profile folder name after the dot, for example: 1234abcd.default-9999 Then exit out of Firefox and start up in the Profile Manager. You can do that using the Windows "Run" dialog or the system search box. Type or paste the following and press Enter to submit it: firefox.exe -P Don't delete anything here! Is the profile you want on the list -- it should have the part of the name after the dot? If so, select it and then Start Firefox in that profile. Does it still work or has the crash broken it? If it's not on the list, hmm, we may need to copy some files around to resolve that. You can start Firefox in a different profile for the time being.

Thank you very much for your help, Actually i'm not sure if i made a mistake last time, cause when i check there was 3 profiles folders.. but now when i checked again i found only 2 profile folders one has yesterday's date and the other one today's date.. i'm sorry but i'm seriously confused with this and i'd really appreciate your help to get this fixed

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Hmm, usually profile dates don't change unless you use them. Have you used the Profile Manager to try loading each of them and see whether you can salvage anything?

Windows may have made a copy of your profile folder at the time it last did Windows updates. I don't recommend using the System Restore feature, but you can use the following program to inspect the latest restore point to see whether it contains useful data. If you decide to restore the old profile folder, please direct it to your Documents folder so as not to overwrite what you have now.

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

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jscher2000 said

Hmm, usually profile dates don't change unless you use them. Have you used the Profile Manager to try loading each of them and see whether you can salvage anything? Windows may have made a copy of your profile folder at the time it last did Windows updates. I don't recommend using the System Restore feature, but you can use the following program to inspect the latest restore point to see whether it contains useful data. If you decide to restore the old profile folder, please direct it to your Documents folder so as not to overwrite what you have now. http://nicbedford.co.uk/software/systemrestoreexplorer/

Hello and thank you very much Jscher, actually i'd let the system restore as my very last option :) but would you please tell me what is the profile manager and how'd i use it?

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I gave the steps for the profile manager in this post: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1114226#answer-856741

See also: Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles

Please do not delete anything in the Profile Manager.