Firefox Update Problem

[#1 · Accepted solution]

Just to add, @Jonpe , personally I would just uninstall FF and reinstall, using System Restore could foul-up other changes you have made, emails received etc. after the date of the restore  point.

[#2]

I took your advice @jab1 .  When I tried to uninstall FF, I was offered Refresh but got the same error message as previously so I clicked uninstall and reinstalled.  Lost my Favourites and History so I might as well have chosen the option to start afresh which was also offered.

FF 131.0 looks very much like Microsoft Edge but I'm still trying to figure out how I can get my browsing history pinned to the left in the traditional way.

Thanks to you and @RobPN for your help.

[#3]

Sorry you lost that data, @Jonpe . It's is a long  time since I had to do are-install of FF, especially on a Windows platform, and somewhere in the back of my mind I seem to recall a way of getting your old favourites etc. back, but it won't come to me at the moment.

[#4]

@Jonpe 

In the FF Menu Bar click on View and then Sidebar. Somewhere you get the option of left or rght I seem to recall - possibly in Settings.

Brian

[#5]

Thanks @bmc , I Googled it and as soon as I did I remembered how I'd done it seven years ago when I bought this computer.

[#6]

@jab1 , thanks again, I did think of making Edge my default browser which presumably would have given me the option of importing my history and favourites from FF, then reverse that process after installing the latest version of FF but everywhere I looked I was assured that that was not necessary.

Anyway, I've managed to restore my most used sites from memory so I can at least do the things I usually need to do.

[#7]

@Jonpe Glad you've been able to do that. I now think the reason I can recover my favourites without much trouble is because many moons ago, I set up a FireFox account, which means all I need to do to recover them is log into that account on any machine I use the program on, and it automatically configures it to my saved preferences. and will sync on request - useful as it is my default browser on all my machines. I generally use a laptop, but have it on both my iPhone and iPad. so every so often when at home, I run the sync option on the two Apple devices.

That way, all three machines see exactly the same settings, bookmarks and passwords .

[#8]

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@Jonpe wrote:

... Lost my Favourites and History .

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@Jonpe 

Long story short, years ago when I used MS Internet Exploder there was an option to relocate 'Favo(u)rites' which is what I used to do to make sure they were safe in case of some catastrophe, so I just Googled to see if similar was available in Firefox.

It appears that much like Thunderbird, Firefox stores your settings safely.  I haven't read the details but this might be useful to you -

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data

[#9]

Thank  you for your suggestion @RobPN but it simply says that Windows can't find Profiles.

[#10]

@Jonpe 

Did you notice where the article informs that Windows hides the AppData folder by default, then how to show hidden files and folders?

I'm curious because if so, it seems strange that if you've reinstalled Firefox there's no such folder showing.

Have you tried manually navigating to it in File Explorer (after confirming you've set Windows to show hidden files and folders)?

[#11]

Yes, I tried that but there is nothing that makes sense to me.  I was asked if wanted to Refresh FF the other night but that just gave me the same error message as in my OP and when I then clicked to uninstall, the same error message came up briefly before letting me start the process.  I assume that if the first option had been available to me, all my previous data, settings etc. would have remained unchanged.

Thanks again for your help.