Update made all history and passwords disappear. How to undo?
So a while back, like many people, I encountered the issue where I downloaded the cutting-edge Firefox in an attempt to get my extensions back during the failure. Then I realized that none of my stuff carried over, and I panicked to re-install the original to get my stuff back.
(To clarify, "stuff" encompasses history, previous sessions, cookies, saved login credentials, and the like. My sessions are...quite large, admittedly, so I crash often.)
So tonight, it crashed again while I was trying to respond to someone on a chat client. I hit restore previous session as normal. Then the update window showed. No harm done there.
Except then it gave me the dead basic, on-install new tab screen. Checking revealed no history, no cookies or password retained, and an inability to rez my previous session.
As a uni student during summer with a lot to book, this is a major issue.
And while I have attempted to look for Old Firefox Files, they remain elusive.
Fair to note: I use Windows 10 on a bone-average Lenovo laptop.
All Replies (4)
Look on your desktop. Do you see a folder called; Old Firefox? Look inside. Look for the folder with the latest creation date.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible
Hi Arrowtie, sorry to hear about this problem. When you say --
So tonight, it crashed again while I was trying to respond to someone on a chat client. I hit restore previous session as normal. Then the update window showed. No harm done there. Except then it gave me the dead basic, on-install new tab screen.
What are the "before" and "after" versions? Or in other words, how big a leap was it from what you used before to what you use now?
Profile Manager Page
Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.
This page should list one or more profiles. Firefox 67 often creates one named default-release while the older one(s) might be named default or a variation on the word default.
Each profile has one or more buttons at the bottom: please do not use Rename or Remove to avoid further problems.
Can you find a "Set as default profile" button for your previous profile? After setting that, you can exit Firefox and start it up again.
Was that the issue?
I put off checking back or even using my laptop much for fear it had all been wiped away.
But God, that about:profiles. jscher2000, you're a lifesaver.
It's exactly the amount of a mess it was before, of course, but everything is here.
Including Piskel.
Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles.{web link} I use an add-on that makes backups of my user profile, Just In Case. Unfortunately, it is not compatible with the current Firefox.
Every now and then, open the profile folder and create a copy of the current profile as is to another location on your hard drive. This way you will have a backup.
If you do this each day, you will not lose much data. This should be done with Firefox Closed.
Note: In case you need to restore from these backups, you may need to overwrite old or corrupted files.