1st prob with firefox.. pfft
 

k was surfing reading up on some world of warcraft info .. shut it down went got coffee.. i got back and launched firefox and bam..

all my bookmarks are gone. no history. browser resets to some start page for firefox.. what gives? some trial wear out or something.. now i gotta find every site ive gone to and bookmarked in the last 7 mos and put them all in again.. sigh..

I've heard of this happening once or twice, but I don't know what causes it :| I'm sure with something that serious that they're working on it, but I can't really say much else besides for that. It's not a common occurance though, that's for sure.

There's been a ton of discussions about these very issues. I suffered the same problems when i loaded 1.0. Check for the bookmarks under the mozilla firefox bookmarks.html file. They may be there. It is also possible that you may have inadvertantly exported them to your IE favorites.

Go to Mozilline forums. http://forums.mozillazine.org/.

Do a search there. You will find an enormous amount of info about this very issue. The new Bugzilla i belive addresses this issue as well. (at least i think it does). good luck.

edit- your bookmarks ARE there. You didnt lose then. You just have to hunt and peck around to find them.

I'm not a big fan of firefox, just isn't my fancy, but something has to be done with IE or I may be making a switch.

Doesn't really contribute to the discussion in this thread, but I'll address it anyway.

There are lots of options besides Firefox. <a href="http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/">K-Meleon</a> and <a href="http://www.opera.com/">Opera</a> to name a couple.

I've heard of similar things happening.. but with Thunderbird. All of a sudden all your mail and everything is just gone. I wonder if there is an issue with the code that the two of them use?

We almost need a sticky thread saying "Best Browser?" or "Talk About Browsers Here".. just to cut out all the random comments that pop up in every firefox/IE thread.

Is everything fixed yet, or do you still need help recovering from this problem?

Use Bookmark Syncronizer if you have access to an FTP site. Back up your bookmarks.html file regularly. Hell, back up your Documents and Settings\<user> directory regularly. :)

he_haha - if you don't like Firefox, use Opera. There is no reason to keep using Internet Explorer, especially when there are alternatives that use mshtml such as MyIE2 and Avant Browser.

While they still use Microsoft's rendering engine (which does have bugs), they seem to be more usable (and maybe less bug-prone?) than the original Internet Explorer (but you're still not safe from exploitation of HTML code) because they have tabbed browsing, amongst other features.

Oh, and you'll have to wait until Longhorn comes out for Microsoft to do anything about Internet Explorer.

What, you thought that putting IE on every desktop actually meant that they would fix bugs regularly?

the problem may be that you switched firefox profiles, or somehow created a new one. everything's still there, for sure. you may need to look and find out if you have another profile on there and delete it to restore back to the old one.

I had this happen with Firefox once before also. Somehow, it decided I had switched profiles and presented me with a blank slate. In my case rebooting my PC was all it took for all of my settings, bookmarks, etc to revert back to normal.

I remember something liked this happened once to me back when this browser was called pheonix (probably a different problem though) go .mozilla dir..or (User)/Application data/firefox(or mozilla, can't remember)/ and if your bookmarks.html is still their just import inside of firefox...and you might want to file a bug report...

Same thing happen to once but when it the browser asked me if i wan't to start a new or use my default.

This happened to me once too, but for no apparent reason. Apparently its a tic Firefox has. I have my bookmarks printed out just in case it happens again.

This has happened to me three times. I now keep a backup in a "misc" folder on my desktop. Doesn't bother me much.

So weird, this JUST happened to me, of course, I go to post it on TFP, tons of others, same problem. I'm going to try and reboot in a bit, maybe theyll be back, unfortunately, I already messed around and worked on remembering mine. Wonder if I'll have all duplicates after I reboot.

well it even reset my home page.. its like it delete itself and put in a blank fresh copy.. its ok i backed up my faves a while back only lost a few one being that cool per. table interactive site.. sigh

granted this is the first flub ive seen yet with it.. so im ok and still using it.

When you lost your bookmarks, do you recall seeing a message pop up asking you to choose or create a profile? This happens if you quit Firefox, but the process doesn't end. When you try to start Firefox again, it sees that your profile is already in use and asks you to use another one.

I suspect that you have accidentally created a new profile. Find the old stuff as follows:
There is some discussion as to how to make it more obvious to the end user that this is what happened; hopefully, it'll be better in version 1.1.

woot yeah thats was it thanks.. grr so is this windows fault ?

Yes and no. If you are interested in the details, read Bug 253950 - When the default profile is locked on startup, UI needs to be less confusing.

bookmarks...dissapeared...
 

Hello all, well basically my problem is, earlier on I was using my laptop to stick some songs into itunes and look at my email... when I went back to the com about an hour later all my bookmarks have just...gone. I'm using firefox 1.0 and havnt installed or uninstalled anything or done really anything serious since they were last there... any ideas anyone?

/edit: Just looked through some more searches on this on here and found a few more people with a similar problem, but nothing that really helps me.

The exact same thing happened to me. I have FirefoxI hadn't done anything different, hadn't installed or deleted any programs, and my hundreds of bookmarks were completely deleted. :(

Yeah, this seems to be a weird bug in Firefox that I hope developers will fix as soon as possible. I haven't had this happen to me personally, but it has to a few friends of mine.

Check your c:\documents and settings\<your profile name> folder and have a look in there for them.
Sometimes Firefox flips out and thinks you're a new user.

Well. I just lost hours of bookmarks. Everything from bill websites, school sites, flash animations I've been digging up.

Damn this POS.

There is no way I'm using firefox after this shit.
I've been all over the mozilla support page.
It's a known issue. Depending on how lucky you are, you MIGHT be able to recover your bookmarks.

If you're not lucky, you get a bunch of twerps telling you "Gee, you should back up yoru bookmarks."

Well GEE WHIZ, I've never had software stab me in the back like this. For all the crap that IE gets blamed for I never had a problem like this. I never got hit with an exploit, I never got hit by some security threat.

Firefox though, it will take your shit and just trash it. SORRY too bad. That's just what happens.

Fuck the fox.

It's an ugly problem.
It got me.

NOTHING on all the mozilla support fourms worked. Everything is gone. No bookmarks for me. All that TIME gone..poof...just like that.

I read the threads, I tried it all. No go.

I'm done with firefox.

Doesn't ask me to create a new profile. It just decides "Hey, I'm bored" and erases my bookmarks. Next time it happens, I'll post exactly what I was doing and how it might have affected firefox.

Wow, such hostility after one bad experience? God help the cashier at Stop & Shop that gives you the wrong change.
Does it even matter? If you use the bookmarks enough that they deserve to be bookmarks, then you know what the page is called and what it's about. So... Google has your back. And from then on, you keep a backup. I lost my bookmarks twice before I backed them up.

I guess I'm just an unlucky one... had a look at firefox profiles and the bookmarks and no luck. Quite dissapointed, bookmarks were one thing I never really thought of backing up, but nevermind, still prefer FF to IE even after this. Cheers people.

Billeage, try this before you give up entirely:

There is a huge difference from a cashier making erronious change and this. It's not even close to similar, for me anyway.

Firefox is this big wondeful browser that gets chatted up like it's a savior from above. Not only will it make browsing better, safer, faster, but it cooks dinner too.

For all of IE's supposed flaws, I never suffered data loss because of it. NEVER. Let me repeat that, for all IE's flaws I never had a destructive problem caused by it.

Sure, IE froze up. So does Firefox. Except when Firefox crashes it causes destructive data loss, in version 1.0. That is simply unacceptable.

I'm trying to explain why I'm so upset.

I have taken more than average measures to protect my data. I don't have to explain that, as I'm sure you all know what actively securing your PC takes. I make a CD a week with all my docs, and my wifes, the files we "can't live with out" go on CD once a WEEK. Never in my wildest dreams did I think "gee, my bookmarks might just vanish." I mean, nothing short of a total system crash should have done that.

I'm pissed because for all the text written about viruses, and all the horror stories of "omg, I lost every thing because I installed XXX and it has a virus/malware," for all that, I NEVER suffered destructive data loss because of a virus/malware issue.

I go to all the trouble to protect my stuff, to backup my docs/spreadsheets/pics, and my damn <i>browser</i> gets me? The browser enough people can't stop praising? That's a buch of bs.

I really can't say that I expected a version 1.0 to have a bug, a well known bug, that just occasionally destroys data. I mean, give me a break.

If Word just occasionally deleted your term papers, I think you'd be pissed.

But of course, in the "non-normal" world of computers, people would actually just tell you "Gee, you didn't KNOW Word deletes files at random? You should KNOW to back up your files."

They make viruses/malware that causes data loss, and it's my browser that gets me.
Sure, I can replace my bookmarks. The ones I use all the time, my toolbar, yeah, I can replace them easy. The other 50ish bookmarsk, of random flash animation sites, of random tech sites I stumbled on, and use only occasionally, the shopping sites I used to check only when I need something, all gone. All that stuff you book mark because you want it, and don't want to memorize the url, 'cuase you don't go there often, all gone. And that's just seriously annoying.

Hey red, thanks man, but that's the "easy fix." It's posted about 2 dozen times on the support forums. But, it doesn't apply to me.

I'm the guy who simply has blank bookmark files, and that's how it is. I don't have a locked.** file hanging around to delete. I deleted all the chache folders, some XUL.** file, and that's supposed to do it, but no dice.... I tried the above fix, I don't have two profiles. For sure I have view hidden files and folders on, they're not hiding from me.

I did the search of scandisk files looking for renamed bookmarks.html files, I searched for "bookmarks-*.html" because apparently one possibility is that your real bookmarks.html get renamed "bookmarks-1.html" or the like. But, not for me.

I really am struggling to understand how it's just tolerated, in a ver. 1.0, that if the program glitches it causes destructive data loss.

I mean, that's a bad joke.

Ah, I missed that important point. Your problem is different than the 99% of the people who say "bookmarks lost". I'll look further, and let you know what I see.

The main theories seem to be that it is a Windows problem, not Firefox, and something to do with how open files are handled during a crash. Similar things seem to happen with Opera. Someone had luck with
I'll check Bugzilla to see if I can find something appropriate.

OK, check out this bug and see if it describes your situation (putting the bookmarks in a location that is not always available):
Bug 251692 - bookmarks file is overwritten by an empty file in a certain mount sequence
(and similarly, Bug 259801 - start of firefox from samba network drive deletes existing bookmarks.html)

Otherwise, there's
Bug 249150 - Bookmarks file is overwritten (deleted) randomly
which doesn't really have much information in it.

Ah, I suspect this may indeed be a Windows problem. I haven't had this happen to me with Firefox, but it did happen once with Opera.

Ironically, just last night I was reading about something totally different that may pertain to this. To quote (the descriptions regards Linux unless otherwise states):

So, I'm wondering if it has to do with the differences in how the NT kernel opens files. Couldn't really explain how, but that's what it sounds like to me at least. Not sure how something like this would be fixed. Perhaps if it were to create an automatic backup every time you closed, this way if anything was lost it wouldn't be TOO much at least.....pretty hackish, but I don't know what else could be done if it does, in fact, relate to the NT kernel itself.

(link to source: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=291932)

I appreciate the looking you're doing, or the input even if it's not on my behalf.

Red, checked those out. The first two: No.
The third one is pretty much it. Bookmarks gone. Poof. Whups.

I email myself my essays/term papers. Why? Because every once in a while Windows shits itself and it's off to find my installation CD. (For some reason, the CD Burning app on Knoppix always eats my CDs.) Once I had to retype an entire essay from an early draft I had printed out.

Now it seems like an OS should get much more attention than a browser, and therefore be much more stable. I'm sure we all have our stories about Windows.

...You should KNOW to back up your files. Whether it's Word, Firefox, Windows, or a virus, something will eventually destroy some of your data unless you're really lucky.

I lost some of those. If you really need it, you'll find it again. Or you'll find a replacement. I managed to do so.

Yes, annoying. Should you have lost your bookmarks? No. But it's annoying, not OMG! Firefox sent my CC number to Russia!

Now I'm not trying to reconvince you to use FF. I really don't care what you use. It's just that you're attacking it as rabidly as people attack MS.

(threads merged)

billege, there's also a bunch of people looking into a "history file deletes itself" issue; it is possible that the two are connected. I'm watching both of these issues through Bugzilla, I'll report back if anything useful happens.