Hello, see this help article.

Settings for privacy, browsing history and do-not-track

Hi Quirky, Sorry you are having problems. Firefox will normally keep history for years, as long as your Firefox Database has space for it. Providing of course you set it to keep the History and have not deleted it. Note utilities may delete History and if space is short Firefox has for a while given precedence to bookmarks also Private Browsing does not generate History

1. Please post your full troubleshooting information as as a separate reply as it was not initially included (Consider editing out the print related details they are not relevant to this and could take up quite a bit of space)
2. Try using the addon places maintenance, and post the short log that generates in another reply with any further comments. In fact run the log before and after running the other options. The addon was written by a Firefox developer.
   • https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/places-maintenance/
3. If the problem is not resolved backup the file places.squlite that is the database containing History and Bookmarks
   • See Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer_manual-backup
     You may also wish to glance at http://kb.mozillazine.org/Places.sqlite

Please post back with how you get on, but as I mentioned probably best to split into two or three separate reply posts.

Troubleshooting Information

To find the correct solution to your problem, we require some more non-personal information from you. Please do the following:

1. Click the menu button , click help and select Troubleshooting Information.
2. Now, a new tab containing your troubleshooting information should open.
3. At the top of the page, you should see a button that says "Copy text to clipboard". Click it.
4. Now, go back to your forum post and click inside the reply box. Press Ctrl+V to paste all the information you copied into the forum post.

If you need further information about the Troubleshooting information page, please read the article Use the Troubleshooting Information page to help fix Firefox issues.

Thanks for the response. 1. Response: Where ca n I find place squite? Will spend more time on what are those, and how can it fix the problem.

2. Response: Please see from Trouble shooting below, Many thanks.

Reset Firefox to its default state

If you're having major problems which you can't resolve, start fresh with only your essential information. Troubleshooting Information This page contains technical information that might be useful when you're trying to solve a problem. If you are looking for answers to common questions about Firefox, check out our support website. Application Basics Name Firefox Version 29.0.1 Update History User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:29.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/29.0 Profile Folder Enabled Plugins about:plugins Build Configuration about:buildconfig Memory Use about:memory Crash Reports for the Last 3 Days Report ID Submitted bp-60d71ad4-a3a1-4419-b242-795022140612 1 day ago bp-80418989-fd62-4840-b80f-c07112140611 2 days ago bp-235cd7b7-f1e1-4887-81f5-30c8d2140610 3 days ago

All Crash Reports Extensions Name Version Enabled ID Speedial 9.5.6 true {fa95f577-07cb-4470-ac90-e843f5f83c52} Xmarks 4.3.1 true [email protected] Amazon 1Button App for Firefox 5.13 false [email protected] Important Modified Preferences Name Value accessibility.typeaheadfind true browser.cache.disk.capacity 358400 browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value 358400 browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run false browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max false browser.cache.memory.capacity 65536 browser.display.show_image_placeholders true browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion 6 browser.search.useDBForOrder true browser.sessionstore.upgradeBackup.latestBuildID 20140506152807 browser.startup.homepage https://www.yahoo.com/ browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID 20140506152807 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone 29.0.1 browser.tabs.loadInBackground false browser.urlbar.autocomplete.enabled true dom.mozApps.used true dom.w3c_touch_events.expose false extensions.lastAppVersion 29.0.1 font.internaluseonly.changed false network.cookie.cookieBehavior 3 network.cookie.prefsMigrated true network.http.max-connections 48 network.http.max-connections-per-server 16 network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy 16 network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server 8 network.http.pipelining.maxrequests 8 network.http.request.max-start-delay 0 places.database.lastMaintenance 1402606677 places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages 53648 plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types application/pdf plugin.expose_full_path true plugin.importedState true plugin.state.java 2 plugin.state.npdeployjava 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_bgcolor false print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_bgimages false print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_colorspace print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_command print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_downloadfonts false print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_duplex 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_edge_bottom 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_edge_left 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_edge_right 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_edge_top 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_evenpages true print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_footercenter print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_footerleft &PT print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_footerright &D print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_headercenter print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_headerleft &T print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_headerright &U print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_in_color true print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_margin_bottom 0.5 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_margin_left 0.5 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_margin_right 0.5 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_margin_top 0.5 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_oddpages true print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_orientation 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_page_delay 50 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_paper_data 9 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_paper_height 11.00 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_paper_name print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_paper_size_type 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_paper_size_unit 1 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_paper_width 8.50 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_plex_name print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_resolution 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_resolution_name print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_reversed false print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_scaling 1.00 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_shrink_to_fit true print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_to_file false print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_unwriteable_margin_bottom 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_unwriteable_margin_left 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_unwriteable_margin_right 0 print.printer_Send_To_OneNote_2013.print_unwriteable_margin_top 0 privacy.donottrackheader.enabled true privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs true storage.vacuum.last.index 1 storage.vacuum.last.places.sqlite 1401020260 user.js Preferences

Your profile folder contains a user.js file, which includes preferences that were not created by Firefox. Graphics Adapter Description ATI MOBILITY FireGL V3200 Adapter Drivers atiumdag atiumdva atitmmxx Adapter RAM Unknown Device ID 0x3154 Direct2D Enabled Blocked for your graphics driver version. Try updating your graphics driver to version 10.6 or newer. DirectWrite Enabled false (6.2.9200.16492) Driver Date 2-9-2007 Driver Version 8.343.0.0 GPU #2 Active false GPU Accelerated Windows 0/1 Basic Blocked for your graphics driver version. Try updating your graphics driver to version 9.6 or newer. Vendor ID 0x1002 WebGL Renderer Blocked for your graphics driver version. Try updating your graphics driver to version 9.6 or newer. windowLayerManagerRemote false AzureCanvasBackend skia AzureContentBackend cairo AzureFallbackCanvasBackend cairo AzureSkiaAccelerated 0 JavaScript Incremental GC true Accessibility Activated false Prevent Accessibility 0 Library Versions Expected minimum version Version in use NSPR 4.10.3 4.10.3 NSS 3.16 Basic ECC 3.16 Basic ECC NSSSMIME 3.16 Basic ECC 3.16 Basic ECC NSSSSL 3.16 Basic ECC 3.16 Basic ECC NSSUTIL 3.16 3.16

See next post. Not sure how to delete this one.

Update. I deleted MF I think it was 29, and reinstalled MF 16.0.2 History only goes up to the last month, strange, because on my other laptop it goes up to six months and older. What does this mean? Same prog different config?

Checked out the squilite page - made no sense to me SIGH, could not find anywhere on how to set history to longer than one month.

How do I extend the History to six months or even a few years if possible?

Thank you

I am not sure I see the logic behind trying to use Firefox 16, Fx16 it is slower unsupported and unsafe. (I am not even certain the current places.sqlite is backwards compatible with Firefox16 - I know there were structural changes to the database but I don't recall the version & date of change)

places.sqlite is in the Firefox Profile The database places.squlite is in the profile. The quickest method of finding the profile is from the troubleshooting page, that has a button on it to open the profile folder.

• See Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data_how-do-i-find-my-profile

places.sqlite is the file that Firefox uses to retain your History. Using bookmarks html only backs up the bookmarks.

Speeddial & user.js I note from the information You posted that you have

Speedial

You may have installed that intentionally. Some people consider that as potentially unwanted,or even malware. It will have made changes to Firefox. You also have

user.js Preferences 
 Your profile folder contains a user.js file, which includes preferences that were not created by Firefox.

You could consider renaming the file user.js if you want to remove its changes, but software may recreate it. Places Maintenance Did you try that to get an initial log file report, and afterwards did you try to run the addon to repair the database and create another log file.

I downloaded latest version of Firefox and still only have history back to one month. SIGH.

As for speedial, (a virus) it won't let me delete it, keeps coming with an error code. Clueless how delete this....grrrrrr Spybot didn't work. Prefer to do it manually.

I downloaded a malware prog advised on MF forum, running it nowHope it gets rid of Speedial. I tried deleting it from serach engine, add ons, pluggins. Didn't work.

I found squilite by doing a search on the C drive, found it in the MF folder.

Any idea how can get rid of speedial? Thanks.

Speeddial

I tried installing the version from the speedial site myself as a test a while ago. It was relatively easy to uninstall.

1. Remove anything related showing up in the Firefox addons. It probably has more than one component.
2. Rename the user.js file to user.js.old1
3. Remove anything related in the Windows Control Panel listing of programs
4. Runs scans with malware removal tools including adwcleaner
5. Use the SearchReset Addon

• Firefox should be ok now
• You may need to check IE and any other browsers

malware tools

• Microsoft Safety Scanner
• MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware
• TDSSKiller - AntiRootkit Utility
• Hitman Pro
• ESET Online Scanner
• AdwCleaner: (for adware)
• Kaspersky Free security scan

Thanks, I will try all you mentioned... My head is about to explode. I tried malwarebytes, it keeps disappearing from the screen. Will try again.

Weirder still, the C drive seems almost full, hardly downloaded anything on this laptop.

If your history has been deleted there is not much you can do.

Had you lost very recently there is a possibility of recovering it, or if you had deliberately backed it up.

Did you try places maintenance addon, there is just a slim chance the database is corrupt and repairable. It would also be interesting to see the short logs it generates.

There is a possibility of copying over the History from the other laptop, but that causes problems with bookmarks needing to be exported and imported. It probably is not worth the trouble.

P.S. I also notice you have been suffering with Firefox crashing and those crashes have near and above 90% memory used up.

So you may have other problems, and the crashes are not going to help with Firefox trying to keep the History file updated correctly.

Your Reports for your crash IDs

1. bp-60d71ad4-a3a1-4419-b242-795022140612 1 day ago
2. bp-80418989-fd62-4840-b80f-c07112140611 2 days ago
3. bp-235cd7b7-f1e1-4887-81f5-30c8d2140610 3 days ago

Crash Signatures

1. gfxContext::PushClipsToDT(mozilla::gfx::DrawTarget*)
2. JSC::Yarr::YarrGenerator<int>::opCompileAlternative(JSC::Yarr::PatternAlternative*)
3. as #1

I didn't delete this history, every. When I downloaded MF on this laptop, the history went only to one month. It didn't bother me, until I lost some important sites I needed for research.

Speedial is still part of the search in the browser. Yet, I thought I deleted speedial on Drive C.

Ran Malwayrebytes, made no difference, speedial is still a search engine, in spite of me going in "manage search engine" to remove it, when I click on OK, nothing happens.

Its so complicated, way over my head.

the next step perhaps is to delete all programs and install windows xp a favorite of mine, or re install windows 7 which is my least favorite.

Scratching head..

I liked Windows XP but itis now old and unsupported. You seem to be on Windows 7 at present so stick with that.

There are standand methods for uninstalling things and it is best to follow them. Even if you uninstalled speedial from Windows using the Windows Control panel you then needed to use the search reset addon

• https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/searchreset/
• For windows instructions see http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uninstall-change-program#uninstall-change-program=windows-7

Have you tried the places maintenance addon yet ?

Is that only history of the current month?

If older history from previous months always is removed when the next months starts or at a specific day (week) in the month that it is likely that you have some cleanup scheduled to run.

Firefox only has a maximum number of pages that you keep and that you can see in the read-only pref places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages.

"places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages."

   is this found in "about:config" in address bar???

Yes, I did Add ons and Extensions already.

Nightmare this morn, MF disappeared, I had not deleted it... Disk C seems suddenly FULL from last night, to be short of memory, desktop flooded with icons form various progs. Have to find out about these and delete.

Fast approaching deleting everything, I have few files on thi laptop anyway and reinstall Win 7 from scratch.

Spent a lot of time on this puter....and still not resolution, and added issues cropping up all the time.

I was hoping to see the log files from the places maintenance that would given useful statistics of the database. As I understand it Firefox will sacrifice History that is older than 7 days if it has too many bookmarks to handle.

I might be wrong but I am not certain changing that value will help at least from reading the following my understanding is it will not help on recent versions of Firefox to change places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages preference

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Tech/Places/Places_Expiration#Preferences

places.history.expiration.max_pages: The maximum number of pages that may be retained in the database before starting to expire. Default value is calculated on startup and put into the places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages preference. This transient version of the preference is just mirroring the current value used by expiration, setting it won't have any effect.

http://blog.bonardo.net/2011/09/02/changes-to-places-memory-consumption-expiration-and-performances

- expiration tries to target a maximum database size (you can check current value through the places.history.expiration.transient_optimal_database_size pref, changing this pref won't have any effect), this is not mandatory, but is used to improve the algorithm. This also takes into account storage with low available space or quota.

That is the developer who filed and worked on the bug

Bug 674210 - Reduce places.sqlite cache size and reorganize history expiration around the new value 

Where it was mentioned whilst reviewing that bug

please do blog about these changes, so that we can get the word to people to keep an eye out for problems.

You seem to have quite a few problems and possibly malware. It may be worth reinstalling Windows 7.

Before doing so at least try to backup any Firefox profiles to some removable or independant storage.

This is not the place to going in to detail of Windows re-installation or malware removal but brief tips

1. Make sure you have free disk space.
   When I used to use Windows XP I tended to try to keep at least 20 to 25% of the disk free.
   • How is your hard disk on the problem machine ?
     What is the total and free space both as actual size ?
     and as %. ?
2. As a priority Scan for malware first thing.
   Try to make sure you have up to date scanning tools available in advance and scan the reinstalled system before even connecting it to the internet.

If you let me know how to access the log files, or give me a link, will send you. Its interesting, as I am learning as we go along. (Way over my head though)

This is a cheapish laptop which I bought from ebay in April 2014.

It has 37 GB memory, of which I have about 3 Gb left, I thinks its all the malware, since I didnt downlaod anyting other than Adobe Flash.

Intel premium processor 2.13 GHz Installed memory RAM 2.00 GB 32-Bit operating system Windows 7

Sorry we do tend to use jargon, and sometimes forget to give enough detail of the basics. Giving detailed WIndows and malware advice is outside of the scope of this forum, better to contact experts somewhere else.

I hope you missed a zero off both the Hard Disk Drive size and space

• Compare 2011 netbook http://www.laptopspec.net/category/dell-netbook/ 1/2GB of RAM, up to a 320GB HDD

Windows Reinstall Computers always have a lot of unwanted stuff on them unfortunately. Go to some Windows forum if necessary to get advice on reinstalling Windows 7. You may need to create special restore disks first for example. And you may or may not need to use a hidden partition on the computer. You may have important information to backup. Get everything together before you start and if necessary make hardcopies of instructions.

• There are many fora this is one I have seen mentioned before
  http://windowssecrets.com/forums/forumdisplay.php/6-Windows

Malware Get advice if you need it. I would suggest unless you are taking it to a trusted shop and paying then use a forum that is free and not peddling paid for support lines. Malwarebytes is probably one that is well known and well used

• https://forums.malwarebytes.org/

Log File The addon places maintenance is very simple.

1. Download and Install it.
2. Then navigate to the addons manager about:addons
3. Find the extension and click the [Preferences button]
4. Check only the check box [] Statsics, then [Execute]
5. It populates the window with the results an you can scroll to view and copy and paste from that.
6. Next try a repair. That may take a while could be quite a few minutes or a few seconds. Choose the all option. Again it will generate a report.

if you are very lucky it may fix something. It at least gives you data about what you have. It will give strong clues as to whether or not the database has run out of room.

P.S. History Keep for Fixed period

Also note the add on is aimed more at those wishing to REMOVE history.

I note the developer involved with some of the changes did create a special addon to deal with requests to keep History for a fixed time but he himself did suggest it is best not to use that. Note ordinarily Firefox often keeps History for many months or even a few years.

• http://blog.bonardo.net/2011/08/05/a-couple-add-ons-for-places-maintenance

Thanks a lot for all the advice. No, didn't miss a zero, there is very little memory on this laptop. I am thinking of buying another.

I will reinstall Windows 7 and find out if memory can be added.

Meanwhile, I will go through this thread again, and make notes, ensuring nothing was missed.