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Moving Bookmarks to new PC

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by RacerRon

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I'm trying to move all my Bookmarks to a new Win 10 PC. When I do that, the folders I have for various subjects are empty and all the Bookmarks end up in one large list.

After years of keeping them organized, I've got a mess. Help/suggestions appreciated.

I'm trying to move all my Bookmarks to a new Win 10 PC. When I do that, the folders I have for various subjects are empty and all the Bookmarks end up in one large list. After years of keeping them organized, I've got a mess. Help/suggestions appreciated.

All Replies (7)

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If you have access to your old Win 10 PC (I am assuming you are using windows),

1. go to Firefox Browser 2. access Manage Bookmark window by pressing ctrl+shift+o. 3. On the menu bar in the Library window, there is an Import and Backup selection 4. You can choose backup to a JSON file, or Export Bookmark to HTML. 5. Copy the file (JSON or HTML) into the new Win 10 PC.

I have tried export bookmark to html, and able to restore together with the organized folders of the bookmark :)

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Reply to cor-el:

I have tried restoring from both JSON and then HTML backups. I created the backup files on Win 7 and want to import them on Win 10. Both machines are running Version 88.0 of Firefox.

In both cases, my folder structure seems to be carried over during the process. But my folders don't have any bookmarks in them. All the bookmarks were restored in the main Bookmarks folder. To give you an idea of the size (thousands of bookmarks?), the JSON file is 767KB and the HTML file is 4.4MB.

I've never tried manually copying the files. Are places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite the ones to try copying?

I'm not familiar with Sync.

Thanks.

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Hello Rei~

My suggestions are:

1) Go to the good FF that has you bm's, etc, and sign into the FireFox Account. Then execute a sync. I may take a few minutes to upload. But the sync'ing can be monitored under the sub panel for the sync.

Once the syncing stops, sign out of the FF account.

2) Then go to the other FF and create a new FF profile that will be void of user data; as i dont exactly know what kind of mess you have made in the current profile for that FF.

Then launch/start that new profile in FF. Then sign in to the FF account and initialize sync'ing.

It will take a few minutes to download all your data into the new profile. But you can monitor when its done and then sign out of the account.

A1) To create FF account, press the hamburger button to open options. At the top of the list is method to create a FF account. Use your favorite/reliable email address.

B1) To create a new blank profile, click on start button > search (or run) > FireFox.exe -p

Sometimes the profiles dont restart with FF. So let us know and we can help you manipulate them.

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At least restoring should always keep the folder structure.

You can try to delete both places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite before restoring the JSON backup to see if that works better.

If you copy places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite from the other device then you get bookmarks and history and favicons. When you use a backup then you you lose the favicons and you need to revisit bookmarks.

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.


You can copy certain files with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to transfer or recover personal data.


  • 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 (encrypted logins;32+) and key4.db (decryption key;58+) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
    key3.db support ended in 73+; to use key3.db in 58-72, make sure to remove key4.db
  • cert9.db (58+) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  • persdict.dat for words added to the spell 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)
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reply to cor-el:

I appreciate all the info. It will take me a while to digest and try it. I'll get back to you when I can.

Thanks.

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reply to cor-el:

Here's what worked, with Firefox closed on both:

Delete both places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite on Win 10 . Copied places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite from the other device (Win 7) and pasted on Win 10.

Looks great with favicons and bookmarks in the folders where they belong. Getting the History too was a bonus.

Thank You for your time and effort!!!