cannot export of backup bookmarks
I recently had a power failure, which meant that Firefox didn't close down properly when the PC powered down. When I restarted, Firefox had lost all of my previous settings, ie bookmarks, passwords etc, so I have tried to recreate a profile which contains all of the previous elements. However, there is clearly something wrong & although I have deleted the places files & run the "Refresh Firefox" utility, these continue. My main bugbear at present is that I cannot either backup my bookmarks file, or export it in HTML format, in order to even consider creating a brand new profile. I have also noticed that my new profile has a bookmarksbackup folder, but is never getting populated with any content. I do have an old profile which I have used to recreate the profile that I am using now, but I am beginning to wonder whether there is some sort of corruption in the files contained, which means that I am simply recreating the problems, over again. I have a number of other quirks & eccentricities, ie the clear downloads button doesn't always work & all of the small icons on my bookmarks have disappeared & show no sign of refreshing, even though a week has elapsed since the original "crash". So, are there other files that I need to delete / recreate in my profile, in order to get back to normal functionality ?? As I say, my biggest current problem is not being able to backup or export my current bookmarks file - it says that it is being done, but no files are actually created. Oh, and I can create new bookmarks, but once again, the small icons which use to be created, no longer appear. Many thanks for any assistance out there.
Выбранное решение
To all three folk who supported me with the recent problem - many, many thanks :-) I have finally established that the crash had generated a whole new profile, which was in turn getting called by my profile.ini file. However, my old original profile was also "hiding" in there, so I renamed the profile.ini to pofileold.ini, and created a new profile.ini which quoted my old original default profile. Everything is now working perfectly again, including passwords & bookmarks etc, & I am now able to both backup & export my bookmark file in HTML format. Happy Days !!!!
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Unfortunately, when a computer device looses power, anything can be corrupted. Especially 'in use' files.
Unless you have a backup somewhere . . . . .
Look on your desktop. Do you see a folder called; Old Firefox?
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
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Navigating_to_the_profile_folder
Do you have any other profiles?
Were you using sync?
Hi, FredMcD. Many thanks for your suggestions. However, I think I have now reached the point at which will simply have to create a whole new profile & try to copy over any of the "indispensable" files in my old profile. It would be really useful though if you could offer any specific advice and guidance as to how I may either backup or export my current bookmark file, given that this functionality does not seem to be operating at all at present ?? Any clues or suggestions would be richly appreciated. A secondary question though, if I may. When I try to run the Firefox command to open the Profile Manager (using the command prompt as administrator), I am getting a message returned that this is an unknown instruction, ie firefox.exe is not recognised. Any clues, please ??
There is a bug fix release of Firefox 55.0.3 available in the past 24 hours. Perhaps that would help?
Bookmark Backup Files
If you used the Refresh feature, the profile folder will have a new location: inside an Old Firefox Data folder on your desktop. In that case, you can move on to the New Profile section.
I suggest copying one or two recent bookmark backup files to your desktop for easy access. Here's how.
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 "Open Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.
Double-click into the bookmarkbackups folder. The files here are in a compressed format (i.e., not meant to be read in other programs). You can copy one or two to the desktop by right-click > Copy and then go to the desktop and right-click > Paste.
You mentioned that your current profile folder does not have any backups, but there are some in an old profile folder. Please copy those to the desktop instead.
New Profile
You could try this alternate method of creating a new profile:
Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.
Click the Create a New Profile button, then click Next. Assign a name like Aug2017, ignore the option to relocate the profile folder, and click the Finish button.
After creating the profile, scroll down to it and click the Set as default profile button below that profile, then scroll back up and click the Restart normally button. (There are some other buttons, but I think those are still "under construction" so please ignore them.)
Firefox should exit and then start up using the new profile, which will just look brand new.
Does bookmarking work any better in the new profile?
If so, you can try to restore a bookmark backup file from your old profile(s). These are the ".jsonlz4" files you identified or copied in the first step.
This article has the steps to restore a backup: Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer. On the Restore menu, use "Choose File" to point Firefox to your desktop to get the backup.
Success?
It is also possible that there has been a problem with the profiles.ini file that registers profiles and that a new default profile got created.
You can check if you have an orphaned profile that isn't registered in profiles.ini and that does not show in the Firefox Profile Manager. You can check that by opening the current profile folder via the about:profiles page and go up one level to see if there is only one profile listed.
If you have found an orphaned profile then you may want to recover some personal data.
Изменено cor-el
Many thanks to both cor-el & jscher2000 for their help & suggestions. It will take me a while to work through everything you have proposed, so please bear with me whilst I consider these options.
Выбранное решение
To all three folk who supported me with the recent problem - many, many thanks :-) I have finally established that the crash had generated a whole new profile, which was in turn getting called by my profile.ini file. However, my old original profile was also "hiding" in there, so I renamed the profile.ini to pofileold.ini, and created a new profile.ini which quoted my old original default profile. Everything is now working perfectly again, including passwords & bookmarks etc, & I am now able to both backup & export my bookmark file in HTML format. Happy Days !!!!
That was very good work. Well done. Please flag your last post as Solved Problem so others will know.
These can't get your data back, but will help in the future.
These add-ons can be a great help by backing up and restoring Firefox
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/febe/ FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension)
FEBE allows you to quickly and easily backup your Firefox extensions, history, passwords, and more. In fact, it goes beyond just backing up -- It will actually rebuild your saved files individually into installable .xpi files. It will also make backups of files that you choose.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/opie/ OPIE
Import/Export extension preferences