"All Bookmarks are gone" - Bring them back!

User Help for Mozilla Firefox
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rosyatrandom
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Post by rosyatrandom »

Could someone please write an extension that makes a backup of your last 5 (say) profiles somewhere, with the option to scan and import them?
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hellene
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Post by hellene »

The bookmarks backup extension will back up quite a lot of your profile.
I don't know how to do any of this stuff, I just hire the guys that do
Have you considered reading the HELP folder. Right there on your menu bar.
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Post by Guest »

I also allowed FF to upgrade to 1.04 & voila, all my bookmarks are gone & replaced by a blank file. Now, I do believe there was a Windows crash involved there somewhere, but a new profile was *not* created. Same profile, all my extensions are fine, but my bookmarks.html file is blank. Not back to default, but literally blank.

Usage of Directory Snoop didn't show up any deleted files (I probably did it too late) or leftover clusters or anything I could piece my bookmarks back in shape with. Hadn't seen a bookmark backup utility previously but definetely will use it now :-) Have to go back to a 2mo old backup I'd made. Better than nothing.

I do think the issue is that FF seems to be keeping the file open in memory, a crash happens, & the moon's aligned just right that during that particular Windows crash this file gets corrupted to such an extent that FF overwrites it with a blank file on next run. My 2 cents.
Guest
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Post by Guest »

OK, I did something dumb. I deleted the "default" profile. My personal profile "Jim020105" still exists. However, when I open Firefox with the personal profile, Firefox opens, but I can't use any pulldown menu or search any web pages.
The good news is that I have my hard drive backed-up. I have restored all folders & files within Applcations/Mozilla Firefox, but the problem still exists (no default profile choice, no ability to use pulldown menus)
What other files do I need to restore?
Tara_Nichole
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A Bookmarks Question

Post by Tara_Nichole »

I may have missed this if it was posted before, and I apologize if I have and am posting a duplicate question, BUT...

What do you do if you're attempting to regain the default profile to restore bookmarks and it says that the default is in use, thus not allowing you to revert to the default profile?
I had closed all Firefox applications and don't know which default it is that is superceding the Firefox default setting.

PLEASE help!!!! I have TONS of research bookmarks that have gone missing....must..........restore! :(
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Post by Guest »

what can I say except "me too!"
I have lost my bookmarks and NEED them back (they are mainly work-related)
I lost mine several days aftrer a Firefox upgrade: out of the blue I was suddenly asked to pick a profile... that's when it all went haywire.
Guest
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Post by Guest »

As a PS, anyone know why a System Restore doesn't work?
I've taken mine as far back as I can -- but nothing changes -- the bookmark html and backup files remain blank.
For various reasons I cannot restore to a point where I was using the previous version of FF.

SM
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dmicohen
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Joined: October 6th, 2004, 6:21 pm

Thanks for the info

Post by dmicohen »

Thank you Hellene and others, Out of the blue FF closed and opened the Profile Manager, and of course, stupid me, I started a new profile..... Out went all my bookmarked bank sites with codes stored and all... I read the Forum here on this issue and"killed" the running version of FF in task mgr, went to RUN and entered Command , And There was profile box with Default user... It's all here in this forum.. I am now a believer in Backing Up my profile.... Thanks again to all of you folks, great forum, Thanks , Dave :banana: javascript:emoticon(':banana:')javascript:emoticon(':biggrin:')
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BenBasson
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Post by BenBasson »

First Guest (please use names, it makes this so much easier!): Yep, you've become a victim of the random bookmark wipe bug. Hopefully this will be fixed in Firefox 1.1, and a lot of the posts here may be contributing information to help with that (so please feel free to add to it). It'd be nice to hear from someone at Mozilla.org in that thread, but they're very busy people.

Second Guest: Create a new default profile and copy bookmarks.html into it. If you want to restore your settings, also copy prefs.js. Other files are listed here.

Tara_Nichole and Third Guest: You need to find and delete a file called "parent.lock". Remember that you'll need to search hidden/system files and folders in order to find it. See the Profile in use article. I believe this is something that Firefox 1.1 copes with much better.
caren
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Post by caren »

I lost my bookmarks and am not that great at all this stuff. Is there a simple way to get them back?
Also, how do I get RID of the new 'tabs', they are driving me crazy, I get the same on on there3-4 in a row, I don't need or want this tab bar, but unable to delete permanently???
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hellene
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Post by hellene »

caren wrote:I lost my bookmarks and am not that great at all this stuff. Is there a simple way to get them back?
Also, how do I get RID of the new 'tabs', they are driving me crazy, I get the same on on there3-4 in a row, I don't need or want this tab bar, but unable to delete permanently???
caren, you need to tell us HOW you lost your bookmarks, before any useful suggestion can be made.

I don't understand what you are saying about tabs - could you describe what you don't like in more detail.
I don't know how to do any of this stuff, I just hire the guys that do
Have you considered reading the HELP folder. Right there on your menu bar.
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Eddybugsy
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Joined: June 15th, 2005, 3:46 pm

Lost Bookmarks

Post by Eddybugsy »

Help. I tried steps 1, 2, and 3. No luck. My bookmarks are gone!

I do not know how I lost the bookmarks. I logged on today and gone.
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Post by Guest »

kennethkeen...you are the shit, thanks for the help!
MsDetta
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Post by MsDetta »

I'm running XP Pro. When I installed the 1.0.4 update, I got a SpyBot Search & Destroy error message that it couldn't update the registry. My bookmarks were fine until the computer was rebooted. It did retain a few of my bookmarked folders, but the majority of my bookmarks are gone. It kept the folders that were near the top - the folders and other bookmarks that were below the "From Internet Explorer" all disappeared.

Since reading this thread, I'll download the backup extension but thought you should be aware of this strange behavior.
MsDetta
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hellene
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Post by hellene »

MSDetta, that effect is caused by finding an old folder (all the bookmarks are in one html file, so it is not possible to delete half the file and leave the rest untouched - what Firefox does when it completely crashes out is overwrite the file and delete the lot). Make sure you search for *bookmark*.* as it sometimes creates files with the nameform bookmarks-1.html.
I don't know how to do any of this stuff, I just hire the guys that do
Have you considered reading the HELP folder. Right there on your menu bar.
Image by Juniper http onic.net/~daylight/ - Xmas special by Ol Grumpy
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