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Auto update crashed my computer going to 71.0 and then Firefox was broken. Reinstalled and lost all data

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  • Last reply by muddocktor

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Firefox auto update locked up my Win 7 computer while updating from 70.1 to 71.0 and I had to hard restart. When back into Windows, Firefox was broken. I had to reinstall Firefox to get it running and all bookmarks and saved logins were totally lost. I tried restoring them from backups but no success. I was able to move bookmarks over from another computer, but I am having no success finding the key3.db and logins.jsons files on the computer with working bookmarks and saved passwords. The computer I am trying to move the saved logins from is Windows 10, or as I call it, bloated utter crap. I need help moving those files over to the computer that had the Firefox problem, which is Windows 7. The computer that I am posting this from is the Windows 10 one that I haven't had the problem with.

Firefox auto update locked up my Win 7 computer while updating from 70.1 to 71.0 and I had to hard restart. When back into Windows, Firefox was broken. I had to reinstall Firefox to get it running and all bookmarks and saved logins were totally lost. I tried restoring them from backups but no success. I was able to move bookmarks over from another computer, but I am having no success finding the key3.db and logins.jsons files on the computer with working bookmarks and saved passwords. The computer I am trying to move the saved logins from is Windows 10, or as I call it, bloated utter crap. I need help moving those files over to the computer that had the Firefox problem, which is Windows 7. The computer that I am posting this from is the Windows 10 one that I haven't had the problem with.

Chosen solution

It may not be necessary to move the data from your previous computer. That data is likely still on the system that's experiencing the problem.

What probably happened is that, when you manually reinstalled Firefox, it was detected as a new installation and Firefox created a fresh new profile that it's using as the default.

If you visit the about:profiles page in Firefox, my guess is that you will see more than one profile listed on that screen. One of those likely has the old data that you are looking for. You can use the Launch profile in new browser button to find the profile that has the data.

Once you find the profile that has the data in it, you can use the Set as default profile button to make sure that Firefox opens that profile by default the next time you start Firefox.

The Recover lost or missing Bookmarks article has these steps in more detail, if you need additional assistance.


If you aren't able to recover the data using the steps above, you best option is probably to transfer the profile folder from your Windows 10 computer onto your Windows 7 computer directly.

Hope this helps.

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Chosen Solution

It may not be necessary to move the data from your previous computer. That data is likely still on the system that's experiencing the problem.

What probably happened is that, when you manually reinstalled Firefox, it was detected as a new installation and Firefox created a fresh new profile that it's using as the default.

If you visit the about:profiles page in Firefox, my guess is that you will see more than one profile listed on that screen. One of those likely has the old data that you are looking for. You can use the Launch profile in new browser button to find the profile that has the data.

Once you find the profile that has the data in it, you can use the Set as default profile button to make sure that Firefox opens that profile by default the next time you start Firefox.

The Recover lost or missing Bookmarks article has these steps in more detail, if you need additional assistance.


If you aren't able to recover the data using the steps above, you best option is probably to transfer the profile folder from your Windows 10 computer onto your Windows 7 computer directly.

Hope this helps.

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Wesley, you got me going again! Thanks a whole bunch for the help. The about:profiles had my old profile in it and now I am back where I was before the lockup while updating.