Experienced bookmark/profile loss or corruption?

Discussion of general topics about Mozilla Firefox
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hellene
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Post by hellene »

Cusser and AnotherGuest, take note of this post (thanks Xocet for posting)
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... 20#1477620

Anonymous wrote:Actually, found in another post that no instances of firefox can be running when doing
firefox.exe -p

Anyway, I did that and the only profile I had was default. When I selected that, browser still came up with no bookmarks.


Yes, this happens to be every so often. What I do to fix it is to go to the profile folder and move the bookmarks.html and bookmarks.bak file somewhere else, then run and quit firefox, then move them back again. Works every time.
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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Pippin
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From Mozilla to FireFox to lost all

Post by Pippin »

Have a Dell box running Win X Home Ed. Have been using Mozilla for a few months, my friends and Kim Kommand said to get Fire Fox
I downloaded FireFox, installed it and every thing was fine I thought
Opened Fire Fox it worked great.......but all my bookmarks were gone (a few hundred) never even giving this a thought I was not backed up. Shame on me
I used system restore to go back to before I downloaded Fire Fox, worked great except now Mozilla was corruped and would not open. So much for system restore. So I used system restore to get back Fire Fox. This time every thing worked as it should. I now have Fire Fox and a corrupted Mozillz, which I re installed. Still have No Bookmarks. Are the bookmarks still on my drive somewher?
Is there any hope of getting them back.
Thanks
Ron P.
pronmary@msn.com
AnotherGuest.
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Post by AnotherGuest. »

Whitecube reports further:
whitecube wrote:1. The creation date of the Profiles subdirectory is 17 May 2005, 08:15:09. It should really be the same as the Program Files\Mozilla Firefox creation date (05 February 2005), shouldn't it? (Incidentally, I'd forgotten to mention that this is a relatively new computer and so I had imported my profile from my old computer. There've been no problems until now.)

2. There's only one other subdirectory in Profiles. It's called 0057iixo.default and it was created at exactly the same time (17 May 2005, 08:15:09) as the Profiles subdirectory.

3. The creation date of bookmarks.html is 17 May 2005, 08:15:10. There's also a bookmarks.bak, which was created on 17 May 2005 at 08:15:51.

4. The contents of profiles.ini are more or less what you'd expect:

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/0057iixo.default

As your questions suggest, something probably caused the deletion of my profiles directory, which prompted Firefox to create a new one. The strongest suspect, to me, is Sygate Personal Firewall. If this turns out to be true, my case may unfortunately be unique, as I can find no other case of bookmark/profile loss on Google related to Sygate. It's also all the more bizarre because I can see no reason why Sygate would have touched anything to do with Firefox. After installation, I rebooted the system and Sygate updated itself. The time of the update is 17 May 2005, 07:44:56. After this, I believe that nothing was altered on the system until 8:15. There weren't any system errors or crashes either during or after the installation process.

...just before I uninstalled KPF, I had used Firefox to download SPF and there hadn't been anything wrong with my bookmarks or profile. Moreover, the profile deletion seemed to have occurred after I installed Sygate....

It seems to be highly significant that an entire directory has been deleted, and that simultaneously a new profiles file was created.
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Post by AnotherGuest. »

Xocet effectively reports that the bookmarks file was in the profile directory, but Fx could not find it. It's unexplained why moving the file out and back into the directory should solve the problem, but it does seem clear that the bookmarks file was intact but not displayed.
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Post by BenBasson »

Could be a FAT corruption of some kind, but in theory, that would also prevent the file being visible in explorer.
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hellene
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Post by hellene »

Explanation for xocet? http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... 03#1479703 (poster says it can be caused by a corrupt prefs.js file)
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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favs are gone
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"All Bookmarks are gone" - I got 'em back - thanks

Post by favs are gone »

Here are the answers to the questions you wanted answered.

Which problem did you experience... lost my bookmarks. I was asked (for the first time EVER to choose a profile) so I guess I lost my profile too.

Did this happen after a Firefox crash? no

Did your computer crash, or did this occur after a normal shut down? I restarted the computer last night and I believe this was the first time on using Firefox since that restart. I had to replace my keyboard yesterday and my computer froze shortly after that. I did use firefox after that freeze and it was fine (until this morning)

Was Firefox open when your computer crashed or was shut down? Probably closed - from the restart.

What operating system do you use (and which version)? windows XP Home

What is the filesystem of your hard drive(s)?

What version of Firefox/Firebird were you using when your bookmarks were lost or your profile was corrupted? Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050317 Firefox/1.0.2

If you upgraded Firefox versions, did you create a new profile or upgrade using the old one? (if you don't know, chances are you upgraded, but please say that you are unsure) no idea

If you upgraded an old profile, what version of Firefox/Firebird did you originally use? n/a

Did you lose other files or settings in other applications (including non-Mozilla)? not to my knowledge

Do you use or have you installed any bookmark-related extensions? no
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hellene
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Re: "All Bookmarks are gone" - I got 'em back - th

Post by hellene »

favs are gone wrote:Here are the answers to the questions you wanted answered.

Which problem did you experience... lost my bookmarks. I was asked (for the first time EVER to choose a profile) so I guess I lost my profile too.
If you open the profile manager, how many profiles are in there. does this link help? http://the-edmeister.home.comcast.net/t ... g_box.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.
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favs are gone
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Post by favs are gone »

I am good. I followed the directions on the website and got my stuff retored.
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hellene
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Post by hellene »

Brill :)
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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dagnew
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Post by dagnew »

I hope this post is relevant. I lost nothing except Toolbar-bookmark functionality (& tabbed-browsing ability). Turned out to be related to an Fx extension (I'll notify the author). If this is of interest, read on...

Which problem did you experience... profile corruption/loss or only bookmark loss?
Toolbar Bookmarks HIDDEN

Did this happen after a Firefox crash?
No
Did your computer crash, or did this occur after a normal shut down?
Occured after restarting Firefox (not the computer)

Was Firefox open when your computer crashed or was shut down?
N/A

What operating system do you use (and which version)?
Mac OS 10.3.9

What is the filesystem of your hard drive(s)? (how to find out)
OS X Extended with journaling

What version of Firefox/Firebird were you using when your bookmarks were lost or your profile was corrupted?
1.04 (but nothing was actually lost, see below)

If you upgraded Firefox versions, did you create a new profile or upgrade using the old one? (if you don't know, chances are you upgraded, but please say that you are unsure)
N/A - installed Fx 1.04 from scratch.

If you upgraded an old profile, what version of Firefox/Firebird did you originally use?
N/A

Did you lose other files or settings in other applications (including non-Mozilla)?
No other apps affected, but lost ability for tabbed browsing.

Do you use or have you installed any bookmark-related extensions?
Ahhh, the relevant question: I had about 5 extensions installed & working (including miniT (drag+indicator) 0.5, LastTab 1.1 & OpenBook 1.2.0). I downloaded Tab Mix 0.2.1, and Unread Tabs 0.1 enabled them & restarted Fx. All seemed well, I configured Tab Mix & noticed an overlap of features - so I disabled all of the other tab-utility extensions and restarted Fx.
Upon re-launching Fx, the Bookmark Toolbar was there, but blank. The Bookmark Sidebar & Bookmark Manager showed all bookmarks present, and indicated that the Toolbar Bookmarks were 'set as my toolbar folder'. I was unable to open a new blank tab or a new tab by Cmd-clicking a link. I tried a few things (disabling OpenBook 1.2.0, Fx prefs, localstore.rdf with restarts) to no avail. Finally, I disabled Tab Mix, and upon restarting Fx, all was well.
dagnew
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Post by dagnew »

dagnew wrote:I lost nothing except Toolbar-bookmark functionality (& tabbed-browsing ability). Turned out to be related to an Fx extension (I'll notify the author)...

Finally, I disabled Tab Mix, and upon restarting Fx, all was well.

I tried re-installing Tab Mix (only) as it wasn't clear if my problem was a conflicting extension(s) or Tab Mix alone. Result -> no Toolbar Bookmarks. It seems that Tab Mix is not compatible with Fx 1.04 & Mac OS 10.3.9. I was unable to notify TabMix's author (mailbox full).
Martin CX
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Re: Experienced bookmark/profile loss or corruption?

Post by Martin CX »

My experience:

Only bookmark loss, no other profile information was lost. It happened after the computer crashed and rebooted instantly with no freeze-up after I had clicked somewhere (can't remember if it was on a link or in the menubars) in an active Firefox window. I use Windows XP (SP2) with NTFS. The Firefox is version 1.0.4, I'm unsure whether it was a clean install. I wanted it to be and tried to uninstall previous installations, but my Windows control panel still lists FF 1.0.2 among the installed programs alonngside 1.0.4, even though that listing is spurious. I have only ever used a single profile and I have not installed any bookmark-related extensions.
luvr
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Post by luvr »

Here's my experience with disappearing bookmarks in FireFox 1.0.4 under SuSE Linux 9.1.

Apparently, this happens as soon as I remove the "Search" item from the Navigation toolbar.
The bookmarks instantly reappear when I restore the "Search" item.

Note, though, that I haven't ever seen this happen under Windows.
Last edited by luvr on May 31st, 2005, 3:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
fionandean
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Bookmarks lost (and found!)

Post by fionandean »

I am currently using XP pro, the NTFS formatting system and Firefox 1.03 (just haven't gotten around to updating :oops: ) I have been using Firefox scince the original Firebird and the only problems I have ever had before were just after installing SP2. I found I was was able to fix this (and a whole lot of other probs!) by reformatting and installing the service packs before any other programs. I do not have any bookmark related extns installed. This morning I went to use Firefox and discovered no bookmarks. Although no one saw it happen, I know the computer must have restarted itself because a program I had left running the night before was not anymore and the internet had been disconnected. As far as I am aware this was not caused by the toddlers (one of them used to love pushing the button...) and Firefox was not running @ the time. Oh! and my home page had been changed back to Mozlla. All of my extns were still present and working. I chkd my computer - I still only had one profile and the only copies of my bookmarks file contained either no bookmarks at all or just the mozilla ones you usually start with. I do know how to search and I looked absolutely everywhere including in the rubbish bin. Fortunately I have a Norton protected recycle bin and when I went thru the undelete wizard I found several copies of bookmarks.html.moztmp. I picked up one that was created after the last new bookmark last night and before the crash, altered the file name, over wrote the others and yay! \:D/ my bookmarks were back. Hope this helps. Btw, I have had crashes before - restarts caused by the toddlers and once a brown out and I think there may have been a software crash somewhere back there. I have never had a prob of this sort before.
Best of luck,
Fiona
p.s so far, I have not fnd any probs with any other programs
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