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firefox refresh wiped my bookmarks and other things are not working correctly.

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I did a browser refresh, and when it was done, almost everything it was supposed to save was gone. "Firefox will save these items:

   Bookmarks
   Browsing and download history
   Passwords
   Cookies
   Web form auto-fill information
   Personal dictionary "

Bookmarks, gone. Home tabs, gone. Browsing and download history, gone. Cookies: spotty. Autofill; partly missing.

And a new tab is now completely blank (see attached image). I thought it might repopulate itself, but nope. Just blank.

All my home tabs were wiped, and I was able to put them back. But this outcome was unexpected. Some places I had to log back into; some I did not.

So I feel like I am now dealing with a broken browser, and not sure what to do about it. At least the buggy hangups and crashes seem to be fixed. Maybe.

edit: Also noticed I cannot make new bookmarks. Halp....

I did a browser refresh, and when it was done, almost everything it was supposed to save was gone. "Firefox will save these items: Bookmarks Browsing and download history Passwords Cookies Web form auto-fill information Personal dictionary " Bookmarks, gone. Home tabs, gone. Browsing and download history, gone. Cookies: spotty. Autofill; partly missing. And a new tab is now completely blank (see attached image). I thought it might repopulate itself, but nope. Just blank. All my home tabs were wiped, and I was able to put them back. But this outcome was unexpected. Some places I had to log back into; some I did not. So I feel like I am now dealing with a broken browser, and not sure what to do about it. At least the buggy hangups and crashes seem to be fixed. Maybe. edit: Also noticed I cannot make new bookmarks. Halp....
Attached screenshots

Modified by patricia.pennell

Chosen solution

So here is what finally resolved this: I was going to uninstall firefox today and then reinstall it, but there was an automatic firefox update which was applied when I opened firefox this morning. This repaired my history and bookmarks automatically, which is pretty amazing. Also, the blank new tab problem is completely fixed. My faith in programmers and firefox is restored, and all is well with the world. I'm back in business.

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Hello,

Sorry to hear about that. First, Firefox automatically creates backups of your bookmarks, which can be helpful if your bookmarks are lost or missing.

   Click the Bookmarks button Bookmarks-29 (or New Fx Menu > Bookmarks) and select Show All Bookmarks.
   At the top of the Library window, click on Import and Backup and select Restore.
   Click the date of the bookmark backup you want to recover.
   In the new window that appears, click OK.
   Your bookmarks from the selected date should now be restored. 

For more information, see the Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer article. For other solutions, see the Recover lost or missing Bookmarks article.

If the above doesn't work, it could be that a file got corrupted (namely the places.sqlite file). You can install the Places Maintenance extension to run maintenance on the file. Please read the following articles first as they provide helpful hints and instructions that may be relevant to you:

   http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bookmarks_history_and_toolbar_buttons_not_working_-_Firefox
   https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file 

Did this fix the problem? Please report back!

Thank you.

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Why did you do a refresh?


Look on your desktop. Do you see a folder called; Old Firefox? Look inside. Look for the folder with the latest creation date.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible

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I did a refresh because that was the first in line solution to browser problems I kept having, suggested by firefox support.

The folder called Old Firefox is on the desktop, and I can look inside of it. I have read all three links.

I don't know what you mean by the folder with the latest creation date. They were all created on the same date within half an hour of each other. Does this folder you want me to look in have a name?

I am not sure how this applies to me, because various features of firefox are still not working correctly. I still have completely blank new tabs opening as illustrated in the image I uploaded, and am unable to make new bookmarks. I don't think restoring bookmarks and profile folders from the OLD FIREFOX folder is going to fix those things, even if it restores bookmarks so I can use them. Something is very fundamentally wrong here.

Modified by patricia.pennell

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patricia.pennell said

I don't know what you mean by the folder with the latest creation date. They were all created on the same date within half an hour of each other.

Select the folder with the earliest time stamp. That should be the original profile.

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There are dead links to the fixes for this problem at this url, so this hasn't been helpful. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bookmarks_history_and_toolbar_buttons_not_working_-_Firefox

I am starting to think that the only logical fix for this problem is to uninstall firefox and then reinstall it. None of this picking around and opening folders and figuring out if they are corrupted and then figuring out how to fix them is helpful. This browser is broken.

Unless someone has another solution. Blank home page -- unable to bookmark -- no history --- kind of useless in this condition.

There is only one folder with "old firefox" on the desk top. I don't know what I am supposed to do with that information after I look at it.

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Chosen Solution

So here is what finally resolved this: I was going to uninstall firefox today and then reinstall it, but there was an automatic firefox update which was applied when I opened firefox this morning. This repaired my history and bookmarks automatically, which is pretty amazing. Also, the blank new tab problem is completely fixed. My faith in programmers and firefox is restored, and all is well with the world. I'm back in business.

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Great to hear.

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It sounds that a new places.sqlite database got created that restored the bookmarks from a compressed .jsonlz4 backup in the bookmarkbackups folder and that caused the history working again. A corrupted places.sqlite would also affect content on the Firefox Home page that is generated from the bookmarks or history.

So if you run into with bookmarks or history again then check for issues with places.sqlite.