Winblows 10 reset How to restore 25 y/o profile
Question. How do I restore a profile from windows.old?
Details: Yesterday Windows 10 Failed (yet again , no surprise) Explorer.exe kept locking up and crashing at 1096 threads making it impossible to load/browse anything on my computer. After relogging into the OS I had about 1 minute to do anything before failure happened. (this while windows loads all the bloatware simultaneously which slows down access greatly) In short I could barely load/run mozbackup
Previously every time a windows OS failed I just restored firefox with mozbackup. Apparently that no longer works for firefox and has in fact been out of development for a decade. (tears flowing) The last time this happened ( 3 years ago like clockwork with any windows OS since XP) I moved both the profile folders to their respective locations from windows.old roaming/local to the roaming/mozilla and local mozilla folders respectively.
This no longer works and in fact causes firefox to not function at all. Since I need the passwords locked in firefox to access certain sites like hotmail.com and recover other things for my OS I am screwed. I have no Idea what idiotic concept cause the inability to manually port your profile but I need a workaround asap.
I cannot even log into mozilla.org properly without it either and was forced to use a gmail account just to post this
HELP!!!!
Valgt løsning
This is hilarious and pissing me off at the same time.
Problem was Winblows 10 yet again. After doing the "reset" of windows I forgot to disable the broken "fastload" crap that only appears to function if you use modern disposable hard drives commonly known as SSDs.
AFTER disabling winblows fastload system the manual file transfer worked properly. Not being a developer/coder/hacker I can only postulate that the fastload image was somehow interfering with the proper deletion of the profiles. Me reinstalling firefox simply caused it to see the old profiles (which where supposed to be perma-deleted with shift function) and assign them new names hence the fact that every reinstall of firefox during this miserable issue was stacking the "deleted" profile back in the firefox/profiles/ directory.
Thank you for your attempts at helping despite the fact you just kept repeating the same things again and again, apparently without ever realizing it.
Your help will likely be good for someone who cannot read for themselves and doesn't mind being treated like a retarded 7 year old.
Have a great day!!!!!
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You can copy certain files with Firefox closed from one profile folder or a backup to another/current profile folder to transfer your personal data. Note that best is to avoid restoring a full profile folder and only restore important files that are safe to restore/transfer.
- bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
- favicons: favicons.sqlite
- bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
- cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
- formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
- logins.json (encrypted logins) and key4.db (encryption key/primary password) for logins saved in the Password Manager
- cert9.db for certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
- persdict.dat for words added to the spell checker dictionary
- permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
- sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)
A list of file names yet no way to import them is not an answer. No idea why I cannot simply swap the profile contents by renaming or loading from in firefox. I now will have to spend the next few weeks running in circles to regain access to vital services like online banking (nearest b&m is 3 hour drive or 250$ train ticket +hotel fee's away) and other services like Amazon etc
Is mozilla planning on going full on microslop and currently removing functions so you can bill us to use them in later versions?
Sad that mozbackup which was designed for this very situation suddenly stopped working. Sometime in the last 3 years mozilla for whatever reason made it impossible to manually back up and restore browser info. I guess we can expect a PAID service in later iterations to do what we used to do manually or with basic tools for account security and backups.
Edit: Apparently I forgot to mention that copying the files into the newly created firefox profile did nothing. No passwords/bookmarks/previous sessions etc
Ændret af Mad den
You can use the button on the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page (Root directory).
- Help -> More Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Folder/Directory:
Windows: Open Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data
Firefox uses two locations in the hidden "AppData" location for the Firefox profile folder. One location in "AppData\Roaming" for personal data like bookmarks and logins and another location in "AppData\Local" for temporary files like the disk cache, so make sure to look in the correct location.
Primary location used for the main profile that keeps your personal data (Root Directory on about:profiles).
- C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>
Secondary location used for the disk cache and other temporary files (Local Directory on about:profiles).
- C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>
Let me be clear While I do appreciate your dispensing of general information somewhat, it has in no way helped me recover my passwords.
You seem to have missed this part of my post: "Edit: Apparently I forgot to mention that copying the files into the newly created firefox profile did nothing. No passwords/bookmarks/previous sessions etc
Modified October 19, 2023 at 4:55:31 PM PDT by Mad"
1: Copying and overwriting the listed files did nothing. Firefox still loaded with no passwords/bookmarks etc.
2: The pasted response is rather a bit insulting when you already used it the first time you responded. Perhaps you intended to put a more useful link in and accidently just reposted the one you already sent? (which I likely should have mentioned I had already found and tried prior to you posting it.
Not looking forward to having to get on a damn train to get the banking situation sorted out Found a workaround for everything else but the bank and hotmail. For some reason when I type "hotmail.com" in any other browser it takes me to microsoft main site instead of the mail interface
Copying the files I posted above to a Firefox profile folder should have made Firefox to find and use this profile. My last reply above was to ensure that you copied the files to the correct location (xxxxxxxx.default-release) as sometimes files get copied to the wrong folder like Profiles instead of the folder with the random name or to the secondary folder in "AppData\Local" instead of to "AppData\Roaming". Since none of copied data got recovered then it more likely that the location is wrong and not a problem with the files.
Can you attach a screenshot that shows the profile folder content in list (detail) view ?
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-create-screenshot-my-problem
- use a compressed image type like PNG or JPG to save the screenshot
I will ASAP. Right now I want to sleep for a week and figure out how to recover the 539$ It just cost me Just so I could regain access lost when firefox stopped working with mozbackup. Return ticket fare (train was actually cheaper then bus wtf?), get a cheap motel (weekend rate) and pay cab fares. All in order to prove to the bank that I am who I claim to be. So this Firefox pita cost me the equivalent of 4 months of groceries just before winter when I need what little savings I had the most.
I can't believe I actually regret buying a game on steam 6 months ago. Could really use that 30$ now and the game wasn't even that good (like 99% of corporate developed games)
So for today I am going to destress from an INVOLUNTARY trip to a strange city.
- sigh* and I still have to figure out how to regain access to my hotmail account ... .. a PRE microsoft hotmail account.
Alight. I got over the frustration and dealt with some other issues. So I yet again reinstalled firefox in order to attempt this again... but now there are THREE default profiles all created/edited today at time of install.... This is just getting MORE convoluted every time I try to sort it.
Which is very interesting because after uninstalling I deleted the entire folder from both C:\Users\$\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\ and C:\Users\$\AppData\Local\Mozilla
So there is no valid reason to have multiple profiles after reinstalling right?
now uninstalling (yet again) to try and get a CLEAN reinstall
Edit: Clean failed. Although it now has only 2 profiles with completely different names.
Ændret af Mad den
Firefox uses two locations in the hidden "AppData" location for the Firefox profile folder. One location in "AppData\Roaming" for personal data like bookmarks and logins and another location in "AppData\Local" for temporary files like the disk cache, so make sure you do not get confused by seeing a profile in both locations
Primary location used for the main profile that keeps your personal data (Root Directory on about:profiles).
- C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>
Secondary location used for the disk cache and other temporary files (Local Directory on about:profiles).
- C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>
Valgt løsning
This is hilarious and pissing me off at the same time.
Problem was Winblows 10 yet again. After doing the "reset" of windows I forgot to disable the broken "fastload" crap that only appears to function if you use modern disposable hard drives commonly known as SSDs.
AFTER disabling winblows fastload system the manual file transfer worked properly. Not being a developer/coder/hacker I can only postulate that the fastload image was somehow interfering with the proper deletion of the profiles. Me reinstalling firefox simply caused it to see the old profiles (which where supposed to be perma-deleted with shift function) and assign them new names hence the fact that every reinstall of firefox during this miserable issue was stacking the "deleted" profile back in the firefox/profiles/ directory.
Thank you for your attempts at helping despite the fact you just kept repeating the same things again and again, apparently without ever realizing it.
Your help will likely be good for someone who cannot read for themselves and doesn't mind being treated like a retarded 7 year old.
Have a great day!!!!!