Firefox Help
Lost Bookmarks
During normal usage of Firefox, you may discover that Firefox has apparently lost your bookmarks. In most cases, the bookmarks are not lost. This article discusses the main ways in which it can appear that your bookmarks are missing and explains how you can recover them.
- If you can add, delete, and edit your bookmarks but the changes are lost when you restart Firefox, see Bookmarks not saved.
- To recover bookmarks that were previously saved but are now missing, see Backing up and restoring bookmarks.
Table of Contents
Menu Bar is missing
The menu at the top of the Firefox windowbar includes a Bookmarks item along with other menu items (File, Edit, View, Tools, etc.). In some cases, the menu bar may be missing.
If you don't see the menu bar:
- Press Alt on the keyboard and release. The menu bar will appear temporarily.
- On the menu bar, click , go to , then select .
See Menu bar is missing for more information.
Missing Google bookmarks
To access your current Google Bookmarks, just go to www.google.com/bookmarks. Once there, you can export your Google Bookmarks and import them into Firefox if you wish. For more, see Google Toolbar is not compatible with Firefox.
No bookmarks shown after installing an add-on
If you have restarted Firefox after installing an add-on and no bookmarks appear, it may be that Firefox did not close properly before restarting. To get them back, do the following, and restart your computer.
Unable to find your bookmarks after importing them
If you have imported your bookmarks from another browser, they appear in the Bookmarks menu in a specific folder. To find your imported bookmarks, do the following:
Click the Bookmarks button
on the right side of the navigation toolbar (Windows XP: click the menu) and select to open the Library window.On the menu bar, click and select to open the Library window.At the top of the Firefox window, click the menu and select to open the Library window.
At the top of the Firefox window, click the menu and select to open the Library window. On the menu bar, click and select to open the Library window.
- Depending on the type of browser from which you imported, your bookmarks appear in a specially named folder in the Bookmarks list.
- Internet Explorer. Folder name is From Internet Explorer.
- Opera. Folder name is From Opera.
- Bookmarks imported from other browsers follow a similar pattern.
- If your source bookmarks were stored in a hierarchy of folders, the folder structure is preserved inside the specially named folder.
If desired, you can move your imported bookmarks to other folders. For more information, see How do I use bookmarks?.
Default set of bookmarks is shown in Bookmarks folder
Your bookmarks are associated with the profile that you are using. For most Firefox users, the only profile used is the default one. There may be instances when Firefox creates for you a new profile. When this new profile is activated, it contains the default set of bookmarks, which may give you the impression that you have lost your personal bookmarks. This troubleshooting sequence helps you to identify if a new profile has been created and how to recover your bookmarks from the previous one.
Determining if Firefox has created a new profile
- Go to the Firefox profile folder.
- For Firefox profile locations, see the Profiles article.
- If there is only one profile folder, then stop.Note: Each profile folder is named something like the following:
xxxxxxxx.<ProfileName>
where xxxxxxxx represents a random string of 8 characters and <ProfileName> corresponds to the name of the profile. For example, the folder containing the default profile is named xxxxxxxx.default. - If you have multiple profile folders in this location, then you have multiple profiles. If you have more than one profile folder, then it is likely that Firefox has made you a new profile. In this case, you must instruct Firefox to use the profile containing your saved bookmarks by opening the Firefox Profile Manager and choosing the right profile. See the Managing profiles article for details.
Based on information from Lost bookmarks (mozillaZine KB)
