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uninstalled then reinstalled Mozilla. Book marks were deleted and now I can not restore, even with the backup made before I uninstalled. Help

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Got an error message from Firefox that program was not running. Uninstalled program. A backup was automatically created with shortcut .on my desktop "old Firefox data". After reinstalling, none of my bookmarks were saved.

I followed the recommendation from the community and clicked on Import and Backup and selected Restore. There was only one restore option, the "old Firefox data" folder on my desktop. Clicked on that but it does not give me the option to restore. It just opens all the files in that folder. There is no option "OK".

All this happened today and I am lost without my bookmarks. I thought they were backed up when the folder appeared on my desktop. But that was not the case. PLEASE: How do I restore the bookmarks I had on Firefox just a few hours ago??? Thank you.

Got an error message from Firefox that program was not running. Uninstalled program. A backup was automatically created with shortcut .on my desktop "old Firefox data". After reinstalling, none of my bookmarks were saved. I followed the recommendation from the community and clicked on Import and Backup and selected Restore. There was only one restore option, the "old Firefox data" folder on my desktop. Clicked on that but it does not give me the option to restore. It just opens all the files in that folder. There is no option "OK". All this happened today and I am lost without my bookmarks. I thought they were backed up when the folder appeared on my desktop. But that was not the case. PLEASE: How do I restore the bookmarks I had on Firefox just a few hours ago??? Thank you.

Chosen solution

hobson said

Thank you again. Problem resolved and bookmarks have been restored to Foxfire.

Can you please mark this as solved, Thank You

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (6)

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How did you uninstall? If you used the Firefox uninstaller in the Windows Control Panel, your data should still be in its original location. However, if you used a third party program like Revo, your data might be completely destroyed, depending on the uninstaller's settings.

The Old Firefox Data folder usually is created by the Refresh feature, not by uninstalling. If you look inside that folder, into the semi-randomly-named profile folder you find there, then into the bookmarkbackups folder, how recent are the backups? The date is coded into the file name. For example:

bookmarks-2017-06-17_5844_gibberish==.jsonlz4

In that example, 5844 is the number of bookmarks and bookmark folders backed up in the file.

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Yes, I uninstalled via control panel. I'm working in Windows 7.

I found the bookmarkbackups folder as you mentioned and it's dated today (6/18).  There are 15 folders with  names similar to the example you provided. I tried opening one of the folders. It won't open in either  Windows or Foxfire (default option). 

How to I transfer back the bookmarkbackups from this location to my Firefox browser?? Thanks for your help.

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Thank you again. Problem resolved and bookmarks have been restored to Foxfire.

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Chosen Solution

hobson said

Thank you again. Problem resolved and bookmarks have been restored to Foxfire.

Can you please mark this as solved, Thank You

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Where's the solution?

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Hi Smartyred, some users have severe problems with the entire bookmark system in Firefox 55 -- no old bookmarks listed, no new bookmarks can be added. To prevent crossing issues in this thread applicable to an older version of Firefox, please continue to address your specific issues with Firefox 55 in your new thread here:

https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1170897