Go to about:preferences => Privacy&security => History and check, what is set under Firefox will.

Firefox will remember history

eth0 said

I went into my profile and found out that the cookies.sqlite file is there, as well as a back up of it from yesterday, which I used to replace the current cookies.sqlite. It worked just fine, but every time I restart the browser, a new file is created, starting with a clean slate, meaning, logged out of everything again. The .bak file is 2048 KB in size according to windows, not sure if there is something at play here.

As far as I know, Firefox does not create a file named cookies.sqlite.bak any more. In my older profiles, such files were made a few years ago, perhaps when a file format change occurred. Can you tell when that .bak file was last updated?

Do you have any extensions that might delete or otherwise modify cookies?

Can you think of any utility programs that could be modifying your Firefox data files? Some programs that fall into this category are Advanced SystemCare and CCleaner. You could make an exception for Firefox data to avoid possible file corruption.

Reports of this surface from time to time, for example:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/5z600c/firefox_creates_a_new_cookies_database_saves_the/

But what triggers it? Hmm...

Hello, thank you for your reply.

The backup has a windows timestamp from yesterday evening, which approximates the last time I got home from work and started the browser.

I am not running any extensions that have to do anything with cookies, and no other programmes of that sort either (no CCleaner etc).

My question is, why can't FireFox retain the backup it has created and I'm giving it, and has to start all over again every time I restart it. Something to do with the size maybe? But as far as I have searched, there is no such size setting anywhere.

It seems there is a function in Firefox to rename cookies.sqlite to cookies.sqlite.bak when it is determined to be corrupted. However, I can't think of a reason for Firefox to think it's corrupted on a frequent basis when in fact you are able to re-use it by renaming it. Why is it sometimes not usable and sometimes usable?

Could you confirm the sequence:

• Start Firefox, no cookies
• Firefox has saved the previous cookies.sqlite file as cookies.sqlite.bak (i.e., this is from your immediately previous session, not ancient days)
• Exit Firefox
• Replace cookies.sqlite with copy of cookies.sqlite.bak renamed to cookies.sqlite
• Restart Firefox, old cookies restored

Is that right?

jscher2000 said

It seems there is a function in Firefox to rename cookies.sqlite to cookies.sqlite.bak when it is determined to be corrupted. However, I can't think of a reason for Firefox to think it's corrupted on a frequent basis when in fact you are able to re-use it by renaming it. Why is it sometimes not usable and sometimes usable? Could you confirm the sequence:

• Start Firefox, no cookies
• Firefox has saved the previous cookies.sqlite file as cookies.sqlite.bak (i.e., this is from your immediately previous session, not ancient days)
• Exit Firefox
• Replace cookies.sqlite with copy of cookies.sqlite.bak renamed to cookies.sqlite
• Restart Firefox, old cookies restored

Is that right?

Hello,

yes, that would be the sequence. If I may add one step at the end, a further restart of Firefox will start with a clean slate, i.e. the cookie database that I want to use, is backed up, and a new one used. If I start building on that new database, as I currently have done by logging in here and a couple of other fora, then this state is kept upon restart.

I thought it might be a corrupt file, I found the size of the database to be rather odd, which is exarcebated by the fact that the reddit user who is facing the same issue, reported the exact same size. But then again, why is Firefox able to use the cookie file just fine, and start new upon restart, bizzare. Any way to force it, or rather repair the cookie database or maybe transfer whatever is salvagable?

eth0 said

Any way to force it, or rather repair the cookie database or maybe transfer whatever is salvagable?

I don't know, this seems to be quite rare. It's probably best to stick with a new database and see whether you can import the contents of the old one. There isn't a built-in import for Firefox's own cookies. Possibly you could round-trip it through another browser (browsers often can import one another's cookies), or try a third party utility. This program mentions backup and restore features but I've never tried it myself: https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/mzcv.html

Hello,

since all the information that we currently have right now point to a corrupt file, I came up with two possible solutions.

1) Restore/recover the file via Windows 2) Try and repair the file via Windows

First I went ahead and recovered the file (right click, restore previous versions) to a version from yesterday evening and that seems to have done the trick so far.

Why Firefox kept using a fresh database although it was able to use the backed up version will remain a mystery I suppose. I have also noticed that there is a cookies.sqlite.bak-rebuild file, although I am not certain what to do with it, or if it really could be used to rebuild the database from the backup as the name seems to suggest.

eth0 said

I have also noticed that there is a cookies.sqlite.bak-rebuild file, although I am not certain what to do with it, or if it really could be used to rebuild the database from the backup as the name seems to suggest.

If there is already a cookies.sqlite.bak file, the next time Firefox rebuilds the database, it renames cookies.sqlite to cookies.sqlite.bak-rebuild. So this is a symptom of the same issue: database detected as corrupted, old one renamed, new one built.

Oh, right, ok. That makes sense. So it is used to rebuild the new, clean database.

What security software do you have?

A possible cause is that other software is preventing Firefox from opening the database with the correct sharing/exclusive settings.

cor-el said

What security software do you have? A possible cause is that other software is preventing Firefox from opening the database with the correct sharing/exclusive settings.

Hello, thank you for the reply. I'm currently running MSE. I don't see the link however, since Firefox is able to start the backed up version, once, and forgets all about it after the first restart. It is possible that the database was corrupt.