Problems with "refresh firefox"
Will somebody please help a severely computer-illiterate old guy?
I was having all kinds of crazy problems including slowness, erratic operation and many other problems I can't even remember and in looking around in FF help I found the Refresh Firefox button and tried it. I can't tell if it refreshed anything or not because all the files it was supposed to save are now residing in the folder ... old firefox data > qsfnngaf.default > .... which contains 19 more folders most of which contain filenames/extensions I don't recognize and can't open because I can't find a program to do that and wouldn't know what to do with them if I did find one.
The way I read the description of how "Refresh Firefox" was supposed to work, it gave the impression that all those files would be automatically put back where they belonged by the refresh process (but I guess by now I should have known better).
I had a LOT of data in those files that I really need - can somebody help me straighten out this mess?
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When you Refresh/Reset Firefox then a new profile is created and some personal data (bookmarks, history, cookies, passwords, form data, tabs) is automatically imported. The current profile folder will be moved to an "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop. Installed extensions and other customizations (toolbars, prefs) that you have made are lost and need to be redone.
It is possible to recover data from the "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Recovering+important+data+from+an+old+profile
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox
You can copy files like these from the "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop to the current Firefox profile folder to recover specific data.
- bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
- bookmark backups: JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
- SQLite files like cookies.sqlite (cookies) and formhistory.sqlite (saved form data)
- logins.json and key3.db (decryption key) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
- permissions.sqlite and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for Permissions and Site Preferences
- cert8.db for stored intermediate certificates (Certificate Manager)
- sessionstore.js for open tabs and pinned tabs and tab groups
- persdict.dat for words you added to the spelling checker dictionary
You could copy extensions located in the extensions folder, but best is to reinstall extensions to make sure they get initialized properly. If you have folders or files created by specific extensions then you can copy these to the current profile folder.
You can use this button to go to the current Firefox profile folder:
- Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
@ cor-el Thank You kindly for your prompt response to my question and please accept my apologies for this tardy reply! With my being severely technically challenged and unfamiliar with how to navigate this support function, it took me quite a while to find my way back here to post a response to your answer. I admit to being pretty dumb but after a weekend of hunting I was unable to find any instructions in the tutorials describing the details of how to use support and we dummies out here often need to be led by the hand to get our problems solved (at least this dummy does).
Your answer was quite clear and helpful but I do have a question or two and would greatly appreciate your checking back in a few days to give me some time to read the articles you linked and make sure I have all my questions listed in my next post to save you as much time as possible.
Again, thank you for your help and with any luck you'll only have to put up with one final post from me to get me up to speed.
Go to the top of any support.mozilla.org web page and press your user name to see your Mozilla profile. Including your questions and answers.