Many have reported problems with v55.

Places Maintenance {web link} Allows to run Maintenance tasks on the database that drives Places, the bookmarks and history module behind Firefox.

Open the Add-ons Manager. Locate the add-on and press the Options button. Then follow the directions.

Since I am NOT running v55, but have "fixed" v54.0.1 as much as possible, your suggestion does not address the failed functionality of the "Remember logins for sites" check box cannot be activated. Thanx for your time.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-to-fix-preferences-wont-save

Note: Some software, like Advanced SystemCare with Surfing Protection, can protect files in the Firefox profile folder against changes. If you have such software then check the settings or uninstall this software.

Hi there,

First, FredMcD makes a good point for the add on Places Maintenance. This helps restore any corruption that may happen in the bookmarks and history that is saved with you profile.

Second, you said, " I manage to search out "old" FF data to recover most of the Bookmarks, but the "Remember logins for sites" check box cannot be activated."

Please check to make sure that there is no 'lock' file in your profile folder. Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data

Actually if you could provide a screenshot of this profile folder it would be really helpful, please upload it in your response.

Since the option is locked to remember passwords, please go to the about:config to make sure that this option is set to true: signon.rememberSignons

Will it let you change it here? Can we have a screenshot of this option too please :-)

Where are my logins stored? - this should help grab a back up file from your saved Firefox data.

It would also be very helpful if you could please provide the about:support information from your browser to make sure that there are no outdated addons that may be corrupting your profile.

Thank you.

It appears all of the suggestions posed assume I have been dumb enough to reinstall v55. I have not. In my system restore I regained v54.0.1. The "old" FF data was deposited in a folder on my desktop by the system restore action. When entering v54.0.1 FF for the first time I found it devoid of my Home Page, all bookmarks & most used tabs, and all saved site passwords absent from the "Saved Logins" pop-up box.

I was able to reinstall the bookmarks from the "old" FF data folder. The v54.0.1 FF profile, including the bookmark backup folder have been functioning. Still unaddressed is the non-functionality of the "Remember logins for sites" check box on the Security tab. I can find no locks preventing operation nor any other reason for this problem.

I have another device (Acer laptop w/ W7sp1 and v54.0.1FF) on which I find a well populated "Saved Logins" pop-up box -- but it is only a partial list of sites previously stored on the XPS420. I have followed all your suggestions to no avail in this matter. At a loss! Thanx for your time.

Not a problem, we are looking into another pattern where users are noticing they have lost bookmarks after updating, but have not found a real cause yet. (bug 1388584)

What were the results of that change in the about:config option? {signon.rememberSignons}

If only some of the passwords are being added back, can you check the date on the back up file in logins.json (you can actually open up this file in a text editor and do a test for the missing passwords to see if they were in that file) That is about where I peak at backups for logins, sorry I could not be more helpful.

Last question for your time, were there any anit-virus software or addons installed that also disappeared after you updated before? or if you noticed if the version number went from 32 bit to 64 bit? (just looking for clues) - thank you

Do you still have the Old Firefox Data folder on your desktop? If so, please check the modified date/time stamps in there to see how far back that was created there. You would only have that if you used Firefox's Refresh feature, or for some reason Firefox refreshed itself, so that may not in fact be the most recent data available on your system.

Assuming you have the patience to explore a little further, please check these next:

Does the Profile Manager list your immediately previous profile folder?

To check on that, inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.

This page should list all the profiles Firefox is currently aware of. If you see a profile that is not currently set as default that looks promising, scroll down to it and click the Set as default profile button below that profile, then scroll back up and click the Restart normally button. (There are some other buttons, but I think those are still "under construction" so please ignore them.)

Firefox should exit and then start up using the other profile. Is that the right one?

If it's not there...

Did Firefox lose track of your old profile folder?

Here's how to check whether there are additional profile folders in the standard location in addition to the one you're using. Start by opening your current Firefox profile folder using either:

* "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
* (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
* type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter/Return

In the first table on the page, click:

* Windows: the "Open Folder" button, to launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.
* Mac: the "Show in Finder" button, to launch a new window listing various files and folders in Finder.

In the Windows Explorer address bar, click the capitalized word Profiles to move up one level in the folder hierarchy. More than one folder here by any chance? Do the files in those folders look like they were last updated around the time of the update?

(Mac users: please do what you need to do in Finder to check up one level...)

If you've got any promising looking folders, we can discuss next steps to recover use of them.

COMBINING RESPONSES: Not sure about "Refresh" but the "old FF" data folder has de60bgul.default created June ‎22, ‎2017, ‏‎8:42:34 AM but the system restore added data jj0nw158.default-1498138947757 created August 08 2017 4:42 AM so all information was current. Profile Manager lists only information created by the System Restore -- no previous inform is noted.

The login.jsons file is present and appears to contain site information -- whole bunches, apparently lotsa encrypted passwords, with "{"nextId":261". This information, however is not accessible, does not show up on the "Saved Logins" pop-up window and the "Remember logins for sites" check box cannot be activated on the Security tab.

So it would appear the information is there, but how do I make it accessible? Thanx for your time.

Make sure you do not run Firefox in permanent Private Browsing mode (Always use Private Browsing mode; Never Remember History).

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Private+Browsing

• Options/Preferences -> Privacy -> Firefox will: "Use custom settings for history"
• Deselect: [ ] "Always use Private Browsing mode"

You can also check the read/write permissions of all files (especially places.sqlite) in the profile folder and make sure that you are the owner.

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
  Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

Check the permanent Private Browsing setting and that fixed the ability to save Logins. Now if I could only access the mega-data in the logins.json file instead of rebuilding all it would be nice. Thanx for your time.

Is there any content in the logins.json file listed if you open this file in a Firefox tab?

The logins.json file had 260 sites & encrypted password to start. Each site I visit does not pull from that file but asks for new "save." thus I now have near 275. Can seem to get data recognized. Can't be seen or imported into "Saved Logins" pop-up screen in Option/Security. I guess I just have to muddle on. Thanx for your time.

I have a similar problem to this - the V55 update not only lost all of my bookmarks but won't allow me to save any either. I tried all the tricks to no avail, and then uninstalled and reinstalled FF and that hasn't helped. Upon re-install FF notes that this is a reinstall so whatever "corruption" exists continues and I cannot load or save bookmarks.

Thinking that some reference to the original corrupt version exists, I removed all related files and even cleared out any reference to Mozilla or FF in the registry but that didn't work - FF knows still says that it's a reinstall and the original problem persists. I would be happy to completely remove FF and start from scratch with a clean install - I have a backup of the default user (profile, bookmarks, etc.) from a few months ago that would work for me. Any suggestions would be most welcomed.

You can rename/remove the logins.json and key3.db files in the profile folder to start with fresh files if you can't get it to work with the current files.

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
  Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

Hi mzulich, pause and make sure you don't wipe any important data because this could be a glitch with your Windows username that has no immediate solution.

In the past day or so, someone discovered that if there is an apostrophe in your Windows username or elsewhere in your profile path, then the Firefox 55 parts related to your bookmarks and history do not work correctly. This probably will be fixed in several days, but first, can you check whether you are affected by this problem?

Open the Profile Manager page by typing or pasting about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter

Look for the line "This is the profile in use and it cannot be deleted." and directly below that, the Root Directory line. For example:

C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\abc123x9.default => no ' characters

C:\Users\John's HP\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\abc123x9.Mary's Settings => one or more ' characters

If there is an apostrophe anywhere in the path, Firefox 55.0-55.0.1 may not be able to work with your profile folder correctly.

One short term workaround would to downgrade to Firefox 54.0.1, but if you want to use a different browser for a couple days, it probably can import your bookmarks through one of its menu choices.

If needed: Install an older version of Firefox.

jscher2000,

There are no apostrophes in my Windows user name, but your suggestion to downgrade to V54.1 worked - it's 32-bit but it works. The install did not pickup the bookmarks, but I was able to restore them from a recent backup. Thanks do much for your assistance.

I'm curious as to what the problem could be for me with the V55 install, why it doesn't completely install (I can't create bookmarks with V55, nor the old ones), and why a clean-up of all things Mozilla and a re-install will not work. Makes me wonder if I can ever upgrade to the next working version.

I hope that Mozilla figures it out and let's everyone know. Again, thanks for the great suggestion.

Hi mzulich, are there any special characters in the parts of your profile path bolded in the following example? If so, what are they? If there are no apostrophes (single quotation marks), further research would be needed to understand what is happening on your system.

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\abc123x9.profilename

Hi Jscher2000,

There are no special characters within the profile, just alpha-numerics. I'm running just fine on V54.X and an old profile backup. But with V55 this same backup was problematic, as was the formerly running profile. For what it's worth, the upgrade from V54 to V55 itself was a problem. It seemed to complete and then requested a restart of FF, and that's when the problems started. Bookmarks were gone, couldn't save a new bookmark and the Help/About box continued to report that a restart was necessary to complete the install/upgrade. I uninstalled and reinstalled multiple times, and even tried to clean the registry, but nothing worked.

Please let me know if you need any further info.

You can check the content of places.sqlite in a hex viewing utility the see if there is real content in the file and not only null bytes.

If the file is that badly corrupted that the Places Maintenance extension can't repair the places.sqlite database then remove all places.sqlite file(s) in the Firefox profile folder to make Firefox rebuild the places.sqlite database from the most recent JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

• keep a backup copy of places.sqlite in case a new places.sqlite database has to be created
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_process_the_backup_file_-_Firefox

You may have to restore an older compressed .jsonlz4.

• Bookmarks -> Show All Bookmarks -> Import & Backup

The name of a JSON bookmarks backup file includes a total item count (folders and separators included) and an hash value to prevent saving the same backup more than once.

• bookmarks-YYYY-MM-DD_<item count>_<hash>.jsonlz4.

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
  Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox