Why don't we have "Firefox Restore" to restore Firefox to Yesterday or last week ? Tired of updates effing everything up.
Other day FF updated without asking. Unbeknown to me, for some reason "Clear history when Firefox closes" was now checked. (New default?) Lost 6+ months of history. Restored profile from backup. Closed/reopen FF. Deleted history again, and across all four of my Synced devices. Also apparently unbeknown to me "Clear history when Firefox closes" was now checked on all synced devices. Finally realize "Clear history when Firefox closes" was now checked. uncheck it on all devices.
(MS has had System Restore since WinMe in 2000)
What we need is "Firefox Restore" so users can restore their Firefox to one of its previous states without having to redownload old version and reinstalling and repersonalizing everything. So next time an update screws FF to hell, FF Restore will quickly fix it. FF restore would also prevent any further automatic updates for a period determined by the user.
All Replies (8)
Hi, there is Refresh. Please back up : https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles
The Refresh feature (called "Reset" in older Firefox versions) can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its factory default state while saving your bookmarks, history, passwords, cookies, and other essential information.
Note: When you use this feature, you will lose any extensions, toolbar customizations, and some preferences. See the Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings article for more information.
To Refresh Firefox:
- Open the Troubleshooting Information page using one of these methods:
- Click the menu button
, click help 
and select Troubleshooting Information. A new tab containing your troubleshooting information should open.
- If you're unable to access the Help menu, type about:support in your address bar to bring up the Troubleshooting Information page.
- Click the menu button
- At the top right corner of the page, you should see a button that says "Refresh Firefox" ("Reset Firefox" in older Firefox versions). Click on it.
- Firefox will close. After the refresh process is completed, Firefox will show a window with the information that is imported.
- Click Finish and Firefox will reopen.
Did this fix the problem? Please report back to us!
Thank you.
You need to backup your Firefox personal data yourself regularly to avoid dataloss like you need to do with all other programs. There are backup for the bookmarks, but for other items you need to do this yourself.
Note that always best is to disconnect Sync on all devices if there is a specific problem like in this case to avoid issues spreading to other devices.
I use an add-on that makes backups of my user profile, Just In Case. Unfortunately, it is not compatible with the current Firefox.
Every now and then, open the profile folder and create a copy of the current profile as is to another location on your hard drive. This way you will have a backup.
If you do this each day, you will not lose much data. This should be done with Firefox Closed.
Note: In case you need to restore from these backups, you may need to overwrite old or corrupted files.
Pkshadow Thanks for your reply, but this is exactly what I DON'T WANT because "When you use this feature, you will lose any extensions, toolbar customizations, and some preferences." I want a new FF feature called "Firefox Restore" that works like Windows System restore. It would restore FF to its exact previous version, state and configuration of some previous date.
cor-el Thank you for your reply. Luckily I did have recent backup and used that to restore history first by just copying the places.sqlite file (5 times) then by replacing entire profile from %appdata%. So I didn't permanently lose the data, it was just two hours of incredible frustration. While performing my repair I did disconnect sync from all devices, deleted account and created new one, and so far have only reconnected two devices. All this frustration and work could have been avoided if FF had a feature called "Firefox Restore" that worked like Windows System restore. and restored FF to its exact previous version, state and configuration of some previous date.
FredMcD Thank you for your reply. This is exactly what I did. I make backups regularly, and was able to restore using that. But what I am saying is this should be built into FF and work like Windows System restore. I shouldn't have to manually save and restore from hidden system folders. Come on! Windows has had System Restore since 2000.
Fun side note; Last night FF deleted all my History again. WTF? Damn "Clear history when Firefox closes" suddenly checked again?
Turned off "Automatically install updates (recommended)" Changed it to "Check for updates but let you choose to install them"
Also will now be making backups of profile daily instead on monthly.
Mandy_Says said
But what I am saying is this should be built into FF
As I said above, I used an add-on that did this for me. But when Mozilla made that last major change, Most of the add-ons became useless.
If you want to leave feedback for Firefox developers, you can go to the Firefox Help menu and select Submit Feedback... or use this link. Your feedback gets collected by a team of people who read it and gather data about the most common issues.