How do I find the list of isntalled add-ons without running firefox?
Short version: Is there a way of retieving the list of installed add-ons by just looking at the files in the profile folder, without starting firefox?
Long version: Ok, I did a very dumb thing: I installed Waterfox, decided I didn't need it and when I uninstalled it I check "delete all settings". I didn't realize it was sharing all the settings with Firefox.
The funny (...) thing is that Firefox was running at the time, and it kept running without complaining for 4 days... today I closed it, open it again and... everything was gone!
I was able to "undelete" the old profile folder, recovering most of the files in there. Using them, I managed to restore my browsing session... the most important thing.
Now, I would like to re-install all the add-ons I had before. However, many of them were installed long ago, and often they were chosen among similar ones with similar names after trying them all. So, it will save me a lot of time and effort if I could retrieve the list of installed add-ons from the "undeleted" profile folder... any idea? FYI, I tried to just copy the old profile folder onto the new one, but I run a in a lot of problems... so, started from scratch again and just restored the session, and now I wondering how I can obtain the list of add-ons from the old profile, to be able to re-install them...
Thanks
Giacomo
Ñemoĩporã poravopyre
It's a bit arduous, but if you search for the GUIDs, you probably can get the names of most of those extensions because when people paste their list here in the forum (usually behind the More System Details link next to their post), both are included.
Emoñe’ẽ ko mbohavái ejeregua reheve 👍 0Opaite Mbohovái (5)
Most plugins are installed globally, so Firefox should find them automatically.
The Extensions folder In your old profile folder should contain all the extensions, but often these folders are named with a GUID rather than the friendly name of the extension.
You could try opening the old extensions.sqlite database to get a more readable list. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to install the SQLite Manager extension in your new profile, then use Database > Connect Database to navigate to the old database and open it. On the right side, click the Execute SQL tab and try this query:
SELECT locale.name, locale.description, addon.version, addon.active, addon.id FROM addon INNER JOIN locale on locale.id = addon.defaultLocale WHERE addon.type = 'extension' ORDER BY addon.active DESC, UPPER(locale.name)
The sequence should match what you see in Help > Troubleshooting Information in a healthy profile (but I've inserted the description as well).
Thanks for the quick reply!
I followed your suggestions and discovered that the old database is probably corrupted:
SQLiteManager: Error in opening file addons.sqlite - either the file is encrypted or corrupt Exception Name: NS_ERROR_FILE_CORRUPTED Exception Message: Component returned failure code: 0x8052000b (NS_ERROR_FILE_CORRUPTED) [mozIStorageService.openUnsharedDatabase]
Too bad! :-( I guess there is no way of getting the info out of the "extensions" folder? It contains a few ".xpi" files with the name of the add-on in clear, but most of them have just a GUID as expected...
Not that it matters much at this point, but there is something wrong with the query you posted. If I connect to the current database (that works) and try to run it, I get:
SQLiteManager: Likely SQL syntax error: SELECT locale.name, locale.description, addon.version, addon.active, addon.id FROM addon INNER JOIN locale on locale.id = addon.defaultLocale WHERE addon.type = 'extension' ORDER BY addon.active DESC, UPPER(locale.name) [ no such table: locale ] Exception Name: NS_ERROR_FAILURE Exception Message: Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [mozIStorageConnection.createStatement]
I'm very ignorant in SQL syntax, but in the "tables" group on the left there is no table named "locale"... so that could be the issue! :-)
Thanks anyway!
Giacomo
I was opening extensions.sqlite. Does that one open?
Ñemoĩporã poravopyre
It's a bit arduous, but if you search for the GUIDs, you probably can get the names of most of those extensions because when people paste their list here in the forum (usually behind the More System Details link next to their post), both are included.
Great!
Simply searching for the GUID I'm finding all of them (so far) on this website:
I thought the GUID were created at installation time and specific for the system (another display of ignorance!), that why I didn't search for them!
As for the databases, I tried 3 or 4, and all of them appear to be corrupted. I guess I was lucky enough to be able to recover what I did after 4 days of normal computer usage after the deletion...
Thanks again for the help!
Giacomo