"Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded ..." after trying to refresh
So, after years of higher-than-normal security in Firefox (64-bit, Win 7) and accompanying problems in loading some pages, I decided to refresh (hoping to reset and have most/all pages load and display fully).
Well, tried refreshing and didn't see the bookmarks saved. Read about "Old Firefox Data" folder and thought I could retrieve anything I needed later. Deleting and reinstalling Firefox has resulted in the "Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible." windowed message.
Repeated uninstalls and reinstalls failed. Tried copying the "ng0ledtz.default-##########" from the "Old Firefox Data" folder into the C:\Users\username\Appdata\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles folder with no success.
Please help.
All Replies (3)
Some more reading offered this: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1108559 which prompted me to look at the profile.ini file and remove the first two entries (not matching the default folder in "Old Firefox Data"):
[Install308046B0AF4A39CB] Default=Profiles/oc9bwuuc.default-release Locked=0
[Profile1] Name=default-release IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/oc9bwuuc.default-release
Happily, I've managed to get Firefox restarted ... but I'm lost as to how to have only my bookmarks imported by the import wizard (the wizard only offers up other browsers and not the "Old Firefox Data".
You can copy certain files with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to transfer or recover personal data. Note that best is to avoid copying a full profile folder.
You can use the button on the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page (Root directory).
- Help -> More Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Folder/Directory:
Windows: Open Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data
- bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
- favicons: favicons.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 (encrypted logins;32+) and key4.db (decryption key;58+) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
key3.db support ended in 73+; to use key3.db in 58-72, make sure to remove key4.db - cert9.db (58+) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
- persdict.dat for words added to the spell 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)
'cor-el', appreciate the help.
First, should I edit the profiles.ini file which includes the following:
[Install308046B0AF4A39CB] Default=Profiles/9wpt1vkg.default-release Locked=1
[Profile1] Name=default-release IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/9wpt1vkg.default-release
[Profile0] Name=default-1434764112066 IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/6kvo7l7c.default-1434764112066-1669936010688 Default=1
[InstallE7CF176E110C211B] Default=Profiles/6kvo7l7c.default-1434764112066-1669936010688 Locked=0
[General] StartWithLastProfile=1 Version=2
[BackgroundTasksProfiles] MozillaBackgroundTask-E7CF176E110C211B-backgroundupdate=7qatxzhb.MozillaBackgroundTask-E7CF176E110C211B-backgroundupdate
Second, I copied "places.sqlite" and "favicons.sqlite", and I also copied over 15 jsonlz4 bookmark backups ... now I see all my bookmarks!
- I did not copy cookies.sqlite because I don't think I need them. - I did not copy formhistory.sqlite because I don't do forms. - I did not copy logins.json (encrypted logins;32+) because I don't save passwords. - don't know if I should copy cert9.db (58+) - the remaining files in your list also do not seem to apply.
Bookmarks aside, I'm hoping my new Firefox install is as clean as possible.