Cannot import/restore settings without Firefox crashing

[Darxide23]

I created a new profile in Firefox and I'm in the process of making it a mirror of my current profile.

I'm trying to import my STG backup and Firefox crashes. I've tried importing just one tab group to see if it was maybe just too many tabs and it still crashed. I even unchecked the tab import entirely and just imported my settings and it still crashes.

No matter what boxes I uncheck in the import popup, Firefox subsequently crashes moments later and no settings are actually imported.

Firefox 144.0.2 (64-bit) and STG 5.3.2. Both the latest versions as of this posting.

[Grogwort]

Just encountered this issue as well.
Closed all Firefox windows/tabs to restart for FF update.
All Groups are now empty.
Tried restoring from last backup - it starts then Firefox crashes before import finishes, and nothing seems to import.

[Kauoz]

Just encountered this issue as well. Closed all Firefox windows/tabs to restart for FF update. All Groups are now empty. Tried restoring from last backup - it starts then Firefox crashes before import finishes, and nothing seems to import.

Same here. 300+ tabs gone.. this needs a fix soon

[Kauoz]

Just encountered this issue as well. Closed all Firefox windows/tabs to restart for FF update. All Groups are now empty. Tried restoring from last backup - it starts then Firefox crashes before import finishes, and nothing seems to import.

Found a fix! When importing from the backup file uncheck the box "Delete all addon data and settings before restoring backup". I'm guessing the erasing part is what causes the crash.

[olad32]

Just encountered this issue as well. Closed all Firefox windows/tabs to restart for FF update. All Groups are now empty. Tried restoring from last backup - it starts then Firefox crashes before import finishes, and nothing seems to import.

Found a fix! When importing from the backup file uncheck the box "Delete all addon data and settings before restoring backup". I'm guessing the erasing part is what causes the crash.

Same crash when restoring, but this fix did not work for me

[olad32]

It crashes when restoring on Firefox v145, but did not crash when restoring with previous version v144

[olad32]

fixed for me with the workaround in this issue #1334

[achernyakevich-sc]

fixed for me with the workaround in this issue #1334

@Darxide23 could you try the workaround described above?

If it works for you then could you close this issue to show other users that issue has the solution and it is described in comments. :)

[Darxide23]

Yes, unchecking the box for "Delete all addon data and settings before restoring backup" did work. That option seems to be the common cause of crashes between comments here and on #1334. That's not really a fix, though. In my case, it was a brand new Firefox profile, so there was no addon data to even delete. If someone really does need to clear their data before importing for some reason, this would not help them.

[philg-dev]

@Darxide23 in my comment in #1334 I was not talking about that checkbox you mentioned. I was talking about actually manually deleting all addon data and settings with the button at the bottom and THEN afterwards restore the backup data. So if people need to clear their data, that's exactly what my workaround will do.

[Darxide23]

No, using that button crashes Firefox as well. It doesn't even manage to clear data before crashing. I'm left with tons of duplicated tab groups, all empty.

And now no matter what I do, it crashes trying to load tabs. No matter what I uncheck. If I only import settings and hotkeys, it's fine. If I tell it to erase data, it crashes. If I try to import only tabs, it crashes. I even tried importing a group with 3 tabs to see if it was just too many tabs, but even that crashes.

I closed Firefox, lost all my tabs, and now I can't even restore backups anymore. I've disabled ALL other addons in an attempt to get it working and that hasn't helped.

[philg-dev]

Hmm... that sounds pretty weird.

Disclaimer: I did not try the following myself - try it with caution (i.e. backup your firefox profile).

You can try deleting the extension's stored data manually through the add-on debug tools.

• go to about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox
• find STG and hit the "Inspect" button
• in the add-on dev tools go to the "Storage" tab
• find "extension storage" and "local storage" for the addon (STG should have UUID 76648863-375d-4fb4-8734-77cd07bd6385 so a good precaution is to double-check if that matches)
• you can right-click them and choose "delete all" to clear them
• restart your browser and hope for the best

I hope this might help in your case.

[Kauoz]

No, using that button crashes Firefox as well. It doesn't even manage to clear data before crashing. I'm left with tons of duplicated tab groups, all empty.

And now no matter what I do, it crashes trying to load tabs. No matter what I uncheck. If I only import settings and hotkeys, it's fine. If I tell it to erase data, it crashes. If I try to import only tabs, it crashes. I even tried importing a group with 3 tabs to see if it was just too many tabs, but even that crashes.

I closed Firefox, lost all my tabs, and now I can't even restore backups anymore. I've disabled ALL other addons in an attempt to get it working and that hasn't helped.

Okay so I've built multiple PCs since this bug came about. I have successfully restored the backups every time I downloaded Firefox as a new browser. So.. this is what I think. I think the problem lies within Windows itself, like the registry and stuff. The dev needs to fix this problem, because I don't wanna reinstall the whole computer just to get my tabs back.

[Darxide23]

Hmm... that sounds pretty weird.

I hope this might help in your case.

Before reading your reply, I just kept trying to restore my backup. After about the 20th time, it just worked. I didn't do anything differently, didn't check or uncheck any settings differently, didn't restart my PC, didn't do anything. I just kept bruteforcing it and eventually everything loaded without crashing. I wish I had something else I could tell you, but I legitimately have no idea.