History lost since day of update

[Helvetica]

Hi all
Using Windows 7 64 bit.
FF 54.0.1

Since I finally gave in to the eternal "new update" nag message (I ALWAYS have problems with FF after updating, which is why I put it off), I noticed that the update to 54.0.1

- is not adding newly visited pages to my History
- on startup still shows the tabs of the pages I visited last week when I updated.
- changed a lot of my settings
- lost a large number of my passwords
- does not update the list of downloads on Tools..Download
- I cannot manually delete pages from the Show All History (usually you can just click on one in the list and press DEL)
- I cannot manually delete pages from the Tools..Download page (usually you can just click on one in the list and press DEL)

The fact that it does not show my last tabs or my last downloads on startup is extremely annoying, because if I am using a specific website (e.g a database) for my work, when I shut down for the night, I need to continue using it the next day. But no, I still only see the tabs of the pages I had open last week and the list of my downloaded academic pdfs are not in the list.

My Settings:
Remember History (I have also tried "Use custom settings for history" with the same results as above)
Under Location: History, Bookmarks, Open Tabs are all checked.
I do NOT use Private Browsing.
When Firefox starts: Show your windows and tabs from last time

I can't think what else I can try...

Later: I decided to follow the instructions on another page here, downloaded 55.0 for Win 64. Shut down firefox, renamed the folder \OldFirefox. Double clicked the new download 55.0, it installed then told me it was checking compatibility... then nothing on my screen.
Clicked the icon in the lower left task bar and it told me Firefox was already running (but it wasn't). Went into Task Manager. Removed the Firefox entry from the list. Tried again.... same result. "Firefox is already running".... task manager... removed entry... tried again, round and round in blasted circles.... still no Firefox on my screen. Using Chrome to write this.
I will deinstall that 55.0 and try the old 53.0 again.

[Reflective]

I don't wish to be the messenger of bad tidings but according to the following article on Ghacks.net FF55 will block you from downgrading to a previous version.

[mozray]

Well, I actually manually upgraded to v56 nightly one time to test and then I downgraded back to v54 and everything was okay for me... granted the profile I was testing on wasn't that large, so YMMV.

[Helvetica]

Sod that, it's ridiculous.
I deinstalled 55. I still had my 54.0.1 version as /OldFirefox. Deleted the remains of the Mozilla Firefox folder and made a copy of OldFirefox and renamed it Mozilla Firefox.
I also noticed that one of my temp folders had yesterday's versions of several sqlite files, so I renamed the current ones .old and copied them over.
At least it's working again now but - as it has been since the update to 54.0.1 - I still can't:
- delete entries from History, neither using DEL nor using right-click Remove from History
- delete entries from Tools..Downloads, neither using DEL nor using right-click Remove from History
- Right-click a page to add it to my bookmarks.
So it looks like this wonderful NOT! update 54.0.1 has somehow removed the capability of deleting something you don't want. Another case of some arrogant programmer's idea of "well I don't use that function, so nobody else needs to".

[allande]

My guess is you have had the profile breakage that Reflective linked to, caused by running a version of Firefox 55 or newer and then going back to a lower version, or possibly your places.sqlite was already corrupted. I would recommend running one of the secure versions of Firefox, either Firefox 55 or Firefox ESR currently at version 52.3. In order to get it to work properly you may need to make a new profile, importing or restoring your bookmarks but losing all history. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_ ... _-_Firefox If you have an old enough version of your places.sqlite file that may not be corrupt, it might work in Firefox 55 or Firefox ESR. The delete feature was not intentionally removed, I take it as a sign that your places.sqlite file is corrupt.

[James]

https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/55.0/releasenotes/

Firefox does not support downgrades, even though this may have worked in past versions. Users who install Firefox 55+ and later downgrade to an earlier version may experience issues with Firefox.

[Helvetica]

My guess is you have had the profile breakage that Reflective linked to, caused by running a version of Firefox 55 or newer and then going back to a lower version

No the problem started when I was running vers. 52 and updated last week to 54.

I would recommend running one of the secure versions of Firefox, either Firefox 55 or Firefox ESR currently at version 52.3.

I deinstalled 54 AGAIN totally and completely after making a backup folder with a different name for my old profile. I tried to reinstall my old 52 again from scratch but of course Firefox didn't install 52 even though that was the file I downloaded but sneakily installed 55 instead. So of course everything is buggered again. No bookmarks, no history. When I try to restore my bookmarks, even selecting some going back to last Summer, all I get is the error message about cannot restore from the backup file.
So I saved my Chrome bookmarks as an html file and tried to import them in FF 55. It SAYS it has imported them. Has it really imported them ? NO!
So I go to my own website and bookmarked the page. I click on Bookmarks. Is the page bookmarked ? NO !

I have never - in my 40+ years of using the internet - known anything as catastrophic as this. Even my old (2005) version of Opera works better than this. And as I say, this 55 is a totally clean new install.

In order to get it to work properly you may need to make a new profile, importing or restoring your bookmarks but losing all history.

I don't mind losing the history as it will build up again, but my bookmarks are the lifeblood of my work. If I could rely on it at least having the capability of reading the Chrome html file, I wouldn't mind adding them manually in html to that then importing the list as html but it does not even seem capable of doing that. And there does not seem to be a way to add urls manually to the sql file.

This sort of thing happens with damn near every update.
I will check to see whether I have a really old version of places.sqlite but I doubt it because I have for the past year foolishly relied on Firefox to work as it should.

The delete feature was not intentionally removed, I take it as a sign that your places.sqlite file is corrupt.

The places.sqlite does appear to have become corrupted since I deinstalled 54 again and installed 55. It was working this afternoon until FF updated itself DESPITE the fact that I have set "ask me whether to update or not". So there is something very wrong with 55 if it corrupts a perfectly good file for no reason.

I also tried using the "manage places sqlite" addon to see whether that could fix it, but after 35 minutes it was still "checking integrity".

I am going to deinstall this 55, as it does not work for me at all. I am not sure what an ESR version is but I may as well try that. I've already wasted 7 hours on this so maybe a couple more hours will help. Otherwise I will simply not use Firefox and will never make another of my regular donations.

[Helvetica]

This will very likely be my last posting on this subject.
55 is buggy as far as history, bookmarks, passwords etc. goes. A google search has brought up over 100 similar problems, questions, complaints and bug reports about the inability to restore bookmarks etc. in version 55 - and it was only released 2-3 days ago !

But I found a solution to my problem. I downloaded and installed Cliqz as a browser and it managed to find all my bookmarks AND my history AND my passwords from my pre-55 profile folder. OK, you don't get add-ons for Cliqz but at least it is reliable, fast and easy to use.
So the problem is obviously NOT with my places.sqlite, the problem is within Firefox 55, and very likely is based on a bug already lurking in the previous version which 55 makes so much worse that it is unuseable. (the previous version, for example, added new pages to a new page, instead of to the tab bar, no matter how you set it).

So all the replies I have seen about checking places.sqlite, consulting help pages about "places management", doing this, trying that, reinstalling the other etc. are an absolute waste of time. The problem is within 55 itself. Kill it as fast as you can.

[therube]

I also noticed that one of my temp folders had yesterday's versions of several sqlite files, so I renamed the current ones .old and copied them over.

If these were from 55, then you probably did not want to do that.

Were/are you able to manually export bookmarks... to bookmark.html?
Or are you able to import bookmarks (into a new Profile) from existing bookmarks.*.json?

[Happy112]

After the update to Firefox 55, many users experienced various problems.

A bug report was filed :

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1388584

It's being worked on and Firefox 55.0.1 will be released as soon as possible.

[Helvetica]

>Were/are you able to manually export bookmarks... to bookmark.html?
Yes, at least it SAID it had saved them. But a new install did not read them. Cliqz was able to read them in, and even Opera was able to read them.

>Or are you able to import bookmarks (into a new Profile) from existing bookmarks.*.json?
No, it would not read neither .json nor html. Cliqz can and Opera can.

I've given up on Firefox to be honest. I am currently using Cliqz (= Firefox without the bugs) and Opera (now that Opera has got its start page quick link icons back).

[dickvl]

Does the path (Windows user account) to your profile folder contain a quotation mark (')?
See the about:profiles page for information

[Helvetica]

No, it does not have an apostrophe, it does not have any grammatical symbols. I never use apostrophes or commas etc in folder or file names, as I know that they can cause problems.