Hi, last 1st. esr is now 60.2esr Quantum So your out of luck. but it is still a step behind 62.0 Good news is have you been to Customize and drag your controls around to where you want them ?

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/customize-firefox-controls-buttons-and-toolbars

Have you heard about userChrome ? ( Note userChrome has been in Firefox before there was a Google, stole name/engineers)

• https://www.howtogeek.com/334716/how-to-customize-firefoxs-user-interface-with-userchrome.css/
• https://www.userchrome.org/what-is-userchrome-css.html

Takes 10mins to read so have a idea, make a folder, make a file, cut/paste to your Profile find your code and stick in the file. Simple.

Ok, started bottom to to as that is where I was already.

Some good news maybe :

RESTORE SESSION FILES (maybe) If a jsonlz4 backup can't be imported restored because it has the same structural problem as the database, a user can try to fix it using the Check/Repair JSON button on this page: https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/scrounger_json.html

This is for Bookmarks to get readable html if is mucked up. https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/bookbackreader.html

Kitchen Sink :

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recover-lost-or-missing-bookmarks
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-bookmarks-from-backup-or-move-them
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

Profile :

• bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
• bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
• cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
• formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
• logins.json (passwords) and key4.db (58+) or key3.db (57 and older) (decryption key) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
• if you only have key3.db then make sure to remove an existing key4.db
• cert9.db (58+) or cert8.db (57 and older) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
• if you only have cert8.db then make sure to remove an existing cert9.db
• persdict.dat for words you added to the spelling checker dictionary
• permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
• sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)

So hope you can make something out of all this. Also do not loose hope even if in difficulties as there are a couple of Contributors here that are geniuses with Profiles, and 1 is author of chrome site.

G' luck.

Hi, thank you for your detailed answer ! Yes, I had to re-customize FF numerous times ... I really use 28 profiles (but never more than 3-4 at the same time, as FF seems to struggle after this point). Imagine how a big update weights on me ...

For the "main" problem, I've tried to read all files inside the profile (including *.sqlite files), could not find anything. The problem stems from the fact that I choose to delete all history upon FF closing, so if there's a session problem, I'm left with nothing !

I was thinking there may be a problem running several sessions at once during an update. I'm 99% sure the tabs were lost BECAUSE of the last update. The profile/session was recovering perfectly before, and also during previous updates. I almost think that it's a bug report (for my particular use case) ! The problem is that the "upgrade.jsonlz4-TIMESTAMP" file do (did?) NOT get created when it's another profile which updates FF !

So, I guess there's no way to recover my tabs. Fortunately I have a home-made screenshot that shows the tab titles (with 29 tabs imagine the title length ...).

So, new questions, as you picked the bonus questions too ! ^^

- as said, the profile is still open since the session destruction, and I have a "places.sqlite" of 5MB ! Now I've open it with a soft, I also have 2 shm/wal files (which deletion is blocked by FF). The wal is 3MB, the other is 32KB. When opening places (DB browser), it seems empty though, like if the data was hidden somewhere. Do you have hints ?

- is using several profiles at once something which is really tested ? What about updates WHILE running several profiles ? When there's an update, I often have opened profiles with the last version, and profiles using the new files. In my case, is there a good reason to use "Check for updates but let you choose to install them" instead ? The problem is, with so much profiles, I try to keep them as "mainstream" as possible ...

- in the OS taskbars, for my use case (several profiles with several windows), there's no way to recognize which profile owns a particular window. Before, I used a really simple (self-made, signed) addon to change the FF icon, ofc it wont work with new quantum :/ On discourse an helper suggested I use the new way, which was too much for me. I was using a simple addon which used the "chrome/icons/default/*.ico" files, in each profile. It was simple, cross-platform, only advantages ! Now I'm left with playing with the OS/GUI message handlers on Win, and didnt dig the answer yet on *nixes yet. TBH I got discouraged ... Backwards progress I call that, and thanks for the mess in my taskbars ;)

- sorry but didnt really understand what a "chrome site author" meant: chrome like -THE- FF chrome ? (To rebound on your sentence, I'll never use chrome to talk about anything relating to google's "spyser" - if anything let's talk about chromium, but I won't talk a lot about it, not interested, that's why I use FF!). Because I have objections to make: the FF options now really look like in gg's browser, and that's horribly messy. The old "tree way" of displaying them was so nice, with "chapters", "titles", "subtitles", ... People don't need search functions in software they use a lot, but automatisms. Quantum made me loose almost all of them. And "old options behaviour" was removed from about:config. Retrocompatibility is sometimes a good thing !

PS, for context: I'm 36, IT sysadmin since 15 years, using FF as a power user only, never had the time nor the need to study its internals.

PS2: I had to program for myself a "last session recoverer", after numerous problems with lost sessions, being FF's cause or mine. I attached the screenshot of the PHP script, if jscher or you are interested, I can put it somewhere, but it won't work anymore with the new lz4 thing. Another backwards progress ? :]

Thanks again ! And sorry for that awfully long post ...

Guess I lost everyone there ? ^^

Let's put apart "bonus" things, and do a TL;DR. - how to recover info from places.sqlite ? - why don't I have some session backup files (in sessionsstore-backups) after the upgrade ?

Thx

PS: the profile containing the destroyed session is still open, I don't know if that's safe to close it ...

HI, let's start at the bottom. If the destroyed session is still open then not so destroyed. Right Click a Tab and Bookmark all Tabs. A Folder will be made in your Bookmarks and all the tabs will be in the folder.

Will work my way down. now.

userChrome if did not open the URL, go back and open it. It is not Chrome, Firefox had userChrome in it long before there was a Google or a Chrome and stolen Engineers who liked the name.

You are so way out there with 26 Profiles. I have no idea. I have a hard enough time helping a person with 1 Profile.

There are all sorts of Bookmark Managers, have, trees, lists, pages, columns , you name it someone is making it. https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/search/?platform=windows&q=Bookmark%20Manager

There are Session Managers ( as i have no idea if will work with all those profiles but) https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/search/?platform=windows&q=Session%20Manager

Ok, we need to get you down to point form and priority of what your looking for as things are getting out of hand with length. So could I get you to switch to something like that please ?

Thanks for putting up with me ! Ok, let's go step by step, no more "flooding".

Let's start with the most important stuff: the destroyed session. What I mean by "still open", I mean that the -profile- is still open since I lost the -session- (sorry I can mix those words, gonna take care).

What happened chronologically: 1. I was running profile1 (p1) and profile2 (p2) when an update got pushed. I didn't restart those running profiles, kept them open. But as you may know, profiles opening after that will be using the new version, while already running profiles keep running the old version. Never had noticeable problems. 2. then i started profile3. The "FF is updating" lil window came up, and the profile started with the new FF version, BUT without restoring my previous session/tabs. 3. seeing the bug, I kept p3 running because I know FF will do some stuff upon closing. 4. I opened profile4 to see if the session would be restored, it worked, so now we know the problem only happened to the p3 5. since that, I closed p1 and p2 and re-opened them (bookmarking all tabs to be sure, using the same method you gave me), the old sessions were restored in both profiles.

Remember, the profile in error (p3) is set to destroy history upon closing, BUT restore the session upon restart (like p2 btw). So, in the end, I cannot use p3 history to restore the tabs, and as sessionbackups were not made (I think because of the update procedure ?), the only thing I can think of is playing with a 5Mb places.sqlite, which I think is much for a now empty profile ! And I think if I close p3, my places.sqlite will really be truncated.

PS: I don't need a session manager, as each profile only uses one session. I start the various profiles with pre-made shortcuts or FF's profile picker using FF's command line switch "--no-remote". PS2: about profiles, lemme have my zillions ones, I like it that way ^^ I can then separate things by interests, each profile having its own settings (addons, bookmarks, history, passwords, session restore or not, ...). See screenshot, the names will explain the why.

Tried to keep it short but giving as much info for you (or do you prefer me staying vague and let YOU ask the questions/precisions ?) Thanks again