Open the Bookmarks Manager; Press the Alt or F10 key to bring up the toolbar, and select Bookmarks. Hot key is <Control> (Mac=<Command>) <Shift> B.

Are your bookmarks there?

Look at the 'tree' at the far left. Click on History. Then in the main window, click on any of the links.

Is your history listed?

Hi,

I can't even access a bookmarks manager and the toolbar is just a blank grey rectangle at the top of my screen.

Could you check your Firefox version? Your Firefox identified itself as Firefox 48.0, which is quite old now and definitely would not be what you would have after an update. To check on that, open the Troubleshooting Information page using one of these methods:

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" Help > Troubleshooting Information
• (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
• type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, you will find version information. What does that show?

Hi, I have checked and it says 48.0.2, so it is an older version but recently (about 2 months ago) it was pestering me to update and then it has stopped now so I assumed it automatically updated. When I open my bookmark tabs and click restore.. it has back ups up till 17th november (which i think was about the time i lost my history and bookmarks), however, when I click on restore it just says 'unable to process backup'

Look on your desktop. Do you see a folder called; Old Firefox?

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible

As to updating, use this link; http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/

Yes, I have found the folder labelled Old Firefox

Open the Old Firefox folder and look inside. What are the date(s) of the folder(s) inside?

the dates are: 15 march 2017, 29 november 2017, 26 april 2017, 26 June 2017, 17 August 2017, 8 may 2017, 2 april 2017, 29 may 2017, 20 september 2017

Okay, good. Those folders are old, but should still have data.

Now then, Type about:profiles<enter> in the address bar. How many profiles are listed? How many should be there?

It says... 'this is the profile in use and it cannot be deleted' default profile: no and then root directory and local directory

If you use the Time Machine or other backup then try to restore file(s) from this backup.

• http://www.apple.com/support/timemachine/
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database (bookmarks and history) in the Firefox profile folder.

• use "Verify Integrity" on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page

See also:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Locked_or_damaged_places.sqlite
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file

If "Verify Integrity" on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page cannot repair places.sqlite then remove all places.sqlite files Firefox profile folder. Firefox will rebuild places.sqlite and restore the bookmarks from the most recent JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

• keep a backup copy of places.sqlite in case a new places.sqlite database has to be created
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_process_the_backup_file_-_Firefox

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
  Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

If the above does not help, we can restore one of the Old Firefox profiles.

It doesn't let me restore anything- I think I will just have to cope with no bookmarks or history :(

Hi isey_Jack, could you create a new profile? It will be empty, but we need to confirm that you can at least create new history and bookmarks.

Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.

Click the Create a New Profile button, then click Next. Assign a name like March2018, ignore the option to relocate the profile folder, and click the Finish button.

After creating the profile, scroll down to it and click the Set as default profile button below that profile, then scroll back up and click the Restart normally button. (There are some other buttons, but please ignore them.)

Firefox should exit and then start up using the new profile, which will just look brand new.

Can you create bookmarks and store history in the new profile?

When you are done with the experiment, you can go back to your old profile if you need to by opening the about:profiles page again, click the Set as default profile button for your normal profile, then click the Restart normally button to get back to it.

If the new profile is good, then the next step would be to restore one of the bookmark backups, either from your broken profile or from the Old Firefox Data folder from your last "Refresh." I don't know if the above info is specific enough to get you through that process, let us know.