316514 - Browser reset to default settings

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 253950

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[ian.brooks]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050919 Firefox/1.0.7
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050919 Firefox/1.0.7

When I opened Firefox (1.0.7), I got a windowasking me to create a default user. I tried to quit and use the default profile (which I assumed was the current profile for my settings) but the browser would not start whe I did.
I followed the instruction and created the profile, and restarted the browser only to find that all of my settings and bookmarks had gone. 
I have tried to locate the window that prompted me to create the profile to see if I can change it back (or something) but cannot locate it in any of the Firefox menu items.
Is there any way I can retrieve my previous settings?

Reproducible: Couldn't Reproduce

Comment 1

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_in_use

Comment 2

[Nancy Reeves]

This is also a problem with earlier versions, but something apparently triggered it within the last 30-60 days.  We have run the Mozilla browsers (various versions) for at least two years - probably a lot longer.  Within the last 30-60 days the Mozilla browser on five separate computers has reset to default, on four of them it was within the last two weeks.  The version number on four which reset within the last two weeks the version is 1.7.5, the version on the fifth (which reset to default a little more than a month ago) is older but is not currently accessible.

On the older version of Mozilla more was lost (all saved passwords, all history, home page setting, the mail setup; bookmarks were not lost).  On the newer version  at least some of te stored passwords were retained.

Comment 3

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 253950 ***