Lost Firefox Favourites

[BDiONU]

Hi All,
Very curious problem with firefox. Booted up PC (Windows XP Pro SP2) one morning and everything OK, booted it up in the evening and Firefox went to the Firefox with Google homepage (not my default) and all my favourites had vanished.
Run all the spy bots, virus checkers, Cr@p Cleaner etc. and the machine came up clean. So I reloaded IE and my faves were there but same problem with firefox.
Deleted Firefox and downloaded a fresh copy but when it ran it didn't pick up my favourites from IE as its supposed to do.

Anyone any ideas why not please?

Thanks
BD

[BLUE SKY THINKER]

BDiONU . . . . .

I'm sure you are more familiar with Firefox than me, as I'm only a recent convert to Firefox Portable (http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable). ...However, they are very similar, obviously.

Just slightly puzzled by ".....downloaded a fresh copy but when it ran it didn't pick up my favourites from IE as its supposed to do". ...When you say "ran", do you mean as in "open" program, or "import" IE Favorites. ...If you mean the former, then the problem might be solved by the latter; 'File > Import...'.

[Tarq57]

What antispy and antivirus system do you use? (Unlikely firefox has been attacked, but just to be sure.)

[BDiONU]

BDiONU . . . . .
Just slightly puzzled by ".....downloaded a fresh copy but when it ran it didn't pick up my favourites from IE as its supposed to do". ...When you say "ran", do you mean as in "open" program, or "import" IE Favorites. ...If you mean the former, then the problem might be solved by the latter; 'File > Import...'.
I meant I ran it, fired up the programme for the first time. I thought there would be an option to Import IE faves but couldn't find one. The Help advice was that Firefox automatically picks up your IE faves and imports them.

BD

[BDiONU]

What antispy and antivirus system do you use? (Unlikely firefox has been attacked, but just to be sure.)
AVG, AdAware, SpyBot S&D, SpywareBlaster, Cr@pCleaner and Zone alarm.

BD

[BLUE SKY THINKER]

BDiONU . . . . .

Ah............that's obviously where our two versions differ (although if you are desperate you can run Firefox Portable (http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable) on a PC; doesn't have to be on a portable device).

That said, you might have more success exporting from IE, rather than importing to Firefox (if that makes sense!). ...See THIS (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_:_FAQs_:_Import_IE_Bookmarks); paragraph: "Import from another browser".

Good luck.

BST.

[Jhieminga]

Have a look at this bit of information: http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/profile

Firefox stores your settings in a 'profile', and it doesn't automatically overwrite this when you reinstall. So there is a chance that your old settings and favourites are still around. The page in the link above describes how you can find your profiles folder, and also how you can restore an old profile to your Firefox installation.

[BDiONU]

Have a look at this bit of information: http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/profile

Firefox stores your settings in a 'profile', and it doesn't automatically overwrite this when you reinstall. So there is a chance that your old settings and favourites are still around. The page in the link above describes how you can find your profiles folder, and also how you can restore an old profile to your Firefox installation.
Thank you for your time :) Unfortunately there is no profile remaining, might be CCleaner cleaned it out.

Blue sky Thinker Thank you, I found the Import function in Managing Bookmarks and brought over all my IE faves :)

Still strange that Firefox behaved as it did though.

BD

[frostbite]

Unfortunately there is no profile remaining, might be CCleaner cleaned it out.



Very likely, I would say!

Ccleaner is a very useful utility, but needs to be handled with great care as it is very enthusiastic in its work.

[maxell]

Try a google for a little program called mozbackup it will backup both firefox and thunderbird for you

[Keef]

My Firefox did that a few weeks ago. After it was all fixed, I found that the reason was that something had "glitched" on the previous shutdown of Firefox, and corrupted the bookmarks file. I think it rewrites it at shutdown if you've added or changed a bookmark.

There's a utility on my PC - not sure if it's "basic" to Firefox or one of the umpteen options I've installed (probably the latter) - that keeps a daily copy of things like the Bookmarks. I just copied over the bookmarks.html file from the previous day's set.

[BDiONU]

Try a google for a little program called mozbackup it will backup both firefox and thunderbird for you
Thanks Maxell I'll give it a try :)

BD

[BDiONU]

My Firefox did that a few weeks ago. After it was all fixed, I found that the reason was that something had "glitched" on the previous shutdown of Firefox, and corrupted the bookmarks file. I think it rewrites it at shutdown if you've added or changed a bookmark.
Ah! It was a 'peculiar' shutdown but I hadn't changed any bookmarks.
There's a utility on my PC - not sure if it's "basic" to Firefox or one of the umpteen options I've installed (probably the latter) - that keeps a daily copy of things like the Bookmarks. I just copied over the bookmarks.html file from the previous day's set.
Right, thanks my old friend Keef, I'll have a hunt for it :)

BD

[Keef]

I just looked - Mozbackup is running. That's the one.

[Golden Ticket]

Looking at Blue Sky Thinkers post, I use Firefox Portable, works fine on my laptop and also will run directly from a USB stick and not leave any remains behind. You can use it anywhere, like an internet cafe and nothing stays behind when you unplug it.

All you need to do to back the whole lot up is copy the Firefox Portable File wholesale and you have a backup of everything. You can even download, email software, media players and anti-virus software now.

[BLUE SKY THINKER]

Re. previous:

HERE (http://portableapps.com/apps)