Firefox Community Forum

I was browsing web pages and wanted to bring up a previously visited page, but when I went to my browser history, there was absolutely nothing. I had at least half a year's worth of history and now it's gone. How can I get that history back? For reference, I am using the latest update on a Win10 OS. I want to get this back, because there's a lot of pages I'd like to revisit but now cannot.

Out of a sudden all of my bookmarks were lost. I tried importing bookmarks i had previously saved in an HTML. Did NOT work. I tried "revert to older date bookmarks." Did NOT work. I tried "import from another browser."Did NOT work. Funny thing is that with the same HTML file i extracted from mozilla when i made a copy a couple of weeks before, i was able to upload all bookmarks to Opera but not to Mozilla!!!! The image below for the non Greeks reads "Failure to process copy document".

I restarted Firefox today to find you have removed all my 100+ tabs, which I had arranged in folders, and replaced the vertical settings I had with Tree Style Tabs, which in the past has always run slow. I was greeted with childish graphics inviting me to set up a profile and offering me an introduction to Firefox. I have been using Firefox for years, mostly happily, until you screw up the view I had spent hours setting up. You are turning into a cheap Microsoft but with even less consideration for your users. Will you correct this or do I need to search for a new browser? Francis Shennan, LL.B Writer, journalist and law lecturer.

I have recently purchased a new Windows 11 computer, and want to install Firefox there and transfer all my bookmarks, passwords, etc. There are obviously quite a few Support articles on this topic, and seemingly quite a few methods to use: copy and paste profile folder, sync, the backup/restore function within Settings, etc. I'm a bit reluctant to use sync, as some users report it can be an incomplete transfer. My current profile also may contain some "corruption", so I'm reluctant to copy the entire profile folder to the new computer.

Comments by esteemed and superb contributor cor-el in this Support article: [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/que.../1454070] therefore may be my best option. He wrote:

Note that best is to avoid restoring a full profile folder and only restore important files that are safe to restore/transfer.

   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) and key4.db (encryption key/primary password) for logins saved in the Password Manager
   cert9.db for 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) 

My questions are: 1. Why is it "best is to avoid restoring a full profile folder"? 2. Is this the complete list of "important files that are safe to restore/transfer"? 2. In my profile folder, there are several files that start with the same file name, but then have different file extensions. For example: cookies.sqlite, cookies.sqlite.bak, cookies.sqlite-shm, cookies.sqlite-wal. Should I restore ALL these files, or just "cookies.sqlite"? 3. Is the correct procedure to copy the selected files from the "old" profile, and then paste them to the "new" profile, which presumably would overwrite files of the same name in the "new" profile? Thanks!

(Apologies for any formatting, bold text, and italicized test oddities. I selected these options for parts of this text, but am not sure I did that correctly. It would be very helpful if a question/message could be previewed prior to sending!)

Hi, Today 8-7-25 Mozilla automatically upgraded to version 141.0.3. Now all of my bookmarks are gone. I can't find them on my pc. There are two profiles listed in the profile section. Neither seem to have my bookmarks. I have a lot of bookmarks and some are very needed. Please help me recover all of my bookmarks. Thank you, Geo

I lost all my personal data on Firefox as soon as I changed the password and I did not know that you can lose everything that I had registered in the download box and the previous archive. Now I am very, very mentally disturbed and I do not feel safe and I am very sad about what happened to me. I am crying now. What should I do? My psyche is really broken due to the lack of information....

Не знаю по какой причине, возможно какой-то баг или ещё чего, но у меня пропали все вкладки, даже те, которые были сгруппированы. Возможности восстановления предыдущего сеанса у меня нет.

I opened FF this afternoon and it op0end like a new first time install- asking about setting up some damn profiles and showing news, AI, weather and crap I do not want or use..

I can not seem to restore it. All bookmarks, PW, menu bars and links are now gone.

I am incredibly frustrated by the continuing problem of all my Bookmarks disappearing with the usual "The bookmarks and history system will not be functional because one of Firefox's files is in use by another application. Some security software can cause this problem." This issue has been going on since NOVEMBER!!! I usually manage to get my Bookmarks back by closing all txt files that I need to keep open, store them in a new folder on my laptop, and then restart my laptop. This time, it didn't work.

Can anyone steer me to a permanent solution to this problem?

Thanks, in advance, for any help offered.

I have been a Firefox user for many, many years. I started getting the Subject message: "The bookmarks and history system will not be functional" error message this evening. I started to "Fix" this error based on the Mozilla Support page. Actually, I first tried restarting my computer and that didn't correct the problem. I then noticed I could "sign off" Firefox which I thought I'd do and sign back in. I didn't notice until after the fact that my Firefox account was tied to a very old email address I once used that is no longer active "commish3@bellsouth.net". When I tried signing back into Firefox using that old email account, it said a security code would be sent to that old email address. Problem is I no longer have access to that email account.

1) Is there a way I can sign back in and have a security code sent to my current email address: tad3.dickinson@gmail.com ?

2) Can you assist with restoring my bookmarks. Again, years of building these bookmarks that I'm very dependent on.

Thanks, Tad Dickinson