Experienced bookmark/profile loss or corruption?

Discussion of general topics about Mozilla Firefox
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ICECOLE2K
Posts: 20
Joined: January 23rd, 2006, 12:36 am
Location: BKLYN U.S.A.

Post by ICECOLE2K »

U COULD SAVE YUR BOOKMARKS AS AFILE ON YUR PC & UPDATE THEM AS NEEDED SO U DON'T LOOSE'EM THATS WHAT I DO, AS 4 THE PROFILE I'M STILL WK'N ON THAT.....
FF IS TIGHT....
INTEL 3.0 GHZ 8GB RAM FF 27.0 NOIA THEME....
bambino
Posts: 1
Joined: February 7th, 2006, 6:01 am

Re: lost bookmarks

Post by bambino »

florin_grosu wrote:I'll use your questions to describe what happened:

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

bookmarks

Did this happen after a Firefox crash?

no, it happened after windows crashed. However I don't remember was FF active at tha moment or not. I was doing antivirus scan.

Did your computer crash, or did this occur after a normal shut down?

Crashed due to insufficiency of memory. I ran too many scans at once.

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


Don't remember exactly

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

Windows XP SP2

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

NTFS

What version of Firefox/Firebird were you using when your bookmarks were lost or your profile was corrupted?

Firefox 1.0.7

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)

Upgraded

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

I'm using firefox starting with 1.0.1 or 1.0.2 I don't remember exactly.

Did you lose other files or settings in other applications (including non-Mozilla)?

I don't know. I don't know how to do this chkdsk thing. Could anybody explain me how to use it? Where is it?

Do you use or have you installed any bookmark-related extensions?

No.

I found out all bookmark* files but non of them had lost bookmarks. I suppose it was overwritten. I searched for all hidden files you suggested in this topic .chk, .001 etc. I checked all .txt documents. I restored all deleted files (I use TuneUp Utilities) and nothing. The only hope left is chkdsk. Please explain how to use this function. If it won't help my bookmarks are gone.

Starnge thing I never created new profiles but there is new n89nalun.default (as I understand original is zieubara.default) one in profiles folder. However it also has no lost bookmarks.
kota069
Posts: 7
Joined: July 30th, 2005, 8:30 pm

Post by kota069 »

Which problem did you experience... profile corruption/loss or only bookmark loss?
Bookmarks for certain.
I've been using FF for a year and knew nothing of the "profile" until (this occured) today. I tried the outline in - http://kb.mozillazine.org/Lost_bookmarks - to no avail. "firefox.exe -P" said it couldn't find one of its components.

Did this happen after a Firefox crash?
No. It came back up this way after a cold boot.

Did your computer crash, or did this occur after a normal shut down?
Normal shutdown

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

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

Win98 SE

What is the filesystem of your hard drive(s)? (how to find out)
Fat32

What version of Firefox/Firebird were you using when your bookmarks were lost or your profile was corrupted?
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511 Firefox/1.0.4

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)
I've only upgraded once, to the present version. I knew nothing of the "profile" until today.

If you upgraded an old profile, what version of Firefox/Firebird did you originally use?
1.0.3

Did you lose other files or settings in other applications (including non-Mozilla)?
None that I know of. History and Toll Settings are all still in tact.

Do you use or have you installed any bookmark-related extensions?
No.
--

I don't remember all of those things / am unsure how to find out!

If you don't remember, missing out details is ok. Just give whatever info you can. If you are unsure how to find out, feel free to ask.

Where can I view the bugs that track this problem?

You can view them by clicking the links below. Please don't comment in them. Non-development comments in bug reports are worse than no comments at all, since they put developers off of reading the report and fixing the problem.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=193749
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=260553
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=289615

Anything else?

This problem won't go away on it's own or without help from end-users that have seen it happen. Help us to prevent unnecessary data loss in the future.
h34th3r
Posts: 17
Joined: July 14th, 2003, 3:19 pm

Post by h34th3r »

I have not yet read all 12 pages, just responding to Cusser's original questions:

---Which problem did you experience... profile corruption/loss or only bookmark loss?

Only have one profile. Lost bookmarks and search bar plugins; Firefox starts as a small window; had modified one of the user files to force links into new tabs and that doesn't work after corruption.

---Did this happen after a Firefox crash?

No.

---Did your computer crash, or did this occur after a normal shut down?

Haven't had any crashes, but sometimes can't start up- get fatal errors, page overwrites; it may take a few tries to start up. (This is a used/repaired machine- had a bad BIOS battery. Kinda feels like it still does.)

---Was Firefox open when your computer crashed or was shut down?

No.

---What operating system do you use (and which version)?

Windows 2000 Professional

---What is the filesystem of your hard drive(s)? (how to find out)

I don't see a File System entry.

---What version of Firefox/Firebird were you using when your bookmarks were lost or your profile was corrupted?

Firefox 1.5

---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)

I have not upgraded. New install on used machine that does not appear to ever have had any Mozilla products previously installed.

---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 that I have noticed.

---Do you use or have you installed any bookmark-related extensions?

No. Adblock, Flashblock, jsLib, Aardvark, Greasemonkey.
h34th3r
Posts: 17
Joined: July 14th, 2003, 3:19 pm

Post by h34th3r »

PS, recalling past discussions on this topic:

No, I do not have a profile in use/FF still loaded when this happens.

Yes, I know how to find the bookmarks backups, but that's not the only thing that gets lost/corrupted, and my housemate who also uses this computer can't remember how to do it and at his age probably never will.
johnkm
Posts: 23
Joined: January 15th, 2005, 10:42 am
Location: Hampshire UK

Bookmark loss after Firefox updated

Post by johnkm »

My OS is Win 2k Prof, SP4, NTFS file system and I am on Firefox 1.5.0.1 (for about two months, using the existing profile from the previous version) which is marked: rev 1.8.0.1.
I have no bookmark related extensions and I have not found any problems with other none Mozilla applications. Note. I cannot remember which Firefox version I had before, but it would almost certainly been the immediate one prior to 1.5 (1.4?) as I tend to keep up to date.

My problems occurred when opening Firefox immediately after boot up in this morning (there were no problems prior to close down the day before), where I was first presented with a sub window with from Google, with a message of 'Thank you for downloading the Google Tool Bar', which was very odd considering that I have been using this since a Firefox version was available!
After clearing that, the Firefox window showed the basic 'after updating page' stating that the update was successful. From this I assume the automatic update caused this odd message, plus all bookmarks had gone and also, my (Google) home page.
NB. I had no trouble restoring, as I alway keep a recent back up of my bookmarks

This issue has just become more intriguing, as my daughter has just booted up her laptop (Win XP SP2, NTFS filing and Firefox 1.5.0.1) and this is displaying a message to restart her computer as it has just been updated to Firefox 1.5.0.2. In her case everything is perfectly OK after restarting.

From this I am thinking that my update must have failed, as there was no Firefox message, as on the laptop and the 'About' window is still showing version 1.5.0.1. Consequently I am now not quite sure where to go from here.

John Millns
johnkm
Posts: 23
Joined: January 15th, 2005, 10:42 am
Location: Hampshire UK

Re: Bookmark loss after Firefox updated (Posted 14 April)

Post by johnkm »

Firefox tried again today to update to version 1.5.0.2 on my Win 2K computer. This time I am pleased to say that all the correct screen info came up and the update was successful (thank goodness).
X Aflicted X
Posts: 1
Joined: April 27th, 2006, 3:13 pm

Post by X Aflicted X »

Which problem did you experience... profile corruption/loss or only bookmark loss?
---Bookmark Loss (Never have created a profile)
Did this happen after a Firefox crash?
---No
Did your computer crash, or did this occur after a normal shut down?
---Normal Shutdown (Actually, put into standby and brought back out)
Was Firefox open when your computer crashed or was shut down?
---Shut Down (Always check ctrl+alt+del before standby to get rid of unwanted processes)
What operating system do you use (and which version)?
---Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2
What is the filesystem of your hard drive(s)? (how to find out)
---NTFS
What version of Firefox/Firebird were you using when your bookmarks were lost or your profile was corrupted?
---1.5.0.2 (Firefox)
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)
---Have upgraded once in the past, but this happened arbitrarily, and I have never created a profile, I've always used the default
If you upgraded an old profile, what version of Firefox/Firebird did you originally use?
---Whatever release was before 1.5.0.2, but this doesn't apply, I don't think.
Did you lose other files or settings in other applications (including non-Mozilla)?
---Nothing obvious
Do you use or have you installed any bookmark-related extensions?
---I have now since this has happened.


I have tried all your recovery steps but to no avail, so now I leave this information here for hopes that it may benefit any information as to why this happens and possibly have Mozilla create a bug fix.

Thank You.
sheehan
Posts: 1398
Joined: March 30th, 2004, 4:07 pm
Location: Canada

Post by sheehan »

X Aflicted X
So did you recover your bookmarks from the backups in your profile folder?

C:\Documents and Settings\[User]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[random]\bookmarkbackups

By the way, everyone has a profile created for them when they launch Firefox the first time. It is the only place your user settings (such as bookmarks) can go.
hinerangi
Posts: 1
Joined: July 14th, 2006, 9:58 pm

Post by hinerangi »

Which problem did you experience... profile corruption/loss or only bookmark loss?
Profile loss

Did this happen after a Firefox crash?
Yes

Did your computer crash, or did this occur after a normal shut down?
Only after a Firefox crash. I tried to get back in but it said that my profile was in use. So I just started using IE until I turned my computer off, about 6 hours later. When I started it back up this morning, my profile was gone.

Was Firefox open when your computer crashed or was shut down?
I guess so if it kept on saying my profile was in use.

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

What is the filesystem of your hard drive(s)? (how to find out)
The link doesn't work so I don't know.

What version of Firefox/Firebird were you using when your bookmarks were lost or your profile was corrupted?
5.0?

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.

If you upgraded an old profile, what version of Firefox/Firebird did you originally use?
I didn't.

Did you lose other files or settings in other applications (including non-Mozilla)?
No.

Do you use or have you installed any bookmark-related extensions?
No.
VanillaMozilla
Posts: 13808
Joined: November 7th, 2005, 11:26 am

Post by VanillaMozilla »

Maybe it's time to close this thread and remove the reference to it in the Knowledge Base. As I understand it, the bookmarks code is going to be completely replaced, I think starting with version 3. And that's basically the code that is being worked on. I doubt if more information here is of much help any more.
crws
Posts: 1
Joined: July 25th, 2006, 9:49 pm

Re: Experience bookmark/profile loss or corruption

Post by crws »

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

>>Always history, rarely profile, rarely bookmarks. Going on 10x times at least. It is a constant issue at the back of my mind when using Fx.

Did this happen after a Firefox crash? ** or hang, then after kill**

>>Yes

Did your computer crash, or did this occur after a normal shut down?

>>No

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

>>N/A

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

>>XP Pro, Win2000 Pro. 2 different machines

What is the filesystem of your hard drive(s)? (how to find out)

>>FAT32

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 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511 Firefox/1.0.4
>>No, I will not upgrade at this time due to the lack of extension capatibility

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)

>>Default profile, 1 user only

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)?

>> history.dat, none others

Do you use or have you installed any bookmark-related extensions?

>>No

I routinely back up the ~ww1qee6y.default~ folder, located in:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles. This has saved me many times, as I depend on searching my history rather than bookmarking, when reviewing information.

As I stated prior, I like this version of Fx for reasons of Weather.com vs. Accuweather extension, and especially the Super Drag n' Go 0.2.4d1 extension. Both are full of function and less of glamour.
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