Hi, Flyer7000 thanks for contacting us, to retrieve the bookmarks and passwords we suggest you follow this guide:

• [Firefox reset add-ons and settings]

if you do not satisfy the guide, try this:

• [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recover-lost-or-missing-bookmarks]

   * key3.db - contains the "keys" database used to encrypt and decrypt the passwords stored by Firefox.
  To copy saved passwords from one profile to another, this file must always be moved along with the logins.json file that contains the list of passwords.
   * logins.json - contains the list of user names and (encrypted) password of websites for which Firefox is allowed to store access information.
  To copy saved passwords from one profile to another, this file must always be moved along with the key3.db file.

if the problem persists, you can contact us, Thanks.

Hold off on doing the above.

Your More System Details shows you are using Firefox 31.0 Is that correct?

Flyer7000 said

bookmarks and saved passwords are gone

What about the rest of your profile? settings, history, add-ons . . . .

Separate Security Issue: Update your Flash Player or remove it using these links; http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/uninstall-flash-player-windows.html Uninstall Flash Player | Windows http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/uninstall-flash-player-mac-os.html Uninstall Flash Player | Mac

Note: Windows users should download the ActiveX for Internet Explorer. and the plugin for Plugin-based browsers (like Firefox).

Note: Windows 8 and Windows 10 have built-in flash players and Adobe will cause a conflict. Install the plugin only. Not the ActiveX.

Flash Player Version: Version 30.0.0.113

https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ Direct link scans current system and browser Note: Other software is offered in the download. <Windows Only>

https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/ Step 1: Select Operating System Step 2: Select A Version (Firefox, Win IE . . . .) Note: Other software is offered in the download. <Windows Only> +++++++++++++++++++ See if there are updates for your graphics drivers https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/upgrade-graphics-drivers-use-hardware-acceleration

I managed to circumvent the issue. I upgraded firefox again to the latest ESR issue and everything was back. Apparently the ESR and 'normal' version store everything in another location or account. I'll study your answers before I try to do another migration to the 'normal' firefox version.

PS: ESR is no good to me anymore because Silverlight no longer works in ESR (it did in the older versions) PPS: I have no idea why the ESR did not upgrade to the next ESR. It thought it was up to date (it was the first thing I checked when the eID add-on said it needed a more recent version)

Alas it seems to have worked for 1 startup. Everything is gone again

It seems an authority issue: In the logins.json file i see all URL's. There is but one such file on my hard disk. When I save a new bookmark It does not get added to the new (empty) list ==> It doesn't succeed inwriting the bookmarks ==> it seems likely it doesn't succeed in reading it either

Summary up to now: I do have my saved passwords in firefox (I can go to options> security... and see and find them) . But I cannot see my old bookmarks and I cannot save new ones. Everything else is gone too (history, add-ons...) and there is more: - restore of bookmark backups fails ("unable to process the backup file") - and yest somehow it is all there: when I want to add a bookmark and I use the dropdown list of the folders , I see my old folder structure appear.

Look on your desktop. Do you see a folder called; Old Firefox?

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible

Type about:profiles<enter> in the address bar. How many profiles are listed? How many should be there?

Type about:support<enter> in the address bar.

Under the page logo on the left side, you will see Application Basics. Under this find Profile Folder. To its right press the button Show Folder. This will open your file browser to the current Firefox profile.

Note and write down the name of the folder.

Flyer7000,

It looks like you started this thread while using a real old version of Firefox. User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/31.0

Is that correct? Or are you running in a Windows Compatibility mode? Or is your question about Firefox on a different computer?

You can't willy-nilly switch between older and newer versions of Firefox or "ESR" at will and not expect to lose or not see some Firefox data. ESR isn't just one version, there have been 5 versions of ESR available over the years.

Mozilla constantly updates or changes the internal workings of Firefox and moving forward in versions (updating Firefox) is compensated for over a few release versions. (IOW, no issues is you skip an update or two and then update Firefox.) But when you "go back" all bet's are off! "Stuff" may get broken or just doesn't work; and sometimes the data files do get damaged, with no way to fix them. Mozilla doesn't plan for "going back" a version.

Forget about seeing an "Old Firefox Data" file on the desktop with older versions (as I suspect you may have been using) - the Refresh feature that creates that folder didn't arrive until after Firefox 47 or maybe even a later version.

Note that some files have changed and if you have used the profile with Firefox 60.0.2 ESR then some files have been changed and are no longer compatible with older Firefox versions. Favicons are stored in its own favicons.script database and no longer in places.sqlite as BLOB data. Key3.db and cert8.db (DBM) have been replaced by key4.db and cert9.db (SQL) for the password key file and the certificates and local storage (indexdDB) works differently, so you can't downgrade a profile folder used by current releases.

I got it working: uninstall every version of firefox (this required intermediate reboot since after uninstall windows pretends the 2nd version is uninstalled, but it is not. Then install the latest version ==> everything worked again and all bookmarks appeared again and I can create new bookmarks once more

That was very good work. Well done.