No browser favs or Mail accounts after backup restore

OK, I now have the new 750 gig HDD and extra RAM, 8 gig, and I have loaded Mavericks. I have also done the transfere of data/apps/etc from the CCC backup I took just before the clean instal.

When I opened Firefox I hoped to find all of my favorites still there? None are, is there any way I can recover them? I have the original HDD in an external HDD caddy, can I retrieve them from there?

Same thing with Mail, all of the Mailboxes are missing?

Am I just expecting too much?

I upgraded to Mavericks from 10.6.8 and all that stuff was retained. I lost nothing. But if you did a clean install I would expect you to lose everything, and have to reinstall from a backup (assuming you can, across different versions of OS X ... ?). Whatever, it's a function of the applications, not the OS. Firefox provides a facility to save and transfer favourites - my present installation on OS X copied all my favourites etc from Windows. I don't know about Apple Mail as I never use it, but Thunderbird (which I use on several different platforms) does provide the facility.

Sorry Peter, I should have explained. The new HDD had to have a clean instal and all of the original data was backed up using Carbon Copy Cloner wich should be able to dump all the applications from Mountain Lion onto the new HDD, or so I thought?

If push comes to shove I can always put the original HDD back in and it should just boot as it was. But I would rather try to get all the data across if I can?

Any ideas please

Read this url. Go to the backup and get the file and put it in the same place on the new install. Let us know if that works.

iClarified - Mac OS X - How to Backup Your Firefox Bookmarks

I would move that whole folder over to the new install and that way Firefox should be like before you left it.

When you transferred your data from the backup drive, how did you go about doing it?

The right way is to "transfer from another Mac" when prompted at the last stage of the Mavericks install. This pulls all of the needed files and puts them in the correct places. I've yet to have a failed port using this method.

If you want to try it now, hit Command + Space to invoke Spotlight, in the field, type Migration Assistant and step through the process - pointing it to your external.

Good suggestion CWA. That should work.

The original transfere was done as you said CWA and the transfere from another Mac using CCC as the source.

I tried using Spotlight and Migration Assistant using the CCC disk as the source, but still no joy, so I tried again using the old 250 gig disk that I have removed with all of the old data on it. I still don't have any of the bookmarks, e-mails or addresses?

I think that if I ever fell into a bucket of roses I would come up smelling of the muck they were grown in I think that I will give up for the night as I am getting too tired to concentrate. Thank you for you help guys. I'll get there???

Did you try pointing Migration Assistant to that original 250GB drive that used to be in the machine? Just making sure. That should have worked.

dtravis7 said:

Did you try pointing Migration Assistant to that original 250GB drive that used to be in the machine? Just making sure. That should have worked.

Click to expand...

Yes DT and had the same result. I also tried your link '
iClarified - Mac OS X - How to Backup Your Firefox Bookmarks' and copy/pasted '~.Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/' and it told me that the folder can't be found'.

I have had a look to find the Application Support folder on the old 250gig HDD and the only thing in there is Adobe



I can't see the App Support folder at all on the new HDD so I guess it's hidden?

Jonzjob said:

I have had a look to find the Application Support folder on the old 250gig HDD and the only thing in there is Adobe



I can't see the App Support folder at all on the new HDD so I guess it's hidden?

Click to expand...

You're in the wrong place. You're in the Shared folder. You need to be in your old user folder. Open Terminal and type:
chflags nohidden ~/Library/
This should show the Library folder. Now look in Application Support/Firefox. If it's not there, something went wrong with the backup.
Edit: If you're running Maverick, right-click on the finder window, select Show View Options, check the box that says Show Library.

Since this was getting way off the topic of the original thread and getting lost in multiple pages, moved the above content to it's own thread.

I found a Firefox link that does the job https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/export-firefox-bookmarks-to-backup-or-transfer

That was after I tried your methods CR. It came up with the same content. Still no Firefox anywhere in the App Support.

I am running Mavericks, but when I bring up the Show Options window there isn't a Show Library option?

Use Cradom's terminal command to make the ~/Library visible. You're still not looking at the proper Library.

If that doesn't work for an external drive, do a show hidden files to see it.
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
When you're finished, do the same command but end it with FALSE to hide the files again.

You are looking in the wrong library. Just woke up. Will find it and post back.

I am pleased to say that the link I gave above for the Bookmarks for Firefox worked fine and I have managed to boot the old 250 gig disk, export the mailboxes and contacts to the Mavericks system and all is now well.

Once again folks, thank you for both your help and patience with me. If you can hit it with a hammer I can fix it, but the software side sometimes leaves me stone cold