[Bug 1969910] Re: Firefox lost passwords, saved tabs, settings after upgrading to Ubuntu 22.04

[Kelly Johson]

I just updated to Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS on 9/13/22 and I lost my profile in
the new FireFox snap world.

So, I drilled down to where the profiles are in my /home directory (~,
in Linux speak, it's /home/[username]/[path_to_firefox_directory]) and
edited the profiles.ini file.  My old profile was in that directory as
*.default and for some reason FF didn't find it and created a new one.
I had two *.default files. It's just some letters and numbers made up
randomly by FF and looks something like 9sQt7fr2.default (as an
example).  So I had two profiles with the extension 'default' and FF
used the new one it created after the update.  The one FF uses is
specified in the file called 'profiles.ini'.  So in 'profiles.ini' I
changed it to my other original *.default and it worked.  I got my world
back!  Simple as that!

So in more detail:

In the FF url bar I typed in 'about:profiles' and FF showed the new,
empty profile that comes with the new install under the new snap.  To
edit 'profiles.ini' the path you need to use in terminal is shown there
in 'about:profiles'.  In my case I found my profiles in
/home/[username]/snap/firefox/common/.mozilla/firefox  In
'about:profiles' use the one labeled 'Root Directory' I copied that path
and then...

In terminal, change directories, type:
cd [copied_path] and then list the directory using ls and MAYBE, hopefully you will find two *.default files.  The one not shown in about:profiles is probably your old profile.
It was in my case.
Of course, there, you will also find the 'profiles.ini' file.

So, I just added the old profile to the profiles.ini file.

In my case profiles.ini from the update looked like this: 
(in terminal type in cat profile.ini)

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=6wcfqbmw.default   <---this is the new one FF created after the update.
Default=1

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1
Version=2

-----

After I edited 'profiles.ini' my new 'profiles.ini' looks like this:

[Profile1]
Name=MyLinuxWorld
IsRelative=1
Path=6wcfqbmw.MyLinuxWorld   <---this is the new one FF created after the update the extension altered by me.

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=76qngg3y.default   <---this is my original profile that I typed in
Default=1

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1
Version=2

-----
NOTE: [Profile0] is the first profile, [Profile1] is the second profile, and so on...

-----Now restart FF.  Go to about:profiles and voila, there are now two
profiles the way I did it.  I kept the profile FF made after the update
because I opened a bunch of tabs as I searched this problem out and
wanted to keep that world.  (I'd love to put those tabs into my original
profile, but I haven't figured that out yet other than to copy every url
into my editor then go to my original profile and type them in again.
That sounds like work to me!)

In 'about:profiles', if your old profile is not the default, then choose
'Set as default profile'.  Restart FF again and then your old profile
will become the default, in my case all my passwords and bookmarks were
there.  Tabs you had opened will probably be gone, but that's more of an
inconvenience than a really life altering problem like losing your
profile could be.  In my case, Ubuntu warned me that snap was being
updated and so I bookmarked all my open tabs first before I let software
updater install the new system.  Now all I had to do was reopen the
bookmarks and I got my world back.  I only did that just because I was
nervous about things, bookmarking my open tabs.  Obviously, after the
fact you lose the tabs you had opened if they weren't bookmarked, but
like I say everything else was there, passwords, history, themes, etc.
>From your history you can probably figure out what tabs you had opened
if you can get your old profile back.

NOTE: Since I kept that 'new' profile [Profile1], I had to change the
file extension of the "new" *.default that FF created after the update,
which in this example is "MyLinuxWorld".  You can use the 'profiles.ini'
created by FF and simply make up your own extension for your username.
Look closely at the examples above and you will see the 'name=' line in
[Profile0] is "default" per FF's install and [Profile1] 'name=' is the
one I made up 'MyLinuxWorld'.

Two lines to change in profiles.ini:
path=   :the filename.ext of the 'profile' file usually *.default
name=   :the extension you choose for your new profile name just the ext, 'default' in [Profile0].

If you want to use the profile FF made after the update, make a new
profile [Profile1].  Look at my examples above.

Of course, before you go making these changes, make a backup, in my case
I have the original as profile.ini.bak1  Use the command cp profile.ini
profile.ini.bak1 at the command line.

Then copy the path from the command line in terminal (or from
'about:profiles' in FF) into the editor in Ubuntu and open profiles.ini
and make the suggested changes.  When editing profiles.ini of course use
your own username and get the correct profile.  It's labeled pretty much
'[GobbleDeGook].default' and you change the extension 'default' to
whatever you want for that second profile name, [Profile1] in
profiles.ini (if you want to keep that 'new' profile FF made after the
update.)

You don't have to have two profiles.  Just changing path= to the other
profile (if you are lucky enough that it's there, hopefully) and
name=default will work.  I don't think FF cares if all your profiles are
*.default (name=default) but it would be confusing to you. So I
recommend just keeping one profile [Profile0] and change the
path=[/home/[username]/[blah blah
blah]/[original_profile_from_before_the_update].

For the detail oriented types, in 'about:profiles' you will also see the
'Local Directory'.  It is some kind of cache that FF creates.  I don't
know if it's necessary to fix anything there.  I kind of think it will
be handled by FF upon restart, so I didn't worry about it.  I got my
stuff back just editing profiles.ini in the 'Root directory' in
'about:profiles' (not your Linux root directory, just what FF calls the
Root directory in about:profiles.)

You don't need sudo or anything like that.  Regular user has all the
permissions required to do this job.

I hope this helps somebody!  In my case, it was as simple as all that!

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1969910

Title:
  Firefox lost passwords, saved tabs, settings after upgrading to Ubuntu
  22.04

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