Sorry, I haven't kept up on all your different threads.

When you use Refresh and the process completes normally, your old settings folder (old profile folder) is moved into an Old Firefox Data folder on the desktop. Once you have completed the process of salvaging useful data from that folder, you can delete it. However, I suggest keeping it for a couple weeks in case you notice something else important missing and need to go looking for it.

To find the location of your currently active profile folder, you can check this way: Open your current Firefox settings (AKA 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.

Check the address bar of that windows. Normally, it will be similar to

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\semi-random

If instead the address shows it is pointed to your Desktop, then you had better not delete the folder on your desktop!!

OK, thanks for the explanation. Now I understand that the active profile is stored one place on the system, and that the existing profile goes to the desktop after the refresh. Is that correct?

However, there are currently three folders in the desktop Old Firefox folder. They have three different names, the same date, and all have Bookmarks profiles in there. How do you know which one to pick? My bookmarks are properly restored now. However, my history is incomplete. Only goes back 7 days, and there are no dates or times listed. My history I believe should go back months.

Thanks much!

History is stored together with bookmarks in a database file named places.sqlite. If you compare the modification date/time of those files, can you determine the most recent?

Unfortunately, there's no way* to extract just the missing history entries, you could only roll back to an earlier date. If you want to to that... You would use it to replace your current places.sqlite file (after exiting out of Firefox and allowing a minute for database files to be updated).

* No easy way: someone might have created custom software to do it.

What security software (firewall, anti-virus) do you have?

Can you post the content of the profiles.ini file?

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/profiles.ini_file

You should find the profiles.ini file in this hidden location:

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

Windows hides some file extensions by default. Among them are .html and .ini and .js and .txt, so you may only see file name without file extension. You can see the real file type (file extension) in the properties of the file via the right-click context menu in Windows Explorer.

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

• Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)

Go up two levels to the Firefox folder where you should find the profiles.ini file.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Managing+profiles
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

I was using Web Root and then decided to try the free Panda. I've just uninstalled that and am back to WebRoot. The WebRoot extension seemed to associate with Firefox crashes of late, which is one reason why I tried Panda. Currently the WebRoot extension is disabled. Is that a bad thing? It's never been a problem before but seems to be now along with a host of other things.

The storage file goes back to April 1, where it's 20MB, and then it's only 10 MB after that into June. My bookmarks seem OK. But the history now is only going back one week, not back to April 1st as it should. Seems odd.

Beyond that, I seem to recall my history going back 6 months or more, I always save it and don't clear, unless I accidentally did with CCleaner?? Any idea where it might have gone? I could restore older history by syncing with my old desktop which I used until January or so, but that still leaves out a bunch of months.

Thanks. Just trying to understand what all is happening so doesn't happen again. I rely on my history a great deal.

BlackberryPi said

The WebRoot extension seemed to associate with Firefox crashes of late, which is one reason why I tried Panda. Currently the WebRoot extension is disabled. Is that a bad thing? It's never been a problem before but seems to be now along with a host of other things.

I'm not familiar with that extension. Was it providing useful feature before when it was stable with Firefox?

The storage file you mention goes back to April 1, where it's 20MB, and then it's only 10 MB after that into June. But I thought you restore from the Old Firefox Data file. If I do system restore I think that I can get some history back. Now that I'm up to present I've only got a week of history but the bookmarks seem fine. I thought I should be able to go back six months on history, right?

Firefox stores a variable amount of history, based more on the number of visits stored in the file than on the length of time since the visit took place. For what it's worth, I still have some history from June 2014. If you restore an old history/bookmarks database (places.sqlite), then unfortunately you won't have your recent history.