Firefox Update leads to chaos in 1P6 - "Profile Missing"

Lamplighter

Browsers:
FireFox: installed but version unknown - can not access Firefox ( “profile missing “ )
Safari: v11.1 (11605.1.33.1.4) 1p6 extension is installed

I am almost in panic mode.

Last week while using FireFox browser (with 1p6 extension) to access various web sites, a”Firefox update window” appeared saying an update was being installed. After the progress bar filled, a sequence of windows appeared saying “Refresh” was attempting to solve some [undefined] problems. I did not take screen shots and I don’t remember what various options were presented. In any case, the “Firefox update” sequence ended with a final Firefox alert window and the following msg:
“Profile Missing” - “Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible”
That’s it ! No explanations or instructions or suggestions.
Now, all attempts to access the web using Firefox (with or without 1P6 logins) ends with this same “Profile missing” alert.

When I to log onto the web via Safari, it does properly access any site that DOES NOT require a password. But if the site DOES require a password, I can enter the username and 1P6 password manually, the site opens property. But then a sequence begins where Safari searches for “AgileBits Inc.”, and presents a window with 2 messages:

Uppermost msg box (inactive ) “ The connection to 1Password was previously declined. Would you like to attempt a new connection? " and one button: “Connect” and blue font: “What’s this about ? “
Lower msg box (active) “Do you want to allow this page to open “1Password 6.app ?" and two buttons: “Cancel” +“Allow”
Clicking on the “Allow” button just activates the Uppermost window, and clicking on it’s Connect presents a new alert window with msgs: “Looking for the 1Password app. - The 1Password app must be installed for the extension to work properly"
—————————
“ Couldn’t connect to 1Password Make sure you have the 1Password app installed. If you’re still experiencing problems, follow the simple steps on our support site or contact us “ with two buttons: “Try Again” “Learn more”

And here are a few last bit of info: A new folder was created on my desktop named: “Old Firefox Data” It contains a sub-folder named gqg4tdwt.default.###etc … ,which contains about 40 files and 9 more folders.

Is this malware, a damaged 1P6 extension, or messed up FireFox ???
I have no idea what this is all about, but any help or guidance you may offer will be greatly appreciated.

---

1Password Version: 6.8 (680015) AgileBits - Family
Extension Version: installed
OS Version: 10.11.6
Sync Type: none

littlebobbytables

Hello @Lamplighter,

I'm not sure what happened but my leaning is towards the update having borked something up well and truly. I think the best thing to do is to move a particular support folder to one side so that Firefox will create a new profile.

Here's what I would do if I were in this position.

1. Open a Finder window and select the menu option Go > Go to Folder....
2. In the dialog that pops up paste in the following path and click the Go button. The path to use is ~/Library/Application Support/.
3. Locate a folder titled Firefox and move the entire folder to your Desktop.
4. Launch Firefox.

Firefox should now create a brand new profile. Everything will be missing; extensions, bookmarks and so on but at least it should launch. I'm not sure how Firefox stores bookmarks in a profile based on the files I see but it is quite possible we can recover any bookmarks you may have had by way of a folder called bookmarkbackups. If you have lost bookmarks and want to explore this let me know.

Lamplighter

@littlebobbytables: Thanks much for the reply.
I followed your Go>Go to Folder suggestions: The "Profiles" contains one folder: "up27eltn.default-1453668833353-1526617526944" with 17 items, including the "bookmark backups" folder. I moved it to my desktop, and launched Firefox --- only to get the same “Profile missing” msg and Firefox did NOT launch. NO new “bookmarkbackups” was created.

Wanting to live dangerously, I double-clicked the “profiles.ini” thinking it might work, but only got a msg: “There is no application set to open the document “profiles.ini”. — Search the App Store for an application that can open this document…. etc.”

At the bottom of my original msg, I mentioned there was a NEW folder named “Old Firefox Data”, but I haven't a clue what to do with it. Any ideas ?

littlebobbytables

Greetings @Lamplighter,

I don't think we can get away with moving a subfolder, I think we really need to move the entire Firefox folder as I detailed in my previous post. Keep the up27eltn.default-1453668833353-1526617526944 you've already moved, that's the one that contains any useful files or folders for later but try the steps once more, this time removing the entire Firefox folder.

Once we get Firefox running again we can worry about the bookmarks but the first step is to get Firefox to launch properly and without an error message.

Lamplighter

@littlebobbytables: I did move the entire Firefox folder, and launched Firefox as you suggested. It seemed as tho the chaos went even worse. I kept trying to restore things, but eventually and unintentionally, a whole new download of the Firefox app occurred, and I had to install the 1P extension. Firefox is now working well, both via manually sign-on's and via 1P log-on's. I'm a happy, calmer, camper now !
I do truly thank you for your guidance.

There were a lot of book-marks and start-up preferences deleted, but I have started making manual updates. For example I can now log onto the websites with 1P logins via a normal default to Foxfire. The current Firefox "bookmarkbackups" folder now has only 1 file, so it is will to take a lot of house-keeping to replace the Firefox bookmarks I had before.

If you have any suggestion about how to restore those bookmarks, I'd appreciate your guidance. But if you think it might jeopardize the current situation, I certainly live with this "Spring housekeeping" we've just done.

Again, thank you very much for your help.

littlebobbytables

Hello @Lamplighter,

I believe we can recover your bookmarks so let's give it a try :smile:

1. Quit Firefox.
2. Use Finder and the Go > Go to Folder... action to reach ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/
3. Locate the bookmarkbackups folder in the new profile.
4. Open a second Finder window and locate the bookmarkbackups folder in the profile you moved to your Desktop.
5. Copy all the files from the Desktop bookmarkbackups folder into its counterpart in the working profile in the first Finder window.
6. Launch Firefox.
7. Use the menu option Bookmarks > Show All Bookmarks.
8. In the dialog that pops up click the button with the star icon and navigate into the Restore sub-menu. I'll include an image below to make that a bit clearer.
9. Select the most appropriate backup point to restore.

That should see your bookmarks restored assuming the restore feature does what I assume it does. I haven't used it myself, Firefox isn't my primary browser but it seems safe to assume it's like the bookmarks backup/restore feature all browsers have.

Hopefully you'll be reporting success :smile:

Lamplighter

@littlebobbytables: Hey, you did it !

On first blush it looks as though all of my old bookmarks are there now.
Thank you very much...

littlebobbytables

At least that bit went more smoothly @Lamplighter :lol: Glad to hear things seem to be working properly again!