Trouble with Firefox

[Tosh McCaber]

Help! My Firefox crashed during one of its automatic upgrades earlier today. (I’m posting this via MS Internet Explorer.) I tried a download, and then opening it to install over the present Firefox, but it refuses to open. So I guess that I shall now have to delete my old Firefox in the Add/Delete Programmes section of the Control Panel, prior to an installation of the latest version.

My question is- how do I go about saving all my (many, many) Firefox bookmarks, and any other settings that I have installed ion the programme?

Thanks for any advice.

[The Flying Pram]

I don't suppose you have a back up of your bookmarks? If not you could try importing these as "favorites" (as MS call them) into IE - "File">>"Import / Export". If this works you should be able to import them back to Firefox when you get it sorted.
Quite often removing something with "Add or Remove Programmes" leaves many configuration settings behind anyway so it might not delete them. It would also be worth looking at the Mozilla site to see if there are any other suggestions, or even posting a request.
There is an "Add on" called "Moz Back-up" to easily make back-up folders, I know it's a bit late now!
Good luck.

[Gonzo]

Do you use the Google toolbar?

I've transferred all my bookmarks from Firefox to Google, so I can access them from any computer.

[Selfloading]

Have you tried system restore?

[Tosh McCaber]

Thanks for the replies- unforunately, I can't access Firefox to be able to export. Can anybody direct me to the area, (probably on my C drive- Docs and Settings?), where the Firefox bookmarks would be filed?

[Saab Dastard]

C: \Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\nnnnnnn.default\bookmarks.html

[Gonzo]

bookmarks.html is the file you need, in the profile folder. This folder is.....

XP: c drive Documents and Settings\<Windows login/user name>\Application Data\Mozilla\

Vista: c drive Users\<Windows login/user name>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\

by default, these folders are hidden.

In XP click START then Run, then type %appdata% then OK.

In Vista, click START, then find the RUN command, and do the same as above.

[Tosh McCaber]

Right-I'mjust about there.Thanks all.

What I'd like a little advice now is how to incorporate the the Bookmark files when I reinstall Mozilla- I've made a back-up of the Pofiles folder. Do I cut and paste it into the new folder created when I reinstall Firefox?

[bnt]

That's how I would do it if I needed to, but it might not come to that. Uninstalling Firefox might not delete that data.

PS: I use the Foxmarks add-on to sync my bookmarks between different machines, and that also serves as a backup. .

[Panman]

Is Firefox misbehaving even through reboots? I usually find that when Firefox crashes you can't open it up again because it has not shutdown properly. Give the computer the ol' three finger salute (ctrl-alt-delete) go into task manager, select the processes tab and then look for firefox.exe. It will most likely still be running even though you cannot see it. Shutdown firefox.exe and it should load up fine.

[Jhieminga]

The link posted above by Saab Dastard gives the 'Profiles' folder in which your profile is stored. If you create a copy of the 'nnnnnnn.default' folder (in which nnnnnnnn is a random string which is created by FF) you can get all your settings back.

After creating the backup, reinstall Firefox, find the folder 'Profiles' again, copy the folder back into this folder (it may actually still be there if you've just copied it) and edit the profiles.ini file using notepad. The last line in this file reads:
Path=Profiles/nnnnnnnn.default

Make sure that nnnnnnnn is changed to point to the folder you've just copied. Save, open Firefox and you should be back in business.

The tip in the post above is also useful and often used by me to get FF behaving again.

[green granite]

Incidentally there appears to be a bug in version 2.0.0.10 (the latest) some animations don't work within some pages, for example smilies animated here but not on another site. (and no it's not a NoScript problem before anyone asks :)) I downloaded the beta version of Firefox 3 and that cured the problem.........in both versions. :ugh:

[HectorusRex]

Tosh.
Have you tried using an add-on "FireTune" for solving 'crashes' in Firefox?
Available from here:-
http://www.totalidea.com/content/firetune/firetune-noup.html
Regards,
HectorusRex