Re: Firefox help really needed this time

Derek Turner <frderek@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I heartily recommend the Foxmarks 'add-on'. Your bookmarks are backed up
on their server

Meaning that they can access your bookmarks. That is something I
wouldn't do. From their privacy statement: "We may analyze in aggregate
the bookmarks of all users in order to deliver services of interest to
other users. Such aggregate analysis will always exclude any personally
identifying information. For instance, if we notice that many users are
suddenly bookmarking a new site, we may display that site in a list of
'hot sites.'" Doesn't sound overly suspicious, but I'm on another point
of principle here.

By the way, Jo, as bookmarks seem to be the thing you're missing the most
from your old profile, they will probably be easy to restore. Go to the
Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks menu item, then in the new window's menu,
to File > Import, then choose "From File". You now see a dialog titled
"Import Bookmark Files". Next, use a trick: enter the string "%APPDATA%"
(without the quotes) into "File name" and press Return. This takes you
to a folder that's normally invisible. Then double click your way into
Mozilla > Firefox > Profiles > default. You should see a "bookmarks.html"
to choose.

Note to everyone: I am not completely sure what happened to Jo, but it's
likely that she was hit by a problem I talked about earlier: she used
Firefox 3 on her old profile for a while, then decided she wanted to go
back to 2 and found that her profile wasn't working any more. It's an
unexpectedly bad case because FF 2 didn't even start at all. What
exactly she did then I didn't find out in detail. But my message to you
is

- Keep in mind that your profile is not deleted or changed by installing
or uninstalling Firefox versions. Unless you're certain that you
will move from FF 2 to 3 just once and then stick with 3, either
try out the portable version of 3 before a full install or keep a
copy of your old profile folder. Simply backing up the old profile
folder will do. I'm talking about the correct subfolder within
"%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles". You can read
"http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox"; to learn more
about your profile folder.

- To manage your profiles, you need to run the Firefox Profile Manager.
I've just found what's probably the easiest way: Press the Windows key
and "R" at the same time, type in "firefox.exe -profileManager", press
Return. In there, you can create and delete profiles (carefully), and
choose to always see the profile manager when Firefox starts by
deselecting "Don't ask at startup".

- You don't need to use Windows System Restore if you suspect something
is wrong with your Firefox installation. In general, don't make such
sweeping changes to your system unless it's really called for. For a
completely "clean ***" reinstall of Firefox, simply uninstall,
then delete the install folder if it still exists ("C:\Program
Files\Mozilla Firefox" in most cases), then reinstall, but this still
leaves you with your old profile. If your problems persist, then your
problem is within your profile. Use the profile manager to create a
new one or get an experienced Firefox surgeon to repair your old one.

Sebastian

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