how is profile blanked, but not fully gone?
Basically, a requested relaunch blanked my profile and I can't get it back.
I have a lengthy workaround that will take over an hour to fix from backups, before this incident, but I'd really like to understand what's going on. How can my add-ons, bookmarks, history, logins, etc. be gone? If I did a refresh on purpose, why would my shortcuts remain intact? And, I started by backing up my profile folder to a neutral spot, so why isn't replacing it reversing the changes?
As background: The "about:profiles/Restart With Add-ons disabled" button brings up a small button dialogue to choose "refresh" or default "open." I selected "open" because I didn't want to fix my profile and assumed I would relaunch with only add-ons disabled, so this was a potential point of screw-up. I assume selecting "refresh" would reset application defaults and make a mess exactly like I find myself in now. Shouldn't "Restart with Add-ons disabled/Open" relaunch a temporary and reversible state? Doesn't "refresh" prompt a new default profile?
Considering evidence only, it appears I did something to roast my profile before I backed it up, but that's strange and really out in the weeds, and I'm assuming I wrecked it with my current activity.
The default profile name and path are correct. My shortcut links and labels that I use for a home page are intact but with icons missing, the same appearance as if I deleted the cache; is this detail part of application settings and not profile?
Chosen solution
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Navigating_to_the_profile_folder
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles
Type about:profiles<enter> in the address box.
How many profiles are listed?
How many should be there?
Also, open the profile folder in your file explorer.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recover-user-data-missing-after-firefox-update
All Replies (5)
Are shortcuts part of the application settings, or the user profile?
After spending a day restoring, and settling down lost settings, bookmarks, and saved logins, and I'm still running into bad switches, I think that's what my question boils down to.
i was surprised by the entire spectrum of download behaviour complaints with v98, so now I'm trying to get my head around the idea that FF kept certain abilities but trashed the preferences to enable them. It's no wonder people are freaking out, but in my case that single issue was only unlucky and coincidental to my still-mysterious purge.
Modified by SkyHook
Sometimes when the browser thinks there is a problem with the profile, it will create a new one.
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
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recover-user-data-missing-after-firefox-update
Chosen Solution
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Navigating_to_the_profile_folder
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles
Type about:profiles<enter> in the address box.
How many profiles are listed?
How many should be there?
Also, open the profile folder in your file explorer.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recover-user-data-missing-after-firefox-update
Thanks for the link to the page that describes the purpose of each file; haven't seen that one before and belatedly interesting when I duplicated my entire profile folder. Read the rest before, though. All my interim profle copies are deleted now, to remove the danger of accidentally backing up a bad copy, but while debugging I swapped three duplicates and had the same blank result from each. I doubt think there will be any lucky finds, now.
My desktop isn't interactive and ~/Desktop is empty, normal for me in eOS.
Only one profile in the manager and that profile is me, the default, with a unique name I gave it after I got wiped a dozen revisions ago; that rev that forced everybody to start a new profile and I screwed it up as well. I freaked then, too, and renamed my profile specifically so I could quickly identify it amongst the damned should the need arise. I went back to the profile manager at every change to see what was there and it was always a single profile, my custom-name as default. This being my second freak show in a year is distressing, but there's no accounting for emotions.
The rest about moving profiles I read and understood previously; it was basically what I ploughed through following, when tried to understand what just happened. I copied my profile before starting my session, for a fail-safe, and then found myself with a backup that behaved like it was already trashed. I even deleted things ahead of my copying so there would be no accidental merging if I thought I was overwriting. That part is a mystery I will likely never solve. Since I wrote this I discovered some switches were defaulted and not by me, and this weekend I read all about the v98 download/helper/preference fiasco that I'm still trying to understand; I emphasize that's not a big deal or even related, just surprising mozilla did that to people.
What I'm using now was created by importing bookmark backups, repairing frequent logins, and reincorporating the only two add-ons I had, but that took half a day. Thankfully, my last backup was only a week old and imported intact.
Thanks for offering help. I'm bald because I've already pulled out all my hair.
I'm going to hand this to FredMcD and close the book because I'm leaning towards my own user error.
Forcing me to reconsider might, ipso facto, actually be the best solution.