I was looking for an item that would be a couple of years back in my history, only to discover that my history now only goes back a year and 3 months… exactly, as of yesterday, I don't know if that's meaningful.
Does anyone have any idea what might've happened, and how I can restore the rest of my history? Thank you!
I'm using Firefox version 115.8. I haven't added, removed, updated or changed anything on my computer recently.
iMac 27″, macOS 10.14
Might you have accidentally hit Shift + ⌘ + Delete a year & 3 months ago?
Do you have a Time Machine Backup?
Oh, sorry...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/Firefox/ProfilesBigLong Number.default-release-2/places.sqlite
Get Find Any File...
http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/index.php
Hold Option or alt key when selecting Find to Find All.
More info on it...
I don't think it's possible to ACCIDENTALLY hit Shift + ⌘ + Delete, lol... And according to the page I looked it up on, that empties the trash, which I don't think affects history. I don't think anything I could've done that long ago would be like a time bomb suddenly going off now, either…? I DO have Time Machine Backup, but it doesn't back up browser history, just files.
Firefox stores your history and bookmarks together in a database file named places.sqlite which is in your profile folder.
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/[SomeNumber].default-release-2/places.sqlite
(1) Access the Firefox profile folder as described above and click to have it open in Finder. (2) Close Firefox application. (3) While having the Firefox profile folder open in Finder, open Time Machine from the menu bar at the top of the Mac screen. (4) The Finder folder will then be displayed for all previous updates. Select the most recent update (or the update that would contain your browsing history), select the profile folder, and then click restore. (5) Exit Time Machine.
Does that really mean that there's no way to retrieve the missing history without erasing the 15 months of history that I still have? There's no way to safely hold the recent history aside and merge both pieces of history back together?
That stuff is WAY beyond my technical knowledge and abilities, and I have no idea how anything there would apply to my situation. Given the size of the history file that someone in another forum talked me through locating, it looks like the old history exists in the system somewhere… Even if I had to access it somewhere other than the normal way, it would really help to still have it…
To find the file first off...
Get Find Any File...
http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/index.php
Hold Option or alt key when selecting Find to Find All.
I found places.sqlite, and a website that would open it, and downloaded… Something, tables with no dates and no way to sort them… Basically gibberish…?
Yes, only way to really use it is to have TM replace the existing one as stated from a good date, but of course that would remove any new History & Bookmarks between that date & now.
It's going to be tough if at all it can be done, see if you can figure out how to work this...
Well, that's the only App I know of that stands a chance of viewing the info... but you could duplicate that file for possible future getting something out of it.
I'm sorry, what file are you talking about?
Sorry, I have no idea what you're asking me to do here…?
My older Firefox history has vanished
