Firefox attacked

[analog]

Summary: Firefox auto-update wiped out history and bookmarks .

Has this happened to any of you old hands with Firefox?


Got a message to effect 'firefox has been updated - you are running the
up-to-date version with all improvements..'

Homepage got reset to firefox start, history is gone, bookmark folder is empty.

This was about an hour ago.

How do i get 'em back?


Could this have been a sneak attack? Shortly before,
Windows took itself to microsoft's authenticity-check page (which
reported all okay by the way) via IE. Firefox was still open in its
window. When I closed the explorer window, got the above message in the firefox window.

Right now I'm madder'n heck.

Looks like AD-AWARE popup blocker went away too.

thanks, old jim

[navneeth]

Never has happened to me; but I think it has been reported several times at the Mozillazine forums. Btw, if you've not done so already, either turn-off the auto-update feature or make it ask you what to do.(Go to Tools->Options->Advanced->Update).

[OperaTenor]

I've never had anything like that happen. It always notifies me and gives me the option of restarting FF now or later.

Even when I have performed the update(and I've done it several times), I've never lost any stored information.

Mozilla must have a solution for this.

Really sorry to hear it happened. I'd go ballistic if it happened to me.

[OperaTenor]

Analog, try these links:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=459204&highlight=auto+update

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Lost_bookmarks

It also looks like you might want to turn off auto-update. Mine must be off.

[analog]

............I'd go ballistic if it happened to me.

Well I did. To wit, earlier versions of this post.

I stumbled around trying to decipher Mozilla's cryptic directions -- copied the backup files to profile folder as they said, but to no avail.


Computers are just that way.



Thanks OT and Nav for the pointers. Your kindness and effort are MUCH appreciated.

[analog]

Hmmmmm.....

Firefox has a "SAFE" mode into which it occasionaly jumps for reasons that are not yet clear to me.
When it does, it SOMETIMES shows a screen so apprising you. You're then offered three choices:

1. reset everything to firefox defaults and leave safe mode
2. continue in safe mode
3. exit

I'll bet dollars to donut holes I unwittingly took choice 1, having dismissed that message box as insignificant. Russian Roulette with a three shot revolver ?

If you find your Firefox in Safe Mode, pay attention - it's feeling suicidal.
Funny they called it SAFE....

May I learn just one thing a day - PTL.

[OperaTenor]

Analog, any way I can be of help. Besides, I feel like I something of the FireFox prophet around here.

So...............everything back to what passes for normal?

[navneeth]

analog,
The safe mode is infact quite safe. It's often used to check for extension conflicts and such. Go to Start->Run-> Brwose for Firefox in your system and add (outside the double quotes) -safe-mode, It will start Fx in the default theme and without any of your extensions or themes.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_Mode

P.S. Yes, you should've avoided option 1.

[analog]

Analog, any way I can be of help. Besides, I feel like I something of the FireFox prophet around here.

So...............everything back to what passes for normal?

Thanks OT.



Well FireFox is running but my history and bookmarks are still gone with the e-wind.

My frustration threshold is lower than it should be. I still haven't found what mozilla uses for bookmarks - according to that mozilla help forum i found files with the right names in a folder having 'profile' in its pathname, and their contents looked right, but swapping them around hasn't helped yet.

Method 1

Replace the current "bookmarks.html" file in the profile folder with a bookmark backup:

1. Exit Firefox or Mozilla Suite.
2. Rename the "bookmarks.html" file in the profile folder (any name will do, for example, "Xbookmarks.html" or "bookmarks.html.sav").
3. Copy the bookmark backup file you wish to restore to the profile folder.
4. Rename the file "bookmarks.html" if it is otherwise named, for example, if using a Firefox 1.5 "bookmarks-(date).html" backup.
5. Restart Firefox or Mozilla Suite.

That definition of "profile folder" seems amiguous to me and i think that'll be my next blind alley.
...............I'm not glad I'm a theta............

Do you know where Firefox reaches for bookmarks? I think I'm version 1.5.

The measure of a man's bigness is how he treats little people.
thanks again, big friend--

old jim

a

[OperaTenor]

Having never encountered this type of problem, I don't have a clue as to how the bookmarking works.

I'll see if I can do some reading and learning...

[Trumpetmaster]

FYI for all of you using Firefox

* Mozilla investigating new Firefox flaw
http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/897 ... 5/36055/2/

[navneeth]

Nothing to worry. At least, I hope so. The flaw could be a possible hoax...
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/03/1628257

[Trumpetmaster]

Nothing to worry. At least, I hope so. The flaw could be a possible hoax...
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/03/1628257

Interesting....

We get these alerts over here......

I knew a number of the folks here use Firefox....

hopefully it is just that .... a hoax.........