That is entirely possible... I know that you can grab files from Time Machine and move them to your Mac.... I will have to check it out and try it.

cor-el said

Is there an extensions folder in the profile folder? Try to rename/remove extensions.json.

Yes, there is, however that particular file is not in the Extensions folder, but just listed under Profiles. I deleted it, but then like a dope, reset Firefox and that cleared out everything again anyways... Bookmarks bar, extensions/add-ons, etc... Had to go reinstall my add-ons.

The point of my question is whether there are extensions present in the extensions. When you rename/remove extensions.json then Firefox will rebuild this file from extensions that are present in the extensions folder. If the extensions folder is empty then this means that there aren't any extensions installed in this profile. If there are extensions present, but you do not see them in the about:addons window then removing extensions.json might help top re-register them.

So, I thought I understood your question and I think you are asking the same thing again, but now not sure. The only file extension present in the Extensions folder are .xpi files, and of those there are 5 files, again, all ending in .xpi. The only .json file is located here: Library>Application Support>Firefox>Profiles>re7wrctb.default-1507384968095, so I'm not sure how else to answer that question.

Do you see all extensions that you see in the extensions folder on the about:addons page under Extensions?

If that is the case then everything is OK and no need to take action.

Well yeah, right now I do, because i added everything again, but every time there is a major update to FF, the add-ons disappear. That is my problem...

(OOPS sorry forgot original date of post, Disregard Flash Update Info, Thanks)

Latest version of Firefox is version 56.0.1 and ver 57 release date is Nov 14th

Well, either way, I have FF version 57.0b6 which I believe is a beta version....

We have this every now and then that an update of FF looses all History and sometimes all the Add-Ons.

It wastes so much production time to get FF back to what it was before the update, that we are consulting production use by customers to use Chrome in stead. In the mean time FF Updates are blocked, which is a serious problem in the case of security updates.

FF does no automated backups before it updates -- an anathema. Do the developers do backup their stuff? Why not let the Users the choice to make pre update Backups?

Please build in an automated roll-back if FF updates !!!!! Too many users get frustrated and scare them off by FF FU's like this.

How do we get back the old History, Add-On's and even previous FF after such a FF Update FU?

(Pardon the uncouth FU expressions, but it sometimes is the only way to put frustration into the context users have when fixing Application mess-ups i.e. FU's)

I have Time Machine (Mac) with FF 57.0.3 and since the last update wiped out ALL my saved Themes, I'm not sure where in TM to look for them to reinstall or recover them from.

VERY IRRITATING.

Hi MichaelJonas, what kind of themes were they -- the graphical backgrounds you install from the add-ons site here?

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/themes/

Did your Firefox perform a Refresh? The tell-tale sign is an Old Firefox Data folder appearing on your system's desktop.

Hi - Yes, that's where I got the Themes from. I had a list of Themes (Enable/Disable) that I used for variety. When I installed the latest update (FF for Mac) all but three default Themes disappeared.

There is no Old Firefox Data file that I can find (using Find Any File).

This is not a critical problem, more a pain-in-the-tush glitch.

Installed lightweight themes are saved as JSON data in the prefs.js file in the profile folder. The images of the currently selected lightweight theme are stored in the lightweighttheme-header and lightweighttheme-footer files in the Firefox profile folder. When you select another theme then its images are retrieved from the Add-ons server.

• you may want to keep a backup copy of the current value of the lightweightThemes.usedTheme pref and bookmark the pages of installed lightweight themes on the Add-ons site
• you may want to create a backup copy of these files as well if you like the theme

The data of the installed lightweight themes including its background color and text color are stored in the lightweightThemes.usedThemes pref in JSON object format.

• {"id":"#","name":"xxx",...}

The first entry of this pref is the currently selected theme.

Given that I don't have pages of themes, I could take a screenshot of the list page and then find them again by searching by name or your suggestion by bookmarking the pages the themes are on.

Still, I very much appreciate your taking the time to explain the theme process to me.

One more small question -- when looking at the theme add-on choices, there can be hundreds of pages the come up when I enter a search term such "dark black blue," or "blue and grey." is there any way to skip pages so that I actually get to see the themes on much higher numbered pages?

Much thanx, Michael

@MichaelJonas

If you have a Time Machine backup of prefs.js then you can check the lightweightThemes.usedThemes pref line in that file to find more detail about the themes you had installed.

You can try to copy this lightweightThemes.usedThemes line to the prefs.js file in the profile folder with Firefox closed to see if that recovers the themes.

• user_pref("lightweightThemes.usedThemes", "{<JSON_theme_information>}");

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
  Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox