I lost everything ... Firefox messed it

Hi,

This is a very unique problem.. and very serious.. so pls do read it.

Rite now i am writing this with no idea as to what i ll do..

I ve lost too much data stored in Firefox..

My firefox has gone crazy... everytime i restart it ...it is spitting out everything it has..
basically its dying & tearing down itself into pieces.

My ENTIRE bookmarks are Gone.

all my college admission shortcuts, all my fav blogs, VERY imp. sites for driver updates, everything is gone!

My fav theme Nasa night launch is GONE.

And all Add-ons have gotten messed up... and everything is getting corrupt minute by minute..

Basically its like as if someone has hacked into my comp & ruined it.


BackLash:

Few hours ago i was surfing the net, i was defragmenting my external Harddisk, & i was listening to music.

The defragmenting stopped responding after 85% .

End task wasnt ending the process.

So i did a force shutdown by holding the power button..

I ve done this before many times & never faced any problem.

So now when i restarted comp... i felt smthg weird in firefox..

Slowly slowly i realised this...


I DID system restore but it didnt help..

the Bookmarks are Gone.
, and many theme are gone,

many add-ons have been resetted.. i lost all SPeed Dial shortcuts.

All-in-one sidebar is half gone...



Pls Help me out if u have any idea... its Urgent.

 

Was that with the latest beta? I hate to say it noc, but you should always back up your data, especially before using beta software.

 

I don't know if it is the same thing, but I was astonished a few days ago when my firefox crashed while I was using it. I didn't think much of it. But when I re-started Firefox, it was back to its default theme, with none of my bookmarks or add-ons. Luckily, I exported my bookmarks about 2 weeks earlier, and I knew exactly where to go to find my theme and add-ons.

And this was just running Firefox 2.0.0.12.

 

Check your profile folder and see if you see a folder called bookmarkbackups. It should have a backup of your bookmarks(it may not be recent but its a start).

 

Try looking at this article on recovering Firefox Bookmarks

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Lost_bookmarks

Also, I'm sure you know it, but there are several options for backing up your bookmarks, cookies, etc.

I use both.....

Firefox Addon--> Foxmarks- it backs them up to a server and synchronizes them on any pc you want.....

MozBackup- A simple small program to backup your bookmarks, cookies, passwords, etc

http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/download.php

Or just export them to a file........

 

The bookmarkbackups folder is missing from the profile folder.

Its as if a major memory corruption has taken place.

and this was 2.0.0.12

Remember i had posted how much a disaster 2.0.0.12 is? seems as if my prediction came true.


what else can i do?

i even did a System Restore... the Bookmarks aint restored.. but add-ons settings are back to normal.

 

I had the almost exact same thing happen to me with Firefox and my Eee PC. For some odd reason, I tried opening FF on day and it would operate correctly. Personally, I think it was because of that app that Calvin posted in the 'Free Software' thread. Lesson learned.

 

I think this is what is happening:

Bookmarks missing after restarting

This may occur on Windows systems if your Web browser is not properly shut down before you power down or restart the computer. Make sure you always close the browser before shutting down or restarting the computer.

The problem can also be caused by a faulty or misconfigured plugin or extension, or even malware, causing Firefox to remain in memory. To see if this is your problem, perform the following steps:

1. Use Firefox to browse the web for a while, then open the Windows Task Manager, select the Processes tab and find firefox.exe in the list.
2. Use "File -> Exit" from the Firefox menu to close Firefox, then wait for firefox.exe to disappear from the Task Manager Processes list (this may take a few seconds if many tabs were open, or Firefox was using a lot of memory). If the firefox.exe process disappears and doesn't come back, this is normal, so if your bookmarks are always missing whenever you restart the computer, it could be related to bug 333907 which may cause .rdf file corruption. To avoid it, exit Firefox before shutting down your PC.
3. If firefox.exe remains in the Processes list, end the firefox.exe process by selecting it in the Windows Task Manager and clicking "End Process".
* If the process disappears and doesn't come back, you may have an extension or plugin issue causing Firefox to persist in memory (for example, firefox.exe may remain active after running a Java applet). You should make sure all plugins and extensions are up to date and seek support if the problem persists.
* If the process disappears but comes back, you probably have a virus, or some other malware. Anti-virus software may not be able to detect it. If yours doesn't, seek support. See also Firefox.exe always open.

 

i know what your saying firefox did that to me a few times, i would jsut start it adn everything would be gone, havn't had it happen in a while tho. nobscot thats for that addon i made an account and it seems like a great addon

 

nocturnal, I hope you get them back....... The same thing happened to me.... lost everything........

j-dogg, you're welcome
It works very nicely........

 

Sounds like it's too late now but, once you're back up....

http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/

 

This happened to me a few days ago too! Thank god i use foxmarks to back up my book marks! It was weird, i closed firefox, it did a quick update next time it sarted, and bam, it was Vanilla! Very weird indead. Im still getting my settings back to the way i had them :/

 

I hope I don't experience this problem.

 

I feel kind of left out as I've never experienced such problems with Firefox, from 2.0.0.12 to Firefox beta 5pre.

 

I really do not know what to make of this stream of unconsciousness.

But it really does not seem to be be Firefox centric.

 

I know this doesn't help with your current situation, but... I would generally advise against using your computer while defragging the hard drive. Even if it doesn't break anything, it tends to make the defrag take forever in my experience.

 

one word...opera...

 

Basically the Force shutdown caused this problem..

It is a major bug in firefox ...

when u do a shutdown & firefox process has been running ..there is 80% chance that u ll lose all Bookmarks & settings.


This hasnt been fixed cause mozilla is made by a community & not a closed group.

 

I feel your pain, but why are you blaming Firefox and where do you get the 80% figure? This is more than likely not a firefox specific problem.

1. You are running a defrag program that is manipulating data on your drive. - You have a program moving files around which stops functioning. How can you say it wasn't the defrag program which had parts of your firefox profile in limbo when it stopped?
2. You have an open program(s) that has files open to perform the program's intended use. - Any program that has files open can/will lose data if not properly closed. So how can you blame FF.
3. You forced a shut down with both conditions above.
4. (not to rub salt in your wounds) You did not have a backup. If data is important to you it is your responsibility to back it up.

 

. want to qualify ur statement?
. what this had to do with OP issue?
. what version of O r u using?
. did u do what the OP described (defrag, shutdown ...) while O was running?
. ......

cheers ...

 

I remember a similar thing with Firefox happening to me once. There was nothing I could do...

 

interesting, with my personal experiences (testing and playing with different browsers) the opposite holds more true when certain issues/bugs were being quickly fixed from the "open" community (mozilla, linux) vs "closed" group (ms, opera, IE ..)

cheers ...

 

all iwas saying is that i use opera for web browsing and i have never had a single problem with it. i guess that this is not the place to brag about opera sorry

 

FYI, if u ve read carefully... I was Defragmenting ONLY the external HD. So program files were untouched.

The problem is specific to Firefox ONLY.

there is a bug mentioned in BugZilla forums.
& it mentions it is highly likely for Firefox to lose all bookmarks & settings.
for the 80% figure i mentioned. check this out:
Article 1
Article 2


Try to help me man if u can.

 

Opera doesnt have add-ons, it doesnt have 1000+ themes.

Other than that... its the next best thing. It never crashes, it is very fast too.

I mean other than IE7 all browsers ROck.

 

amen brother lol

 

Exactly what is in your Profiles folder?

 

chrome (folder)
bookmarks (only 7KB)
localstore.rdf
mimeTypes.rdf
prefs (jScript script file)
search.rdf



Thats It... There are NO hidden files.

 

Noc,

I'm assuming you're looking at:
c:\user\YOU\appdata\ roaming\mozilla\firefox\profiles

Try looking here:
c:\user\YOU\appdata\ local\mozilla\firefox\profiles

You may be able to recover your entire profile

 

So? I've run across the street many times. That doesn't mean I'll never get hit by a car.
Please, NEVER shut down your computer while the harddrive is being accessed. A friend of mine wrecked his harddrive doing that. (Not just data, the harddrive was physically defect afterwards. Bad sectors everywhere, completely unusable).
Of course, usually the consequences are less severe. Sometimes, nothing may happen, sometimes, data may get corrupted, sometimes applications may cease working because they were interrupted in writing data to disk.

But if you shut your computer down while the harddrive is being accessed, you're asking for trouble. It's only a coincidence that Firefox was the application that was corrupted. It could have been anything.

Consider yourself lucky that you have a working harddrive.

Is that bookmarks.html?
What about bookmarks.bak?
And are there any other profile folders?
What if you run 'firefox /ProfileManager'?
Does that give you a list of profiles to pick from?

 

and what happened when someone using Opera having issues? what would u say? that ur problem Opera users do not how to use Opera?

it is nice for u not to have a problem with Opera (and it is nice for me and many others not having issues with FF) -

the OP has an issue, it is a bug, it is in the open, it is protocolled and it is being fixed in FF3

it is the same to say that Opera has loads of issues that r being looked at in Opera9.5 - do spend some time when u were not bragging,visiting the opera bug community and understand some of the frustrations of browser users - regardless of what one is using

cheers ...

 

it is being confirmed that FF3 would resolve the issue, starting with post #204 of the link/article, there r tips to prevent and restore the lost bookmark

cheers ...

 

they r called built.ins "whatchamacallit" functionalities

and it is working to allow users to "skin"

Opera 9.5 user here, crashes on me constantly, especially under vista.

And before some smart mouths going to say - why dont u use a "stable" version instead of a beta, i m also using Minefield - a beta FF and it is not crashing

sorry to prick ur bubble, Opera 9.5 is currently before last after Minefield and IE8

do stick to ur OP theme, it is better to say that FF is not working for u, and opera rocks for u, and it would be just fine

cheers ...

 

Any file, including backups, is just data and can be corrupted. A hard shutdown is probably the easiest way to introduce unintentional data corruption.

Backups are your friend. Read the page on backups on my website if you are in need of more information.

 

Are you 100% sure?

I found that ... but should i copy & paste it in C:\ Program files\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles ???

 

The first thing you want to do is COPY the folder to your desktop, so you'll have a good copy no matter what.

Then you can try to copy the CONTENT to the other folder. That should at least get you your bookmarks. If it doesn't restore everything you can at least use the copy on your desktop to see what themes and add-ins you had, so you can get them again.

 

i think the old data in it is Gone.. because i did a re-install

 

I tried FF. I liked it. It did that to me. I love IE7. That was like 3 years ago though

 

Coming back to System Restore... it makes incremental backups so as to save space (it backs up only what has changed since the last backup), so you might need to restore it to an old enough restore point where the your Firefox profile files were changed.

Matt

 

i did two restores & then it said 'NO RESTORE POINTS' ..it automatically deleted older ones.

 

Hi guys,

I found my backup!!!! i am so relieved..

Read THIS Thread if you are confused what i am talking about

But can someone tell me how to use that backup to get bookmarks? there are 5 backups.


where do i paste it?

 

Cut the HTML file from the backups folder to the main folder and after deleting the "bookmarks.html" file already there, rename it to "bookmarks.html".

 

Done! thanks

All my old bookmarks are Back.

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congrats. happy for u.

 

Do not create two topics on the same issue noctural310, it is not allowed. Threads merged.