Resetting the Profile

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kaygee46
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Resetting the Profile

Unread post by kaygee46 » 2017-11-15, 06:26

Palemoon is sometimes very slow to start and as per recent advices from Palemoon one suggestion was to reset the profile.
When this is done, are any settings or saved bookmarks etc lost?
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Re: Resetting the Profile

Unread post by gracious1 » 2017-11-15, 09:31

I believe everything is lost, including bookmarks and saved passwords, but I could be wrong about that. I remember that Firefox does save those, but I believe Pale Moon does not.
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Re: Resetting the Profile

Unread post by Pallid Planetoid » 2017-11-16, 17:38

You might want to consider using the FEBE add-on as a reliable back-up for extensions, themes, bookmarks, preferences, passwords, cookies etc etc. I have been using it myself for years. That way you could restore virtually anything you want in Pale Moon.

Here is the link to the Pale Moon extension installer (explains in detail about add-on): https://addons.palemoon.org/addon/febe/.
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adesh
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Re: Resetting the Profile

Unread post by adesh » 2017-11-17, 08:47

gracious1 wrote:I believe everything is lost, including bookmarks and saved passwords, but I could be wrong about that. I remember that Firefox does save those, but I believe Pale Moon does not.
Yes, you are wrong!

Quoting Moonchild from viewtopic.php?f=29&t=16471#p120127
A refresh will do its best attempt at retaining important data like bookmarks and passwords. If too many problems are found, though, you will have to manually recover from your old data (of which a backup will be saved). If this data is not retained there's a good chance that there was a severe problem in your profile (in which case a refresh would solve future issues).

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Re: Resetting the Profile

Unread post by gracious1 » 2017-11-18, 00:18

adesh wrote: Yes, you are wrong!

Quoting Moonchild from viewtopic.php?f=29&t=16471#p120127
A refresh will do its best attempt at retaining important data like bookmarks and passwords.
Be that as it may, I did a refresh just now on a test profile, which had zero problems, and all bookmarks and passwords were lost. All of the times before that I have "refreshed" a profile, bookmarks and passwords were lost, and this test was no different. :(

This was PM 27.7.0a1 (64-bit) (2017-11-04) on Ubuntu 14.0.5.
(Perhaps it works in Windows?)
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Re: Resetting the Profile

Unread post by coffeebreak » 2017-11-18, 02:25

Perhaps it depends on which profile was refreshed (if there were multiples), or on where it is?
It might be that it matters if the profile was the default, or was in the Profile Manager, or was in a non-standard location.

I don't know if this is the case, but see:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Troubleshooting_Information_page#Give_Firefox_a_tune_up

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adesh
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Re: Resetting the Profile

Unread post by adesh » 2017-11-18, 04:26

gracious1 wrote:bookmarks and passwords were lost, and this test was no different.
Did you not find profile data in Desktop directory?

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Re: Resetting the Profile

Unread post by gracious1 » 2017-11-18, 05:10

coffeebreak wrote:I don't know if this is the case, but see:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Troubleshooting_Information_page#Give_Firefox_a_tune_up
adesh wrote:Did you not find profile data in Desktop directory?
:oops: I didn't realize this until I read the link that coffeebreak posted.
Well, I hope others reading this will benefit from my cluelessness. :shifty:

So I figured out how to restore bookmarks, but which file has the passwords? Is it key3.db ?
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Re: Resetting the Profile

Unread post by GMforker » 2017-11-18, 14:58


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Re: Resetting the Profile

Unread post by gracious1 » 2017-11-18, 20:43

GMforker wrote:See Issue #1480 (Issue #1481).
Yes, migration. That's the issue. So I'm not that clueless. Based on the wording, that Pale Moon keeps important data and so forth, one expects migration to happen, but it doesn't. Thank you. :)

Here's a question about The profile - resetting (migration doesn't work) #1481, specifically item 2a:
So in the fix, will a refreshed profile no longer be renamed to default-<random_string_of_numbers> but rather keep its name?

Also regarding item 2a, about the [Default=1] that appears in the profiles.ini…
That always appears in my profiles.ini next to the profile that I used last. And so the profile that I used last always is highlighted in the Profile Manager:
Image
Now, I do keep the option "Use the selected profile " unselected always, so this might be expected behavior in my case?
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Re: Resetting the Profile

Unread post by GMforker » 2017-11-18, 21:00

gracious1 wrote:So in the fix, will a refreshed profile no longer be renamed to default-<random_string_of_numbers> but rather keep its name?
- Yes.
gracious1 wrote:So the profile that I used last always is highlighted in the Profile Manager
- It will continue there.
gracious1 wrote:I do keep the option "Use the selected profile" unselected always, so this might be expected behavior in my case?
- This does not affect this checkbox.

GMforker

Re: Resetting the Profile

Unread post by GMforker » 2017-11-21, 07:22

Try the latest (unstable) version, please.

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gracious1
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Re: Resetting the Profile

Unread post by gracious1 » 2017-11-23, 03:27

GMforker wrote:Try the latest (unstable) version, please.
The latest I was able to retrieve from the PM's Linux site is version 27.7.0a2 (64-bit) (2017-11-12).

On this version, the refresh changed my profile's name to default-1511407020027 .

How is them migration of bookmarks and passwords supposed to work?
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Re: Resetting the Profile

Unread post by GMforker » 2017-11-23, 18:29

I'm sorry - viewtopic.php?f=37&p=128061#p128061. But it should be there.

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Re: Resetting the Profile

Unread post by Goodydino » 2017-11-23, 19:40

gracious1 wrote: So I figured out how to restore bookmarks, but which file has the passwords? Is it key3.db ?
The passwords are in logins.json, and key3.db is the encryption key. You need to save both.

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Re: Resetting the Profile

Unread post by gracious1 » 2017-11-24, 06:20

GMforker wrote:I'm sorry - viewtopic.php?f=37&p=128061#p128061. But it should be there.
All right! A Thanksgiving release! ;)
I installed version 27.7.0a2 x64 (2017-11-23) on Ubuntu 14.04, and I refreshed a test profile.
Now I have good news and bad news. :mrgreen:

The good news is that the automatic migration of old bookmarks, cookies, passwords, etc. worked! It was very smooth, with sufficient feedback to tell the user what was happening. Hooray! :clap:

The bad news is that the refresh changed my profile's name to default-1511503800077. :cry:
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Re: Resetting the Profile

Unread post by GMforker » 2017-11-24, 18:36

gracious1 wrote:The bad news is that the refresh changed my profile's name to default-1511503800077. :cry:
Yes, but currently it is by design: the profile name β‰  the folder/directory name

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Re: Resetting the Profile

Unread post by gracious1 » 2017-11-25, 05:25

GMforker wrote:
gracious1 wrote:The bad news is that the refresh changed my profile's name to default-1511503800077. :cry:
Yes, but currently it is by design: the profile name β‰  the folder/directory name
I don't understand.
Oh, I see. You mean the name appears in the Profile Manager as before. The profiles.ini did change (in the Path) …

Code: Select all

[Profile21]
Name=WhatIsMyName
IsRelative=1
Path=zt8hrlsj.default-1511503800077
… and the profile folder did change to ~/.moonchild productions/pale moon/zt8hrlsj.default-1511503800077. Before the refresh it was x1cmpt66.WhatIsMyName .

This, however, breaks Show Profile (installed with Moon Tester Tool). This extension puts the name of the profile in the menu bar, the status bar, and/or other places you choose. I depend on this to keep track of where I am and what I am doing, especially with testing. It shows the new profile string, like so:
Image

Show Profile must read the profile directory's name rather than the Name in profiles.ini .

This actually isn't much a bugfix for me because it really doesn't matter to me what it says in the Profile Manager in and of itself if it breaks the functionality I have achieved with Show Profile and scripts. Creating a custom string in Show Profile should work, but the extension isn't quite compatible with Pale Moon (had to install with Moon Tester Tool), and when you customize the string or the separator it sort of breaks until you restart (espeically in title bar). And scripts would break too.
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Re: Resetting the Profile

Unread post by GMforker » 2017-11-25, 09:07

zt8hrlsj.default-1511503800077
vs
zt8hrlsj.WhatIsMyName-1511503800077
see Issue #1505

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gracious1
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Re: Resetting the Profile

Unread post by gracious1 » 2017-11-26, 05:05

GMforker wrote:zt8hrlsj.default-1511503800077
vs
zt8hrlsj.WhatIsMyName-1511503800077
see Issue #1505
Incorporating the name of the profile into the directory name is helpful and moving in the right direction. Thanks.
But why must the refresh add a string of random numbers to the directory's name?
Is there actually a need to differentiate the refreshed profile when the old data is moved to a folder in my Desktop?
(The extra string still makes problems for Show Profile and possibly scripts.)
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