The entire profile should have been moved to the Old Firefox folder. Not just 3 files.

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 bar. How many profiles are listed? How many should be there? Also, open the profile folder in your file explorer.

Hi there,

Thanks for your reply.

Following the first link you provided, I see the first image, and looking at the profiles from the address bar I see one (I think). There should only be one; for myself.

I'm not sure what you mean by open the profile folder in your file explorer. Do you mean from the first image? What would opening the folder do? What are the implications of opening the wrong folder? After this issue I don't want to run into more problems, as obviously Firefox didn't so what it was supposed to in the refresh process.

A file explorer, such as Windows File Explorer, lets you explore your hard drive just as Firefox lets you explore the web.

Sometimes, a profile gets lost, forgotten (whatever) and the browser can't find it.

Pardon my delayed reply. Real life has been too busy.

When I searched for the profile in file explorer I only saw one profile. There should only be one, mine (I'm the only one that uses my laptop).

For some reason the profile wasn't saved in Firefox. The situation sucks.

Sometimes the file migration processes hang up or get interrupted during a Refresh; it seems to happen a few times a year but I haven't seen an explanation for it.

So much time has passed that I don't know if other file recovery methods will work, but you could try:

Shadow Copies

You can use a utility program to search inside restore points to try to locate an old file that's usable. (Please do NOT try to use the built-in Windows System Restore for this because you probably would lose data.)

(1) Set Windows to show hidden files and folders:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14201/windows-show-hidden-files

(2) Download and run one of these two programs:

• ShadowExplorer: http://www.shadowexplorer.com/
• System Restore Explorer: http://nicbedford.co.uk/software/systemrestoreexplorer/

Within the most recent restore point shown in the program, you can explore along this path to see whether you can find a shadow copy of your profile:

\Users\your-user-name\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

(3) Check in the bookmarkbackups folder of each profile for older backups. You can export interesting files to a convenient location such as your currently live desktop.

Any luck?

Note that you can (and should) backup valuable personal data ion the profile folder to guard against such issues.

• 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

jscher2000 said

Sometimes the file migration processes hang up or get interrupted during a Refresh; it seems to happen a few times a year but I haven't seen an explanation for it. So much time has passed that I don't know if other file recovery methods will work, but you could try: ... Any luck?

Thanks for your reply.

You are right - a lot of time has passed and I think the way forward might be to cut my losses and try to get the material I had through other sources - or just move past the loss.

I had tried to use the Windows restore option months ago, and that was unsuccessful at getting anything.

cor-el said

Note that you can (and should) backup valuable personal data ion the profile folder to guard against such issues.

• 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

Thanks. I will keep this in mind as I work now to rediscover that material.