Firefox 3 loses all data... can no longer go back a page

[phflupp]

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2nd UPDATE
=====

With testing it appears that Google Earth is responsible for changing permissions in the .mozilla directory. After Google Earth is run Firefox fails and a re-install of Firefox + chown of .mozilla files is necessary to restore Firefox back to a working state.

Blame it on Google, I guess.
-Phflupp
=====

==========================================
=====
UPDATE:
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Fixed problem by resetting ownership of '.mozilla' hidden directory and all files within using the following command (remove angle brackets and insert your login name):

$ sudo chown <your username>:<your username> -R .mozilla

All data restored including previous session tabs and bookmarks.

Cheers,
-Phflupp
=========================================

Binary package hint: firefox-3.0

After a recent Ubuntu update Firefox 3 crashed, lost all bookmarks, ignores default page as set up in preferences, greyed out BACK and FORWARD page arrows (they no longer work), cannot import bookmarks backup.

System REINSTALL of Firefox fails to fix any of these items.

Add-Ons: AdBlock Plus, Foxmarks (no longer works), and Ubuntu Firefox modifications.

 Ubuntu 8.04

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Sep 3 00:10:46 2008
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.04
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: firefox-3.0 3.0.1+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.3
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: firefox-3.0
Uname: Linux 2.6.24-19-generic x86_64

[Eef (evelinebijlmer)]

I have the same problem. When I restart my computer firefox works just fine again but when I close firefox and then later use firefox again it doesn't work. My start-up page doesn't appear, my bookmarks have disappeared and the back and forward page arrows don't work anymore. If I type in an adress it wil work but going back to a previous page isn't possible. I tried reinstalling firefox and after restarting my computer it did the trick but only once, because the next time I used firefox I had the same problem.
Anyone know a fix?

[Don Salo (donsalo)]

I installed JRE just before I ran into these same issues, not sure if that caused it, but suspicious.

[drew212 (mstngdrew212)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug 241609, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.