Firefox Community Forum

Roughly every 2 weeks I backup important files to a external hard drive.

One of the things I always backup is my Firefox profile. I have been doing this for years without any problems.

I 7zip my profile and copy it to the hard drive.

I tried to do this yesterday (July 25 2025), and was getting access denied messages for files in the profile. So I tried to simply copy the profile. Same thing access denied.

I cleared the history, used wise disk cleaner, rebooted my machine and tried again. Same thing access denied when trying to backup or copy the profile.

I am assuming that this is happening since 141 because I updated Firefox since the last time I backed up my profile, and never had a problem previously.

Could anyone have an idea what the problem is? Thank you for your time.

Hello, I just tried to import bookmarks to Firefox, however they're not appearing on the title bar?

I imported bookmarks to desktop Firefox 134.0.1 (aarch64) on raspberrypios - 1.0, but the title bar only shows Import Bookmarks... and the imported bookmarks are located in Library -> All Bookmarks -> Bookmarks Toolbar/Bookmarks Menu -> Mozilla Firefox -> Imported Bookmark.

When my Mac got an automatic system upgrade to 15.1.1 I lost everything. I was able to recover all my files but I lost the foxfire bookmarks and bookmark bar. How can I recover them?

If I go to the profile folder, exit firefox then copy and paste the folder to a backup location. The attempted backup fails. Something about permissions as I recall. I have tried many things unsuccessfully. Something has changed that does not allow for the backup of profile folders. Adding a backup option to the profile manager would be nice. I noticed some people have found work-arounds but I need a straight-forward procedure for backing up my folders. No work-arounds please, just a simple procedure. May I ask for help with this issue?

Hello:

I am trying to create a csv file of my passwords to import to Microsoft Edge from FF. I went through these steps in Firefox:

Settings>General>Import>Select Passwords from CSV...

...and then it takes me to browse my computer for a CSV file that I have YET to create. I don't think this is how you create such a file.

I'm not sure how to import my passwords to create a CSV file so I can put them into MS Edge. When I tried importing my password (and all my other data) inside of Edge via Edge, it only brought in 235 passwords from Firefox where I have 422. So I would assume if I used and imported my passwords to Edge via a CSV file instead that all my passwords would populate in Edge not roughly half of them.

Could you please tell me how to create a password CSV file in Firefox to use in Edge?

Many thanks in adabce

Firefox update today 1-14-26 says Restore FF with a backup file" Instructions say go to Settings/Sync/Backup/Manage Backup. My Sync has no Backup option, only shows: Sync Manage account Device Name Syncing: ON You are syncing these items across all your connected devices: Bookmarks Open tabs Add-ons Settings Connect another device . How to proceed?

(I don't recall setting Syncing to "On" before; it also showed me as automatically logged in to my account.) Assistance appreciated! Thanks!

Does ‘Firefox’ automatically send extra ‘backup authentication code’ once I use up the current lot it sent?? If not, what does 1 do for extra extra ‘backup authentication codes’ ??

I'm changing computers. I want to upload my browser's bookmarks to a file. Then I can clear it for the next person to start from scratch. So far, I can't find a tab to make it happen. Please help. Thanks.

When having restarted my computer and Firefox Nightly after a sudden power outage, all my tabs were gone. I need to restore them.

I went into the profile folder, but there was no session store file. Inside the backup sub folder i saw two large files, "previous.jsonlz4" and "restore.jsonlz4", and made a copy of both and placed them inside a new sub folder that I made, inside that profile folder.

An expert from the "Tech Support Guy" website ("Nader") told me, to open "about:support" and there to use the "Refresh" feature. I did this, but no tabs were restored. So I went into the profile folder again, just to see that it had disappeared and been replaced by a new profile folder! And therefore my two copies of the PREVIOS and RESTORE json files were gone, too, as they were inside a sub folder within that disappeared profile folder!

Now I need to know, URGENTLY, how to restore that folder and the files and sub folders within that profile folder. Thanks!

I had to re-install Windows and so I downloaded Firefox again and logged in to my account. I had sync turned on with bookmarks enabled but it wasn't syncing my bookmarks to my computer. I double checked that these sync settings were enabled on the Firefox app on my phone and I tried syncing multiple times. It transferred my passwords and other data but not my bookmarks. So I logged out of Firefox on my computer and phone, then logged back in and synced them together only to find that Firefox deleted all my bookmarks from my account completely (now they don't show up on my phone either). I looked at the forums and saw that they make separate profiles that I could access with about:profiles so I opened that and only saw 2 profiles, neither of which have my bookmarks. Is there a way to recover these since Firefox deleted them out of no where?

I love my current Firefox settings, bookmarks, folders and color, background image, dark mode. All I want to do is to create a Firefox browser backup file. I don't want to restore or sync anything. I just want a backup file in case of computer failure to restore to my next computer if ever necessary. I'm using Windows 10. I think they used to be "json" files? The only "Backup" link in the menu only addresses Restoring from a file. I just want to create a backup file for this current browser just the way it is. Is there a simple solution? Thank you SO much!!

I am unable to follow instructions for activating Backup in Firefox. I don't even have a Manage Backup button. What I have in its place is:

Backup

Restore your data Use a Firefox backup file from another device to restore your data.

Choose backup file...

Is there anyplace that shows how to use what the new release says on the 146.0. I got the message below when viewing new options in 146.0, but going to settings, sync just wants me to sign in and do a cloud backup.

Doesn't sound like what is in message below that I got after updating to 146.0. From what I found looking around, you are suppose to go to setting, sync, click on backup and choose location. There is no option backup, just an option to sign on. Below is message I got when checking what is in update 146.0:

Windows 10 users can now automatically protect their passwords, bookmarks, and more by turning on backup in Firefox. Your browsing data is saved daily on your device and can be encrypted with a password When you set up a fresh install of Firefox on any operating system for a new device or your current one, you can restore from this backup and pick up right where you left off. This feature is currently available on Windows devices and will be coming to other operating systems soon.

Hi I just saw the new info on backing up my Firefox data. It sounded good, so I tried it. However I do not see 'Manage Backup'. Instead it asks 'Choose backup file'. I have never knowingly backed up Firefox, so I do not know where this backupfile is located... How can I find it? How do I create a new backup file? Many thanks An

After a problem with his Internet connection, a friend is now unable to open Firefox. At first the message was that ‘… this tag has crashed.’ Now the message is that it cannot find something with a .dll at the end. I suggested to simply uninstall and then reinstall Firefox, which would also ensure that he has the latest version. However, he has no backup of his bookmarks.

I was, therefore, wondering whether it is possible to access the bookmarks somewhere else on the computer, in order to back them up before the uninstall/reinstall procedure.

Many thanks.

I am trying to export/import my book marks from one macOS computer to another (intel to Apple silicon), however, all of my imports and restore attempts fail. My last restore attempt failed with the following message: Firefox Unable to process the backup file. Any other suggestions?

Hi everyone.

Basically when the browser is (I think) idle while watching YouTube, FF is constantly backing up (the timestamp in the backup file name keeps getting updated). From the settings page I thought it once every 24 hours. I noticed from higher than normal CPU usage impacting FF and the Windows search indexer. Which reverted to normal once I disabled the backup.

I checked the about config:

• browser.backup.scheduled.minimum-time-between-backups-seconds

Is set to 24 hours (86400 seconds)

But I also noticed:

• browser.backup.scheduled.idle-threshold-seconds

Is set to 15 seconds(!). Is that what I think it is? Back up whenever there's a 15 sec idle window, regardless of the minimum? Can I safely make that 86400 seconds too, or does it do something else entirely?

Many thanks in advance.