Firefox ReminderFox recovery.

[G-CPTN]

My W8 laptop died.
I now have a secondhand laptop running W10 which the 'mechanics' have copied-over the data from my old hard drive.
When I installed Firefox 46.0 and ReminderFox the ReminderFox entries are blank, however, my new 'identity' at sign-in (of W10) is not the same identity that I used on the old laptop.

I need to recover the entries from ReminderFox.

Is there any way that I can access this data? - bearing in mind W8/W10 - will I be able to search the hard-drive? the 'mechanic' says that the file might be there but hidden - and under a different user profile.


Lots of 'ifs', but I am lost without my extensive diary of appointments stretching many months ahead.

[Jhieminga]

If you can access the W8 laptop's hard drive, see if you can find the profile folder for the Firefox installation on that drive. Then copy that across to your new laptop, following the instructions from this page: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb...refox-profiles

I'm sure the mechanics will not have copied this across, but if you can get this done, you will most likely have your settings, bookmarks, extensions and all the relevant data back. No guarantees though...

[G-CPTN]

I have the W8 hard drive but the W8 laptop is scotched (liquid spillage - mechanic says motherboard caput).
I don't have another working computer - and the mechanic seemed unwilling to accept the challenge when I offered him the original hard drive.

He said that everything had been copied over to the new hard drive, however my simple mind suggested your solution - that the necessary profile would exist on the old hard drive.
He seemed fixed on the different operating systems - which I tried to question him on but he couldn't explain in terms that I understood.
I have in previous years built my own desktops from scratch with various Microsoft operating systems, and I imagined that the old hard drive would have the W8 OS still in place.
In the past I have used caddies with alternate hard drives - but desktop sizes, not laptop sizes.
Without hardware I cannot start to explore further.

[le Pingouin]

Assuming the "mechanic" copied everything across your old Firefox profile should be on the new hard drive. Search for one of the profile files e.g. places.sqlite (make sure you can view hidden files) - obviously you'll find your current profile location but with luck you'll find where the old one is.

If not, you can buy an external USB drive enclosure to put the old laptop drive in and then search that.

[nonsense]

Each Firefox installation has one or more profile directories; the directory names are random characters (different on each installation) with a meaningful file extension, so after you copy a profile directory to a different computer, you need to tell it about the profile directory.

I'm no expert, but I migrated Thunderbird (similar issues) and Firefox from one laptop to another a couple of weeks ago. A few minutes on Google will turn up instructions on migrating profiles to a new installation and convincing the new install to take on the old personality.

[Jhieminga]

If, as le Pingouin stated, the complete drive was copied to your new laptop, you might find the profile folder somewhere. But I doubt if that has been done, more likely only the documents were copied across. You can get a caddy to pop that hard drive in, or look for a SATA to USB connector or dock. There are loads of options and you should be able to find something that will work for a reasonable price. The link I provided above should provide the needed info to find the folder. I hope you'll be able to solve this!

[G-CPTN]

I have now bought a SATA to USB caddie, and will explore the old drive as soon as I find time.

[FullOppositeRudder]

As I recall, Firefox and Thunderbird put their data files in a not altogether obvious location. Further to the information provided above, this page may hold some clues to where the file(s) you need are hiding in a default installation.

Good luck, search carefully, it should be in there somewhere ...

[Jhieminga]

Thanks FullOppositeRudder. I had a quick look at that and the default location for ReminderFox data is the Firefox profile folder. So locating and copying that should work.

(On a slightly related note: I moved a Thunderbird installation to a new computer just yesterday. Copied the profile folder across and pointed the default profile for a new installation to this folder. Instant result: everything back where it was, as on the old system.)