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Firefox deleted bookmarks; restore bookmarks not working

brian.y.tung
brian.y.tung
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Machine: Mac M1 Max 14-inch (2021) running Monterey 12.1 Browser: Firefox 98.0.2 (64-bit)

Symptom: Without apparently updating Firefox or even restarting it, I opened Bookmarks tonight to find them completely nuked. They are usually in "Other Bookmarks"; this tab now says "(Empty)". Tried opening a second profile (created without my knowing it), but the bookmarks are not there either. Tried restoring them from backup, and it tells me this will replace the existing bookmarks. I'm OK with that, since anything's better than "(Empty)", so I click OK, and nothing happens, no bookmarks, no nothing. There are four bookmark backups, and none of them work. I tried going into my Time Machine and getting an older copy of the bookmarks file, and this doesn't work. I tried restarting Firefox and this doesn't work. I tried rebooting and this doesn't work. I tried uninstalling Firefox and reinstalling it and this doesn't work.

It's 14 bookmarks, so it's not exactly the end of the world, but I find this behavior puzzling and, frankly, not very impressive. Any suggestions?

brian

Machine: Mac M1 Max 14-inch (2021) running Monterey 12.1 Browser: Firefox 98.0.2 (64-bit) Symptom: Without apparently updating Firefox or even restarting it, I opened Bookmarks tonight to find them completely nuked. They are usually in "Other Bookmarks"; this tab now says "(Empty)". Tried opening a second profile (created without my knowing it), but the bookmarks are not there either. Tried restoring them from backup, and it tells me this will replace the existing bookmarks. I'm OK with that, since anything's better than "(Empty)", so I click OK, and nothing happens, no bookmarks, no nothing. There are four bookmark backups, and none of them work. I tried going into my Time Machine and getting an older copy of the bookmarks file, and this doesn't work. I tried restarting Firefox and this doesn't work. I tried rebooting and this doesn't work. I tried uninstalling Firefox and reinstalling it and this doesn't work. It's 14 bookmarks, so it's not exactly the end of the world, but I find this behavior puzzling and, frankly, not very impressive. Any suggestions? brian

All Replies (3)

brian.y.tung
brian.y.tung Question owner
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P.S. It imports bookmarks just fine from Safari, but none of the ones I want are in there. I then tried restoring from one of the backups, and it promptly nukes all of the bookmarks. Keep in mind that Firefox correctly reports the number of bookmarks in each backup file. It just chooses not to load any of them.

Rebooted once again, and did another clean install of 98.0.2. No dice, same behavior repeated.

brian.y.tung
brian.y.tung Question owner
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P.P.S. Downgrading to 97.0 didn't help, so I'm back to 98.0.2 with still the same broken behavior.

brian.y.tung
brian.y.tung Question owner
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P.3.S. Possibly relevant behavior: I bookmarked this very page, and Firefox put it in Bookmarks Toolbar, rather than Other Bookmarks, which is where it put such bookmarks before. I don't care much where it puts it, but none of the old bookmarks are there either.

ETA: Sorry, I didn't realize that replies were editable. The original post doesn't appear to be editable, and I figured the same was true of the replies.

Modified by brian.y.tung