I had no idea Aurora used the same actual App Data file as it's own source, I thought it was just emulating Firefox. I unistalled it and lost everything...
I had installed Aurora 21.0a2 some time last year and had only used it once. I recently uninstalled it and without knowledge that it used the same exact App Data files as Firefox does, so I removed all data. Now I have lost 100's of bookmarks... I do backup my system often but not my browser data, I had only once made a copy of my Firefox data in August 2013, so I was able to copy and paste that info, which had maybe 35-40% of my bookmarks... I had tried Windows Recovery a couple times, it says it wasn't able to restore the data successfully each time. I had also tried Recuva, not really sure if it found the file I was searching for, so I would kindly ask any of the Forum Mods or users who would suggest this method, what "file" exactly should I search for. I had been searching for ".default" and ".defaults" files, and any other data relating to Firefox but with no success. Do I really have any options of recovery or ....?
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You should never choose to remove "personal data" when you uninstall your current Firefox version, because this will remove all profile folders and you lose personal data like bookmarks and passwords including data in profiles created by other Firefox versions.
You will have to try to recover a recent JSON backup (bookmarks-####-##-##_xxxx.json) in the bookmarkbackups folder of that removed Firefox profile folder with Recuva or another undelete utility.
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Recovering+important+data+from+an+old+profile
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox
@cor-el Thank you, I have been trying recovery methods but no results for the removed JS backup I need. I didn't know it was my "personal data" for "Firefox" , I was only removing Aurora because I never really needed it... And like other apps that I know I wouldn't be using again if I already had an alternate, I remove any additional details. Especially since it made no mention that it was tied to Firefox in such manner.
Aurora is the name of an experimental version of Firefox. It is essentially Firefox, but not an official release.
Did Recuva find anything from your missing Firefox profile folder? If you can unerase the old places.sqlite database, you might be able to use that (with some difficulty which I will describe if needed) for recovery.
By the way, Windows 8 continues the tradition of hiding most file extensions from you. To work with files as accurately as possible, I suggest unhiding them. This Microsoft support article has the steps: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/865219. (I would avoid automated fixed and use the manual steps.)
Chances to recover the places.sqlite database file are not very high with the minimum file size of 10MB that causes it to take a lot of clusters that all need to be unused for storing other data. It is also a binary file, so you can't check it in a text editor. Best would be to go for a JSON backup.
To be more clear on finitarry's reply as he implies it is say a codename or unofficial.
Aurora is the name of one of four main development channels of Firefox.
Release (currently 28.0), Beta (currently at 29.0b3 build), Aurora (30.0a2), and Nightly (31.0a1). When Firefox 29.0 is released the versions on each channel will move/merge to the next channel.
Modified by James (doing minimal support dowdays)
@jscher2000 Recuva found nothing relevant after August 2013, only the one backup of Firefox that I had made back then.
Modified by user1073147
Can you confirm that Recuva is looking in hidden files and folders?
https://www.piriform.com/docs/recuva/recuva-settings/options-actions
In the ACTIONS settings, I've selected all options, plus NSA (7 passes)
Did you recently defragment your hard drive?
I don't understand why Recuva would find your old backup (when did you delete that?) and not the much more recently deleted files in your current profile folder.
Could you check your search parameters in the Wizard:
(1) File types: "Other" = all file types
(2) File location = "I'm not sure" = everywhere
The crucial folder location, unless you chose a non-default location for your profile folder, is:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles (and subfolders)
By the way the "7 passes" is for deleting, not undeleting, so I don't think that is relevant.
No, I have not done any defragementing on this PC since I have it.
I have CCleaner so maybe it cleaned the most recent files info when I emptied my Bin. The old backup was in another folder I made last yr, I never deleted it... Only deletion was when I uninstalled Aurora. I will try Recuva again...and maybe look around if there are any other recovery methods that is worth trying.