Closed Bug 319196 Opened 19 years ago Closed 5 years ago

customized toolbar always reset to default on restart, bookmarks and search engines lost, unable to add search engines (localstore.rdf corruption on upgrade or crash). SEE URL FIELD FOR SUPPORT LINK

Categories

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect, P3)

Product:
Toolkit
Component:
Startup and Profile System
Platform:
x86
Windows XP
Type:
defect

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED WORKSFORME

People

(Reporter: c.ascheberg, Unassigned)

References

(
URL
)

Details

(Keywords: dataloss, Whiteboard: Go to http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Toolbar+keeps+resetting for help restoring your files. THIS IS NOT A SUPPORT FORUM. [notacrash])

Attachments

(4 files)

corrupt localstore.rdf after crash
25.70 KB, text/plain
Details
corrupt localstore after update
8.11 KB, application/octet-stream
Details
broken bookmarks after update
2.26 KB, text/plain
Details
localstore.rdf of FF 4.0.1
69.98 KB, application/octet-stream
Details 
User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5

I already read some bug reports about lost bookmarks and profiles. In my case the customized toolbar was reset to default and I lost all my bookmarks. I importet my bookmars from a file and also modified the toolbar again but none of these changes were saved! It was finally possible to save these changes after deleting my profile and creating a new one.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1. I have no idea how to reproduce this nor why this happens but it is not the first time that this happens.
Well, it happend again (and I have no idea why)
This time I can restore my bookmarks and they do not disappear when restarting firefox but I can not save any changes that have to do with the tollbars.
Now I also tried to make these changes with latest-trunk version but they are not saved after restart, either.
Can anybody tell me if there is any file that I have to delete (because it might be corrupted)?

The file you need to delete is localstore.rdf, in your profile folder.
See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile for how to find your profile.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 307558 ***
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 19 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
Status: RESOLVED → UNCONFIRMED
Resolution: DUPLICATE → ---
Reopening as I am confident this is a different bug.  It's still happening in updates to 1.5.0.4 .
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
*** Bug 340506 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 325634 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 311528 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Summary: customized toolbar reset to default, bookmarks lost, unable to save changes → customized toolbar reset to default, bookmarks and search engines lost, unable to save changes or add search engines
Summary: customized toolbar reset to default, bookmarks and search engines lost, unable to save changes or add search engines → customized toolbar always reset to default on restart, bookmarks and search engines lost, unable to add search engines (localstore.rdf corruption on upgrade)
*** Bug 316549 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 342305 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 330303 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
This is a "top support" issue in #firefox. We regularly see people who have a corrupt localstore.rdf from Firefox or their OS crashing, or when the updater restarts to apply the patch. It would be a major improvment if handling of this file could be made more robust.
Flags: blocking-firefox2?
Summary: customized toolbar always reset to default on restart, bookmarks and search engines lost, unable to add search engines (localstore.rdf corruption on upgrade) → customized toolbar always reset to default on restart, bookmarks and search engines lost, unable to add search engines (localstore.rdf corruption on upgrade or crash)
*** Bug 335232 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Benjamin, Axel, is there a way to detect a corrupt RDF file and just nuke it during startup?
(In reply to comment #12)
> Benjamin, Axel, is there a way to detect a corrupt RDF file and just nuke it
> during startup?
> 

I think the bigger concern here is what is taking out the RDF AND the bookmarks. If what you're asking can be done, but the bookmarks are already lost, then there's no point, at least in this bug, to take that approach.  It's a great question for the corrupt downloads.rdf crash bug though.
In many cases, the same issue that causes problems for bookmarks.html will apply to any single-file storage solution.  Sqlite has some pretty robust handling for this type of thing, which is why we're migrating profile files in that direction.
how about we try and find out if this is *Actually* a specific issue killing all these people's bookmarks.html and localstore.rdf files as there was killing just the localstore.rdf or are you going to add "resolved - probably random" as a resolution?
Alright, as per conversation with mconnor and ispiked I'm commenting to make it more clear that this is happening on updates (not sure about other times, haven't come across any reports) as per comment #3.  

There isn't really a bug that makes this more clear, as it's based on my own anecdotal evidence from helping in #firefox. We got a LOT of this, as cf commented already and it's easier for us to realize it is infact happening on the update than it is for a user who has only updated once or twice and hasn't put it together.

For those of you who are having this problem, it would be incredibly helpful if you could email me the profiles you're seeing this on, or if you can, the corrupt bookmarks.html and localstore.rdf (probably requires updating firefox to corrupt them)
All these things already happend to me, too, but furthermore even autocomplete entries and sometimes all saved options got lost.But changes there were saved even after restart.
Not going to block FF2 on this though the problem definitely sounds serious.  We need steps to reproduce this, so we can get someone to fix it.
Flags: blocking-firefox2? → blocking-firefox2-
(It would also be nice if there were an example of a corrupt localstore.rdf attached to the bug.)
For the sake of having something up, here is a corrupt localstore.rdf I got from someone after they lost these files from a crash.  I'll try and get on getting one after it's happened after an update to see if it's the same thing.
Comment on attachment 227187 [details]
corrupt localstore.rdf after crash

localstore.rdf should be just a plain text file, I guess.
Attachment #227187 - Attachment mime type: application/octet-stream → text/plain
It's not plaintext, it's some 26318 bytes of '\0', it seems.
vlad also found a few kb of nulls instead of a valid localstore.rdf, see bug 306661 comment #2
*** Bug 342887 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 342980 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Caught a different user with problems after update, here's her localstore.rdf as you can see it's doing the same.
Here's her bookmarks.html, again after update.
Ok so I got the whole profile from the user, if anyone thinks that'll help.  For privacy reasons I won't put it up here, but if someone wants to see it I have it.

User is on XP, NTFS

I'll try and get more specific info and share it if I can.
I think you're on to something with this NTFS thing.  I looked through all the duplicate bugs, and all but one of them were Windows XP, and the other one was Windows 2000.  I don't think it's a coincidence.
(In reply to comment #29)
>
Could also be that apple or linux users are more advanced users who resolve the problem rather than seeing it as a bug. Corrupted files in the profile have always been so common, that you don't always realize that these are bugs that should be fixed.

*** Bug 343431 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 343438 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 343995 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 344380 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
for those of you seeing/have seen this issue it would be awesome if you could all post your answer to this question if you remember it - How did you exit firefox to install the update? did firefox close itself in the dialog?  Did you close it by hitting the x or exit etc?  Did you kill it in task manager? <-- If you killed it in task manager was there more than one firefox.exe going?

Maybe this can help us figure out the common thread.
(In reply to comment #35)Responding to the call for comment:  My upgrade occurred automatically, and seamlessly, except for the missing bookmarks and the lost search engines.  I restarted in safe-mode to reset the toolbar and that only brought back the search engines.  I had to reimport my bookmarks from a backup.  I don't remember any other erratic behavior.  No crash or freeze associated with the file corruption.  The only thing that happened was the automatic upgrade.
I had a profile that got corrupted in this way.  My entire computer crashed with Firefox running, and when I restarted localstore.rdf was hosed.
*** Bug 346536 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 346865 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I'm having the same problem. Tried almost all the solutions that I've found here. It happened after a windows xp crash. My bookmarks disappeared, my customized settings changed, and I can't get them to change back. I tried safe mode, deleting and putting a new localstore.rdf file, I even tried uninstalling/delete folders/reinstalling the program. At the moment I'm stuck with firefox refusing to save any of my settings. Anyone point me in the right direction for the fix or have other ideas to what my problem could be?

if you are having problems fixing the problem according to the article please see support in irc.mozilla.org in #firefox for help.
(In reply to comment #35)

First of all, this issue is most certainly NOT specific to XP & NTFS because I've been experiencing this almost daily on Linux (Kubuntu) for the past few weeks, yet I've never seen this on XP. 

I almost always shutdown FF with the 'X' close button.

After I fix this issue, it works until the next system restart or so.  Until this morning, when my bookmarks disappeared I could get my bookmarks back by copying one of the bookmark backups and everything was hunkydory for the rest of the day, but today that didn't work and I had to reset my toolbars from safemode in order for FF to read my bookmarks file.
This has only started occuring for me in the past couple weeks-probably after I upgraded to 1.5.0.5 or 1.5.0.5.

Also, today my most recent bookmark backup file would not work in FF.  When starting FF it would apparently overwrite it with my 471 byte bookmarks.bak file.  I had to copy one from a couple days earlier in order to get FF not to overwrite it and sucessfully display my bookmarks.

For (K)Ubuntu users: I suggest not to start Firefox with "sudo": the last two or three times I did it, I found the permissions on my profile spoiled, and an effect similar to what is described earlier. Do it either becoming root with "su" or installi Firefox straightly in your home directory (so it is possible to upgrade as normal user).

I must say, I think this problem started to occur since I upgraded from Ubuntu version 5.10 to 6.06.

Hope this will help. Bye.
*** Bug 348340 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
sandpeople@gmail.com - I'm wondering if you should file a separate linux bug for what you're seeing but mention it here.  It may or may not be the same issue, but you're seeing it on every start where this bug is focusing more on why it happens after an update. When this happens again, before you fix your localstore.rdf can you compare it to the one attached?  If it's the same then that makes it more likely it's the same root cause, if it's different then it'd be a different issue.
*** Bug 348772 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I need some feedback on this, guys can you reply to the bug, or just email me directly - when the window for the update that broke these files came up, did you click restart now or did you click later?
I hate to be a fly in the ointment but:
I have not updated Firefox for over a month+. I'm running XP pro/2. When the blue screen came up and I restarted the bookmarks and quickstart file were gone AND the startup in Firefox will only open in 1/2 screen no matter what I did. 
Because more than 1 system was corrupt I felt a complete reinstall was called for. So after uninstalling (+ ALL componants except a backup copy of my bookmarks). I then ran a registry cleaner. The thing I noticed was that about 25 connections to my Zone Alarm client file (firewall)were missing. I deleted and reinstalled Zone alarm. I reinstalled Firefox and for 3 days it worked perfectly. Then i installed my bookmarks. When I closed Firefox (using the X as I always do) after it closed came the blue screen again. On startup XP said I had a bad driver (it didn't say witch one). The first time this happened the same driver notice occured, I either updated or reinstalled every driver I could find on my system. 
My assesment: Either intentionally (malicious code, virus,ect) was/is attached when I download a bookmark or unintentionally how they worded there bookmark is reacting very badly with the program and is removed when XP catches it while causing other problems. Either way its bound to get worse.
Temp Cure (I think.) Reinstall firefox. DO NOT down load bookmarks to attached file. I will keep my bookmark file in a seperate unattached file and use it that way. If I'm still working in a couple of weeks/ or not I'll update you.
(In reply to comment #15)
> how about we try and find out if this is *Actually* a specific issue killing
> all these people's bookmarks.html and localstore.rdf files as there was killing
> just the localstore.rdf or are you going to add "resolved - probably random" as
> a resolution?
> 


john that would make what you're seeing a different issue that should get its own bug, in which you should attach the file with your bookmarks that you think are doing this.
*** Bug 350411 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 348107 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 350880 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 351266 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 351434 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 351454 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 351457 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
This Really needs to be fixed, Because every time, page to page I have to uncheck that all these extra tools bars that I DO NOT want on my screen keep coming up -the the Icons no matter how many times I check Small Icons huge ones open with each new page. 
THEN ALL my bookmarks are gone -never to be seen again.
And Firefox will not allow me to set new bookmarks. 
Which is really annoying - when will this be fixed???
This isn't happening to everyone, so it'll be fixed when either we can figure out what's specific about the people it's happening to, or if there's something else that can be done.  There is talk about at least having firefox realize these files are broken and replace them with defaults, which would still reset your settings initially but solve the issue that you can't start setting things until you fix the files by hand.

In the mean time you should be able to prevent this by closing firefox by hand before restarting your pc, rather than let windows close it.

If there is anyone that sees this *Every* time they restart their pc, emailing me directly so we can go through some stuff and try and track this down would be more than helpful.
I don't know if this is going to help but the first time the bug ate the Firefox files I completely uninstalled and reinstalled the program. Including the plugins and it happened again. I had thought it was the bookmark file. No such luck. I completely uninstalled and reinstalled the program again. This time no plugins. Its been working perfectly now for a week. The only plugin I am running is Flashplayer. Nun of the others are installed but Media player seems to work anyway. I'm chicken to install the other plugins. I have too much work to catch up on as it is. I hope that this information helps.
John
John - it'd help if you could put the plugins back and see if it happens all over again, and if so list which they were.  If nothing else, if you can list which they were so we can see if you have something that for instance I don't.
HELP - For some reason all my bookmarks have gone - I think their must of been an update and I am no techie wizard - I had many bookmarks that were important and I will not be able to reproduce - Is their a fix to this? I hope so otherwise I will go back to IE as this has never happened before  -Can some one help? Thanks K
Kevin - this isn't a support forum, this is a discussion for tracking the bug.  Please see forums.mozillazine.org or #firefox on irc.mozilla.org for support.
*** Bug 352371 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 352611 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 353257 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
(In reply to comment #66)
> Think this is the same bug - using 1.5.0.7, had left the PC running overnight but in the morning FF had hung. Had to turn PC off and back on, only to find all bookmarks and toolbar settings had gone, FF always starts in half screen size, but also all the extensions had evaporated? Well actually they'd all gone out of the extension viewer, I could still get to some of them via the Tools menu. Have tried starting in safe mode and resetting everything, and also deleted the localstore.rdf and finally have FF working (sort of) again. However it refuses to install any extensions now - you click the install button but nothing happens and nothing shows in the extensions list.

Is this another problem with the same bug or is this a different one?
yes, its the same bug, although your extensions.rdf is affected as well as your bookmarks (which pass through an rdf before getting to the html) and localstore.rdf .
*** Bug 353913 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I started firefox, then it automatically installed the update and then restarted by itself and when i got back it had no god damn bookmarks!!

I'm still so **** i lost all my bookmarks that i would fist the idiot in the face who is responsible for the bug. 
If you are using the most recent version of firefox, your bookmarks are backed up.  If you have no new information to provide, please simply follow the support links, specifically http://kb.mozillazine.org/Lost_bookmarks to get yourself set back up.

If you see this happening to you without restarting your pc, please let us know.
I've had this happen before and it happenned again this week.

I was able to recover my bookmarks by uninstalling FF and reinstalling an older build.  

In this case I installed "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20060818 Minefield/3.0a1" and regained all of my bookmarks then exported them to a known file for the future.  

When I updated to "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20061001 Minefield/3.0a1" sure enough my current bookmarks were gone again.  They were replaced with a much older bookmark set from who knows how long ago.

I hope this helps out.

Thanks to all of you for all your work on this GREAT product.

Scott
(In reply to comment #72)

This is due the Places being turned off [1], which is unrelated to this bug.

[1] http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2006/09/20/places-to-be-disabled-on-trunk-nightlies/
*** Bug 355499 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Blocks: 284099
No longer blocks: 284099
*** Bug 356273 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 356368 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 356465 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 356698 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 356735 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 356986 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 356968 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 357518 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 357586 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 357587 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
A fix for bug 333907 should limit this to happening on crashes and not on shut down.
Depends on: 333907
*** Bug 357744 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 358204 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 358212 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I had this exact same bug. After an uninstall and reinstall, the bug had gone.

The only things that were different between the two installs were:
1. On the bad install, Multiple Users were running on the same machine - myself (the Admin) and one other.
2. The other user was running Firefox at the time (infantile error, I know...)

Hope this helps - it could be to do with multiple users logged on at the same time as installation occurs.
(In reply to comment #89)
> I had this exact same bug. After an uninstall and reinstall, the bug had gone.

That's actually Bug 357922.
*** Bug 358388 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 340221 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 358514 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
(In reply to comment #93)
> *** Bug 358514 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

> ok i had a strange problem related to this same problems not restoring settings on exit and bookmarks additional folders would not work 
but this wasn't an actual firefox problem i don't think.
I installed Comodo Free firewall and the localstore.rdf basically became READ ONLY
well comodo changed my boot.ini file and there was a comodo file left over after i uninstalled it and it did not change the boot.ini back to original.
Here is the fix: 1:make restore point 2: make copy of BOOT.BAK and place somewhere else then delete C:\boot.ini.comodofirewall take the copy of BOOT.BAK
and rename to boot.ini and replace then uninstall firefox completely 3: Reboot system. 4:search for localstore.rdf and remove all references to it. 5: reinstall firefox and all should be fine. Hope this helps others with this problem.


i have this problem whenever I restarted the PC or logoff, the homepage is reseted and all the settings not saved. Then I noticed that the file prefs.js is being deleted everytime I restart/logoff. 

I then tried to delete the startup programs (registry) and found out that the program TuoTu (some bit torrent software) is causing the deletion of the prefs.js. Try this method out ... maybe some programs different programs that you may have is behaving the same as this program that I have in my computer.
Flags: blocking1.8.1.1?
Flags: blocking-firefox3?
Delete the localstore.rdf file.  You must delete the file when FireFox IS NOT RUNNING.  When you restart FireFox, the file will be recreated correctly.  It takes some searching to find the file, but deleting this file resolved the problem.   This problem started when I upgraded to FF 1.507, maybe something in the upgrade process corrupted the file.
Problem with toolbars solved here. (additionally: bookmarks were not saved correctly)
Created a new profile with the profile manager (FF not running)
RUN: firefox.exe -profilemanager
Removed other profile to \Temp folder

Had to restore the password database (search google Mozilla password profile)
Short: Quit FF, copy key3.db and 123456.s form \Temp to new profile, edit prefs.js with location of file : user_pref("signon.SignonFileName", "123456.s");
Also copied cookies file, just in case

Thanks. All's fine now.


Not going to block on this, but its something we want to keep on radar to be fixed.
Flags: wanted1.8.1.x+
Flags: blocking1.8.1.1?
Flags: blocking1.8.1.1-
*** Bug 360369 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
customized toolbar always reset to default on restart, except 3 items. The rest is gone. Add-ons also disappeared.I cannot replace neither of them because they are not anymore avialable in de customizing window!  
Everything however is back when I ask a new window and another new window...
So to have everything as before I always need to ask a new window.
Most annoying.
Launching Firefox 2.0 is also very slowly.

SYSTEM: MAC OSX 10.3.9, Firefox 2.0
- Upgrade to firefox 2 makes working search box (broken before) Haven't tried adding any others, at least google is working and I don't want to ruin it.

- Bookmarks and Customize Toolbars still not working properly - Bookmarks now even worse than before.

- Deleting localstore.rdf does not resolve the problem.
Herman, I think you're experiencing a different bug, could you file separately and mention it in here?

Pam, I think you're seeing a different bug as well, but unless you're descriptive of how things aren't working,  it's hard to tell.
Help! I suffer an issue here on my pc which I was told would match this bug; had firefox 1.5.0.7 installed, upgraded to 2.0, since then my bookmarks got lost! I tried to completely uninstall version 2.0 and reinstall it... didn't work. Funny thing is, that I can import my old bookmarks and have them then until I shutdown/restart firefox, after that they're lost again!

I also deleted the localstore.rdf in my profile folder after shutting down firefox. But this didn't change anything.

Help, anybody a good advise... I get crazy here! Thanks
Ok! let me provide more detail. I definitely want to post to the right bug report.

Before upgrade:
Search box stopped working (I think on an auto-upgrade). Search engines could not be added, nor did default Google work. Actually, it showed no search engines installed at all.

Customize Toolbars did not work: It would look like it worked but on close/re-open it was reset to default.

Add Bookmarks would lead to a dialogue that said Create in: "Bookmarks", but when Ok is pressed, nothing happens. One must select a different Create in:, The full menu options are:
Bookmarks
Bookmarks Toolbar
-------------<separator line>
Bookmarks
Some but not all of my folders follow.

To add something to my bookmarks, I need to choose the second "Bookmarks" and then decide which folder to drag and drop to (using bookmarks sidebar).

After upgrade:
Search box seems to work! Hurray! Don't want to mess with it by trying to add other engines.

Customize toolbar still not saving settings on program close/reopen.

Bookmarks are even worse! Now I still have to select the second "Bookmarks", but it also erases default bookmark title. Finally, the Add Bookmark window does not disappear once OK is pressed, making the user uncertain of whether or not any (title-less) bookmark was saved or not. 
*** Bug 361007 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I have the same problem, it should be good if someone correct it and makes a FireFox update !
What's a rdf file ? (i'm french)
What's a rdf file ? (i'm french)
*** Bug 361318 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
This bug apeared in the official Firefox 2.0 final release. It is very nasty, and there is another symptom for it: the Firefox executable firefox.exe keeps running in the background even after closing all visibe windows, and without any downloads or Page> SaveAs.. running in the background either. The program keeps running and when re-running firefox, another instance of the program may load. I abandoned version 2.0 for that reason: Only God knows how could they let it out with that severe bug. IT  IS  UNACCEPATBLE!
firefox.exe running in the background isn't a symptom, it's the cause, and it is potentially a sign you have a trojan, if you can't kill the process in task manager either.  If you kill the process in task manager and it does not come back on its own then you have a plugin or extension issue.  If you kill it and it does come back on its own then you are infected.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox.exe_always_open
*** Bug 326357 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 362375 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 362517 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I've been having this same problem. Every time I restart Firefox, all the toolbars revert to default. My bookmarks are _usually_ ok, but twice, a single subfolder has been deleted. I'm running Windows XP  with SP2.
*** Bug 354012 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 362622 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 361440 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 362748 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 363036 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 279480 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
(In reply to comment #49)
I also lost all bookmarks after an update, when I add new ones their title is blank, Firefox never opens in full screen and I lost all search plugins. Windows XP Firefox 2.0
*** Bug 327210 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 363855 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Losing all my bookmarks has upset me greatly! This is the 2nd time this has happened with Firefox... Why can't they be saved and backed up like IE ??? Why are there no soulutions offered from Tech Support ?? I may have to go back to IE.  Also,this process of reporting problems is as bad as the problems themself.
(In reply to comment #125)
> Losing all my bookmarks has upset me greatly! This is the 2nd time this has
> happened with Firefox... Why can't they be saved and backed up like IE ??? Why
> are there no soulutions offered from Tech Support ?? I may have to go back to
> IE.  Also,this process of reporting problems is as bad as the problems
> themself.
> 

As far as I know, they can be .... it's just different in Firefox! :-)  Do Bookmarks --> Organize Bookmarks, then from the File Menu, select Export and you can save the bookmarks anywhere you want.  Then when you want to retrieve them, just import that file.

I've seen some strange behavior at work that reminded me of this bug (btw: this bug still happens to me at home all the time...) so what happened:
I had Firefox opened with (quite a) few tabs open and closed it normally. I've configured it the way that Firefox always starts the last Session again. The next thing I did was clicking a link from another program, the result was that Firefox started showing the chosen URL (without opening the tabs from the last Session) but at the same time all the settings and bookmarks and settings for plugins were reset. I closed Firefox after that and when I opened it again later, all the settings were ok again, just as I had set them up.
So any ideas about that? I do use WinXP SP2 and FF 2.0 at work. (This also might be a new bug, I've never seen this happen before)
(In reply to comment #125)
> Losing all my bookmarks has upset me greatly! This is the 2nd time this has
> happened with Firefox... Why can't they be saved and backed up like IE ??? Why
> are there no soulutions offered from Tech Support ?? I may have to go back to
> IE.  Also,this process of reporting problems is as bad as the problems
> themself.
> 

there are solutions and they have been posted to this bug.  Try reading comment #71.  Also this isn't tech support, this is for tracking and fixing things that are wrong with the firefox code. See irc.mozilla.org or forums.mozillazine.org for user support
URL: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Lost_bookmarks
> there are solutions and they have been posted to this bug. 

Do you mean work arounds?
This bug doesn't appear to be fixed yet.
(In reply to comment #129)
> > there are solutions and they have been posted to this bug. 
> 
> Do you mean work arounds?
> This bug doesn't appear to be fixed yet.
> 

Sorry, that last comment was me, didn't realize mconnor was still logged in here.

Whether or not they're solutions or workarounds depends on the cause.  I used the word solutions in the context that was originally used in the quoted text.
As usual,this was partly preventable,and fixable...I found my "Bookmarks Backup" in my "Profile" folder in my Documents and Settings tree...I hit 'import" and my "lost bookmarks" came back came back !
*** Bug 364431 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
This is critical.  Please get "lost bookmarks" issue resolved.  Two years of work down the drain.
(In reply to comment #133)
> This is critical.  Please get "lost bookmarks" issue resolved.  Two years of
> work down the drain.

Did you check the bookmark backups folder?
This turns out to be a doc issue more than anything, i.e., finding and accessing the backups.  No need to search directories with "meaningless" strings since the backups are neatly packaged and immediately accessible via the "Export" function in the Bookmarks manager.
*** Bug 364796 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I've had the same issue (bookmarks not saved, always default size of window on startup), it occured immediately after installing Firefox 2.0.0.1 (no update) on Vista RC1.

After setting the whole profile-folder writeable, those problems were solved. (Same for Thunderbird btw, where addon settings were not saved.)
(In reply to comment #137)
> 
> After setting the whole profile-folder writeable, those problems were solved.
> (Same for Thunderbird btw, where addon settings were not saved.)

I can confirm the same effect on Win2k: Installing (new, no update) FF 2.0.0.1 on a freshly installed Win2k had the same odd behavior of toolbars and bookmarks. After setting the whole profile folder (and all subfolders and files) to writable saving of toolbars and bookmakrs worked fine. In fact, localstore.rdf was set readonly before. 

I'm not sure anymore but I think saving worked fine from the beginning when using the Windows Administrator account, the bug maybe only occured with other Windows user accounts. 

Maybe a simple problem with the file permission attributes?


 


(In reply to comment #142)
> 
> Maybe a simple problem with the file permission attributes?
> 

If you are using the DE (german) Version of Firefox 2001, it could be Bug 364599
Flags: blocking1.8.1.2?
Can't block on this, since it's not well understood and needs an owner.  Let's try to find someone to dig into this and see if we can get a handle on it for next time.
Flags: blocking1.8.1.2? → blocking1.8.1.2-
As an original reporter of the bookmarks problem when ff 2 was released, I am glad to see some merging of trouble reports. I can't use FF 2+ without a fix. The only thing I've seen in this whole list that might be a solution is mentioned in  #137 and #142 (making profile folder writable). I will wait for final confirmation of a fix before re-installing FF 2+. However #142, mentions a possibility that administrator is immune to the problem, it is not. I always run as administrator. I'd also suggest that whoever wrote (or re-wrote) the bookmarks routine(s), compare the ff 1 and ff2 versions. FWIW: I don't really care for the way bookmarks is designed, I like IE's better. A rewrite attempt would likely flush out the culprit. 
Here is more information on this ongoing adventure:
The path I followed in comment #60 led no where. My frustration got the better of me and I uninstalled FF2 and used IE7. I HATE IE! Though I had no reoccureance of the problem. My personal anomosaty got the better of me and I reinstalled FF2 but kept IE7 as my default. An interesting thing has happened. Now I get the dreeded blue screen when I use IE7 and when I use FF2. When it happens in IE7 the only problem I can desern is that it moves my Outlook and Word icons on my desktop to the last possion. When it happens (much less frequently) in FF2 the same results occure as in the comments above. I hope this helps.
> Can't block on this, since it's not well understood and needs an owner.  

You're kidding right?
Or are there bugs with many more duplicates?

> Let's try to find someone to dig into this and see if we can get a handle on it for next time.


you could check for yourself: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/duplicates.cgi

there are 6.

And no, jay is not kidding. it needs an owner. we don't block releases forever just because there are bugs. and if there's no owner, it's highly unlikely the bug will be fixed.
> there are 6.

Hmm, I count much more, although this seems to be the most important one.

> And no, jay is not kidding. it needs an owner.

So what needs to happen before it gets an owner?

I agree that there's not really a reason to block on it, but I also get the impression that there's no/little work done on this bug at all. It has been reported months ago and lots of users are affected by it in an important way.
This bug gives some details on the symptoms of something going wrong. Yet, nobody able to map those symptoms to code problems could reproduce that behaviour, thus it's not clear what to fix.

Anyone who's able to reproduce this bug knowing a Mozilla hacker close by? You might want to invite someone over for a cup of coffee and a thorough inspection of your profile. Maybe even get that hacker to run a debug build on your machine/profile.

Once we know the root cause, we can hunt for an owner and a patch.
Corrupt files have been attached to this bug report. I think you should at least detect corrupt files and rename them so a fresh file can be written and new changes aren't lost.
What's happening here is Firefox isn't being exited properly.  It's being terminated while it's still writing to the rdf files in question.  One possible cause is a plugin or trojan that is preventing firefox.exe from shutting down.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Lost_bookmarks#Bookmarks_always_missing_after_restart

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox.exe_always_open

We really should sit down and merge more of these reports.  Some were left open to investigate whether there was something to do with upgrading that was making this more likely to happen, but I think it's just that people are assuming the update caused the issue and that it's not exactly when it happened. For instance some people will always reboot their pc when updating software when they don't usually, or they update just fine, and later that day reboot the pc and equate the issue with the update and not the reboot.

Also please note the bug this is marked as depending on.
> It's being terminated while it's still writing to the rdf files in question. 

In that case, why not either prepare the entire file in memory and then write that memory to disk or prepare the file in a new file and do an atomic move over the original file?
I have tried a few things from this comment string, but because the bookmarks never save, and I am running the new 2.0.0.1 release, I am giving up... it would be nice if somebody could figure this out.  
This is not a support forum.  If you want help getting your bookmarks back/solving an issue you should not be here.  There are plenty of links in this bug already to the support channels, but here they go again.

http://kb.mozillazine.org

on irc #firefox in irc.mozilla.org

There are already solutions available in these places for any issue anyone in this bug is experiencing, aside from what's causing the files to corrupt in the first place.
I don't know if this is relevant. If it is a different bug or something else, please excuse this. I'm mentioning this here because a search turned this bug up and it seems at least related.

Since upgrading to Firefox 2 (now on 2.0.0.1), changes made to toolbars do not survive restarts or, even, the opening of new windows. Confirming attempted changes does not entirely dismiss the sheet dialog, but only blanks it. Customisations made prior to upgrading are not affected.

Mac OS X 10.4.8 PPC (PowerBook G4, but currently eMac booted from backup clone on external drive in case it matters).

I have not attempted replacing localstore.rdf because it isn't worth the trouble it would be to re-customise although I'll have to soon or things will get too messy.

Bookmarks and searchengines are unaffected.

I've upgraded from Firefox 1.5.x to Firefox 2.0.0.1, and I have the same problem as the one described in bug 359321 under Mac OS X 10.4.8. BTW, since bug 359321 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug, Hardware/OS should be set to All/All.
These problems (loss of bookmarks and failure of customized/preferences tool bar(s) after restart of FF) just began last night.  Running W2Kpro, FF 2.0.0.2.

Diary, as best as I can recall after a very long night:

I lost one of my non-system drives night before last.  Last night, after installing new HD, ran full chkdsk. Immediately afterwards, FF working fine. Did some housekeeping routines normal for my system (non-invasive to FF) ... Cold boot, started FF and suddenly I had 10 tool bars (the only tool bar not present was my custom TB) and my bookmarks had gone poof.  

What I cannot confirm is if any updates occurred before or after the cold boot. 

What I find strange is that creating a new profile, going through the whole customizing routine and grabbing a backup of my bookmarks, restarting FF under new profile reverted to 'corrupt' state of previous profile. Grrrr. Repeated same sequence without grabbing bookmarks ... same result after restart.  I burned all my profile backups and removed them from my HDs, un-installed FF, cleaned out registry, yada yada ... Clean install, new profile ... did some customizing, did NOT import bookmarks and after restarting FF, back to the same problem.  Again, un-installed, cleaned out, etc ... this time I migrated a backed up profile from 2 weeks ago ... looked GREAT first FF start ... when it went sour next restart I began searching and here I am.

As a lowly systems analyst I figured that any chain of events regarding this problem cannot hurt ... any might help.  Will check back to see if there are any further comments or progress ... maybe even solutions ;)

This is a Firefox problem so why aren't they doing anything about fixing it?  They should know how too.It has been going on long enough and is got to the point of being annoying.I have removed and readded Firefox more times than I can count and the problem is still happening.GET YOUR FINGER OUT FIREFOX AND DO YOUR JOB!
Just lost all bookmarks after second startup since downloading updated Firefox . I'm not a computer pro so any help in recovering my bookmarks would be appreciated , that is if they are even recoverable .
This bug also happens on Windows 2000.
Internet Explorer is looking more appealing all the time...
So I deleted the localstore.rdf file, but it didn't fix a d*mn thing.  I removed Firefox and reinstalled it...How is it possible to continue using Firefox when I need to reset my settings EACH time I start and it doesn't even save my bookmarks?  Well in all sincerity, I do want to say thank you, Mozilla.  It's been a great ride while it lasted, but until this gets fixed, I'm back to IE.  =(
Uninstalled Firefox completely . Went back and downloaded the newest version and that seemed to fix it . Bookmarks are back and it has been running smooth ever since . I'm keeping my fingers crossed though .
Flags: blocking-firefox3? → blocking-firefox3+
OK a lot information and no one usable, I have as in the comment 40 and 193 absolutely the same symptoms and  I am really angry, because I have this silly problem already on second computer (probably have to switch after years to another browser).  Anyway in my opinion problems happen due to conflict with firewalls, it is not listed here. One first computer it was Spyware terminator in combination with free Aol antivirus, on the other one Jetico firewall with combination with Spyware Search and Destroy and NOD32 antivirus. In both cases I allow all the process, but firewall was bit crazy from processes in temp. I check both PC very carefully against spyware, viruses and trojans, this means pick up HDD and checked on another PC with new windows and I did not find any problem, so I think something was broken due to conflict between firewall and FF install. Localstore.rdf, safe mode and so one not help, just new profile is OK but how to get all the passwords collected during 3 years?
(In reply to comment #203)
> *** Bug 376118 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
> 

I don't think 376118 is a duplicate of this bug. Toolbars, bookmarks and all other profile information remain intact in 376118. 376118 DOES NOT occur under Windows in the way described.
(In reply to comment #204)
> I don't think 376118 is a duplicate of this bug. Toolbars, bookmarks and all
> other profile information remain intact in 376118. 376118 DOES NOT occur under
> Windows in the way described.

But this bug is not specific to Windows. Or bug 359321 (which occurs on Mac OS X) needs to be reopened.
It appears no one is home and no one is answering the mail...like most everyone, I got updated, lost my bookmarks, got my home page hijacked by Foxfire...looking for another browser...any suggestions...Harv
ok everyone, pardon the all caps, but I think it's the only way to make this eye catching.

TO GET YOUR BOOKMARKS BACK READ THE LINK AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE IN THE URL FIELD, OR SEEK SUPPORT http://mozilla.com/support 

ANY FIX TO THIS BUG WILL ONLY PREVENT IT FROM HAPPENING IN THE FUTURE, IN THE MEAN TIME FOLLOW THE SUPPORT LINKS TO FIND OUT HOW TO RESTORE YOUR FILES, AND AVOID THIS IN THE FUTURE.

This has been repeated throughout the bug, but it seems people aren't reading all the comments.
"TO GET YOUR BOOKMARKS BACK READ THE LINK AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE IN THE URL
FIELD"...........

AT THE TOP OF WHAT PAGE?

Why not just give us a simple step by step way to correct the problem in this format....Harv
the link at the top of THIS page, where it says summary, keywords, whiteboard, etc.  This isn't a support forum, it's a bug tracking forum.  The detailed instructions on how to restore your files have been linked 7 times throughout the comments.  The support link also has a link directly to the support article, but here it is one more time http://kb.mozillazine.org/Lost_bookmarks

If you want some 1 on 1 support rather than dealing with articles, please follow the support link to either the Message Boards, Newsgroups, or Online Chat. You can find me on online chat with the nickname Lucy.
I don't know if this will help anyone else, but I managed to resolve the lost bookmarks issue.... on my PC there wasn't a "Bookmark" or a "Favorites" file that had the up to date bookmarks, (I guess it got deleted by the unsolicited Foxfire update) anyway,  by locating the  "bookmarkbackups" folder and reloading from it resolved the issue...however, finding the "bookmarkbackups folder did take a while because of it's name and location....I guess we all recognize by now this isn't a so called "Support Forum", so....another solution I have found was to bring Internet Explorer favorites up to date as a back-up....will probably use it as my primary browser now, simple because of the lack of social skill by the moderator of this forum.......Harv
Uninstall Deleting and Reloading Firefox didn't help.
turning off firewalls didn't help.
deleting everything in the localstore.rdf didn't work.
Removing localstore.rdf file didn't work.

What next?
Uninstall Deleting and Reloading Firefox didn't help.
turning off firewalls didn't help.
deleting everything in the localstore.rdf didn't work.
Removing localstore.rdf file didn't work.

What next?

A suggestion.  Firefox works fine after deletion of localstore.rdf.  As a temporary fix, consider ignoring the file on startup.  A corrupted file has no effect if it's not even read.  I don't know what penalty there might be, but it doesn't seem very noticeable.

I added a couple of "DO NOT POST SUPPORT REQUESTS HERE", including one in (gasp) the summary.  I suggest that henceforth you send people to the Support Forum but do not give ANY support.
Summary: customized toolbar always reset to default on restart, bookmarks and search engines lost, unable to add search engines (localstore.rdf corruption on upgrade or crash) → customized toolbar always reset to default on restart, bookmarks and search engines lost, unable to add search engines (localstore.rdf corruption on upgrade or crash). DO NOT POST SUPPORT REQUESTS HERE
Whiteboard: THIS IS NOT A SUPPORT FORUM. DO NOT POST SUPPORT REQUESTS
(In reply to comment #216)
>Firefox works fine after deletion of localstore.rdf.

No, this is wrong. Deleting localstore.rdf has no effect.
Also, once again, hardware/OS should be set to All/All.
GO TO http://mozilla.com/support FOR HELP RESTORING YOU FILES. THIS BUG IS FOR DETERMINING CAUSES OF THE FILE CORRUPTION, AND A CODE FIX THAT WILL STOP IT FROM HAPPENING IN THE FUTURE.

IF YOUR FILES ARE AFFECTED GO TO http://mozilla.com/support FOR HELP RESTORING YOUR FILES. THE FIXES **WILL** WORK.
URL: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Lost_bookmarks → http://mozilla.com/support
Whiteboard: THIS IS NOT A SUPPORT FORUM. DO NOT POST SUPPORT REQUESTS → Go to http://mozilla.com/support for help restoring your files. THIS IS NOT A SUPPORT FORUM.
Summary: customized toolbar always reset to default on restart, bookmarks and search engines lost, unable to add search engines (localstore.rdf corruption on upgrade or crash). DO NOT POST SUPPORT REQUESTS HERE → customized toolbar always reset to default on restart, bookmarks and search engines lost, unable to add search engines (localstore.rdf corruption on upgrade or crash). SEE URL FIELD FOR SUPPORT LINK
(In reply to comment #219)
> IF YOUR FILES ARE AFFECTED GO TO http://mozilla.com/support FOR HELP RESTORING
> YOUR FILES. THE FIXES **WILL** WORK.

But the problem is not just restoring files. The files get corrupt while using Firefox (always reproducible). And there seems to be no solution for that.
Vincent - then you're seeing a different bug, and should file your own report with as much info as possible. I'd be more than happy to help triage the issue with you personally, via email or on irc - irc.mozilla.org #firefox .
There are two different things about my problem:

1. I have a Windows 2000, not XP
2. It wasn't corrupt after updating again, but I still lost my bookmarks and search engines, and I have problems adding bookmarks (they will save as blank if I don't change the name before saving the bookmark)
Liam please seek support http://mozilla.com/support

Firefox only keeps 5 days of bookmarks backups, so you need to restore them ASAP. You also need to reset your localstore.rdf (why bookmarks aren't saving properly).  Please see the support link for instructions on how to do this, or to find someone to walk you through it.

http://mozilla.com/support
(In reply to comment #222)
> Vincent - then you're seeing a different bug, and should file your own report

The report was *already* filled (by someone else) in bug 359321, but this bug was marked as a duplicate of bug 319196.
(In reply to comment #224)
> Liam please seek support http://mozilla.com/support
> Firefox only keeps 5 days of bookmarks backups, so you need to restore them
> ASAP. You also need to reset your localstore.rdf (why bookmarks aren't saving
> properly).  Please see the support link for instructions on how to do this, or
> to find someone to walk you through it.
> http://mozilla.com/support

It was a long time ago. The backup file was empty. I tried posting on the Firefox Support forums, but I guess my title wasn't good (HELP!!!) and the person who answered was very rude anad just told me to read a bookmarks lost article in the Knowledge Base. I just dealt with it, and after the next update thee only problem I was having was with the bookmarks.

custumized toolbars and browser size not saved on exit and restart
Bug


My bookmarks are fine, but the customizable toolbar resets to default on restart. This started immediately after a recent automatic upgrade.
Hello, I'm concerned because I think i have all the symptoms of this bug (bookmarks, addons, search engines and skin were all reset to default) plus one other: I am unable to 'submit' information in any way.

Examples: When I was re-customising my google toolbar, the 'OK' button did not save my settings and close the dialogue window, the window remained on screen. When i tried to log into my email account the 'log in' button did nothing when i clicked on it, etc.

Pressing enter doesn't work either. I'm using windows xp, and i think the problem occurred after an automatic update (i'm not 100% certain on this though).
my point is, this may be another symptom of the same bug.
I have simmilar symptoms at my home computer, enter seems to me at first not working, but it doing something strange - on enter it search text from clipboard on google (which is set as default in address bar) instead of submit on enter in forms an so on. That is very uncomfortable for me to use Opera after years with Firebird, Firefox, etc., but I have to because from my comment here https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=319196#c202 is no solution how to simply export passwords to different profile.
You can just copy the files over. Any of the support avenues can help you with this if you have trouble with the knowledge base article.

K - it's not. You really want to follow the support link.
Ok, except i can't find anything related to submitting information on the support link.
Severity: critical → blocker
Target Milestone: --- → Firefox 3 beta1
Target Milestone: Firefox 3 M7 → Firefox 3 M9
(In reply to comment #15)
> how about we try and find out if this is *Actually* a specific issue killing
> all these people's bookmarks.html and localstore.rdf files as there was killing
> just the localstore.rdf or are you going to add "resolved - probably random" as
> a resolution?
> 

Yes I agree - it is a major problem - my bookmarks were deleted on upgrading and this is a serious issue for me and any other potential upgraders. Firefox should not release this version until this issue is resolved.
I feel like not wanting to upgrade my firefox anymore in the future!

gavin - did you also reboot your computer when you upgraded? If so did you reboot *because* you upgraded, or do you regularly reboot your machine?
The netcraft toolbar (http://toolbar.netcraft.com/) under firefox 2.0.05 under Vista always  prevent the  bookmarks and the personal toolbar to show up.
Severity: blocker → critical
I don't know if this is the same bug, but I'm experiencing a similar problem on Firefox/2.0.0.5 Gecko/20070713, Windows XP SP-1.

Sometimes (generally after restarting Firefox when it found updated add-ons), most add ons appear to be disabled (although they all are still marked as enabled in the add-ons box), and bookmarks are missing too.

Generally add-ons and bookmarks are automagically restored after restarting Firefox a few times. And yet some add-ons may still be missing, for example ImageZoom is no longer working.

Another issue that may or may not be related to this bug is that Firefox refuses to open new windows: when you try to open a new window, nothing happens (but it still opens new tabs).
Following a quick investigation, it seems the problem is related to firefox.exe still running in the background, as reported in the comments above.

I'm almost sure I have no trojans running on my system, anyway if I manually close firefox.exe from the task manager, and then I start Firefox, everything run smoothly again: all add ons are working, bookmarks are loaded properly, and new windows will open.
Your irresponsible attitude towards user´s bookmarks is one of the reasons why you keep loosing clients
how  many times U think a normal user is willing to cope with this time consuming ineptitude?
Target Milestone: Firefox 3 M9 → Firefox 3 M10
Finally no longer a problem with the most recent upgrade. I am in shock. This has been a thorn in my side for many an update. Finally no more. If someone intentionally solved this issue, great thanks go to you. I would suggest however, a faster turnaround for such substantial bugs, because I think I had to live with it for at least a year.
Problem signature
Problem Event Name:	APPCRASH
Application Name:	firefox.exe
Application Version:	0.0.0.0
Application Timestamp:	4703857c
Fault Module Name:	xul.dll
Fault Module Version:	0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp:	470385bf
Exception Code:	c0000005
Exception Offset:	0036ab67
OS Version:	6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID:	1033
Additional Information 1:	23fd
Additional Information 2:	ee2797ba199f61bfaf9863370854e6bb
Additional Information 3:	11f6
Additional Information 4:	b71ffc0f49e8e64197c72edfc2948ec3

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID:	529469646
We've done a number of things to mitigate/prevent this on trunk, we should try to get some data/attempted reproduction on trunk.  Between journalled writes to the DB for bookmarks/history, handling localstore corruption in a better way, and the XRE shutdown bug fixed sanely, I think we've pretty much eliminated this for Firefox 3 (most of these probably can't get safely included in Firefox 2 due to risk of regressions, unfortunately, but we've been trying to get what we can in).

Can anyone still reproduce this in nightly trunk builds or the upcoming beta?  If not, I think this is done as far as firefox 3 is concerned.
Keywords: qawanted
I always use the latest trunk version and I have the feeling that there are no problems with the bookmarks anymore. But sometimes I still lose preferences like the start page and download options (I guess I did not change anything else) but at least it is no problem anymore to reconfigure these things.
I lost all the websites I needed for my midterm. Thank you Mr. Mozilla
I've been having the same problem that everyone else seems to be having. Bookmarks, history, toolbars, all reset as if it was the first install. Used System restore to revert to when it was working. I don't remember having a crash/ctd or anything. Just happened some day.

Usually close with X
Windows XP SP2
Using rv:1.8.1.8
Though it's probably way too late to offer input, I still wanted to offer my input/idea on the matter.

Back when Firefox 1.5 final launched is when I had problems with lost data/settings within Firefox.  I couldn't tell you how to reproduce this now, but I found the add-on "Open Profile Folder" on AMO.  

After getting rid of my bad profile and starting a brand new one with it customized to my liking, I downloaded Open Profile Folder and started keeping regular backups of my profiles to another area of my computer in the event any data/settings loss occured (which then I would simply nuke the bad profile and replace it with a good backup copy).

My thoughts were this:  Why not have Firefox automatically make backups of all profile folders (of course you'd have the options of how often to backup or turning off automatic backups and where you want backups to be put at -- and in Profile Manger there would be an option to delete/import profiles)?

Even though this idea is way too late to possible to useful in relation to Firefox 3 (since it uses a different system for data/setting storing), but backing up profile folders in the event of data/setting loss would be good to implement.

If this needs a separate bug filing as an enhancement, then go for it.
Target Milestone: Firefox 3 M10 → Firefox 3 M11
Priority: -- → P3
Using Windows XP SP2. Firefox just updated to 2.0.0.10. On restart I lost all my toolbar customizations and extensions. (Bookmarks are unaffected.)
Exactly the same thing happened to me yesterday after the 2.0.0.10 update; lost all customizations and plugins, bookmarks unaffected. I can still see them in the extensions manager but manager freezes as soon as I click on one of them and I have to go through the process manager to kill the process. I can't reinstall any of the extensions from site. I've been searching for a solution for hours, reinstalled the latest version (twice), but really don't know how to fix this. 
Toolbar customizations & plugins now work following 2.0.0.11 update installation.
I'm going to clear the blocking flag for now, I haven't seen any reports of this on Fx3 since we've moved most things to sqlite at this point.  If people can still reproduce this on upgrade/crash on trunk, please renominate.
Flags: blocking-firefox3+
Since I have updated to 2.0.0.11 I have lost my bookmarks several times. Firefox wants to update every time after restart and i lose my bookmarks complete from my computer.
I cannot find a answer for this problem. If there is an answer can somebody tell my where to find it.
Why is such a wellknow problem still in latest version, I'm still using the latest Dutch version(2.0.0.11). I never had this problem with Firefox before.

XP pro sp2 
(In reply to comment #282)
> Since I have updated to 2.0.0.11 I have lost my bookmarks several times.
> Firefox wants to update every time after restart and i lose my bookmarks
> complete from my computer.
> I cannot find a answer for this problem. If there is an answer can somebody
> tell my where to find it.
> Why is such a wellknow problem still in latest version, I'm still using the
> latest Dutch version(2.0.0.11). I never had this problem with Firefox before.
> 
> XP pro sp2 
> 

This is not a support area.  Get support here:  http://support.mozilla.com/

As for the problem, Firefox 3 should be taking care of this problem once and for all since it uses a different storage system in recording your data, add-ons, and settings.

Oh and shouldn't somebody update this bug to make note to go to SUMO for support/troubleshooting Firefox?
(In reply to comment #283)
> Oh and shouldn't somebody update this bug to make note to go to SUMO for
> support/troubleshooting Firefox?

Yes, in fact I think it would be best to change the URLs in the URL field and the whiteboard to point directly to the article at http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Toolbar+keeps+resetting (and maybe http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Lost+Bookmarks#No_bookmarks_in_Bookmarks_menu as well?)
(In reply to comment #280)
> I'm going to clear the blocking flag for now, I haven't seen any reports of
> this on Fx3 since we've moved most things to sqlite at this point.  If people
> can still reproduce this on upgrade/crash on trunk, please renominate.

I ran into this once when upgrading from one nightly to the next a month or two ago, but not since then. I didn't lose any data and deleting localstore.rdf fixed it.

Also, since it looks like nothing more needs to be done wrt Fx 3 concerning this bug and the blocking flag has been cleared, the Target Milestone should probably be cleared as well (and also the priority?)
(In reply to comment #284)
> Yes, in fact I think it would be best to change the URLs in the URL field and

Yeah, I agree, it would probably be more helpful, so I changed that.

(In reply to comment #285)
> Also, since it looks like nothing more needs to be done wrt Fx 3 concerning
> this bug and the blocking flag has been cleared, the Target Milestone should
> probably be cleared as well (and also the priority?)

Yes, this should probably be done, but that's something that the people who are in charge of the release should be doing. Just wait for that.
URL: http://mozilla.com/support → http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Toolbar...
Whiteboard: Go to http://mozilla.com/support for help restoring your files. THIS IS NOT A SUPPORT FORUM. → Go to http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Toolbar+keeps+resetting for help restoring your files. THIS IS NOT A SUPPORT FORUM.
(In reply to comment #1)
> Well, it happend again (and I have no idea why)
> This time I can restore my bookmarks and they do not disappear when restarting
> firefox but I can not save any changes that have to do with the tollbars.
> Now I also tried to make these changes with latest-trunk version but they are
> not saved after restart, either.
> Can anybody tell me if there is any file that I have to delete (because it
> might be corrupted)?
> 

Hi. Could you tell me how you restored the bookmarks? The same happened to me after installing Norton 360. Thank you
Steps on how i managed to reproduce this thrice.... on windows XP

1) open a window
2) start--> Turn off computer---> Restart

It seams after each time I do this and I open another Firebox window all my bookmarks setting etc. have all resetted
Yet i have no idea what this corrupted file is about, not much of a software engineer :D

I think the only way on bringing them back is:
Bookmarks: revist the sites and Ctrl+D, i am not sure how to get them back if you do not know the address
Settings: Simply go to tools then add ons (for add ons of corse)
go to tools---> options to get the menu for privacy settings etc.
hope this helped ^^
I have been able to reproduce the disappearing customized Bookmarks Toolbar - doesn't matter if Firefox 3 Beta 4 was restarted after a crash or started cleanly.   The current workaround is to just restart the browser and then the Bookmarks Toolbar with customizations come back properly.


System Info:
    Mac OSX 10.4.11
    Firefox 3 Beta 4
Just upgraded to Firefox 2.0.0.13 and when I restarted the browser, all of my customized toolbar settings were lost, as well as all of my bookmarks.  Would like to know how to recover my bookmarks without revisiting every website.
(In reply to comment #295)
> Just upgraded to Firefox 2.0.0.13 and when I restarted the browser, all of my
> customized toolbar settings were lost, as well as all of my bookmarks.  Would
> like to know how to recover my bookmarks without revisiting every website.
> 

Reposting:  This is not a support area.  Get support here:  http://support.mozilla.com/

As for the problem, Firefox 3 should be taking care of this problem once and
for all since it uses a different storage system in recording your data,
add-ons, and settings.
Confirmed on 3 beta 5. I loose my bookmarks every time I restart firefox, just the bookmarks. The rest of the settings and extensions seem to be fine. My system:
- Fedora 9 beta (updated up to Apr. 13th 2008)
- Firefox, from the 'about firefox':
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9b5) Gecko/2008040721 Fedora/3.0-0.53.beta5.fc9 Firefox/3.0b5
If you need any more info, please let me know.

(In reply to comment #297)
> Confirmed on 3 beta 5. I loose my bookmarks every time I restart firefox, just
> the bookmarks. The rest of the settings and extensions seem to be fine.

You're not having the same issue.  Please read the summary carefully.
I confirm that the current firefox rev recently fed to my main machine trashes (actually, it clears them out) all custom toolbar tabs when firefox is restarted after an update. 

My emergency laptop has now been informed it is going to get updated, and by God, I don't want no stinkin' updating until this bug is fixed. I cannot afford to go hunting though the sites to set up my tabs after every update. As a result I'll have to leave this machine on 24/7 to avoid the update or go to a lot of useless work to reset the tabs manually.

If you can't fix the problem, then at least give us an option to abandon an update, please!!!!!!

jim
WFM in Ubuntu 8.04. 
Firefox: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9b5) Gecko/2008050509 Firefox/3.0b5

It's working just fine, except for memory issues... but that's another topic.

Great work!

Pedro.

(In reply to comment #301)
Please inform of your OS and FF versions when posting comments. :P
(Quoting Ngamer01)
This is not a support area.  Get support here: http://support.mozilla.com/

Firefox 2.0.0.14 (on Windows ZP) - localstore.rdf here becomes corrupted several times a week. All custom toolbar tools including the search tool disappear. Opening a new window is usually all it takes.  A quick remedy is just keeping a backup copy, closing Firefox, and overwriting the localstore.rdf file in the Profile folder. Wrote a batch file to replace the corrupt localstore.rdf because the problem was so frequent.  Suggest temporary help to users... The cumbersome  instructions at: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Corrupt_localstore.rdf aren't necessary, at least in my experience.  Just closing Firefox and overwriting the corrupted localstore.rdf is sufficient.


Along with the previously mentioned errors (bookmarks, live bookmark feeds or RSS,etc.), I've attempted a system restore but Firefox no longer starts (error message).
Note that some issues might be caused by extensions.

For example, yesterday I've upgraded to latest version of SAGE (1.4) which is probably incompatible with some other extension I have and I couldn't even start Firefox 3. I had to launch it in safe-mode and disable SAGE to make it work again.
(In reply to comment #40)
> I'm having the same problem. Tried almost all the solutions that I've found
> here. It happened after a windows xp crash. My bookmarks disappeared, my
> customized settings changed, and I can't get them to change back. I tried safe
> mode, deleting and putting a new localstore.rdf file, I even tried
> uninstalling/delete folders/reinstalling the program. At the moment I'm stuck
> with firefox refusing to save any of my settings. Anyone point me in the right
> direction for the fix or have other ideas to what my problem could be?
> 

I am having a very similar problem.  My existing bookmarks didn't disappear, but I am unable to save any changes to my bookmarks sinc upgrading to FF3.  this is true both in the toolbar and the regular bookmarks folder.  I tried safe mode and deleting localstore.rdf, as well as making sure that no relevant profile files are "read-only," but nothing has worked.  If I can't fix this soon, I am going to have to switch web browsers.  I am using XP home.
I do believe extensions could have something to do with this. Note, I am using Windows Vista, and that's the OS I was experiencing the problem with.

I recently re-installed Vista and Linux on the same PC, so I just started from scratch. I can say that Firefox performances it's best without add-ons. Until this issue is resolved, it's best to backup your bookmarks once a week, and perhaps not use extra junk in the toolbar.
i am amalan 
I to have simular problem . When I first boot up and click Mozillia firefox , everything is OK but when I close and later go back on I lose all bookmarks and homepage . It just happened , when I just resubscribed to Norton 360 . I am tring to see if something to do with the firewall  
I upgraded 4 computers from FF2 to FF3.  This issue happens on 2 out of these 4:
On random occasions (more often than 50%), Firefox 3 comes up with all of the bookmarks missing.  The only way to fix this TEMPORARILY is to kill all instances of firefox.exe from Task Manager (there are always more than 1 copy under Task Manager when this happens), and then run Firefox 3 again.  This issue still exists with FF3.01.   I have NOT been able to figure out how to fix this.
I have uninstalled Firefox, deleted the Mozilla Application Data directories (also under Local Data) as well as Mozilla Firefox under Program Files.  I then reinstalled a clean FF3.01, restored ONLY the bookmarks, extensions, and saved passwords file, and I get the same results.  Same as bug 284099 maybe?
Product: Firefox → Toolkit
This may or may not be related to this issue (on PCs), but I have had a similar problem on the Mac (running OS X.5.4) with Firefox 3.0.1.  I imported my bookmarks from Firefox 2.0.0.16 (running under OS X.3.9).  The first time I launched Firefox, the program updated and I lost all bookmarks.  From that point on whenever I added a bookmark, closed the app & relaunched, the "new" bookmarks were gone.  That is all the same as has been reported before.

Here is the *new* information.  I categorize an subcategorize all my bookmarks (i.e., there are *no* bookmarks under the main folder, only other folders).  When I added a bookmark to a subfolder, it disappeared on relaunch, however when I added a bookmark just to the main folder (i.e., I did *not* add it to a pre-existing subfolder), quit and relaunch the app, the new bookmark in the main folder was retained, but the ones added to the subfolder were still lost.

Hope that helps.

I have another strange problem regarding this bug. On Linux, it appears that some of my bookmarks were deleted, but not all of them. I do not have any add-ons installed under my Linux Firefox, only items in the toolbar.

This problem occurred after restarting Firefox.
(In reply to comment #315)
> I have another strange problem regarding this bug. On Linux, it appears that
> some of my bookmarks were deleted, but not all of them. I do not have any
> add-ons installed under my Linux Firefox, only items in the toolbar.
> 
> This problem occurred after restarting Firefox.
> 

Reposting:  This is not a support area.  Get support here: 
http://support.mozilla.com/

The only things that go in this bug are:
1) Trying to get to the bottom of what causes this bug exactly.  This is so a workaround or fix can be found.
2) Providing a workaround until a fix is done or submitting a patch that can fix this bug.
Haven't seen a legitimate report of this bug in a long time, think everything's been covered by other bugs.  Resolve WFM?
Sorry if I sound like I'm bitching and can't offer any help to others....

Did the 3.2 update last night.  
Lost all bookmarked webpages and toolbar RSS feeds AGAIN.  Browser crashed and wouldn't restart, even after a System Restore.  Had to uninstall then reinstall program.  This is the 5th time this has happened since "upgrading" to Firefox 3.  Suddenly, Firefox is developing annoying quirks that you would normally find in other web browsers like IE.  I would have thought this would have been resolved by now.
edzbsu, Firefox 3 uses a different backend for bookmarks, etc. Could you please file a bug under Firefox -> Bookmarks & History for the "Lost all bookmarked webpages and toolbar RSS feeds AGAIN."

As for the crash, did the crash reporter come up and did you submit a crash report? If so, please type about:crashes in the url bar and provide the links listed.
I'm not sure if it's the same bug I'm having, but here's what happens to me:

I've updated Ubuntu 8.04 to Ubuntu 8.10 and since this update I loose my toolbar configuration in Firefox (3.0.4+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1) when I open a new Firefox window or when I log out/back in. Example:

- I open Firefox.
- I configure my toolbar in adding "new tab" icon and removing "home" icon.
- I click File -> New window.
- This new window resets my toolbar configuration, so "home" icon backs again and "new tab" icon disappears.
I read the page http://kb.mozillazine.org/Toolbar_customizations_reset_on_startup

I've closed Firefox and removed the localstore.rdf file in my profile. I have always the bug.
Target Milestone: mozilla1.9beta3 → ---
Blocks: profile-corrupt
Would it be worthwhile to migrate the data we currently store in localstore.rdf to "localstore.sqlite"?
Keywords: dataloss
Whiteboard: Go to http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Toolbar+keeps+resetting for help restoring your files. THIS IS NOT A SUPPORT FORUM. → Go to http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Toolbar+keeps+resetting for help restoring your files. THIS IS NOT A SUPPORT FORUM. [notacrash]
(In reply to comment #322)
> Would it be worthwhile to migrate the data we currently store in localstore.rdf
> to "localstore.sqlite"?
I'm having the same problem regarding customized tool bar resetting to default on restart.  It happens every single time I restart.
I have to unhide the nav bar which is usually hidden, plus the navbar is now below the tabs (I presume that is intentional?).

Bookmarks appear to be ok but i've noticed that the homepage doesn't load on start-up and it doesn't restore the tabs I had open (is it supposed to in Fx4?)

Fx 4.0b1 on Win XP Pro Sp3
I'm seeing toolbar-customizations-disappearing on 4.0b3pre on Mac (20100727).
When searching for this, I found the following bugs which may be dups:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=554444
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=531511
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=504296
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=360556
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=534259 (thunderbird)

I tried the steps in http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Toolbar+keeps+resetting and that didn't help. Also, I'm able to add bookmarks and a search engine and those don't disappear, so this may possibly be a new issue.

(In reply to comment #325)
> plus the navbar is now
> below the tabs (I presume that is intentional?).

Yes: http://blog.mozilla.com/faaborg/2010/06/24/why-tabs-are-on-top-in-firefox-4/
Same here: I customize my toolbar (file menu > view > toolbars > customize...)
all is lost upon browser restart: http://i.imgur.com/ebUzM.jpg

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; rv:2.0b4) Gecko/20100818 Firefox/4.0b4
Almost same here. But toolbar does not reset to default state. It just resets to some different state. As example:

1. I customize my toolbar this way: http://i.imgur.com/zXOOU.png
2. I restart Firefox soon after customization. It looks this way: http://imgur.com/geCk1.png
3. I start Firefox next day after customization. It looks this way: http://imgur.com/aokkY.png

Firefox 4.0b6, Windows XP SP3
I'm having a similar problem to the one pax is having. 

I have a mix of addon-buttons and bookmarks in the Bookmarks Toolbar.
I chose to hide the Addons toolbar. 
When I restart firefox all my bookmarks and buttons are where I left them but the empty Addons toolbar is visible again.
excuted TC 45 & was reproduciable in IE 7 and google chromo
i am seeing this with ff4 beta 10 on OS X. i am unable to add new one or more toolbars, they all disappear after a restart. default toolbar set customizations seem to be (re-)stored correctly. removing localstore.rdf doesn't help.
The same problem on the new Firefox 4.0, unable to add new tabs without they disappear after the restart.
Having this issue on FF4 with windows 7. It seems to be at random times that the toolbar settings will reset. they just randomly reset on me today, so i restarted my computer to see it would fix it, but then my bookmarks reset to an earlier time and I was missing any changes from today. Does this sound similar to what others are experiencing?
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0.1 ID:20110413222027

Navigation toolbar cannot be customized, reset after every restart. Deleting localstore.rdf and disabling all add-ons doesn't help.
Customizing other toolbars is possible.

This happened after update from FF 3.6 to FF 4.0

None of the reported problems with bookmarks.
navigation toolbar always resets after each restart of FF since update from 3.6 to 4.0 (see comment 335 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=319196#c335)
(In reply to comment #336)
> Created attachment 538733 [details]
> localstore.rdf of FF 4.0.1
> 
> navigation toolbar always resets after each restart of FF since update from
> 3.6 to 4.0 (see comment 335
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=319196#c335)

That's crazy: After having tried it 10 times and more and then having lived with this bug for a month, I tried once again to customize the navigation bar just after having sent the file attachment - and the navigation bar keeps the customization after restarting FF. Tried it three times, still no problem.
?????
I just tried it on latest (non-beta, so 4.0.1) FF on both Mac and Windows 7. I can add a new toolbar, but on FF restart it is gone.

Looked at the localstore.rdf file on both. It seems to record some info about the new toolbars in there, yet they're not showing up after restart. They're not showing in the View...Toolbars list as well.

Added some new elements to existing toolbars and that seems to work ok. Tried to add the same elements to a new toolbar, and while they initially showed up, after a restart the toolbar was gone.
I haven't seen this on any of the latest Firefox versions on any of platforms we test (windows, linux, mac). Can anyone still reproduce this issue?
Keywords: qawanted
Flags: wanted1.8.1.x+
Flags: blocking1.8.1.2-
Flags: blocking1.8.1.1-
Flags: blocking-firefox2-
I think it would be better if this problem is fixed through the control panel   -   Programs and features  - Mozilla Firefox  - Repair
Flags: needinfo?(c.ascheberg)
Sanjula, there is no info that I can provide, I am not an active developer. (And I myself haven't experienced this bug in years.)
Flags: needinfo?(c.ascheberg)
Does the issue still persist? If so, what is the version of Firefox you are using?
I had the same issue with Firefox 48 on my Ubuntu desktop. The actions at http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Toolbar+keeps+resetting didn't fix things for me, but disabeling all extensions and re-enabling them again (at least most of them) seems to have fixed things.

Closing for several reasons:

  1. At comment 342 reporter says the issue has gone away.
  2. There hasn't been a localstore.rdf file in a very long time. If that file still exists in your profile folder, you can safely delete it since it's not used.
  3. The last comment to report the problem says disabling and re-enabling add-ons fixed the issue. That was with Firefox 48, a version that predates WebExtensions.

If you're experiencing something like this issue with the current version, please file a new bug report since it has a different cause and should be investigated separately.

Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 19 years ago → 5 years ago
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
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