kstjohn said

Opened 56 this morning and all bookmarks were missing. I'll never understand why FF updates have to fool around with bookmarks. If there's some reason the update has to clobber them then how about adding in a backup routine into the mix first followed by a json restore after the update? I lost 4-days of important saved bookmarks because the last one was - 4-days ago. I think it's poor programming on your part and not very good PR for Mozilla. BTW, yes I know how to go find the last backup and restore it. Point is, a user shouldn't have to go through this at all. I wonder what the user does who isn't familiar with the process or doesn't understand where to get help. Boo on Mozilla for this - it's not up to your standards.

Firefox is now a disaster zone. Constant crashes. I am forced to move to Chrome. Most of the helpful hints are simply canned responses from a Mozilla macro. They give the same advice, which does not work. Ignore...

You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database (bookmarks and history) in the Firefox profile folder.

• use "Verify Integrity" on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page
• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/places-maintenance/

See also:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Locked_or_damaged_places.sqlite
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Lost+Bookmarks

If "Verify Integrity" on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page or Places Maintenance can't repair the places.sqlite database then remove all places.sqlite file(s) in the Firefox profile folder to make Firefox rebuild the places.sqlite database from the most recent JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

• keep a backup copy of places.sqlite in case a new places.sqlite database has to be created
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_process_the_backup_file_-_Firefox

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
  Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

I see what you mean ... instead of responding to the suggestion that they do a backup/restore in the update process I get a dissertation on fixing a database and locating the profile - which obviously you tell from my post that I already knew how to accomplish. I too have been having crashes over the last year which I figured they'd address - as in the "old" days but, no. Also, I didn't appreciate the way Mozilla addressed the Java issue in order to escape from the help desk tickets. They should have let us decide whether or not to run it with a simple disable setting. This caused me great pain. You're right, Firefox has seen better days and is now out of touch with it's original philosophy. I hate Chrome but I guess it's time to move on and quit holding on to an out of touch organization and application.

I've never had issues with losing bookmarks due to Firefox updating and this shouldn't happen under normal conditions. Sometimes database versions get upgraded during an update and this could lead to issues if you would downgrade Firefox to an older version and update once again. On Windows there is usually a lot of third-party software installed that can interfere with files in the profile folder. That can be security software or cleanup software or malware or some other special utility. In some cases this leads to file corruption and you will have to fix this yourself if this happens.

If you lose all bookmarks then you need to check if this is a problem with places.sqlite or something else like using the refresh feature in Firefox.

@kstjohn: I think your point about java/javascript involvement is correct, but the folks at Mozilla have been blaming everyone but themselves for the constant script timeouts and crashes on such obscure websites as Amazon.com and Bloomberg. I hate Chrome too, but I simply don't have time devote myself to keeping Firefox running. RIP Firefox.

Agreed ... RIP