What did you do to the latest version of firefox? Where are my bookmarks? They disappeared when the latest version installed. Don't you test your new releases?
My bookmarks are gone and Firefox is running much slower in the updated version than the previous one. How can I revert to the previous version until this is fixed?
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What about the rest of your data? History, settings . . . .
Each version of Firefox is tested for at least 12 weeks before release, but there are always undiscovered issues in any new release. The immediate question is how to recover your data.
If you lost not only bookmarks, but history, settings, add-ons:
If you haven't already, before doing any file moves/deletes/reinstalls, you may want to do a normal system shutdown and startup to release any file locks and complete any pending updates. One user reported it took three shutdown/restarts to sort out his issues.
If your data does not magically reappear, the most likely scenarios for complete data loss are:
(1) A Refresh started but the migration of data from your old profile to your new profile was incomplete, or
(2) Your old profile was locked, so Firefox ignored it and created a new one.
Here's how to investigate those two possibilities:
Did Firefox perform a Refresh?
Unless it was interrupted in progress, you should find a folder on your desktop named Old Firefox Data. Inside would be a semi-randomly-named folder with freshly updated files. Do you see anything like that?
If so, we'll suggest how to rescue key files or completely restore the earlier profile folder.
If not...
Does the Profile Manager list your immediately previous profile folder?
To check on that, inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.
This page should list all the profiles Firefox is currently aware of. If you see a profile that is not currently set as default that looks promising, scroll down to it and click the Set as default profile button below that profile, then scroll back up and click the Restart normally button. (There are some other buttons, but I think those are still "under construction" so please ignore them.)
Firefox should exit and then start up using the other profile. Is that the right one?
If it's not there...
Did Firefox orphan your old profile folder?
Here's how to check whether there are additional profile folders in the standard location in addition to the one you're using. Start by opening your current Firefox profile folder using either:
* "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
* (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
* type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter/Return
In the first table on the page, click:
* Windows: the "Open Folder" button, to launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.
* Mac: the "Show in Finder" button, to launch a new window listing various files and folders in Finder.
In the Windows Explorer address bar, click the capitalized word Profiles to move up one level in the folder hierarchy. More than one folder here by any chance? Do the files in those folders look like they were last updated around the time of the update?
(Mac users: please do what you need to do in Finder to check up one level...)
If you've got any promising looking folders, we can discuss next steps to recover use of them.
You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database (bookmarks and history) in the Firefox profile folder.
See also:
one more question: when you type "about:profiles" into your firefox address bar what is the full path of your profile shown in the root folder column?