This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

What happened to my old profile after last update (38.0.5)? After painstainingly recreating, I'm not willing to update further.

  • 2 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

more options

All my history, tabs and Session Manager were gone after the last update. It doesn't appear to have happened to anyone else but I was in the middle of filing out a job application. That should not be!

All my history, tabs and Session Manager were gone after the last update. It doesn't appear to have happened to anyone else but I was in the middle of filing out a job application. That should not be!

All Replies (2)

more options

Sorry you had problems.

That is very true it should not have happened. You noted it does not seem to have happened to others but with nearly 1/2 Billion users it may have happened to others.

Not updating is not a very good solution though. Most updates fix security holes. After the fix everyone is aware of what was fixed and the bad guys then make the most of exploiting those that have not updated.

I suggest you first of all backup your Firefox profile then update Firefox to Fx39. You should not need to back up your profile prior to updating, but it is a sensible precaution and should ensure you do not lose information if something does go wrong.

more options

Look on your desktop. Do you see a folder called; Old Firefox?

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


These can't get your data back, but will help in the future.

These add-ons can be a great help by backing up and restoring Firefox

FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension) {web link} FEBE allows you to quickly and easily backup your Firefox extensions, history, passwords, and more. In fact, it goes beyond just backing up -- It will actually rebuild your saved files individually into installable .xpi files. It will also make backup of files that you choose.

OPIE {web link} Import/Export extension preferences