lost all my firefox bookmarks thanks for avast virus scanner :(

[bigdan]

My Avast virus scanner hasnt been playing nice with Firefox recently. It kept changing my default search provider from Google but that wasnt a big deal.

Around 7/10-11 it said I have problems with 3 extensions (not all FF i think). I removed the first 2 without incident. When I removed the third one the FF browser closed and when I reopened it it was a fresh install. It had the welcome messages of a new browser, all forms, bookmarks, history were gone.

I've gone to the Profiles directory
C:\Users\Daanish\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

I've taken a few screenshots here of the various profiles I have, with the creation and modified dates.
As you can see from this, there are 3 profiles.
The first one (DO etc) was created in 2/2014, modified today. The bookmarkbackups folder is from 7/15/14 onwards.
The second one (FTL etc) was created in 2012, when I bought the computer. For some reason thats completely empty except for a 1 kb Prefs file.
The third one (YHG etc) was created 7/12 modified 7/14. The bookmarkbackups folder was created 7/12. There's 2 backups in it, 7/12 and 7/14.



Profiles Directory
http://u.cubeupload.com/BigDan/ScreenHunter06Jul222.jpg

Profile DO
http://u.cubeupload.com/BigDan/ScreenHunter01Jul222.jpg
http://cubeupload.com/im/BigDan/Scre...er02Jul222.jpg

Profile FTL
http://cubeupload.com/im/BigDan/Scre...er03Jul222.jpg

Profile YHG
http://cubeupload.com/im/BigDan/Scre...er04Jul222.jpg
http://cubeupload.com/im/BigDan/Scre...er05Jul222.jpg




Is there some way to restore some/all of my bookmarks? I've done a search in my computer and dont see any backups I made. I'm hoping there's some kinda auto bookmarking from before but I dont think there is any?

Can anyone help?

Thanks!
Dan

[jdc2000]

You might try something like Recuva to search for deleted files. No guarantee that this will work. If you do get them back, you need to make sure that you COPY the files to a different drive as well as restoring them. As you have discovered, a backup file stored on the same drive is the original is not really a backup, just a duplicate.

[fink]

I haven't previously ever heard of anyone saying that Avast tried to change the search provider. Perhaps you have a malware infection that's the root cause of the problem? What search engine was the change trying to make your browser use?

I use a little freebie program called Mozbackup to make backups of Firefox profiles and store them on other drives for safekeeping.

http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/

[Midknyte]

bookmarks are stored in the places.sqlite file. Did you try copying the places.sqlite from your old profile to the new one?

[bigdan]

I installed Recuva. I dont see any files in there with the name 'bookmarks' in it. There's a bunch of other stuff from the Firefox directory, all last modified 7/20. Is it worth it to recover those? I wouldnt even know how to test them.

there's 2 named healthreport.sqlite xxx
the only .json file is webapps.json, which doesnt seem relevant.

Bunch of other random stuff but nothing implying a backup of bookmarks.

[foxy]

The profiles marked "default" are created when you install the program. They represent FF out-of-the-box--no history, no add-ons, no bookmarks, no tweaks.

The "DO" profile should have a recent copy of bookmarks, although not the latest. And the places.sqlite is fat enough to contain your bookmarks and history. Open the Profile Manager and choose that as your profile. But I know how to access it only in XP.

Avast is screwing me royally too with false negatives, but hasn't yet fooled with my FF profile. Switching to Bitdefender tomorrow.

[bigdan]

The profiles marked "default" are created when you install the program. They represent FF out-of-the-box--no history, no add-ons, no bookmarks, no tweaks.

The "DO" profile should have a recent copy of bookmarks, although not the latest. And the places.sqlite is fat enough to contain your bookmarks and history. Open the Profile Manager and choose that as your profile. But I know how to access it only in XP.

Avast is screwing me royally too with false negatives, but hasn't yet fooled with my FF profile. Switching to Bitdefender tomorrow.

Thanks for this. I think I tried something like this recently but it didnt work. I'll try it when I get home.

I should also mention, if you go back to the pictures I added you can seem in the DO profile, although it was created in 2/2014, all the files within were created (created not modified) on 7/2014, ie on/after the crash. Is that a problem?


Let me see if I can recall what I did earlier. Here's an email I received:

click on Run, then search for 'Firefox.exe -p' click on OK. This should take you to a pop-up window that allows you to change the Fx profile to be used, one of which likely has your bookmarks, etc.

I tried this. That opened a choose your profile list. The only profile given there was called default-1393096600846. There was no other listed there that I could change it to. I take it that's bad news..

BTW why Bitdefender as opposed to AVG? Is it free?

[bigdan]

bookmarks are stored in the places.sqlite file. Did you try copying the places.sqlite from your old profile to the new one?

No I didnt. I can try this when I get home. Is it a simple matter of copying the places.sqlite folder from one profile to another, or is there more involved? What about the bookmark backups directory?

[bigdan]

I haven't previously ever heard of anyone saying that Avast tried to change the search provider. Perhaps you have a malware infection that's the root cause of the problem? What search engine was the change trying to make your browser use?

I use a little freebie program called Mozbackup to make backups of Firefox profiles and store them on other drives for safekeeping.

http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/

It wanted me to choose the new provider from a dropdown list but the default was 'Avast Yahoo'. Which is funny because there was already another Yahoo in there.

Thanks for the backup link. That doesnt help me right now but hopefully in the future. Or actually I should clarify, can it help right now?

[fink]

It won't help now since it only backs up what's in F'Fox folders but it does make the process much easier in the future.

Strange about the search provider thing.. I've never seen that and I just installed Avast twice in the last week on two different computers. I guess it isn't malware exactly but some would say that a hijacked search function by your a/v is pretty darn close.

[Midknyte]

Is it a simple matter of copying the places.sqlite folder from one profile to another, or is there more involved? What about the bookmark backups directory?

Yup. Just copy the file over (backup the places.sqlite that you are overwriting just in case).
You don't need the bookmark backups directory with the places.sqlite file.

[Train]

places.sqlite plugged into searcheverything found it right quickly.

[foxy]

BTW why Bitdefender as opposed to AVG? Is it free?

There are plenty of free A-Vs. After MS dropped XP updating on 4/8, I decided to drop MS Essentials, and read some A-V reviews. I'm trying a different one on each computer. BitDefender is on my other computer, and I've not been getting all the false positives I'm getting on here. If it doesn't like this computer, I'll try AVG.

[foxy]

If it works, the program will make you a new bookmark backup each day for 15 days, and drop the oldest one.

[bigdan]

Thanks for this. I think I tried something like this recently but it didnt work. I'll try it when I get home.

I should also mention, if you go back to the pictures I added you can seem in the DO profile, although it was created in 2/2014, all the files within were created (created not modified) on 7/2014, ie on/after the crash. Is that a problem?


Let me see if I can recall what I did earlier. Here's an email I received:

click on Run, then search for 'Firefox.exe -p' click on OK. This should take you to a pop-up window that allows you to change the Fx profile to be used, one of which likely has your bookmarks, etc.

I tried this. That opened a choose your profile list. The only profile given there was called default-1393096600846. There was no other listed there that I could change it to. I take it that's bad news..

BTW why Bitdefender as opposed to AVG? Is it free?

I tried this. Didnt work. Apparently my DO profile IS my default after all. And that has no bookmarks. Tried loading the other profile, YH, but didnt get any option to in Profile Manager.

Yup. Just copy the file over (backup the places.sqlite that you are overwriting just in case).
You don't need the bookmark backups directory with the places.sqlite file.

Tried this, didnt work. I tried copying from the DO profile to YH, but apparently when I run Firefox DO is what loads, so dont think that did anything. Tried copying YH to DO, that didnt seem to change anything.