Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Firefox %@!()& updates

K

kenglade

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 20, 2008
278
1
I'm getting really upset with Firefox and its automatic updates. Today it self-updated to version 13.0.1. As a result I've lost all my toolbars and most of my bookmarks. Where the toolbars used to be are two options" :most Visited" and Getting Started."

First question: How do i recover those lost toolbars and bookmarks?

Second question: How can I block Firefox from updating without my permission?
 
kenglade said:
I'm getting really upset with Firefox and its automatic updates. Today it self-updated to version 13.0.1. As a result I've lost all my toolbars and most of my bookmarks. Where the toolbars used to be are two options" :most Visited" and Getting Started."

First question: How do i recover those lost toolbars and bookmarks?

Second question: How can I block Firefox from updating without my permission?
Click to expand...
I suspect you had a really old version of Firefox before, which Firefox 13 can't import profiles from. The toolbars won't work in the new version of Firefox, due to extension model changes made back in Firefox 4. You can probably import the old bookmarks, if you can manage to find where they are stored - the place to look is ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles.

As for the second question, I do not know. I wish I could be more helpful.
 
Thanks, guys. I don't think I had an old version because it seems like a new FF update comes along very week or two. I'm deftly going to figure out how to block 'em though.
 
kenglade said:
Second question: How can I block Firefox from updating without my permission?
Click to expand...
I think the new versions of Firefox are set to update automatically. You can turn that off in your preferences > advanced > update > and then click one of the other two options besides automatic. I like the option to check for updates but warn me first. This way I can backup everything before doing the update. Unlike Chrome you do have the option to not automatically update.
 
I'm really pissed off now. I spent all yesterday afternoon and this morning trying to straighten out FF 13.0 No joy. Not even close.

I went into Time Machine and restored a copy of FF 11.0, which I have been happily using until FF decided to update to 13.0. That did no good. When I open it, I get this window
Screen Shot 2012-07-08 at 9.44.07 AM.png
Which is the same as for FF 13.0.

I tried copying my old profile to the new FF 13. That doesn't help.

There is no way that I know of to contact Firefox to ask about this.

The old FF 11 is running happily on my laptop, but I don't know how to transfer it to my desktop.

Safari had all the toolbars and bookmarks which FF 13 obliterated. But I don't know how to transfer them to FF.

Anyone have any suggestions?

What about an alternative to browser? I ready to wipe FF from my system, which is too bad because I've been very happy with it for several years.
 
kenglade said:
There is no way that I know of to contact Firefox to ask about this.
Click to expand...
Did you try their website?

There's a "Community Support" link that leads to forums.


The old FF 11 is running happily on my laptop, but I don't know how to transfer it to my desktop.
Click to expand...

I googled old versions of firefox.

The first result was this page:
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-older-version-of-firefox

Read that page. On it you'll see a link "Directory of other versions and languages". Click that. Select the exact version you want. Download it directly to the desktop computer.


Did you try creating a new user account, and testing Firefox (new or old version) logged in with that account?

Create new user accounts using System Preferences. It's the pane called Accounts on OS versions before 10.7 Lion. The pane is Users and Groups in Lion and later.
 
I downloaded v 12. It loaded but it didn't bring back my bookmarks and toolbars. Guess they're gone forever. I don't think I can recreate something that's taken me years to build.

Appreciate your help anyway.
 
I haven't used Firefox in years, so forgive me if this information is outdated, but you should be able to recover your user profile from /Library/Application Support/Firefox/. Once you've copied this somewhere safely, delete all remnants of Firefox, install the version you want, and then replace your profile folder back there. Hopefully that should sort it.
 
Tried that and it doesn't work. this makes me very sad. I've been using FF for years and was very attached to it. Now I have to search for a replacement. Any suggestions?
 
What I do from time to time in my firefox is use the option in organize my bookmarks, & then I do an export as an html file, this saves my bookmarks, & then when I went to my new mac, I installed firefox & imported all my bookmarks from the html file I saved. Maybe safari had something like this.

Where you have the version of firefox with all your bookmarks still, if you still have this, click on your bookmarks tab, & click show all bookmarks, this will open a page with all your bookmarks. Then there is an import & backup option at the top, there are choices to backup or export as html. I have used the export as html, then save this to a thumb drive, plug the thumb drive into your other computer, & then open all bookmarks & from the backup options choose import from html, of which you link to from your flash drive.

A bit long winded, hope this helps.

In the future find a way to backup your current book marks, most browsers have options for this, so when & if you change browsers or lose settings/bookmarks, you can go back to your saved bookmarks.
 
Many thanks, all of you. I have the problem -- at least temporarily -- solved. I'm not sure what I did, just fiddled with this and that and finally got my toolbars imported from Safari. Not the same as my originals, but close enough. In any case, it gives me something to work with so I don't have to start from scratch.
 
Sossity said:
...click on your bookmarks tab, & click show all bookmarks, this will open a page with all your bookmarks. Then there is an import & backup option at the top, there are choices to backup or export as html...
Click to expand...
Also very disappointed in FF13.01.

I have always backed up my bookmarks the way you've mentioned above, but since HAVING to install FF13 I can't do that anymore nor can I import them into FF13 using this method.

The reason? When I click on Bookmarks/Show All Bookmarks, the window that used to popup with all the option's don't popup anymore. When I click on the Show All Bookmarks a window pops up for less than a second then closes.I've deinstalled all Pop-Up Stoppers, AdBlockPlus, you name it and also uninstalled all extension's and the problem still exists.

From one veteran FF user to another....any idea's how I might solve this. (This also occurs when I want to open up any extension of execution in FF13 like VideoTap/ Down Them All...nothing happens but that the window will pop up for less than a second and then nothing).

All help from you or anybody on this is GREATLY appreciated and hope to get back to enjoying my FF the way it used to be. :confused::confused::confused:
 
MadRebel said:
Also very disappointed in FF13.01.

I have always backed up my bookmarks the way you've mentioned above, but since HAVING to install FF13 I can't do that anymore nor can I import them into FF13 using this method.

The reason? When I click on Bookmarks/Show All Bookmarks, the window that used to popup with all the option's don't popup anymore. When I click on the Show All Bookmarks a window pops up for less than a second then closes.I've deinstalled all Pop-Up Stoppers, AdBlockPlus, you name it and also uninstalled all extension's and the problem still exists.

From one veteran FF user to another....any idea's how I might solve this. (This also occurs when I want to open up any extension of execution in FF13 like VideoTap/ Down Them All...nothing happens but that the window will pop up for less than a second and then nothing).

All help from you or anybody on this is GREATLY appreciated and hope to get back to enjoying my FF the way it used to be. :confused::confused::confused:
Click to expand...

Off the top of my head it sounds like your Places.sqlite table may be corrupted:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Places.sqlite

I'm not sure how you can fix it without deleting it. However the Firefox extension SQLlite Manager which is mentioned in that article will let you look at it and perhaps there is a rebuild option in there. There's another extension called Places Maintenance which has a reindex option I believe. Maybe try that and see if it does any good.
 
steve-p said:
Off the top of my head it sounds like your Places.sqlite table may be corrupted:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Places.sqlite

I'm not sure how you can fix it without deleting it. However the Firefox extension SQLlite Manager which is mentioned in that article will let you look at it and perhaps there is a rebuild option in there. There's another extension called Places Maintenance which has a reindex option I believe. Maybe try that and see if it does any good.
Click to expand...
Hi Steve and thnx for the reply.

That's what I've been able to come up with as well. However, and this is strange, when I check, I don't have a Places.sqlite. I've uninstalled FF13 and reinstalled it numerous times to see if it would show up on each install and it doesn't.

Only thing I haven't tried is when I uninstall it, go to regedit and remove all instance's of Mozilla and Firefox and then reinstall. Gonna try that this evening, but if you've got any idea's as to why Places.sqlite isn't showing, they would be most appreciated to hear.

Thnx again for replying.
 
You mentioned regedit, are you talking about Windows?

On either platform that file should be inside your profile folder. On a Mac the profile folder is inside Library/Application Support/Firefox/profiles. There should be some other sqlite tables in there too.
 
steve-p said:
You mentioned regedit, are you talking about Windows?

On either platform that file should be inside your profile folder. On a Mac the profile folder is inside Library/Application Support/Firefox/profiles. There should be some other sqlite tables in there too.
Click to expand...
Yeah...I use Windows not MAC. I normally only come in here to read up on iPHone and such and I came across this topic by chance. But in response to your reply...I don't even have a Profile folder. But I'm beginning to think that we're talking on two different channel's. Are you talking about folders within the Mozilla Firefox directory or some place else? If you're talking within the Mozilla Firefox directory, then I definately don't have such an animal as Profile nor Places.sqlite. Or am I looking in the wrong place?

Again, thnx for you reply and info m8. Really appreciated.

EDIT: In answer to my own inquiry above, I just found my Firefox Profile and the Places.sqlite :eek: If there are any Windows users like myself who has stumbled upon this topic, it can be found at:
C:\Users\(User Name)\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\1xt6ha00.default
Now maybe I'm one more step closer to solving this little problem. Hopefully.
 
Last edited:
MadRebel said:
Yeah...I use Windows not MAC. I normally only come in here to read up on iPHone and such and I came across this topic by chance. But in response to your reply...I don't even have a Profile folder. But I'm beginning to think that we're talking on two different channel's. Are you talking about folders within the Mozilla Firefox directory or some place else? If you're talking within the Mozilla Firefox directory, then I definately don't have such an animal as Profile nor Places.sqlite. Or am I looking in the wrong place?

Again, thnx for you reply and info m8. Really appreciated.

EDIT: In answer to my own inquiry above, I just found my Firefox Profile and the Places.sqlite :eek: If there are any Windows users like myself who has stumbled upon this topic, it can be found at:
C:\Users\(User Name)\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\1xt6ha00.default
Now maybe I'm one more step closer to solving this little problem. Hopefully.
Click to expand...
Also worth noting is that the extension is always .default but the characters before are randomized.
 
After a recent update I found that certain we site didn't function cruelty like hotmail. It wouldn't let me open any of the email. Other sites had similar issues. Had to use Safari which I don't like as much but what can you do. Anyone else experience anything like this?
 
MadRebel said:
EDIT: In answer to my own inquiry above, I just found my Firefox Profile and the Places.sqlite :eek: If there are any Windows users like myself who has stumbled upon this topic, it can be found at:
C:\Users\(User Name)\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\1xt6ha00.default
Now maybe I'm one more step closer to solving this little problem. Hopefully.
Click to expand...
Now you have found it you can try things like that Places Maintenance extension to reindex it. Or, if you just want to start again, with a working Firefox, see these about how to use the profile manager:

Windows: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_new_Firefox_profile_on_Windows

OS X: http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
 
I have Firefox, but I rarely use it. Imbedded pictures come out so badly I rarely use FF for anything but Mail and such things that aren't graphic intense.

On the other hand I really like Mozilla's SeaMonkey. I'm posting THIS from a 7th open tab. :cool: As far as I'm concerned SeaMonkey is everything Firefox isn't.

Still, I keep updating Firefox. Maybe one of these days they'll fix the problems and I'll use it more than a little.

:apple:
 
Sorry everyone for not getting back to this but I was very busy today. Had to appease the wife a bit and do some chore's for her.

But anywayz...I found the problem of my misery. It was a program by PanicWare called Popup Stopper Professional. That was stopping all menu windows from showing in all the version's of FireFox. Strange, but when I deactivated it all the menu windows worked.

I still don't trust FF 13 so I installed 12.0 and it works find. Even was able to install all my favorite add-ons and all is working GREAT now.

I just want to say a BIG thank you to all of you who took the time to reply and offer your assistance to help solve my problem. I just wish there were more people like all of you.

You all take care and I'll be seeing you all around here in the forums, especially those of you who are here for the iPhone.

Take care all and enjoy life. I know I do.

Greeeeetz from the

MadRebel
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back