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Logged in with my account after format. Did a password reset. No Bookmarks or passwords or anything. Account is correct. What happened?
Fresh windows install. I download firefox, I try to login with my account, the only account I have in firefox. I reset the password, cause I had forgotten it. Finally, I login. No bookmarks, no passwords, no data whatsoever. It does not sync. Last time I did a format, I remember crearly, logging into firefox account and instantly everything got synced, like in a minute. What is going on? Why are there no data in my profile? Where is all my bookmarks and passwords? What do I have to do to get my bookmarks and passwords back?
被選擇的解決方法
jscher2000 said
Was the procedure completely manual, meaning, copy/paste each link to a document or email message, or did you find a faster way? Oops, I think you answered my question through an edit to your original reply.
I opted for the manual method, so I wouldn't mess up with the android files and maybe make another mistake and delete or someway damage the backup. When I'll be done with the copying and pasting, and after I secure my bookmarks (export them through firefox pc) I will try to search around and see if there's a more convenient way. Surely there must be a more direct/fast method but I'm not willing to risk it cause that's the only backup I have for now.
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Hello koutrasantonis, I think the reason is because you turned off sync from your old computer. There isn't a exact way I can help you but you can try to Click on your profile on the toolbar and click sync now. That might help but I'm not completely sure. You can contact Mozilla here, https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/form.mozlist, because maybe they can help you. Thanks for asking this great question and I'm sorry I couldn't help you much. I would appreciate it if you responded and tell me it goes! Anyway, Stay Safe!
@Tommy, hello, no, the reason is not that I turned sync off. The reason is that firefox (as I just saw) wipes all your data (bookmarks, passwords, everything) if you reset your accounts password. Which means, when I asked to reset my password cause I didn't remember it, I lost all my data with resetting it. How stup!d is that??? I forget my password and I lose ALL MY DATA? That is straight retarded. I used to manually back up my bookmarks untill I saw that there's no need to do that since there's an online profile that "protects" your bookmarks, data, etc. Well, it protects nothing, if you lose everything just because you reset your password. Is like facebook deleting all your profile data just because you did a reset on the password, I mean, really, really stupid stuff.
@koutrasantonis, I really do understand your problem and I recommend you to contact Mozilla @ https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/form.mozlist. That really is a bad bug but when I changed my password, somehow, nothing happened. Bad Mozilla! (don't worry though, Mozilla will surely fix the bug in no time)
@Tommy, thank you for taking the time to help me with this issue, really appreciate it. I just created an account in bugzilla, I will try to contact support through that link. I really hope I get my bookmarks and passwords back, cause I relied on firefox account and didn't back it up manually.
I just did a report on this bug, this is the link, I don't know if I did that correctly.
@koutrasantonis, You did it perfectly correct! I really hope you get all your information back! PS. If I helped, I would really love if you'd vouch(confirm) me on Mozillians. Vouch me here: https://mozillians.org/en-US/u/Tommy/. Thanks!
Hi koutrasantonis, here is something else to check. If you haven't already, could you close out of Firefox and do a normal Windows shutdown and restart to complete any pending updates and release any file locks.
If Firefox again starts up without your data, could you check whether your stuff is available in a different profile, as follows:
Profile Manager Page
Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.
This page should list at least one profile and could list many. (Each profile has two folders and one or more buttons. Do not use any Remove buttons!)
The profile that Firefox is currently using will have this:
This is the profile in use and it cannot be deleted.
Do you have another profile named default or default-longnumber listed on this page? If so, you can check whether it is the one you were using recently by clicking its Launch profile in new browser button.
If it isn't what you want, simply close that new window.
If it IS what you want, back on the about:profiles page, click the Set as default profile button for that profile so Firefox uses it automatically at the next startup.
Have you found anything new so far?
@Tommy, if I get my stuff back I will definitely vouch you!!
由 koutrasantonis 於
@jscher2000 hello, I've restarted the pc multiple times, I did login to firefox yesterday night, so since now, I've restarted 4-5 times, still no data on firefox.
I will try your next recommendations later, hopefully it will be helpful. Thanx for your time and assistance!
If you have reset or otherwise changed the password of the Sync account then this has removed all data on the Sync server. This is because this password is used to encrypt your personal data locally before uploading and only the original password can decrypt the data on the Sync server. You should have gotten a warning about this when you reset the password.
@jscher2000 I did try your method, but since this is a fresh install of windows, no other profiles are stored in my pc.
@cor-el hello there, thanx for your answer. I understand that the profile works that way (which is tbh, at least, idiotic) and that probably all my data is gone (because Firefox has a really bad take into sync+backup, unlike Chrome) but I'm trying to see if there's any other way I could access my said data, stored in a Firefox server perhaps or somewhere. I really need my bookmarks and passwords, and Firefox should have a backup somewhere stored.
EDIT: Also, the "warning" that it gave me was, at the very least, not sufficient enough. I was in a hurry to set up my apps and data etc in my fresh windows install and didn't really give a second look to the text that it popped. I know that this part is my fault, but on a bigger picture, the way the firefox profile works is just wrong.
So, for safety, if I reset my password on firefox profile, everything wipes? Ok. But I, to reset my said password, have access to the e-mail I used to make the firefox profile? Ok. And somehow, having access to the e-mail I used to make the firefox profile and to reset the firefox password, is not enough evidence that I'm the owner of the firefox profile and the associated email? WHAT? Come on, that's just plain elementary. If I'd lost my email control, the last thing on my mind would be my firefox profile. I would worry about bank documents etc not a firefox profile. On the other hand, if I'd lost my firefox password (or just forgot it), the first thing on my mind would be to reset it to get my account back (with all it's data, not a wiped account). Firefox account should be linked to the email, not a password.
I am at fault for not reading the "warning" clearly, but Firefox is so much more wrong in the way they approach the profile safety.
由 koutrasantonis 於
koutrasantonis said
@jscher2000 I did try your method, but since this is a fresh install of windows, no other profiles are stored in my pc.
Sorry I missed that.
Do you still have your data anywhere else, like a backup?
Did you use a method of refreshing Windows that creates the C:\Windows.old folder?
@jscher2000 no worries, it happens when you read fast, you miss some stuff.
No sir, no backup available, I relied on the profile sync since it worked great until now.
I do not know any method that creates an old Windows folder, but that could be useful. How to manifest that?
由 koutrasantonis 於
koutrasantonis said
I do not know any method that creates an old Windows folder, but that could be useful. How to manifest that?
When you use the built-in Refresh/Reset feature of newer Windows, it asks what to do with your data. That's where you would get a C:\Windows.old folder.
jscher2000 said
When you use the built-in Refresh/Reset feature of newer Windows, it asks what to do with your data. That's where you would get a C:\Windows.old folder.
Yeah, I did a format on the disc before installing windows, thus no old folder was there for windows to ask me if I want it. Cause I thought I wouldn't need it, I'd done my backup already before wiping the disc. I just didn't get the bookmarks, cause these past 3 or so years, I do it with sync. And I thought I knew the system, turns out a simple reset of my password wiped everything from firefox online servers. If only I went back in time and just manually saved those bookmarks. This is just frustrating.
My only bet is if somebody from firefox can access an online copy of my backup. But since their respond is that "with resetting the password, you lose all the data", I don't think there's hope. Thank you for your time but I think nothing can be done from my part, only an online backup storage system from firefox could help, if it exists.
koutrasantonis said
My only bet is if somebody from firefox can access an online copy of my backup.
The data is encrypted by Firefox before sending it to the Sync servers. So I think if you were to get the data back, Firefox couldn't decrypt it without the old password. I mean, maybe the NSA could do, but...
I just realized something. I have an adroid phone that I last used less than 2 months ago. If I'm not mistaken this device was synced with my firefox account. Maybe not but still, I could give it a try. If that is the case, and indeed that device was synced and has all my bookmarks etc, how should I proceed? How to I get the bookmarks out of the android device? Or how do I sync them with my pc?
Unfortunately, I do not think there is a supported way to get bookmarks out of Firefox for Android other than Sync. However, it might be stored "somewhere" and perhaps Android wizards know how to access those tender parts that are normally off limits to file system browsers. You probably need to put the device in airplane mode before firing up Firefox to avoid and Sync data present being zapped.
jscher2000 said
So I think if you were to get the data back, Firefox couldn't decrypt it without the old password. I mean, maybe the NSA could do, but...
That's the thing. I did find the old password somewhere after a lot of searching through backups. So, yeah, that's that. I do know the old password. I don't have the files though. If someone could give me the files, I know the password to...unlock them? If I understand it right, the whole algorithm is based on password encryption.
jscher2000 said
You probably need to put the device in airplane mode before firing up Firefox to avoid and Sync data present being zapped.
Yeah, I get that, I know that's the first step so it won't sync with the current profile. Which is empty. I'm gonna try the android phone and search around to see if I could somehow access any valuable document.