Closed Bug 193749 Opened 22 years ago Closed 7 years ago

bookmarks and personal preferences are lost after system crash due to power failure

Categories

(Core :: Preferences: Backend, defect)

Product:
Core
Component:
Preferences: Backend
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
critical

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

People

(Reporter: marekw, Unassigned)

References

Details

(Keywords: dataloss, Whiteboard: [notacrash] read comment 123 before replying)

Attachments

(2 files)

corrupted bookmark file
72.34 KB, text/html
Details
corrupted bookmark file
72.34 KB, text/html
Details 
User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.3b) Gecko/20030210
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.3b) Gecko/20030210

After power failure and system restart Mozilla starts without any bookmarks, no
Personal Toolbar and with all preferences reset to defaults. Personal toolbar
cannot be reconstructed, even after importing previously saved (exported)
bookmarks. Problem does not occur in every failure, but I have noticed it twice
- on second time Mozilla wasn't even started when crash occured.
I didnt try to reproduce efect - I rather do not like to stop system without
proper shutdown.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.



Expected Results:  
Keep personal settings, even with minor system crash.
for the PT = open the bookmark manager, select your PT folder and use View/set
as personal toolbar.

for the preferences rename "prefs.bak" to "prefs.js"
Matti, isn't this a duplicate of bug 170539?
As I have read description of bug 170539 - it is quite alike, although I don't
use Mozilla as mail or news client. In fact, tip for bookmark reconstruction
works, but tip for prefs works ONLY, if after crash you will not start Mozilla
again - if you do, prefs.bak becomes copy of prefs.js - with default settings,
so all personal settings are lost.

My tip - create additional copy of prefs.js (with another name) and use it as
template in a case of failure.

Marek Wlodarz
I'm "victim" of this bug too (but I did not have the good idea to saved my
bookmarks before :( 
Just after the install of sp1 for IE6 and closing mozilla, my system crash (It's
very very unusual for me...) and reboot (I wasn't interesseted by the blue
screen of death so I didn't red it sorry) and I lost my bookmarks and preferences :(
This is a prefs issue, not bookmarks

may have been fixed via bug 170539
Assignee: ben → ccarlen
Component: Bookmarks → Preferences: Backend
QA Contact: kasumi → sairuh
I had the same thing - several (4-6) times my Win2000 was crashed (or hangup),
so I had to reboot computer manually - and when I opened Mozilla there were no
bookmarks, only default ones. I think, that bookmarks file gets corrupted during
Windows crash, so Mozilla decided to kill it and create new one. It's not good -
please made auto backup of bookmarks file.
*** Bug 198187 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I've just had a very similar crash to the one described.
My machine probably had a power related crash (I left it on, when I came back it
was dead, no syslog entries) and after restarting, Mozilla had lost all my
bookmarks. Bad.

Note that it was ONLY my bookmarks; prefs, mail accounts, passwords etc are all
intact. It may or may not be of relevance, but the other odd thing I noticed
about this crash (as compared to my all-too-frequent other crashes) was that XP
had decided to disable file-sharing after it restarted. 

Mozilla 1.3 release
Win XP Prof.
*** Bug 200100 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Confirming based on the dupes and the reports in comment 4 and comment 8. 

I think the dataloss is significant enough to warrant an investigation. This bug
seems to be Windows [NT 5.x] only?
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
Keywords: dataloss
Nick, what you describe in comment 8 is probably bug 131105.
I've had my mozilla profile disappear once with my laptop. I switched it off
while Windows and I believe mozilla were running. After restart I had lost my
bookmarks, they had dissappeared. The bookmarks.html was the default...

Maarten, that sounds like bug 164244.
Maybe this one is a dupe of that one?
*** Bug 200920 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Blocks: bookmark-loss
I am being hit by this bug, or one very similar. In the last day, I had one
abnormal shutdown. I believe the browser was open. I'm not sure of the exact
chain of events, unfortunately, only that when I now open my browser it goes to
the correct homepage, but ALL bookmarks are gone.

I did some websearching, added a few links, and again tonight, I open the
browser and all bookmarks are gone. Hopefully I have a usable backup on my
laptop (barring changes in the last few weeks) but this is an absolutely
miserable bug if it's as triggerable as having windows crash while you have any
mozilla files open.

I'm using:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.3) Gecko/20030312

And I'm very, very cranky.

I was also hit by this bug and I can totally understand Paul Bensel. It hurts!
Ever since then do I make a regular backup of my bookmarks.

Without having looked at any code, I find it strange that bookmarks are *lost*
when moz or windows freezes. If say, the latest changes (from memory) aren't
written to disk in such a case, I'd understand, but not *losing* all of the
data. That seems really bad designed to me.
Proposed release note: If your operating system crashes while Mozilla is
running, all bookmarks may be lost. Be sure to always have a backup of your
bookmarks.html file.

Please comment on release note so that it can be submitted for approval.
Severity: normal → critical
Flags: blocking1.4b?
Flags: blocking1.4?
Keywords: nsbeta1, relnote
adt: nsbeta1-
Keywords: nsbeta1 → nsbeta1-
Flags: blocking1.4b? → blocking1.4b-
just experienced this same very annoying bug - after system crash all settings
including bookmarks and tools settings were lost.. 
on restart of mozilla, "prefs.js" was proclaimed corrupt. i then surfed for a
while, restarted mozilla and still got the "prefs.js"-error message. i looked
into the file and it only contained parts of the html-code of the page i was
surfing just before! and the same thing in prefs.bak.
Just FYI, this happened to me last week. Also Windows2000 (SP3 with latest
windowsupdate fixes), and Mozilla 1.4beta, daily build of may 13th 2003.

After a system crash, I started mozilla and all my bookmarks were missing! (and
my prefs too). FYI, I am using quick-launch in case that matters (have done so
for a long time, never had any trouble before).

I blamed myself for not backing up my bookmarks, but on the other hand, I don't
think mozilla should silently wipe any file even if it can't read it for some
reason. Instead it should rename the "bad" file and inform the user IMHO.

And a suggestion I noticed in another bug report, a button somewhere (or a
separate cmdline tool) to create a backup of all important files would be very
handy as well, like creating a .zip file or something in a place the user
chooses (e.g. a backup-ed network drive).

My 2 euro cents...
*** Bug 208998 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Since someone duped the bug report below, as a dupe of this bug, I thought I'd
repost it here.  This bug is slightly different in context, but close enough I
suppose.

Keep in mind that Mozilla is quite useless, with respect to bookmark, cookies,
history and such, with Linux right now.  This is because:

1) people seldom quit Mozilla with the "quit" item.  They leave it running for
days (weeks?) on end, then when they reboot Mozilla is killed... thus rendering
all bookmarks, history and such unusable and void.  People seldom shut down all
of their applications before a reboot, especially one like Mozilla (compared to
a wordpro).

2) when 1) isn't the case, people have to kill -9 mozilla.  There are still a
few bugs that cause me to do so on occasion, one where Mozilla will start to eat
up tons of ram.  These are other bugs, of course, and no detail of them is
needed here, but the point is that Mozilla does at times need a kill -9.  For
example, this is what I use in my gnome-panel to start Mozilla, because of this:

killall -9 mozilla-bin; sleep 1; mozilla 

This works well, because the only time I have to click on my launch button for
Mozilla, is when I first start X, or when Mozilla becomes unstable.  True, this
is much rarer than previous builds, but it still happens occasionally.  I do get
Mozilla uptimes of > a week sometimes, and this in on a heavily used system, so
things are quite improved.

Anyhow, the above is merely to demonstrate that many people out there may be
running into this bug.  Many people using Mozilla under Linux mimic the
behaviour above, making this bug a very serious one.  Also, the person that
duped this bug doesn't seem to realise that this is probably a different bug
from this Win2k bug... although that may not be the case.

This being the case, I would like to see the "OS" tag changed to "All", since
there is a Linux and a Windows (most likely generic) bug present.  I am glad to
see the bug marked as critical though.

Thanks!

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.2.1)
Gecko/20021210 Debian/1.2.1-3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.2.1)
Gecko/20021210 Debian/1.2.1-3

If mozilla dies by any other means than the quit menu item (such as a crash or
kill -9), then the following happens:

- all browser history appears to be wiped out completely
- any bookmarks added in the current session are destroyed


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. start mozilla, browse a bit, add some bookmarks
2. kill -9 mozilla minutes, days or weeks after
3. history is gone, added bookmarks are gone for this session



Expected Results:  

Browser history and bookmarks should be updated when changed, so that a crash
will not wipe out current changes.  Furthermore, the history seems to be
completely wiped out if any crash or unclean exit occurs, so something fishy
seems to be happening with it.

This problem exists for the posted version, and bookmarks were tested with
Mozilla 1.4rc1.
OS: Windows 2000 → All
*** Bug 210766 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Shouldn't a bug that causes bookmarks, history, and apparently some very severe
preference losses on some OSes be marked a blocker?
*** Bug 212106 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Yes, it is a blocker. Just now I lost all settings including my mails (I love
IMAP!!!)

Is is really so complicated to close all open file handles after writing data?

I am a little bit p****d o**...


*** Bug 203188 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 213342 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
mozilla1.4 shipped. unsetting blocking1.4 request.
Flags: blocking1.4?
If 1.4 has shipped, then the prudent action is not to remove the blocker
setting, but to re-set it appropriately.

This should be a blocker for _any_ future release, so please make it so.
*** Bug 214960 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I have also had problem with build 2003071814 and original 1.4 point release. if
my computer crashes (win2k full updates, no .net bollocks.) i lose <<all>> of my
bookmarks.. this is annoying enough to be a dealbreaker.. IMHO.. it's such a
great product!! i hope to see a resolution to this.. 
As far as bookmarks, they are written to a temp file and then renamed, which
should be safe - unless the data is buffered by the OS and that buffer is not
getting flushed. Are we maybe not calling "sync" when writing the bookmarks
file? See
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/fileio/base/flushfilebuffers.asp
Hmm...  well if the bookmarks are written to a temp file and then renamed that
flush call would not seem to help.  There is a sync like call that might, but
that can kill performance of the whole system.  What is seems is that the rename is 
not being commited, as I often find the bookmarks files as nameless lost files
on the chkdsk run.  It seems the best solution may be to keep two version of the
bookmarks files around with an end tag so mozilla can tell if a file is complete
or not (maybe this already exists I did not look at the code or files, just
speculating from this behavor of lost bookmarks),  mozilla would then read in
the file with the newest date at the start, and if that was not complete (no end
tag), it would bring in the previous version. This way the file is never on the
filesystem without a name like the rename calls seems to leave it under windows.
*** Bug 218049 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 219379 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Same here.  I lost all of my bookmarks after a blue screen.  ARGH.

PLS. HELP.  SI Possible...
I was also just bitten by this bug -- running Moz 1.4 on Win2K. Had a system
crash during shutdown of program and bookmarks vaporized. I had exactly the same
thing happen to me using Opera -- which is when i switched to Mozilla! Very
maddening!!
I just had a variant of this bug under 1.4 on WinXP. I've been having fairly
regular Mozilla crashes recently, possibly due to some weird Java interactions?
In any case, most of the time my data has been fine. Today I log into my
computer and find that my preferences (including all email settings!) are
completely wiped out!  However, my bookmarks remained intact. Note also that
this was NOT due to an OS crash, but merely to a Mozilla crash. I like Floyd
D'Bird's proposed solution...

*** Bug 221595 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Blocks: 19454
*** Bug 224597 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Now what i've experienced:

When you open file in program and your program doesn't close it properly before
boot or memory sweep the file itself remains on your hard drive but the data
you've entered is lost. Not earlier data but new data which is unwrited to HD.
How is it possible that prefs.js is corrupted when i get abnormal closing of
mozilla? If you think what is logical explanation of this error you have
something like this:

Prefs.js is deleted from HD while you do something specific with mozilla now if
machine suddently boots Prefs.js does not excist anymore and your settings are
gone. Then you launch Mozilla after boot and it discovers that Prefs.js is
missing and it creates new one which includes a flag that favorites are NOT
imported from IE yet so it imports them and overwrites your favorites now we
have overwrote favorites and there is no way to get them back. Now you open
Prefs.js and you discover that all of your settings are gone and so are all
marks of email directories so your email is not gone but Mozilla cannot see it.
You can fix your email by copying it directly under your new profile settings.
After i noticed these things i tried to use Prefs.bak as Prefs.js but i noticed
that it was full of square marks (somekind of trash from memory perhaps?) so
that didn't help either.

I suggest you create better handling of Prefs.js and make more backups of
settings and emails so that you can recover those if Prefs.js gets rewritten.
Perhaps somekind of backup points with date names or something? This is SERIOUS
problem and caused me a lot of headache. Thanks beforehand
I just got bitten by this bug with the Win2k:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.5b) Gecko/20030827

It occurred after a blue screen crash that I expected to occur and had quit
Mozilla immediately prior to the crash so the bug is NOT due to crashing while
running Mozilla. Upon reboot, bookmarks and prefs were lost.

My drives have plenty of free space so that is not the problem.

I have experienced the same blue screen system crash before, without loss of
Mozilla prefs/bookmarks. I do not know if this is relevant, but the only change
of my system configuration I can recall, between the two crashes, is that I
turned ON the Windows ENERGY SAVING feature:
Display-Properties:Power:Power Schemes: Turn off hard disks: After 1 hour.
I do not know if my hard disks were spinning at the moment that I initiated the
crash. My suspician is that Windows may queue the prefs/bookmarks file write
operation and not commit properly if energy saving has put disk drives to sleep.
I have now disabled hard drive sleep so hopefully this won't happen again.

Thanks for the comments about lost files, I have discovered several lost files
in C:\FOUND.011, that, when renamed and replaced, have restored Mozilla
functionality! 

For the sake of anyone who wants to recover as I have done, substitute your own
user and profile name for mine, 'greg' and 'nospam', in the paths below.

The files which I identified and replaced were:

C:\Documents and Settings\greg\Application
Data\Mozilla\Profiles\nospam\xio42hvo.slt\bookmarks.html

C:\Documents and Settings\greg\Application
Data\Mozilla\Profiles\nospam\xio42hvo.slt\prefs.js

A file fragment that starts with the following:

    NetscapeMozillaTrunkWin322003082704

Was originally named:
C:\...\Talkback\Netscape\MozillaTrunk\Win32\2003082704

An rdf file fragment was found which starts with:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<RDF:RDF xmlns:NS72="http://home.netscape.com/WEB-rdf#"
         xmlns:NC="http://home.netscape.com/NC-rdf#"
         xmlns:RDF="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">

This file appears to be:

C:\Documents and Settings\greg\Application
Data\Mozilla\Profiles\nospam\xio42hvo.slt\localstore.rdf
Flags: blocking1.6b?
Flags: blocking1.6a?
I also have this problem on Windows XP with Mozilla 1.5 when restarting Mozilla
- noticeable when you get the "Congratulations you have just downloaded Mozilla"
welcome page.  This is just a plain old restart - no system crash, no apparent
Mozilla crash unless it's on silent running :-) This bug is starting to really
**** me off enough to ditch Mozilla and just go back to using plain old IE.

Bookmarks remain intact but all preferences, saved passwords, mail and newsgroup
accounts are gone.  I have now taken a backup copy of the prefs.js file for
future use and will continue using it for the time being :-)

Looking in my "C:\Documents and Settings\halvey\Application
Data\Mozilla\Profiles\default\yyb8vwhq.slt\Mail" folder I see I now have 5
copies of "Local Folders" and also multiple copies of my email and newsgroup
accounts which hopefully I can recover and merge into the one correct version.

I also run PC-cillin 2000 as my virus software and I see in another thread that
this apparently causes problems trying to rewrite one of the files to ensure
that email from pop accounts gets diverted to the virus app - anyone got any
idea what/where this file is ?

1.6a is out. Taking the flag away. 

I do hope Asa does not mind the cleaning of the last standing "blocking1.6?" flag.
Flags: blocking1.6a?
No longer blocks: 19454
Hi,

I suggest to add a feature to Mozilla / Firebird that allows to create backups
of files such as bookmarks.html, Personal toolbar, mail prefs, news prefs, etc.

How about adding a menu entry to the "Edit / Preferences..." menu underneath the
"Naviagtor" branch called "Settings backup"?

This should contain tick boxes of what somebody wants to backup, to where and
how often (time interval) this should happen. Also a restore feature should be
introduced with a selection option what and which backup should be restored.

This may solve some of the issues where an OS freezes or crashes unrecoverably.

--Christian
bug 227331 may be related, though in that bug, my preferences weren't affected and
the bookmarks were only truncated, not lost.
Some work has already happened and some of these problems have already been
fixed. We're looking into what more can be done for 1.6 but it's unlikely that
this bug, with a variety of reported problems is going to be resolved for 1.6.
I'll be working to get the various remaining issues described cleanly in
discreet bug reports to tackle for 1.7.
Flags: blocking1.6b? → blocking1.6b-
Many of these problems are caused by files kept open by Mozilla, when the OS
crashes. I don't know why Mozilla does this. Files like history.dat, *.msf, *.db
are always open. This probably means they are not flushed after each write. They
are not in a consistent state after an OS crash. On boot, they are often
truncated to zero (or scandisk fixes them this way). I lost my panacea.dat with
1.5 during a complete computer freeze. I think all unused files should be closed
to prevent this problems. Yes, it would be slower, but safer. Mozilla is the
only program that has problems with Windows crashes here. That is sad.

Isn't there a meta bug for all unclosed files? I could find it so I posted here.
Please create such a bug and set it to block bug 123929.
Blocks: 231606
Done, see bug 231606.
No longer blocks: 231606
Blocks: 231606
*** Bug 231961 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
see http://www.mozilla.org/start/1.5/troubleshooting/#restore-mail for how to
recover your settings
*** Bug 220489 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 233254 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 227331 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I am simply **** off. It happened four times to me since 1. January that I
lost my mail setup. Please solve this bug!
Flags: blocking1.7a+
*** Bug 233802 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
we made some progress on profile/bookmark loss in 1.7a more to come in 1.7b
Flags: blocking1.7b+
Flags: blocking1.7a-
Flags: blocking1.7a+
Glad to see someone is working on this.

I just suffered the same catastrophic loss of bookmarks, mail profiles and
preferences for the second time.  Unfortunately, there was no indication of a
problem until *after* I had opened Mozilla, so backing up pref.js before wasn't
an option either time.

fyi - I am using Mozilla 1.5 (5.0 Windows) on a WinXP laptop.  While I don't
recall any system crashes that may have preceded each incident, I have had the
laptop go into sleep mode a couple times due to low battery - this may be the root.

I just rebuilt things again, but I was lulled into a false sense of security
(and false diagnosis, as I thought it might be related to downloading Opera7 or
an incompatible altavista toolbar) and had stopped backing up my bookmarks daily
a couple weeks ago.  I vote for an automatic backup option that lets you save
critical files to an alternate location, say once per session, with an
incremental or dated filename (like pref-1.js, bookmark-2004-02-24.htm) so it
*never* gets overwritten.  They could reside in a subfolder that can be manually
deleted from time to time to save space.

Thanks to Daniel Wang for the "how-to" link - sure was easier than last time...

> see http://www.mozilla.org/start/1.5/troubleshooting/#restore-mail for how to
> recover your settings


Happened to me as well, using Mozilla 20031208 on Windows 2000 Pro. There was an
power outage, and I don't have a nobreak. When I restarted Windows and Mozilla,
I had lost the bookmarks, but the preferences and mail were, thank God, intact.

Marcos.
*** Bug 203583 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 205050 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Blocks: failsafe
*** Bug 219326 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Flags: blocking1.8a?
*** Bug 232297 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 240569 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I just had this happen to me on Windows XP Pro SP1 with Moz 1.7b 2004031616. 
It is quite irriating, this happened several months ago to me on a previous 
version too.
Flags: blocking1.7?
*** Bug 242281 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I see this when my machine reboots, which it has been doing somewhat frequently
when exiting from applications (usually Mozilla) after having been in Netmeeting.  

The only thing I know for sure is that it reboots after exiting an application,
and my bookmarks are lost.  The rest of it with regards to netmeeting is
speculation.

It has happened at least 4 or 5 times to me.
*** Bug 239469 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Flags: blocking1.8a?
Flags: blocking1.8a-
Flags: blocking1.7a-
Flags: blocking1.6b-
Flags: blocking1.4b-
Flags: blocking1.7? → blocking1.7-
*** Bug 233015 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 248311 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
A powerfailure occured shutting my computer down.

all my bookmarks were lost as reported in the original bug.  I restored them by
importing from IE again.

version 0.9.2
I lost my bookmark file, and all my settings in Moz 1.7 (Win2K) after a recent
computer lockup (The lockup seemed to occur when I was closing WinAmp 5.03). My
e-mail folders (dating back to 1997) appear to be intact, but I can't yet access
them (How do I fix that?). Furtunately I had a backup of my 300.K bookmarks file
from a couple weeks ago, though I did lose a number of recent bookmarks.

One odd thing is that I've had my computer lockup many times (due to a recent -
now fixed - ZoneAlarm bug) without any adverse effects on Mozilla, until this time.
Addendum to the previous post:

In addition to restoring an old bookmarks.html file, I restored an old PREFS.JS
file, and all my settings came back, and I could access all of my e-mail again.
So it looks like somehow both of those files became corrupt.

Maybe I'll create a batch file that runs at system startup, or at Mozilla
startup, and keeps a rolling archive of 10 of each of those 2 files, and maybe
I'll limit it to one backup per day.
Flags: blocking-aviary1.0PR?
*** Bug 255778 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 255842 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Vlad's done as much as we're going to get to for 1.0 with his bookmarks backup
changes.
Flags: blocking1.7b+
Flags: blocking1.7-
Flags: blocking-aviary1.0PR?
Flags: blocking-aviary1.0PR-
Lost my bookmarks again (308.KB), and I restored them from backup (unfortunately
a month old). I didn't lose my Prefs.js this time though. Still running Mozilla 1.7.
*** Bug 253199 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
2003-02-17 ???????

Are you people kidding me?

I thought Firefox would finally reach perfection when the divs would scroll
AFTER the 1.0 release... not a perfect release...

I never had this problem until yesterday.

This is absolutely ridiculous!

And to add to that fact this is yet another aging bug that seems to go unfixed!

If Firefox is to compete with internet explorer it can't have retarded bugs!

Is the normal Mozilla browser effected?  Are the older netscape versions effected?

It's almost 2005 and the internet's been around for a solid decade and we still
can't get a decent browser >:-<
John,
Your comments do nothing to help the status of this bug.  Please read
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html before commenting again.
 By making pointless comments like you just did, you make it more likely that a
dev will NOT fix this bug.

They have stated they have done work on this and are done with it until after 1.0.

And now, lets get back to fixing other bugs.

(In reply to comment #81)
> [deleted]
> If Firefox is to compete with internet explorer it can't have retarded bugs!

True, it's a shame it still here in moz classic, but users pestered by this bug
may do well to move to firefox where the problem apparently has been addressed
(at least in part) via bug 252053.  

Otherwise, per Asa comment 78 it's wait til some time after firefox 1.0, which
per roadmap http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/roadmap.html may or may not
happen in October.  Perhaps FF1 should be added as a blocker -:)
This happened once and then always happens...

Does anyone think it could be an unknown virus or trojan aimed specifically at
gecko?  Maybe some MS person trying to keep the torch out of Moz's hands?
(In reply to comment #84)
> This happened once and then always happens...

You're saying that you regularly have system crashes or power failures?
A solution may be at hand!!

Last year I was severely handicapped by losing all my bookmarks, and more
importantly all my stored e-mails going back years to very early Netscape
products. This happened nn both my home and work computer within a few days of
each other. I was running Mozilla on one and Netscape on the other. I know there
must be a way of backing the files up, but it ain't in any of the help files
that I have read.

I tripped over a backup/restore utility that is freeware. It seems to work with
all Mozilla packages and I have used it once, today. It's a pity it's not
bundled with Mozilla products.

http://backup.jasnapaka.com/

It may not be news to you but it is to me and it's the firsr time any e-mail has
contained a workable solution to the bug.
FF prefs are lost after 2 days,   this is 2nd time in 4 days. 
Hijack this logfile included below.
Nothing I have done to prompt this behavior.  Just simple surfing. Error comes
up about Profiles, then wants me to change profile because the default one I
choose is in use when it is not in use.  I checked task manager, no FF running.
So I type in another name for profile, and it resets all my settings and no
bookmarks.  Is there a temp file for these somewhere so I can just import them?

Logfile of HijackThis v1.97.7
Scan saved at 8:37:59 PM, on 11/8/2004
Platform: Windows XP SP2 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP2 (6.00.2900.2180)

Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\Ati2evxx.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\AvidSDMService.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\CTsvcCDA.EXE
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VS7DEBUG\MDM.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\System32\snmp.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\MsPMSPSv.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Softwin\BitDefender Communicator\xcommsvr.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Softwin\BitDefender Scan Server\bdss.exe
C:\Program Files\Softwin\BitDefender8\vsserv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\devldr32.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\Program Files\Creative\SBLive\Program\CTAvTray.EXE
C:\progra~1\softwin\bitdef~1\bdmcon.exe
C:\Program Files\Softwin\BitDefender8\bdoesrv.exe
C:\Program Files\Softwin\BitDefender8\bdswitch.exe
C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0\bin\jusched.exe
C:\Program Files\SlySoft\AnyDVD\AnyDVD.exe
C:\AboutBuster.exe
C:\Program Files\Hijack This\Hijack This.exe

O2 - BHO: (no name) - {0000CC75-ACF3-4cac-A0A9-DD3868E06852} - C:\Program
Files\DAP\DAPBHO.dll
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program
Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll
O3 - Toolbar: FlashGet Bar - {E0E899AB-F487-11D5-8D29-0050BA6940E3} -
C:\PROGRA~1\FlashGet\fgiebar.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [UpdReg] C:\WINDOWS\Updreg.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [CTAvTray] C:\Program Files\Creative\SBLive\Program\CTAvTray.EXE
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [BDMCon] C:\progra~1\softwin\bitdef~1\bdmcon.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [BDOESRV] C:\Program Files\Softwin\BitDefender8\\bdoesrv.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [BDNewsAgent] C:\progra~1\softwin\bitdef~1\bdnagent.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [BDSwitchAgent] C:\Program
Files\Softwin\BitDefender8\\bdswitch.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NeroFilterCheck] C:\WINDOWS\system32\NeroCheck.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SunJavaUpdateSched] C:\Program
Files\Java\jre1.5.0\bin\jusched.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AnyDVD] C:\Program Files\SlySoft\AnyDVD\AnyDVD.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\RunOnce: [CTAVTray] C:\Program
Files\Creative\SBLive\Program\CTAvStub.EXE EAX.AVI
O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel -
res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~3\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE/3000
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Sun Java Console (HKLM)
O9 - Extra button: Run DAP (HKLM)
O9 - Extra button: Research (HKLM)
O9 - Extra button: FlashGet (HKLM)
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: &FlashGet (HKLM)
O9 - Extra button: Messenger (HKLM)
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Windows Messenger (HKLM)
O16 - DPF: {17492023-C23A-453E-A040-C7C580BBF700} (Windows Genuine Advantage
Validation Tool) - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=36467&clcid=0x409
O16 - DPF: {3E68E405-C6DE-49FF-83AE-41EE9F4C36CE} (Office Update Installation
Engine) - http://office.microsoft.com/officeupdate/content/opuc.cab
O16 - DPF: {6414512B-B978-451D-A0D8-FCFDF33E833C} (WUWebControl Class) -
http://v5.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/v5consumer/V5Controls/en/x86/client/wuweb_site.cab?1099480183389


pikshirtkr@charter.net: there's a lock file, use filemon, you'll spot it. if you
can delete the file then mozilla should be willing to use the profile.
*** Bug 215174 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I originally commented on this bug over a year ago and have since switched to 
Opera. Recently I experienced the same problem with Opera 7.5 - all bookmarks 
lost after a system crash, which I recovered manually from one of the recovered 
.chk files, Windows created.

So, I just wanted to suggest that this may not be a bug at all - it may be a 
weakness in how Windows manages open files, threading and such issues, over 
which no browser manufacturer has any control.
I've recently seen this happen twice to a co-worker (Windows XP SP2 + Mozilla
1.7.3). He swears he did nothing like close Windows without closing Mozilla
first.   I have no idea why it happened to him. Another member of my lab who
uses the same software combination and plus a few who use Mozilla with Win98 or
WinME have no such problems. I have never seen that happen to me (and I've used
Mozilla with all Windows desktop flavors as well as on Linux).
*** Bug 272198 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 272748 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 221518 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 258041 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 257718 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 260243 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 273957 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 274044 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 274609 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 276354 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 278154 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 276354 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 278541 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 280321 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Flags: blocking-aviary1.1?
I'd like to confirm that this happened due to an incorrect Windows and computer
shutdown despite exiting Firefox first. I'm almost 100% sure i'd also exited the
system tray quick launch first. In fact, Firefox had probably not even been started.

So i'd rephrase comment #90 like this:
I want to suggest that this may be primarily not only a weakness in how Windows
manages open files, threading, and such issues, but it seems to also indicate
that Windows accesses at least certain files like bookmarks.html in AppData even
if the relevant application is not running. Doesn't sound logical, plausible, or
even possible to a layman like myself though. 

However, if it's true, browser and other software manufacturers that don't place
user data in folders not accessed by Windows have a bug in *their* program that
is based on insufficient understanding of the insane Windows environment.

*** Bug 279394 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 283113 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 275810 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 283535 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
My experience appears to be similar to Comment #87. A dialogue box appears
during normal running, without a crash or power failure or blue screen, asking
for a profile change. I tried to use the default but it wouldn't allow me,
insisting I enter a new name, which I did (my name). Then, all bookmarks and
preferences were lost. I'm running WIN XP Home Edition Version 5.1.

I have my old bookmarks from IE, but many weeks of Mozilla bookmarks are lost.

(In reply to comment #87)
> FF prefs are lost after 2 days,   this is 2nd time in 4 days. 
> Hijack this logfile included below.
> Nothing I have done to prompt this behavior.  Just simple surfing. Error comes
> up about Profiles, then wants me to change profile because the default one I
> choose is in use when it is not in use.  I checked task manager, no FF running.
> So I type in another name for profile, and it resets all my settings and no
> bookmarks.  Is there a temp file for these somewhere so I can just import them?
> 
> Logfile of HijackThis v1.97.7
> Scan saved at 8:37:59 PM, on 11/8/2004
> Platform: Windows XP SP2 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
> MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP2 (6.00.2900.2180)
> 
> Running processes:
> C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
> C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
> C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
> C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
> C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
> C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
> C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
> C:\WINDOWS\System32\Ati2evxx.exe
> C:\WINDOWS\system32\AvidSDMService.exe
> C:\WINDOWS\System32\CTsvcCDA.EXE
> C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VS7DEBUG\MDM.EXE
> C:\WINDOWS\System32\snmp.exe
> C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
> C:\WINDOWS\System32\MsPMSPSv.exe
> C:\Program Files\Common Files\Softwin\BitDefender Communicator\xcommsvr.exe
> C:\Program Files\Common Files\Softwin\BitDefender Scan Server\bdss.exe
> C:\Program Files\Softwin\BitDefender8\vsserv.exe
> C:\WINDOWS\system32\devldr32.exe
> C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
> C:\Program Files\Creative\SBLive\Program\CTAvTray.EXE
> C:\progra~1\softwin\bitdef~1\bdmcon.exe
> C:\Program Files\Softwin\BitDefender8\bdoesrv.exe
> C:\Program Files\Softwin\BitDefender8\bdswitch.exe
> C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0\bin\jusched.exe
> C:\Program Files\SlySoft\AnyDVD\AnyDVD.exe
> C:\AboutBuster.exe
> C:\Program Files\Hijack This\Hijack This.exe
> 
> O2 - BHO: (no name) - {0000CC75-ACF3-4cac-A0A9-DD3868E06852} - C:\Program
> Files\DAP\DAPBHO.dll
> O2 - BHO: (no name) - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program
> Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll
> O3 - Toolbar: FlashGet Bar - {E0E899AB-F487-11D5-8D29-0050BA6940E3} -
> C:\PROGRA~1\FlashGet\fgiebar.dll
> O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [UpdReg] C:\WINDOWS\Updreg.exe
> O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [CTAvTray] C:\Program Files\Creative\SBLive\Program\CTAvTray.EXE
> O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [BDMCon] C:\progra~1\softwin\bitdef~1\bdmcon.exe
> O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [BDOESRV] C:\Program Files\Softwin\BitDefender8\\bdoesrv.exe
> O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [BDNewsAgent] C:\progra~1\softwin\bitdef~1\bdnagent.exe
> O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [BDSwitchAgent] C:\Program
> Files\Softwin\BitDefender8\\bdswitch.exe
> O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NeroFilterCheck] C:\WINDOWS\system32\NeroCheck.exe
> O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SunJavaUpdateSched] C:\Program
> Files\Java\jre1.5.0\bin\jusched.exe
> O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AnyDVD] C:\Program Files\SlySoft\AnyDVD\AnyDVD.exe
> O4 - HKLM\..\RunOnce: [CTAVTray] C:\Program
> Files\Creative\SBLive\Program\CTAvStub.EXE EAX.AVI
> O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel -
> res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~3\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE/3000
> O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Sun Java Console (HKLM)
> O9 - Extra button: Run DAP (HKLM)
> O9 - Extra button: Research (HKLM)
> O9 - Extra button: FlashGet (HKLM)
> O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: &FlashGet (HKLM)
> O9 - Extra button: Messenger (HKLM)
> O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Windows Messenger (HKLM)
> O16 - DPF: {17492023-C23A-453E-A040-C7C580BBF700} (Windows Genuine Advantage
> Validation Tool) - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=36467&clcid=0x409
> O16 - DPF: {3E68E405-C6DE-49FF-83AE-41EE9F4C36CE} (Office Update Installation
> Engine) - http://office.microsoft.com/officeupdate/content/opuc.cab
> O16 - DPF: {6414512B-B978-451D-A0D8-FCFDF33E833C} (WUWebControl Class) -
>
http://v5.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/v5consumer/V5Controls/en/x86/client/wuweb_site.cab?1099480183389
> 
> 


*** Bug 287405 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
(In reply to comment #111)
> My experience appears to be similar to Comment #87. A dialogue box appears
> during normal running, without a crash or power failure or blue screen, asking
> for a profile change. I tried to use the default but it wouldn't allow me,
> insisting I enter a new name, which I did (my name). Then, all bookmarks and
> preferences were lost. I'm running WIN XP Home Edition Version 5.1.
> 
> I have my old bookmarks from IE, but many weeks of Mozilla bookmarks are lost.

To reply to this user:  This is pikshirtkr, we have had similar problems.  I
have resolved the loss of profile settings by a workaround rather than a fix. 
Try to find a copy of MozillaBackup 1.4, I will post a link here. This program
backups your profiles and settings in FF, saves it to any folder you want,
thereby decreasing the chances of deletion via windowsOS.  Then, run this
command at the START - RUN prompt:  firefox.exe -profilemanager  this will allow
you to create and manage your profiles.  I wasn't aware of this before.
(In reply to comment #111)
> My experience appears to be similar to Comment #87. A dialogue box appears
> during normal running, without a crash or power failure or blue screen, asking
> for a profile change. I tried to use the default but it wouldn't allow me,
> insisting I enter a new name, which I did (my name). Then, all bookmarks and
> preferences were lost. I'm running WIN XP Home Edition Version 5.1.
> 
> I have my old bookmarks from IE, but many weeks of Mozilla bookmarks are lost.

To reply to this user:  This is pikshirtkr, we have had similar problems.  I
have resolved the loss of profile settings by a workaround rather than a fix. 
Try to find a copy of MozillaBackup 1.4, I will post a link here. This program
backups your profiles and settings in FF, saves it to any folder you want,
thereby decreasing the chances of deletion via windowsOS.  Then, run this
command at the START - RUN prompt:  firefox.exe -profilemanager  this will allow
you to create and manage your profiles.  I wasn't aware of this before.
*** Bug 283983 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 279339 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
It seems that the comments here are tracking two bugs. 

The first bug is that your bookmarks and preferences files are corrupted
(including the backups it seems) when your machine unexpectedly reboots. 

The second problem seems to be that upon start of Firefox the default profile is
in use.  I would guess that this message can have several root causes (process
that never closed, file that is locked)

About the first problem, can someone who understands the architecture comment on
why this would happen. Is it that the bookmarks and userprefs files are open and
being written to when the reboot happens? Or is it that they are open but not
being written to and Windows mangles them in some way.

My fiancee lost bookmarks when her computer rebooted due to a display driver
exception. She was using Firefox and Windows XP SP2

One could argue that a random reboot or power cycle is not a valid test case,
but I would say that is it. They happen often enough that a program like Firefox
should handle file manipulation in such a way that it does not corrupt files
when this happens.

A final question - when is the bookmarks.bak file written? Anytime the
bookmarks.html file is updated? My fiancee presumably blew away her .bak file
when she tried to add a bookmark after they had been lost. Had I gotten to her
computer before this, I would have been able to tell if the .bak file was also
corrupted.
*** Bug 288279 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 288269 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 288860 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 245285 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 275985 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Depends on: 289615
This bug covers too many issues to be a blocker. If you can demonstrate specific
and reproducible cases where specific files or directories are lost, please let
me know and I'll file a bug to cover that. This bug is no longer useful for
development purposes, only as a dupe catcher, and each truely unique dataloss
situation (I believe there are at least a few represented here) will need
individual bugs. I've filed bug 289615 to cover the FAT32, specific and
reproducible case for file and directory loss. I believe that a significant
number of problems are related to that bug but there are clearly others, like
second profile creation looking like dataloss, and others, that will need
individual reports when we can reliably reproduce.
Flags: blocking1.8a1-
Flags: blocking-aviary1.1?
Flags: blocking-aviary1.1-
Flags: blocking-aviary1.0PR-
Assignee: ccarlen → prefs
QA Contact: bugzilla
bug 253950 addressed the UI issue of the profile manager opening when not
explicily called for.  Like times when a previous firefox process wasn't
shutdown cleanly and the user tries to run firefox again.
*** Bug 289564 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 292216 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Blocks: majorbugs
No longer blocks: majorbugs
*** Bug 295588 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 296126 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 293803 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 298067 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 298144 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 298137 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 208770 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Huh. Well, I think I have replication steps with firefox.

1. Either turn on or close firefox. 

2. While the process is running, but a window is not up, turn off your computer.

3. When you start up, if you were turning FF on, your settings will be deleted.
If you were turning it off, your bookmarks will be.
Whiteboard: read comment 123 before replying
*** Bug 301282 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Ouch, this hit me today, during a power outage (it's pretty normal were I live).
Loosing all your bookmarks and settings really hurts. Running Windows XP SP2 NTFS.
*** Bug 304329 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 304506 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 305280 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 315903 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I am reproducing the bug systematicaly.
I have a problem with my graphic card driver, and each time I close firefox
with an applet loaded, my computer crashes. Next time I start mozilla, I have
no bookmark and my preferences are lost. Looking at the bookmark.html file, it
has the same size than the last one, but it can't be opend by mozilla since it is corrupted (see attachement).
After closing Mozilla, the bookmark file is valid but empty, its
size is <1k

Tell me if I can help and give you more data. I have some developper
knowledge...
I am reproducing the bug systematicaly.
I have a problem with my graphic card driver, and each time I close firefox
with an applet loaded, my computer crashes. Next time I start mozilla, I have
no bookmark and my preferences are lost. Looking at the bookmark.html file, it
has the same size than the last one, but it can't be opend by mozilla since it is corrupted (see attachement).
After closing Mozilla, the bookmark file is valid but empty, its
size is <1k

Tell me if I can help and give you more data. I have some developper
knowledge...

Firefox Version:
Mozilla 1.5 RC3 (same problem occured with the 1.0.7 and before)
System:
Windows XP SP2
*** Bug 317652 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I had been using this browser after the glowing reviews it got. I was really happy with the browser which I have been using for over a month now. But last night I opened firefox up to find it had not only deleted my bookmarks, but it was also eating away at my computer as well. Within a few seconds it not only destroyed my podcasts, but it had deleted everything in my ITunes library. After several hours of reinstalling software you could say I am extremely **** off at the moment. Several months worth of downloads and documents ruined because of this **** browswer. I'm going back to Safari at least I know it's reliable. New Users watch your backs & your files!!!!!!!
I had been using this browser after the glowing reviews it got. I was really happy with the browser which I have been using for over a month now. But last night I opened firefox up to find it had not only deleted my bookmarks, but it was also eating away at my computer as well. Within a few seconds it not only destroyed my podcasts, but it had deleted everything in my ITunes library. After several hours of reinstalling software you could say I am extremely **** off at the moment. Several months worth of downloads and documents ruined because of this **** browswer. I'm going back to Safari at least I know it's reliable. New Users watch your backs & your files!!!!!!!
I had been using this browser after the glowing reviews it got. I was really happy with the browser which I have been using for over a month now. But last night I opened firefox up to find it had not only deleted my bookmarks, but it was also eating away at my computer as well. Within a few seconds it not only destroyed my podcasts, but it had deleted everything in my ITunes library. After several hours of reinstalling software you could say I am extremely **** off at the moment. Several months worth of downloads and documents ruined because of this **** browswer. I'm going back to Safari at least I know it's reliable. New Users watch your backs & your files!!!!!!!
I had been using this browser after the glowing reviews it got. I was really happy with the browser which I have been using for over a month now. But last night I opened firefox up to find it had not only deleted my bookmarks, but it was also eating away at my computer as well. Within a few seconds it not only destroyed my podcasts, but it had deleted everything in my ITunes library. After several hours of reinstalling software you could say I am extremely **** off at the moment. Several months worth of downloads and documents ruined because of this **** browswer. I'm going back to Safari at least I know it's reliable. New Users watch your backs & your files!!!!!!!
*** Bug 321420 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 324119 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I have read several of the comments and share the lost bookmarks and preference problem.  However, I have not found a way to restore my lost bookmarks or preferences nor do I know how to prevent this from happening in the future.  What did I miss?  Please advise.
This problem just happened to me today and happened a number of times over the years I used Netscape 7.x/Mozilla. Each time, computer becomes unresponsive so I power it off, and after reboot Mozilla shows me as a new user (no bookmarks, home page set to Mozilla, no mail, stupid warnings when sending data). Using XP SP2 with NTFS and Mozilla 1.7.12. This sucks.
I've a solution which works for minor crashes : just after powering down the computer and restarting it, you must execute an all drives scandisk under msdosbefore starting windows, in most cases, when you restart mozilla everything will be working, in this case the problem simply came from the fact that all the files used by mozilla weren't closed at the  time of the power off. If this doesn't work some important config files might have bee corrupted. To prevent the loss of datas, you should regularly use mozbackup.

The worst problem is that I discovered that mozilla wasn't suffering from a F..ing windows crash caused by a bad coded program, in fact it's Mozilla itself that usually causes the crash of windows when it has used all the memory available (bug #319143)...    
Could some mozilla developer add a warning (until this bug is fixed) stating that the bookmarking system is broken and it shouldn't be used as it can lose all of the bookmarks?

I think it's better if people know that the bookmarking system is **** and shouldn't be used than don't telling anything and having all the bookmarks lost with all the pain that causes.

I'd add a warning in the bookmarks manager window and a warning the first time the bookmarks system is used.

What do you think?
(In reply to comment #153)
try mozbackup to save all of your datas, or simply make a copy of the bookmarks.html file that you can find in your profile. If You're adult and responsible don't always hope that someone has to take you by the hand to assist you.

> Could some mozilla developer add a warning (until this bug is fixed) stating
> that the bookmarking system is broken and it shouldn't be used as it can lose
> all of the bookmarks?
> 
> I think it's better if people know that the bookmarking system is **** and
> shouldn't be used than don't telling anything and having all the bookmarks lost
> with all the pain that causes.
> 
> I'd add a warning in the bookmarks manager window and a warning the first time
> the bookmarks system is used.
> 
> What do you think?
> 


I'd prefer using stable code like MSIE that I know it won't eat my bookmarks.

I don't know how fair it is to release "stable" code with known critical bugs.

(In reply to comment #154)
> (In reply to comment #153)
> try mozbackup to save all of your datas, or simply make a copy of the
> bookmarks.html file that you can find in your profile. If You're adult and
> responsible don't always hope that someone has to take you by the hand to
> assist you.
Would you please stop bugspamming. This discussion belongs to a NG. At least in Version 1.5 of FF in your profile there ist a folder called "bookmarkbackups", where you'll find a backup of your bookmarks. In case of dataloss FF should automaticly backup them, but I wasn't able to test this feature by now. ;-) But you can do it by hand quite easyly by overwriting the bookmarks.html by one of the backups.

OT/Bugspam: IE has enaugh other bugs with dataloss, too. And yes, IE has stable code - but not the way you ment. ;-)
That's nice for Firefox but that backup feature doesn't seem to exist in Mozilla.
It wouldn't do much for folks who don't have the patience to find out about the hidden directory hierarchy anyway. How about:
- when saving bookmarks: save as bookmarks.new, rename existing bookmarks.html to bookmarks.bak, then rename bookmarks.new to bookmarks.html.
- when starting up: if bookmarks.html is not there, restore bookmarks.bak.
(In reply to comment #157)
> That's nice for Firefox but that backup feature doesn't seem to exist in
> Mozilla.
> It wouldn't do much for folks who don't have the patience to find out about the
> hidden directory hierarchy anyway. How about:
> - when saving bookmarks: save as bookmarks.new, rename existing bookmarks.html
> to bookmarks.bak, then rename bookmarks.new to bookmarks.html.
> - when starting up: if bookmarks.html is not there, restore bookmarks.bak.
> 
As I wrote, just two lines above, If you use mozilla suite, you can install mozbackup http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/ It will archive and compress all of your datas

*** Bug 325056 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Flags: blocking-aviary1.5-
i have just had it too, i had a power crash and now all my bookmarks are gone, this is the second time this has happned, and it will realy take allot of work to refind all my bookmarks, is there something to do against it? and is there a way to regain my bookmarks

can someone tell me in simple steps how to resolve this problem, coz i dont know much of computers
*** Bug 329401 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 329928 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 330042 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 330218 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 331235 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I had the same problem that can be reproduced when I was editing my bookmark and had power failure.

My bookmark was lost an noway to retreive it.

It seems that Mozilla 1.7.1 works without backup while editing bookmark 
*** Bug 332001 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 307789 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
In my case, I could not shut down my computer normally due to the memory leak bug (319143), so that was why I had to do it "manually." I lost all my preferences, use of my extensions (although they said they were still there), and exactly half of my bookmarks. I had to back up what bookmarks I had left, uninstall FireFox, and dump the Application Data (I use Win XP SP2) for FireFox. I reinstalled, grabbed my extensions and themes back, then worked on getting my bookmarks back. Fortunately, I still had the source of all my older bookmarks on hand, since I'd long since forgotten their URLs. Others I had to search out.  I've been backing up my bookmarks whenever there is a new major addition, and I've also backed up all my prefs.js files. Also, while it does not excuse the fact that there is a memory leak in the first place, I've picked up one of those RAM-freeing programs that frees memory from that sort of thing.  It works pretty well, actually.
Same bug affected me 8 or 9 times in 2 months with Firefox, when power failures occured. Each time I lost not only my bookmarks and prefs, but also search engines from the search bar on the left, and customized buttons on the toolbar (e.g., I added New Tab button). 
And, I can't add Google back to search engines for example, because it's not on the list here: https://addons.mozilla.org/search-engines.php !!!!!!!!
If i remember correctly the same bug was even in the old Mozilla Suite...
Not only that I don't have any search engines listed anymore, but I can't add any ( from mycroft.mozdev.org and https://addons.mozilla.org/search-engines.php ). And I can't edit the toolbar (eg adding New Tab button)... :(
I mean, if I try to install a search engine, it says ok, but nothing appears, not even after restarting Firefox.
I've tried with reinstall, but I guess I have to delete everything by hand first ?!
(In reply to comment #171)
> Not only that I don't have any search engines listed anymore, but I can't add
> any ( from mycroft.mozdev.org and https://addons.mozilla.org/search-engines.php
> ). And I can't edit the toolbar (eg adding New Tab button)... :(
> I mean, if I try to install a search engine, it says ok, but nothing appears,
> not even after restarting Firefox.
> I've tried with reinstall, but I guess I have to delete everything by hand
> first ?!
> 

Yes, if using Win XP, you must erase all the items in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Mozilla.
I'm sure that you could probably get away with erasing only some of the items, but I erased all of them just to be sure.  That way, next time you reinstall, Firefox won't detect those corrupted files and create a new Apllication Data section for itself.
I'm running Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060508 Firefox/1.5.0.4 and have run into this same issue.

I have attempted the following with no luck:
-Uninstall Firefox
-Delete Mozilla folder from Program Files folder
-Delete all Firefox registry keys
-Reinstall from fresh copy

The symptoms that I have observed are:
-Search extensions do not load / stick
-Bookmarks do not load / stick
-Default window size does not stick

(In reply to comment #173)
the profile is in 
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Mozilla

> I'm running Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.4)
> Gecko/20060508 Firefox/1.5.0.4 and have run into this same issue.
> 
> I have attempted the following with no luck:
> -Uninstall Firefox
> -Delete Mozilla folder from Program Files folder
> -Delete all Firefox registry keys
> -Reinstall from fresh copy
> 
> The symptoms that I have observed are:
> -Search extensions do not load / stick
> -Bookmarks do not load / stick
> -Default window size does not stick
> 


Deleting the profile works.  Resolution is a work around not a bug fix, additional measures should be taken to prevent this issue in future releases as to protect data and save time restoring settings.
Thank you very much for allowing my bookmarks to be lost due to a power failure. This is a completely amatuerish approach to the management and security of your Users' data.
*** Bug 358413 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 358515 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 354315 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Hi!

I lost "everything" due to a system crash...
My OS is a WinXP x64...

I'm hope you will fix this bug soon, unless I have to uninstall firefox :S
Cause that was the third time when FF forgot everything. That's a shame.

Good luck guys!


This bug started in 2003... seems to me like it should be higher priority?  I honestly care more about losing my bookmarks than I do about any other feature.  The fact that I have had this problem occur more than once in the last 1+ years tells me you are not actively trying to fix the problem.  Suggestions for workaround solutions are just bandaids. 

I WAS a very firm supporter of firefox, but unfortunately it has lost its appeal to me now, as after the 5th time of reloading my bookmarks I have had enough.  Opera or IE both have similar features now, anyway.


*** BOUNTY ** BOUNTY *** BOUNTY ***

Read below.

Hi developers.

I have subscribed to this bug for as long as Andy above, and it puzzles me why we're so busy adding c00l features such as better support for css, faster rendering and all that jazz, when the most basic feature of them all is missing: the ability to reliably save user data when a session abruptly ends.

I am hereby placing a bounty on this bug. Anyone who submits a patch that makes it go away will be awarded up to $200. Any other subscribers on this list who wish to add money to the bounty are free to do so.

I am taking off 25% of the bounty at the following dates: 1st of july, 1st of august, 1st of september and 1st of october (in other words: after 1st of october, there is no bounty). The date you submit the patch is counted as your claim date. The money will be paid when this bug is closed (and it really is gone in the following stable build).

I think $200 is a lot to pay if it was just a single application I "bought", but I have enjoyed many other free software packages without ever paying anything for them. To anyone who also hate this bug: if you really like free software, add some money to the bounty.

To developers: if anyone joins in, please don't hold me responsible if they do not keep their promises with regard to paying the bounty.

You are welcome to send comments to michael@zedeler.dk.

Isn't this bug pretty much going to go away once Places is turned on?
Of course the bug will go away eventually. The question is when.

I haven't noticed that Places was coming up. Neither the fact that it seems to be arriving soon, but anyway: the bounty is still available to anyone who claims it.

If nobody claims it, and Places fixes the problem, I'll just send my $200 to the Mozilla foundation.


WHAT THE $&%&^#(@! 

This is the third flippin time I lost my bookmarks.  My system didn't even crash.  All I did was reboot, and after opening firefox - EVERYTHING IS &%&#($#$ GONE!!


I tried backing up the bookmarks before, but for some odd reason I was unable to. 


This is becoming VERY VERY VERY $%&$(# ANNOYING.  I just lost 300 bookmarks.  300!!!  I rather use a slow IE than deal with non-stop bugs.  I've been a loyal user, but this is complete utter BULLS**T!!!



Anybody who can help me retrieve my bookmarks, will be GREATLY appreciated.  


(the browser opened on the same homepage)



The most scary problem here is that Mozilla developers do not
inform users about current critical problems in their products.

You should not be using any product where you are not informed
conveniently that a critical data loss bug is present in the
software.

My confidence in Mozilla products will go totally down if they
do not put any warning in the bookmarks manager stating that using
it will probably wipe all of the bookmarks under any circumstance,
adding a reference to this bug, until this bug is fixed.
I've just lost my bookmarks for the first time and am appalled to now find out that this has been a common Firefox problem for years.  Why hasn't this been fixed?

I'm on a Mac iBook, so even with a power failure, nothing should be affected.  I did have to restart (after having closed Firefox) to resume internet connection after a power outage, though--and that's when all the bookmarks went. I am beyond distressed.

Is anyone at Mozilla addressing this problem?
Did you see comment #187? Yes, this problem should be fixed the the Places-based bookmarks system forthcoming in Firefox 3.0.
Problem is now that I'm afraid to update to yet another version (I only recently went to 2.0.0.3 for fear of losing the bookmarks again (it wiped them out from both the new version and the old one that I still had).

Is there a way to back bookmarks up on a Mac?
Did you see comment #156 ?
You should be able to manually restore your bookmarks file using the automatic backups feature
see also http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/profile for a explanation about firefox profiles
The problem is with how SeaMonkey (Firefox) refreshes critical user profile files when it shuts down after a session.

When SeaMonkey shuts down, it attempts to redundantly update profiles active in the current session by overwriting the existing files with new updated ones before closing.   This most often includes:

prefs.js (profile configuration file)
Bookmarks.html (bookmarks)
abook.mab (address book database)
history.dat (recent history)
downloads.rds (download manager history)

Unfortunately, if a “blue screen of death” crash occurs while SeaMonkey is writing these files, the files in the process of being written may damaged or lost.   Sometimes you may not be aware of the damage as the exception can (and often does) occur during normal system shutdown.   Unless you are watching your computer carefully you may wrongly assume it turned off normally and the problem won’t rear it’s ugly face until you restart and see Window’s CHKDSK kick in.

Once any of the above files becomes unreadable to SeaMonkey, they are automatically replaced with fresh empty default versions the next is restarted.

The result of losing “pefs.js”is what gives you that default “new install” look.  All information about your original profiles are contained in this file so SeaMonkey no longer knows of the existence of personal user profiles that may have survived the crash under a different folder from the default.

Short term solution:

1. Create a new profile and be sure it’s not in any of the default Windows folders such as “Documents and Settings”. This reduces the chance of user data loss in the case of a major crash.

Example of the default profile location:
C:\Documents and Settings\John-Smith\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles...

Example of a more safe location:
C:\Mydata\Mozilla\Profiles...

2.  Backup the most recently updated files in your profile on a regular basis.

Long term solution:

Mozilla needs to write into it’s application shutdown process a more fault-tolerant way of saving critical data files.  In many applications such as WinZip and WordPerfect, newly updated files are written to a temporary locations and only when a save write process is successful are the original file(s) deleted.  Since the key files (list above are usually of trivial size, this will add negligible overhead to the process.
I had a suddent shutdown this morning and I was afraid to lose all my Seamonkey datas, but when I restarted, everything was still there. It only took a little time for the email client to compute new summaries for my mailboxes, but this time I didn't lose anything :)


I just had this problem when I came home about an hour ago, and also lost my History, which I'm not too concerned about. Earlier, I had no choice but to cold-boot my computer, shutting it down improperly. I came back and my bookmarks and history was gone. After reading some of this, I was able to do some searching on my own, and recover my bookmarks:

Filepath:

My Computer, to C:\, to Documents and Settings, to (the name of your profile on the comptuer), to Application Data, to Mozilla, to Firefox, to Profiles, to in my case, the only profile there. It had html links to backup listings of all my bookmarks in hyperlink format. I just copied the files to a spot in My Documents. I've no knowledge of setting up that feature prior, so it seems to be automatic. If the developers aren't already working on it, this is a serious issue that needs to be remedied. Having a work-around to retrieve what was lost is a great first step, and something to fall back on, but it should not replace actually fixing the problem. Good luck to anyone else who comes across this problem in restoring your bookmarks.
All the BS and no action from the coders to fix the problem. You do not need to shut down you system improperly for it still eats my bookmarksit still eats them with proper shut down and exiting of programs. I am using FireFox version: 2.0.0.11 and this is still on going problem. Writing a bug report is like peeing in the wind to these people.
It all gets dumped into this file with no resolution to this problem sine what earlier versions this has been on going?????????
The only solution I found is to save your bookmarks regularly to another file
and do a import of the saved file when the Mozilla eats your bookmarks.
Until the people writing code find a solution and stop ignoring the problem this problem will continue.
This is my take on this situation.
Some one's comment this is a serious issue. Yes your right but have you got a fix yet? Hell NO.
All the BS and no action from the coders to fix the problem. You do not need to shut down you system improperly for it still eats my bookmarks it still eats them with proper shut down and exiting of programs. I am using FireFox version: 2.0.0.11 and this is still on going problem. Writing a bug report is like peeing in the wind to these people.
It all gets dumped into this file with no resolution to this problem sine what earlier versions this has been on going?????????
The only solution I found is to save your bookmarks regularly to another file
and do a import of the saved file when the Mozilla eats your bookmarks.
Until the people writing code find a solution and stop ignoring the problem this problem will continue.
This is my take on this situation.
Some one's comment this is a serious issue. Yes your right but have you got a fix yet? Hell NO.
All the BS and no action from the coders to fix the problem. You do not need to shut down you system improperly for it still eats my bookmarks it still eats them with proper shut down and exiting of programs. I am using FireFox version: 2.0.0.11 and this is still on going problem. Writing a bug report is like peeing in the wind to these people.
It all gets dumped into this file with no resolution to this problem sine what earlier versions this has been on going?????????
The only solution I found is to save your bookmarks regularly to another file
and do a import of the saved file when the Mozilla eats your bookmarks.
Until the people writing code find a solution and stop ignoring the problem this problem will continue.
This is my take on this situation.
Some one's comment this is a serious issue. Yes your right but have you got a fix yet? Hell NO.
With Firefox 1.5/2.0, you can find 5 bookmarks backup files under the bookmarkbackup directory in your profile directory.
If you loose it, stop firefox, restore your file (the last bigger file should be good), restart firefox and that's all.
This is explained here : http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Lost+Bookmarks

With Firefox 3, bookmarks are using places, which is based on sqlite, which have plenty of functionality included to avoid losing data when a power failure occurs.

So please read the comments in the bug before yelling (and learn how to use bugzilla as you posted the same comment several times)
In my opinion, this issue has been mostly fixed (but as someone from mozilla mentionned, the bug subject is too vague so propably won't be marked fixed.)

They are still other issues opened about profile files kept open all the times, which can risk corrupt these files in case of power failure but that's another matter.

looks like the situation is much better than a few years ago !

(In reply to comment #150)
> I have read several of the comments and share the lost bookmarks and preference
> problem.  However, I have not found a way to restore my lost bookmarks or
> preferences nor do I know how to prevent this from happening in the future. 
> What did I miss?  Please advise.
> 
first create a folder on the hard drive Like: Bookmark Browser Save
Open your Browser:
go to your bookmarks open the bookmark window, open organize bookmarks. Pull down
your file folder you will see import and export. Go the the export. With the window that comes up save in: find your Bookmark Browser Save folder.
Re name the file to be saved or leave it like it is your choice. Save to your folder.
When the wonderful browser eats your bookmarks open your {bookmark/organize.
Than go to import section under the Files tab and pull up the file you saved.
This will import the saved file with your bookmarks you had before. You can cut and paste and do what ever you like at this point.
Save to your directory regularly your new found bookmarks so that you can restore easy enough.
Hope this helps.
(In reply to comment #204)
> With Firefox 1.5/2.0, you can find 5 bookmarks backup files under the
> bookmarkbackup directory in your profile directory.
> If you loose it, stop firefox, restore your file (the last bigger file should
> be good), restart firefox and that's all.
> This is explained here : http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Lost+Bookmarks
> 
> With Firefox 3, bookmarks are using places, which is based on sqlite, which
> have plenty of functionality included to avoid losing data when a power failure
> occurs.
> 
> So please read the comments in the bug before yelling (and learn how to use
> bugzilla as you posted the same comment several times)
> In my opinion, this issue has been mostly fixed (but as someone from mozilla
> mentionned, the bug subject is too vague so propably won't be marked fixed.)
> 
> They are still other issues opened about profile files kept open all the times,
> which can risk corrupt these files in case of power failure but that's another
> matter.
> 
> looks like the situation is much better than a few years ago !
> 

YES I AM YELLING, HOW MANY VERSIONS OF FIRE FOX PAST HAS THIS BEEN AN ISSUE???????? IS IS SOLVED YET???????? USE RESTORE TO FIREFOX BOOKMARK BACKUP IS YOUR SOLUTION????????????? SORRY I WILL NOT GIVE YOU THAT ONE.
(In reply to comment #206)
> YES I AM YELLING, HOW MANY VERSIONS OF FIRE FOX PAST HAS THIS BEEN AN
> ISSUE???????? IS IS SOLVED YET???????? USE RESTORE TO FIREFOX BOOKMARK BACKUP
> IS YOUR SOLUTION????????????? SORRY I WILL NOT GIVE YOU THAT ONE.

Your yelling won't help solve the problem. If anything, it may turn developers _away_ from solving this bug because they definitely don't like being yelled at. If you want to vent your anger, it is understandable, but this is not the right place. Please turn to the "mozilla.general" newsgroup on the "news.mozilla.org" server, or to private mail. Caution: on either medium, you risk being treated as a troll, i.e., ignored.
(In reply to comment #206)
> 
> YES I AM YELLING, HOW MANY VERSIONS OF FIRE FOX PAST HAS THIS BEEN AN
> ISSUE???????? IS IS SOLVED YET???????? USE RESTORE TO FIREFOX BOOKMARK BACKUP
> IS YOUR SOLUTION????????????? SORRY I WILL NOT GIVE YOU THAT ONE.
> 

I agree that is a very serious issue that has been ignored for 4 years by the people in charge. But instead of yelling here, championing Mozilla to actually fix the problem would be a better use of your well deserved anger. Get on the newsgroup and ask why it hasn't been fixed, etc.

However as mentioned, it does seem that it will be fixed in Firefox 3.
(In reply to comment #208)
> (In reply to comment #206)
> > 
> > YES I AM YELLING, HOW MANY VERSIONS OF FIRE FOX PAST HAS THIS BEEN AN
> > ISSUE???????? IS IS SOLVED YET???????? USE RESTORE TO FIREFOX BOOKMARK BACKUP
> > IS YOUR SOLUTION????????????? SORRY I WILL NOT GIVE YOU THAT ONE.
> > 
> 
> I agree that is a very serious issue that has been ignored for 4 years by the
> people in charge. But instead of yelling here, championing Mozilla to actually
> fix the problem would be a better use of your well deserved anger. Get on the
> newsgroup and ask why it hasn't been fixed, etc.
> 
> However as mentioned, it does seem that it will be fixed in Firefox 3.
> 
Thank you for kind words. This is my explanation:
What set me off is that I came here to report a problem only to be dismissed by the fact it was reported all ready. After reading through years of comments and version after version of Firefox of on going continuation of the same problem. Than some one right off the bat starts in on me for yelling when I was  only trying to pint out the issues. I was not trying to yell but it sure got me yelling after my first impressions here. Perhaps it got attention good or bad.
When I was told that using backup to restore the files was this persons solution to the software fix definitely worked up my rage to the yelling point.
I do not believe in political correctness and I speak my mind especially when it offended me first. I am new here but I will not walk on egg shells when there is a problem and it has been ignored all along. 
I do have some limited programming from College days and programming and solving problems with programming is a difficult job (programming is not my cup of tea). I spent hours in front of the computer eating, drinking and nearly sleeping on the key board just to keep up with that College Professor that was trying to teach us. I can relate to the difficult job that programming can be and respect the programmers.
On the other hand I will not make excuses for an on going problem and be afraid to say so when I was being blown off right off the bat regarding this issue.
If this troll is going to be ignored so be it. With the very first e-mails regarding my report I got ignored by the first reply I received, so what is the difference.
 I think it is time for some results after all these years the problem has been ignored.
It is not that the problem can not be solved, it is the willingness to solve the problem. Perhaps it is being solved but not from my first impression and how things  seem to work here. 
I heard good things about Firefox and that is why I decided to try the software
and I figured I owe feed back that can make this even better than it is by telling some one about the problems. It appears that you can not tell the truth here and be intimidated from speaking the truth. 
End of my discussion regarding this issue. If it gets fixed, ignored, blow off,or just continues to coast like it has been doing for many more years to come. That decision is not mine to make.
I am out of here. I will not waste any more of my time again or will I report any other problems I find. I have had enough of this warm and fuzzy place.














I have saved my self the aggravation with dealing with all problems.
It is quite simple:
Go to your control panel find FireFox and do a uninstall. I got the best
feeling in the whole world when it reported that uninstall was done.

That has been the best solution yet.
All this hype and sell pitch about FireFox is ****.
Worst software I ever used.

Thanks for confirming here what I suspected.
For all the Mensa types here that jumped up and down about
MULTIPLE posts:

Before you complain to the user about this problem, why don't
you look under the hood of this wonderful code that drives this
web? You may be surprised that the multiple post are created by 
this SITE it's self and not by the unsuspecting user/users.

It reeks of the same type of coding as has been done on FireFox.

(Filter "spam" on 'prefs-nobody-20080612'.)
Assignee: prefs → nobody
QA Contact: prefs
talked to lucy and others on irc about updating 
	http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Lost+Bookmarks 
and other relevant pages to recommend upgrading to Firefox 3 as the primary fix to this problem...

sounds like we might try to do that soon.

I never had this problem before upgrading to Firefox 3, but I have it now.
QA Contact: preferences → preferences-backend
Whiteboard: read comment 123 before replying → [notacrash] read comment 123 before replying
Don't know if it has any value adding to this bug - but it just happened to me too, forced a reboot on Ubuntu 10.04 (force closing all programs that didn't terminate voluntarily, but FF was not on the list).

After the reboot, FF came up with the "sorry we had a problem, do you wish to restore your tabs" and I answered "no" - then all my Bookmarks, add-ons, cookies, history, saved passwords - all of it was gone.  (I have Weave, so my loss is limited, but if I didn't have that, I would be in a seriously bad mood now...)

Firefox 3.6.3 - Mozilla Firefox for Ubuntu canonical - 1.0
Firefox 3.6.   I too am experiencing this problem, though it doesnt have to crash to take effect. Often after turning off and starting back up, my personalised toolbar will be default and all of my most recent bookmarks, as well as some random ones will not be available. Other times I am pleased to find them back in their rightful place, along with a custom toolbar.
There seems to be no definite steps in which I can reproduce this bug on demand. It certainly seems random!

Thanks for your time.

Ive really been enjoying Firefox, particularly with add ons live ABP and Ghostery.
(In reply to comment #219)
> Don't know if it has any value adding to this bug - but it just happened to me
> too, forced a reboot on Ubuntu 10.04 (force closing all programs that didn't
> terminate voluntarily, but FF was not on the list).
> 
> After the reboot, FF came up with the "sorry we had a problem, do you wish to
> restore your tabs" and I answered "no" - then all my Bookmarks, add-ons,
> cookies, history, saved passwords - all of it was gone.  (I have Weave, so my
> loss is limited, but if I didn't have that, I would be in a seriously bad mood
> now...)
> 
> Firefox 3.6.3 - Mozilla Firefox for Ubuntu canonical - 1.0

FWIW it seems like my problem have to do with a random profile change, where it for apparently no reason switches between profiles, now I have set the two profiles I had up to be exact the same and Firefox sync is taking care of the updating, so I'm not bothered for the time being...
No longer blocks: bookmark-loss
Hasn't this issue been resolved already? When I have used Windows (rarely nowadays), I haven't experienced this problem since the bookmarks were moved to a different file format (this dates many years back).
Keywords: relnote
Hi!

It seems this bug hasn't been resolved yet!
Yesterday I ran out of battery on my Mac, the system crashed/shutdown automatically. I was using Firefox and today I've lost all of my bookmarks!!

Fortunately I was able to recover most of my bookmarks with these steps:
  1. Open Firefox
  2. Go to "Tools -> Show all bookmarks" (⇧⌘B)
  3. Click on the "star" icon "Import..." and choose "Restore"
  4. Select your most recent backup file.
  5. Restart Firefox.

I was able to recover almost all of my bookmarks, I think I've only lost the last Firefox "session/run" bookmarks before the power failure.

This bug has reports from 2003 (> 10 years) and is really that kind of bug that annoys me/people, and even that I prefer Firefox (and its bookmarks are of the reasons) it makes me think if I shall not adopt another browser! :-/

Cheers,
Ricardo
In FF 37.0.1 on Ubuntu I had two crashes in two days. Both of them wiped out all my bookmarks, history, remembered passwords, and plugins. What's strange is that opened tabs are still here.
I don't get it. Why it wipes out all the data?
Hi. I found a reason of crashes and lost data in my case. It was due to Cisco "Secure" Desktop used to connect to VPN. On Macs and Linux boxes it runs Cache Cleaner, which (at least on my computer - Linux) wipes out all browser's cache, bookmarks, saved passwords, settings, etc. and crashes FF.
So !!!twelve!!! years later and this is still happening. What the actual ****. I now have to spend another around 90 Minutes to find out how to restore my theme and all the other **** because crashing during runtime (in this case also power outage) is so unheard of........
There are some specific improvements around the way we write prefs.js since this bug happened: we write it to a temp file and atomically replace the other one, so the possibility of power failure corruption is much reduced. I've filed bug 1351809 to get ongoing telemetry monitoring of this, though, so that we know if there's an ongoing problem.

The other issue WRT bookmarks (the places database) is technically separate, but we also have work underway to monitor corruption in that datasource. It's a more traditional database format so there are tradeoffs between durability and performance.

In either case, this bug doesn't track a useful engineering action any more so I'm going to close it. I apologize that it's been sitting so long, and I'm trying to clean that up (in my components) so that we don't have so many dead/untriaged bugs any more.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 7 years ago
Resolution: --- → INCOMPLETE
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.

Attachment

General

Creator:
Created:
Updated:
Size: