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What happened to my history and bookmarks

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I have been using FF for many Years and kept everything in my profile to retrieve history and bookmarks even if switching the Device. Now since I was forced to do some update I could not lunch the browser unless chosing create new profile. I logged in to my FF account, did password reset, and I have nothing in the browser, no history, no folders with bookmarks although I haven't even change the device. What's wrong>?

I have been using FF for many Years and kept everything in my profile to retrieve history and bookmarks even if switching the Device. Now since I was forced to do some update I could not lunch the browser unless chosing create new profile. I logged in to my FF account, did password reset, and I have nothing in the browser, no history, no folders with bookmarks although I haven't even change the device. What's wrong>?

Chosen solution

Quote: I logged in to my FF account, did password reset

If you did reset the password of the Sync account because you forgot the password then this will have wiped all data stored on the Sync server and that explains why you weren't able to use Sync to restore personal data like bookmarks and history. Anyway, Sync isn't meant to be used as a backup, but is meant to sync data between connected devices.

Your only hope is that you still have another profile with your previous personal data like written in the above mentioned article.


You can copy certain files with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to recover personal data. Note that best is to avoid copying a full profile folder.

  • bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
  • favicons: favicons.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.

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See Recover user data missing after Firefox update for a possible solution.

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Chosen Solution

Quote: I logged in to my FF account, did password reset

If you did reset the password of the Sync account because you forgot the password then this will have wiped all data stored on the Sync server and that explains why you weren't able to use Sync to restore personal data like bookmarks and history. Anyway, Sync isn't meant to be used as a backup, but is meant to sync data between connected devices.

Your only hope is that you still have another profile with your previous personal data like written in the above mentioned article.


You can copy certain files with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to recover personal data. Note that best is to avoid copying a full profile folder.

  • bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
  • favicons: favicons.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.