Explain in detail how you are trying to copy the data, and what happens.

Look on your desktop. Do you see a folder called; Old Firefox? Look inside. Look for the folder with the latest creation date.

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

What data are you trying to import/recover ?

What kind of issues did you previously had that you decided to use the refresh feature in Firefox ?

Trying to recover my bookmarks. Bought a new hard drive and have reinstalled everything. I want to recover my older bookmarks from the Old FireFox Data folder that was from my old drive.

FredMcD said

Explain in detail how you are trying to copy the data, and what happens. I followed these steps : On the desktop you should see a folder called 'Old Firefox Data' open it and copy all the data by highlighting and selecting everything in that folder, then right click and select copy. Now open FIrefox. Head on over to about:profiles by typing it in your URL bar. Click on the Open Folder button under the Local Directory, not root. Then right click when inside the new profile folder and select paste. Then restart Firefox. You should now have all your previous bookmarks, and data back. Nothing happens. My old bookmarks were not imported.

If you still have the old drive hooked up then you should be able to access your previously used profile folder on that drive.

The Firefox profile folder is in a hidden location in AppData\Roaming, so make sure you can see hidden files and folders.

• C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\
• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14201/windows-show-hidden-files

You can copy files like these with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to recover specific data.

• bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
• bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
• cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
• formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
• logins.json (passwords) and key4.db (58+) or key3.db (57 and older) (decryption key) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
  if you only have key3.db then make sure to remove an existing key4.db
• cert9.db (58+) or cert8.db (57 and older) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  if you only have cert8.db then make sure to remove an existing cert9.db
• persdict.dat for words you added to the spelling checker dictionary
• permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
• sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)

See also:

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

cor-el said

If you still have the old drive hooked up then you should be able to access your previously used profile folder on that drive. The Firefox profile folder is in a hidden location in AppData\Roaming, so make sure you can see hidden files and folders.

• C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\
• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14201/windows-show-hidden-files

---

You can copy files like these with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to recover specific data.

• bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
• bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
• cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
• formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
• logins.json (passwords) and key4.db (58+) or key3.db (57 and older) (decryption key) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
  if you only have key3.db then make sure to remove an existing key4.db
• cert9.db (58+) or cert8.db (57 and older) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  if you only have cert8.db then make sure to remove an existing cert9.db
• persdict.dat for words you added to the spelling checker dictionary
• permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
• sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)

See also:

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

I do not have the old drive. It crashed. I had a company retrieve all my data. I need to use the FireFox Old Data folder's content to retreive my book marks.

You can either copy places.sqlite from the "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop to the current profile folder or restore the bookmarks from a compressed .jsonlz4 in the bookmarkbackups folder in the "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop.

• Bookmarks -> Show All Bookmarks -> Import & Backup -> Restore
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-bookmarks-from-backup-or-move-them

If you want to recover more personal data then see my above reply for the details.

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
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Profiles

THANK YOU! Exactly what I needed to know and it worked.

Could someone please help and explain how you did this. I have attempted every solution listed here but still cannot retrieve any of my bookmarks, passwords, saved logins or anything - Essentially my entire profile is lost despite still possessing the old files.

There is no support for issues on FF. You have to dig deep into these forums and get very technical and still nothing solves the issue.

Hard to believe that this should be so complicated. Other times Ive reinstalled FF - It restarts right where it left off without all this headache.

Rafael Lecuona

Look on your desktop. Do you see a folder called; Old Firefox? Look inside. Look for the folder with the latest creation date.

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

I did this. None of it worked. I have copied the old files into the new profile but I still see no bookmarks after synching. None of my old settings seem to be recoverable despite this being the same hard drive. Last time, I had no problem recovering my Firefox settings on a completely new hard disk. I thought Firefox had my settings saved with my account with my email. I see no way to recover my old data.

Do you see any compressed .jsonlz4 backups in the bookmarkbackups folder that you could use to restore the bookmarks, either in your current profile folder or in the "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop?

The name of an automatically created JSON bookmarks backup in the bookmarkbackups folder includes a total item count (folders and separators included) and an hash value to prevent saving the same backup more than once. You also see this count in the Restore menu drop-down list.

• bookmarks-YYYY-MM-DD_<item count>_<hash>.jsonlz4.

Yes. I did all that and received a message warning that it would replace all my current bookmarks with the ones from this file which is precisely what I want to do but it did nothing at all. My old bookmarks and setting all remain unretrievable despite possessing the Old Firefox Data.

I cant understand why the last time I reinstalled FF, this did not happen. I simply opened FF browser, logged in with my email and it instantly synched all my old settings despite being a completely new hard drive where no Old Firefox Data file was available any longer. This time, I have the same hard drive, I have the Old FF Data file yet logging into a new install on FF with my email does not sync or retireve any of my account data. HELP!

I have created new FF profiles for all the different older profile files from the past but none will work. They only produce a blank new version of FF with none of my data. HELP!

If you use the Profile Manager to create a new profile then this profile is blank, so you need to restore or import the bookmarks and possibly transfer other data to this new profile if you have confirmed that the new profile works.

You can copy files like these with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to recover specific data. Note that you should be cautious with copying SQLite database files if you previously had problems.

• bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
• bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
• cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
• formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
• logins.json (passwords) and key4.db (58+) or key3.db (57 and older) (decryption key) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
  if you only have key3.db then make sure to remove an existing key4.db
• cert9.db (58+) or cert8.db (57 and older) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  if you only have cert8.db then make sure to remove an existing cert9.db
• persdict.dat for words you added to the spelling checker dictionary
• permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
• sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)

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
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Profiles

I did all of this and it did not work. I cannot understand why my settings are not retrieved upon logging in with my email as before. This is not the first time I've had to uninstall and reload Firefox. I did not have to do any of this before. This time around I have created multiple new profiles with each one of the older data files, to no avail. I followed all of the instructions and there is simply no retrieval of my old settings despite them sitting right there in plain sight in my Old Firefox Data file. This is absurdly complicated for a simple user.

cor-el said

>if you only have key3.db then make sure to remove an existing key4.db

• cert9.db (58+) or cert8.db (57 and older) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  if you only have cert8.db then make sure to remove an existing cert9.db>

This means absolutely nothing to me. I am a simple browser user trying to sign back into my account but all my stuff is missing. I have copied and pasted multiple different profile files from the past - they include all of these files you mention. Not one of them worked in retrieving my settings. I'll have to start over from scratch to recover years of settings.

Rafael Lecuona said

cor-el said

>if you only have key3.db then make sure to remove an existing key4.db

• cert9.db (58+) or cert8.db (57 and older) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  if you only have cert8.db then make sure to remove an existing cert9.db>

This means absolutely nothing to me. I am a simple browser user trying to sign back into my account but all my stuff is missing. I have copied and pasted multiple different profile files from the past - they include all of these files you mention. Not one of them worked in retrieving my settings. I'll have to start over from scratch to recover years of settings.

Amen to that. Complete disconnect between FF staff and the ordinary customer. cert9.db to you, too, fellas.