I have been using firefox exclusively for the last 3,5 years. During that time, my browsing history has disappeared several times. (For the first 3 years I used windows xp, now firefox. This is not a problem with linux but with firefox.)
Sometimes it seemed random.
Sometimes it had to do with changing profiles or something.
Sometimes I accidentally deleted and could not "undo".
Etc.

Last night I had too many tabs open and firefox crashed. This has happened before with no consequence -- I just reopened the programme and continued to work. But last night was different. When I reopened the programme and restored the session, everything came back except for my history.

I have a big problem due to this: in every programme and every application I have ever used has several protections against accidental deletion or crash:
office programmes restore a forgotten document.
all programmes have an undo function.
Or a dialogue box to ask "are you sure you want to delete this?"
And all of them send something to the trash that they think you want to delete, and you can rescue it from there in case it was a mistake.
But not firefox.

Why is this?
And, is there a way for me to rescue my lost history, at least from last night?

Thanks

For the first 3 years I used windows xp, now firefox. This is not a problem with linux but with firefox.)

Firefox is not a linux distro that I know of. If running Firefox in Windows XP. I would go into programs and look inside firefox folder or winnt or win 32 for browsing history. Firefox in Windows is a different Animal than Firefox Linux. Linux doesn't use a registry for starters.

Wow 3 linux threads. The most I've ever seem here at once. Lots of "buisness" for you Rocky.

Of course firefox is not a linux distribution you can think of. It was my error. The first sentence in my message ought to read:
I purchased my first computer 3,5 years back, and was using windows xp at the time. More recently (since February), I have been using Linux Linpus on an Acer Netbook and Linux Mint on a barebones computer.
The problem I am having is with firefox web browser, and I have had the same problem with firefox no matter what operating system I used.

The rest of the message should be clearer if you replace the first couple of sentences which you quoted with the above statement.

A user's bookmarks, history, cookies, and preferences are now stored in a transactionally secure database format which will prevent data loss even if their system crashes.

If you have set up options/preferences in saving History set to 0 you will have these problems No matter which distro you use. I don't have enough info from you to say what is going wrong. I have No problems with Firefox, Iceweasel, Opera or any linux browsers like you describe. Below is a screenshot of my History set up.

Screenshot-Shiretoko Preferences.jpg

Firefox Backup tool

MozBackup - Backup tool for Firefox and Thunderbird

I am still using google to see how to recover history for you.

Another useful Addon you might use is

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2324

And you won't like this

Can FireFox history ever be recovered?

Thank you for the (unfortunate) reply, that the history cannot be recovered. (Why doesn't someone get firefox developers to fix this problem? There are people all over the web complaining of their lost histories!) -- there is a website bugzilla.mozilla.org for reporting bugs, but I do not know whether this would count as a bug, nor do I know how to formulate it so that the developers would understand what I am speaking of.

Is this link for linux? It did not download on my mint-gloria (I could neither install nor unpack the zip version once I had it in my tmp folder)
MozBackup - Backup tool for Firefox and Thunderbird

neither did this: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2324 -- it said : download error-228

This did, however, work on my netbook (linpus linux, acer aspire one)... but I need it for my mint gloria.

***Download error -228 means you are not connected to the internet (probably because the cable is loose!). Of course the download worked later when I had pushed in the cable.

Is this link for linux? It did not download on my mint-gloria (I could neither install nor unpack the zip version once I had it in my tmp folder)
MozBackup - Backup tool for Firefox and Thunderbird

No it is for Windows. My bad there.

neither did this: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2324 -- it said : download error-228

I'm on Ubuntu right now with Firefox 3.5.3 and I got no error. What version of Firefox are you running? It will be in the tab that says help>about firefox. Mine says Shiretoko because firefox calls it's latest releases that.

I am running version 3.0.10

Looks like you need to upgrade firefox on your install. Also have you ever considered using Opera 10 also. I have both installed on all my computers. You can go to Operas Site and install the deb package for Ubuntu and use gdebi to install it. It is a pretty sweet browser.

Under Preferences or Options using the Advanced Tab>then update is Automatically check for Firefox Updates checked?

Another way is open terminal and do a (close firefox first before doing this)

sudo apt-get update firefox

enter password
and hit enter.

Then try installing Addon.