Hi,

I'm sorry to hear that this happened! Is there any chance that you have a backup of your computer (using something like Time Machine)? If you do, you should be able to restore your profile folder from a date before this happened. If you don't, there are tools that can help you recover data from your old profile:

For the tabs you had open at the time, you can look for a file named sessionstore.js in the main profile folder, or any of the files in the sessionstore-backups folder. If you drag-and-drop the file into this tool: https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/scrounger.html , you should get a list of your open tabs.

For your bookmarks, there's a similar tool: https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/bookbackreader.html . Look for the most recent file in the bookmarkbackups subfolder, drag it into the tool linked above, and click the "export HTML" button to get a file you can export back into Firefox.

I'm not currently aware of a similar tool for your history database, but I'll keep looking for one.

To answer your other question, it probably is best to create a new profile folder. There's likely something wrong with the original one, and it's going to be difficult to figure out what that it is and fix it. Likewise, it's hard to say what initially caused this to happen. One common reason for this is upgrading to a newer version of Firefox, and then downgrading back to an older version, but it sounds like you didn't do that. (If you did, there's something else you can try, so please post here if that's the case). Otherwise, I'm not sure; maybe someone else here has an idea.

You can check the permissions of the profiles.ini file because that is likely where things go wrong if you do not keep your profile folder. The profiles.ini file is in the parent location of the Firefox profile folder.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/profiles.ini_file
• Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/

You can also try to repair the disk permissions.

user1929 said

Hi, I'm sorry to hear that this happened! Is there any chance that you have a backup of your computer (using something like Time Machine)? If you do, you should be able to restore your profile folder from a date before this happened. If you don't, there are tools that can help you recover data from your old profile: For the tabs you had open at the time, you can look for a file named sessionstore.js in the main profile folder, or any of the files in the sessionstore-backups folder. If you drag-and-drop the file into this tool: https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/scrounger.html , you should get a list of your open tabs. For your bookmarks, there's a similar tool: https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/bookbackreader.html . Look for the most recent file in the bookmarkbackups subfolder, drag it into the tool linked above, and click the "export HTML" button to get a file you can export back into Firefox. I'm not currently aware of a similar tool for your history database, but I'll keep looking for one. To answer your other question, it probably is best to create a new profile folder. There's likely something wrong with the original one, and it's going to be difficult to figure out what that it is and fix it. Likewise, it's hard to say what initially caused this to happen. One common reason for this is upgrading to a newer version of Firefox, and then downgrading back to an older version, but it sounds like you didn't do that. (If you did, there's something else you can try, so please post here if that's the case). Otherwise, I'm not sure; maybe someone else here has an idea.

Before I had my issue I usually (everyday) did a clone of my internal HDD so I can find the firefox folder with my profile (the one existing before my troubles) but I presume that the two folders are identical. However I thank you for the links you suggested: my main problem is to have back my bookmarks and using https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/bookbackreader.html I was able to import them in Firefox. I have to move up and down bookmarks folders to re-create the same environment I had, but now I'm pretty sure I can go on working. Maybe I'll anyway create a new profile (I presume it will be safer as I'm not sure that something else will happen again), but I feel I can be back in a short time! As I didn't understand what happened, therefore I'll never be sure it will never happen again because I cannot behave to avoid the (bad) conditions that made the wreck possible... All in all my issue is one of the 'mysteries' you face when working using electronic devices, but now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

When everything is all right I'll give my final feedback posting to this forum! Thank you very much.

cor-el said

You can check the permissions of the profiles.ini file because that is likely where things go wrong if you do not keep your profile folder. The profiles.ini file is in the parent location of the Firefox profile folder.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/profiles.ini_file
• Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/

You can also try to repair the disk permissions.

Permissions checked ... nothing wrong... Beginning with OS X El Capitan, system file permissions are automatically protected. It's no longer necessary to verify or repair permissions with Disk Utility... so I can't do what you suggest.... Thanks anyway

See also:

• https://appletoolbox.com/2016/07/fix-corrupt-user-accounts-macos/