"Bookmarks and history system will not be functional" with corrupt files found by Avast and websites loading slow ONLY in Firefox
Firefox is the only browser that lets me connect with my microphone. I need to use this feature for an online class. Earlier this evening, the message prompting me to allow or deny the class website permission to use the microphone stopped appearing, and without it the recording won't pick up any sound and I can't record anything.
I tried exiting and restarting Firefox. I had some extensions in use at the time, in particular Session Manager. The allow/deny message still wouldn't appear, so I restarted my computer.
Now when I open Firefox I see the "The bookmarks and history system will not be functional" error message. In addition, the browser loads websites extremely slowly; it takes several minutes to load each page or for me to be able to click on anything (the URL bar, the menus, etc) My other browsers (Internet Explorer and Chrome) are running normally and load websites at a normal speed. I tried downloading the latest version of Firefox but it didn't fix anything. I also tried restarting the computer again but that didn't help either.
I ran my Avast software system check and it turned up that the following files under "C:\Users\(me)\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\Irozixj7.default" are "corrupted and unreadable": -cookies.sqlite-shm -cookies.sqlite-wal -localstore.rdf -places.sqlite-shm
There was one more problem on the scan, but it probably isn't relevant: for the file "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Definition Updates\{9A2C6FA7-E04E-4819-B86A-8363A9D1E42A}\mpengine.dll" it says "The system cannot find the path specified." When I attempted to follow the path indicated, one of the folders (I can't remember which) said something along the lines of "You can't access this folder, do you want to permanently allow access to this folder?" I said yes and was able to access the folder.
I have tried to add the Places Maintenance extension but the speed is too sluggish to download anything. Trying to access any of the menus results in the browser freezing for several minutes then unfreezing but with the menu still unopened. Therefore none of the solutions found here (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/fix-bookmarks-and-history-will-not-be-functional?esab=a&as=aaq) seem to work.
My questions are as follows: -Is it possible to figure out what caused the problem in the first place? -Is there a way for me to fix it without losing my bookmarks and history? -How can I avoid this happening again in the future?
Chosen solution
First, I recommend backing up your Firefox settings in case something goes wrong. See Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles. You can copy your entire Firefox profile folder somewhere outside of the Mozilla folder. To quickly access this folder:
Help > Troubleshooting Information > "Show Folder" button
Next, keep this folder open, exit Firefox, and try moving the "corrupted and unreadable" files to a different folder. With the exception of localstore.rdf, which stores window positions, toolbar customizations, and other nonessential data, the other files appear to be session-specific files that hopefully are not critical. If you restart Firefox, does it behave more normally?
If not, try creating a fresh Firefox profile. It will have the Flash plugin, which is the control sites usually use to connects your camera and/or microphone, and other plugins, but otherwise will be a new setup. This article has the steps for starting up in the Profile Manager: Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles.
If sites work normally in the new profile, you can import your bookmarks from your old profile, as well as copying over other files that don't seem to be causing the problem. Some trial and error might be required to determine that. This article has some tips: Restore bookmarks, passwords, and data from an old Firefox profile.
If the new profile is no better, you can exit Firefox and use the Profile Manager to switch back to your original profile.
Any improvement?
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Chosen Solution
First, I recommend backing up your Firefox settings in case something goes wrong. See Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles. You can copy your entire Firefox profile folder somewhere outside of the Mozilla folder. To quickly access this folder:
Help > Troubleshooting Information > "Show Folder" button
Next, keep this folder open, exit Firefox, and try moving the "corrupted and unreadable" files to a different folder. With the exception of localstore.rdf, which stores window positions, toolbar customizations, and other nonessential data, the other files appear to be session-specific files that hopefully are not critical. If you restart Firefox, does it behave more normally?
If not, try creating a fresh Firefox profile. It will have the Flash plugin, which is the control sites usually use to connects your camera and/or microphone, and other plugins, but otherwise will be a new setup. This article has the steps for starting up in the Profile Manager: Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles.
If sites work normally in the new profile, you can import your bookmarks from your old profile, as well as copying over other files that don't seem to be causing the problem. Some trial and error might be required to determine that. This article has some tips: Restore bookmarks, passwords, and data from an old Firefox profile.
If the new profile is no better, you can exit Firefox and use the Profile Manager to switch back to your original profile.
Any improvement?
You can do a disk check with the chkdsk.exe program.
If you run the chkdsk.exe program from a cmd.exe Command window then you can read the response from the chkdsk.exe program.
Open a cmd.exe window:
Start > Run: cmd.exe <press Enter>
At the command prompt (>) type or Copy&Paste: chkdsk.exe /f /r <press Enter> (put a space before /f and /r)
If you get something like: Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? y/n then answer the question with "Y" and close all programs and reboot the computer.
Thank you so much for your prompt reply!
I copied the entire profile folder, including the corrupted files, to my desktop. I tried to move the three corrupted files other than localstore.rdf to the new folder. It gave me the message "You'll need to provide administrator permission to move this file." I hit Continue with "do this for all current items" selected. I got the error message "This action cannot be completed because the file is open in another program."
I followed the steps to create a new Firefox profile, using the folder on my desktop. Firefox is now running normally, but of course without the bookmarks and history. It's strange because the new files in the desktop folder with the same names as the corrupted files should be copies of the corrupted files, but they didn't register as corrupted when I scanned the folder with Avast. So not corrupted, but still don't contain the bookmark and history information?
Any ideas on "uncorrupting" or otherwise retrieving the information from the corrupted files? Again, thanks so much for your help!
cor-el, I tried to set up the disk check as you suggested, but I got this error (attached) This is strange because I should be the Administrator - the only other profile on this computer is "Guest."
Hold the phone - I think this may have worked! I followed the directions under "Restoring bookmarks from backup" and it looks like I was able to get my history and bookmarks back. A giant thank you to both of you for your help!
Modified by EMontwell
You need to open the cmd.exe window as Administrator to get elevated permissions.
Start, click Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
(Sorry, didn't mean to flag the above post as spam, thought I was in a different tab.)