Firefox Community Forum

Note: I always export all bookmarks to backup file and copy that to several safe locations for needed synchronization across different browsers and also restoring them if needed. Problem: I have repeatedly selected all items in Firefox bookmarks sub-folders and then followed by importing html bookmarks thinking that I was updating my bookmarks, so all my browsers had same. Instead, what I find is duplicated sets of bookmarks building up about 10-fold so that now any search for a site yields far too many duplicate listings and it is a mess. How do I prevent this from happening and how do I actually and truly delete all boomkarks in Firefox?

Aside topic: For all the folks who have accidentally lost bookmarks, my experience with losses has lead to always having backup files of bookmarks and backup listings in word or Excel of all my settings and extensions, etc. Automation has advantages, but it introduces new headaches. I can never allow myself to believe that everything will one day be just rosy. Also, multiple different browsers can be very helpful.

I want to copy/clone information in my Firefox Profile (Bookmarks, Logins, ..) from one device to another. Once that was accomplished, then I would enable Firefox Sync for the two devices.

Scenario: Device “A” (Profile A): Primary/Original/Source Device “B” (Profile B): Copy/Clone/Duplicate

I understand that if I set up Firefox Sync first and then sync the two devices what I will get is a combination/fusion of the information on the 2 devices, i.e., all the “good” stuff in Profile A plus all the superfluous stuff in Profile B that I would just as soon ignore/delete – which is not what I want. This issue has been raised in a number of other posts on this forum but with no suitable resolution offered (that I could find). I’m wondering if there might be a “work-around” that would achieve the desired result.

So ... would this work?

1) Back everything up first (of course!) 2) Glean any unique information to be preserved (Logins, etc.) from Profile B and incorporate it into Profile A (Profile A now has everything essential!) 3) Purge Profile B

   a) Create a New Profile on Device B (and delete old?)
   b) Delete everything possible from the new Profile B (default bookmarks, etc.)

4) Login to Mozilla account and enable Sync

The idea is to create a “blank” Profile on Device B so that when Profile A and Profile B are Synched together (combined), Profile A remains unchanged, and Profile B is populated with everything in Profile A (a perfect copy!). The result that I want after Sync is essentially A+B=A, the solution of which is of course B=0, hence the focus on creating a "blank" Profile B.

Instead of purging Profile B as above, an alternate method might be to first “pre-load” Bookmarks in Profile B by the usual method of Backing up Profile A Bookmarks and then Restoring them to Profile B. At this point Profile A and Profile B Bookmarks would be exactly the same and Synching the two devices should make no changes to either’s Bookmarks. Logins and other information would still have to be purged, but this could at least be a head start.

Presumably this idea could be extended to more than 2 devices (but with only one being the “Primary”).

Note that I am (myself) only concerned about Bookmarks and Logins, and am thus glossing-over how other information that might be important to others (Browsing History, Tabs, etc.) might be Synched.

Could someone from Mozilla/Firefox with a knowledge of the inner workings of these features please comment as to the efficacy of this “work-around”?

Thanks.

I am trying to get rid of old bookmarks.

I logged out of all my devices except my main PC, deleted many folders of unwanted bookmarks.

changed my password

on my other devices that were not connected to sync, I deleted all bookmarks completely.

I only wanted what was on my main PC that I worked so hard on.

now tonight on my PC all the old bookmarks are back again.

this page doesn't make any sense, there is no option to "Delete data from this device" when I sign out.

[https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/delete-sync-data-firefox-signing-out...]

Hello, After the last MacBook Pro M4 update my tabs keep disappearing. This is quite ANNOYING as I use ALL my tabs. Plus when I go to HISTORY there is NO Restore Previous session...so I am losing EVERYTHING. Do I just need to go out to another browser and make them my default? I can find NO help when I go out to your support for my problem. Thank you, Patty

/edit: moved thread from Firefox for iOS (for iPhone/iPad) to Firefox section as you have macOS.

I just got a new laptop. I downloaded firefox because i had it on my laptop that broke. For some reason it synced data and bookmarks from an account back in highschool that i havent touched in years. i use it on my phone so everything on my phone is correct but how do i get it to sync from my old laptop to this new one? I'm very confused and i'd appreciate help with this so i dont have to go back through and find and save everything all over again.

hello, I recently formatted my PC, and when installing Firefox again, I logged into my account and tried to sync to get my history, extensions and bookmarks. But I can't for some reason. can you help?

I tried to open my Firefox browser, but was unable to. Same thing with my Google chrome browser. I ran the troubleshooter for network problems, but unable to get a solution.

I downloaded a new Firefox browser in the hopes that it would let me access the other browser so I could retrieve all the settings, bookmarks, etc. However, everything disappeared when the new browser was installing.

Is there any way for me to retrieve that information or is it a total loss?

I was signed in on my account on the same computer but was not able to get previous bookmarks from my account. I could be not doing it right but I would like to know how to recover from a previous version.

A while ago, my browser refused to start. Apparently it got corrupted during an update and i had to de- and re-install. That worked but i lost all bookmarks and saved passwords. Now i lost access to my email account because I cannot for the life of me remember my password. Google recovery keeps sending the recovery code to the same emailadres that i dont have access to. Other recovery stept arent working.

Is there a way for me to find the old saved passwords from before the re-install? Please, i need access because so many accounts on other websites use that email address. Please help me i dont know what to do.

How could i restore the bookmarks that i mistakenly deleted? Going back to the sync from 2 weeks ago, I don't have any of my bookmarks at all, I don't have them locally saved, the deletion happened before I reinstalled the operating system

I had to reset my laptop per manufacturer. When I reinstalled Firefox, it was a new version with none of my bookmarks, etc. Is my old data gone forever or is it recoverable?

I thought I just needed to sync my account ( three bars > user name > sync now) and sign out before resetting my computer. After doing so I thought by signing in it would recover my bookmarks and passwords, etc. I did NOT do the proper way: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/switching-devices which I realized after performing the reset.

Am I completely SOL? Or is there a way to recover these - I really hope there is I had a lot of bookmarks.

Thank you for your time and support!

Ubuntu 22 LTS, Firefox 131.0.3 (64-bit). My machine crashed last night, but when I booted it this morning to start figuring out what's wrong all my windows/tabs came up. (I have at least 6 windows (for organization of my) hundreds of tabs.) After 6 or so reboots (testing various usb device plug-in configurations) I'm finally done, but now only have 1 blank firefox window. I created an account for syncing so I wouldn't have to redo all that when I upgrade OS periodically; however, I didn't think this would happen, so I didn't sync before this.

I would REALLY like to get my windows/tabs back in the configuration they were. Under 'manage history' there's an import/backup option, with restore; under that, it shows Yesterdays Date with 563 items, but clicking on 'restore' for that tells me it will replace my bookmarks file...

And I don't know how to retrieve the previously synced data, having only used it in the (presumed) other direction.

Any clues welcome!

I recently lost access to my main PC, and with it, all of my bookmarks from that comp's Firefox. Lo and behold, I have every single bookmark available on my phone's Firefox browser. I cannot for the life of me get them on my new PC's browser, however. Sync doesn't do anything, and I am unable to get them to transfer. What am I doing wrong? Thank you in advance for your help!

I got an error popup when I opened Firefox. It says that the bookmarks and history system aren't functional because they're being used by another program. I believe that bcwipe is the program, although it has never done this before. About:support is not providing any additional information. I cannot restore my bookmarks from the bookmarks toolbar either, even though there appears to be backup copies there, but they won't open. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I was reading on my Android phone and suddenly lost my entire library. How do I get it back on my phone? I can see them in my Amazon accout on my desk top but back injury doesn't let me sit at my desk for long periods. Any suggestions?