Level 1

0 points

I accidentally deleted my firefox profile on OS X. My bookmarks, usernames, passwords - all gone. Used data recovery software...

Data recovery software called Data Rescue 3. It seemed to have brought up many deleted files. I sifted through as many as I could. I have removed the ones that are .pdf, etc. and obviously not related to firefox.

The folder & files I recovered: 1) SQLite - I have many files called SQ00001.db, SQ00002.db, etc. I don't know if these are the user names or passwords or what? They are in a folder called SQLite. If I click on this nothing happens.

2) There are files under misc called login-0001.keychain - Are these passwords, usernames?

3) Web Bookmarks - Files called Bookmarks00001.plist. If I click on this it opens up in text edit and I can see some books randomly throughout.

4) Mozilla - Only on file called bookmarks-00001.html

5) There are many other files one in text ending in htm. and plist.

6) Some other files called DS_Store-00001, etc.

7) Also some files called embed.default.js.gz (under Archives folder and ZIP). I don't know what this is.

I tried to recover the files... I don't know what to do with them. Obviously some files might be useless. If I could get the usernames saved that would mean everything to me. Literally. I have all my work on there... :(

I could look up other files specifically, please just let me know. Running OS X 10.6.8.

A lot of questions said use data recovery, I've read and read and am truly stuck. What do I do with these files? How do I get my username and profile info back. There is no file called .ini or 12345678.default. (example). There are no files called key3.db or signons.sqlite. There is the folder called SQLite though with the .db files. I did not use time machine.

I know this is quite a tricky problem, but I do hope someone is able to help. I had information regarding things that could never be replaced in these accounts. Thank you.

Please, please, please help. Thank you.

MacBook

Posted on Nov 10, 2013 4:14 PM

21 replies

andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,556 points

Nov 12, 2013 9:46 AM in response to WZZZ

Right you are, WZZZ - another FF open/close & the added one is there too... some local glitch.

SheRaPower might usefully look for files of that size.

SheRaPower Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 12, 2013 12:36 PM in response to andyBall_uk

You guys are brilliant. Okay, so I will search for a file size 10.5. The ones I was most worried about are indeed the signons.sqlite and key3.db ... how big are these on your machines?

I tried another recover and now it's recoved three at are 164gb and one that is 41kb. Only thing I don't know which is older and which is newer. And do I just rename each of these files from db_file-00001.db to key3.db? There are four and what about the sqlite files? This is madness. Not sure I'm even making sense. I was able to find some files that are .sqlite after a deeper scan but this wasn't just deleted files so I don't know if it's what I really want to use. Anyway, once I've found a file do I jsut rename it and put it in the firefox profile folder?

This is probably a very confusing message. But off I go to look for a 10.5 file. Thanks soo much!

SheRaPower Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 12, 2013 12:43 PM in response to SheRaPower

I've found 10.2 MB 10.4 MB 10.6 MB but none exactly 10.5 MB.

andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,556 points

Nov 12, 2013 1:04 PM in response to SheRaPower

Open any likely candidates & see if they start with this :

SQLite format 3

key3 is 16KB here; signons is 328KB

SheRaPower Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 12, 2013 3:17 PM in response to andyBall_uk

I do have files that start with SQLite format 3 ...

What does this mean... a lot of the files start with this. I did have a large number of usernames and passwords. Ironically the information that I recovered from the deleted files and there were no .sqlite files at the time (only a folder called SQLite and files ending in .db) these files open up with SQLite format 3. The other files from the deeper scan (entire computer) that in in .sqlite also start with SQLite format 3.

Thank you thank you thank you.

andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,556 points

Nov 12, 2013 4:42 PM in response to SheRaPower

>>What does this mean...

Just that those are sqlite format 3 files, or fragments of them. If say, you find one ~10MB which has a few http addresses that you know you had bookmarked... there's a chance it might be places.sqlite.

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I accidentally deleted my firefox profile on OS X. My bookmarks, usernames, passwords - all gone. Used data recovery software...