hi, i don't understand the point of the question - the main purpose of a refresh is to remove all addons and reset settings back to their default. if you don't want this, then please don't perform a refresh!

These can't get your data back, but will help in the future.

These add-ons can be a great help by backing up and restoring Firefox

FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension) {web link} FEBE allows you to quickly and easily backup your Firefox extensions, history, passwords, and more. In fact, it goes beyond just backing up -- It will actually rebuild your saved files individually into installable .xpi files. It will also make backups of files that you choose.

OPIE {web link} Import/Export extension preferences

There's more to a refresh, one expects, than destroying all of your settings and extensions. There is no reason your theme, for example, can't be restored, or your search engine preferences, or your home page settings. This is ridiculous and so frustrating, it isn't funny. Really, there's no excuse for this.

It works the way it was designed to work.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-add-ons-and-settings

Firefox will save these items:

   Bookmarks
   Browsing history
   Passwords
   Open windows, tab groups and tabs
   Cookies
   Web form auto-fill information
   Personal dictionary 

These items and settings will be removed:

Extensions and themes, website permissions, modified preferences, added search engines, download history, DOM storage, security certificate and device settings, download actions, plugin settings, toolbar customizations, user styles and social features will be removed.

Which doesn't mean that it was designed correctly or well for users. Seriously, this has to get fixed. I don't care if you wipe out everything, but there are a number of things that could easily be restored from the most recent profile that wouldn't hurt or impact the refresh. All people generally want is a non-destructive way to fix a slowness problem or some other kind of issue, not destroy all the settings it took them hours to get right in the first place. Don't argue with me, by the way. I'm simply telling you my experience, providing my feedback, and asking that Mozilla take this issue seriously. It would be easy enough to ask a user which of their settings or extensions they would like to restore since you go to all the trouble of saving them. Don't tell me you don't know what theme I was using or what my search engine settings were or my home page / start up preferences. There is no excuse for making this process that destructive without providing the ability to reconstruct your previous environment easily.

Feedback can be submitted here: https://input.mozilla.org/en-US/feedback

We deal with how Firefox actually works, not how "some users" would like it to work or how they think it "should work".

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-add-ons-and-settings is very clear about what is "saved" and what isn't. Adding user selectable options would over-complicate the situation, IMO, and would involve very complicated coding that would take a lot longer to run. As it is we have had user reports that the Refresh took close to 1/2 hour to run, and without a "progress indicator" some users thought it was hung-up and shut down Firefox resulting in all their data getting lost.

I'm not looking to argue with you either, but IMO the Refresh feature is garbage. I think it was waste of developer time coming up with that. Should have left it at "create a new Profile and copy "these files" over to the new Profile". Like driving a car, if you can't change a flat tire stay close to home where 'daddy' can come to rescue you.

But it does work to help Firefox users "get out of the hole they dug" when they screwed up Firefox when changing prefs, causing problems without knowing what they were changing and not remembering what they changed. Or doing customizations that they couldn't figure out how to revert. And it is sure a lot easier than before that Reset / Refresh was implemented, when a user would need to create a new Profile and then manually copy over many files to recover the data that the Refresh automatically copies in to that new oddly named Profile.

Using one of my experimental Refreshes that I did back in January, here's an example of the naming concept for Refreshed Profiles: 7c2s0qyn.default-1454043906128

7c2s0qyn = randomly generated slt for security default = from the original Profile name - but not necessarily the "name" a user would add when creating a new Profile, which would only appear in the profiles.ini file 1454043906128 = Epoch date code for when the Refresh was done

http://www.esqsoft.com/javascript_examples/date-to-epoch.htm Insert 1454043906128 in Option 2 on that page and hit To Date and you get this Conversion Output. Thu Jan 28 2016 23:05:06 GMT-0600 (Central Daylight Time)

As a programmer, I can tell you that it would be extremely easy either before or after the refresh to copy and save some of the basic options users set, such as their theme, their home page setting, their search engine settings, whether or not they clear history after every exit, and a number of other settings that would save them considerable time in recovering after this process. You don't necessarily have to save every setting, but it wouldn't be too difficult to query what isn't a default setting in the profile and save it somewhere to be restored. In terms of extensions, there's no good reason why they can't be copied into the new profile and set as disabled until the user enables them, and with the options the user set for them.

If a user's reason for running the refresh is to start clean, fine. But users should be given the option of saving their basic settings and restoring them along with their extensions.

klgrube said

As a programmer, I can tell you that it would be extremely easy ...

File a Bug report with your suggested fixes, along with the code needed to effect those fixes, and the developers might consider it.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Bug_writing_guidelines