How do I get my old profile, bookmarks, and all my passwords back?

If Sync didn’t bring them back, don’t assume everything is lost yet. Your old **Firefox profile may still be on the crashed laptop’s hard drive**.

If the drive is still accessible, look for:

C:\Users\<your name>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

The important files are places.sqlite for bookmarks/history and logins.json + key4.db for saved passwords. I’d avoid resetting or reinstalling Firefox on the old drive until you’ve copied that profile somewhere safe. If you can still access the old drive, tell us whether it’s Windows 10 or 11 and whether the laptop still starts at all, and someone can walk you through recovering the profile.

I was able to find my folder in the data migration. Didn't realize AppData was a hidden file.

I have a folder with all three of the above mentioned files but no HTML file was included.

I am still confused on how to get my passwords and bookmarks back.

Both old laptop and new laptop run Windows 11. Old laptop is totally crashed.

The data migration that Micro Center ran copied into AppData folder.

I found places.sqlite, logins.json, and key4.db files but don't know how to use them to recover my passwords and bookmarks.

Hi!

Both old laptop and new laptop run Windows 11. Old laptop is totally crashed. The data migration that Micro Center ran copied into AppData folder. I found places.sqlite, logins.json, and key4.db files but don't know how to use them to recover my passwords and bookmarks.

Those files contain information pertaining to your old profile, and can simply overwrite the default files in a profile attached to your new installation. Since your old laptop is presumedly unusable after the crash, we will attempt to do a "manual restore" using the files you mentioned by replacing the contents of an existing profile with your old data:

• Visit about:profiles on your new laptop through the address bar.

Since you said you're on a new laptop, the default profile initialised by Firefox is a good candidate for replacement. Alternatively, you can press "Create a New Profile" and follow the setup wizard provided.

• Click the "Open Folder" button next to "Root Directory" for the profile you wish to replace. This is the folder that stores your actual data, the "Local Directory" stores miscellaneous data and cache which is not required when migrating.
• This should have opened File Explorer with the contents of the folder visible. With File Explorer open on the folder, close Firefox to avoid file corruption.
• Open another instance of File Explorer, and navigate to your migration copy.

The files that you found in your migration copy, "places.sqlite, logins.json, and key4.db", should have all been contained in a folder. There are certain files adjacent to this you may wish to copy over to preserve your old profile. A somewhat exhaustive list can be found here for everything important. It is suggested you copy over what you wish to retain from the list and no more, since extra files can be broken, may rely on things you do not have on your new computer, or would be functionally useless. However, if you truly want to transfer everything, down to the extensions, preferences, and other data, you may copy everything in the folder (through Ctrl + A or mouse dragging while on File Explorer). I would only do this if the Firefox on your old laptop was on the more later updates before it crashed.

• Once you have identified what you wish to copy over, copy them through the shortcut Ctrl + C or by right clicking the selected files and pressing "Copy".
• Paste the files into the "Root Directory" folder opened initially by the new Firefox through the shortcut Ctrl + V or by right clicking and pressing "Paste". Where Windows asks for your permission to overwrite existing files, allow it for all operations. You must ensure Firefox is closed before pasting.
• Open Firefox, switch to the profile if you created a new one, and your old profile should be restored.

To avoid this hassle in the event your laptop crashes again, I would advise you look into setting up "Sync" in premonition. Read: https://mzl.la/1hFlWgB

Let us know if you have any issues with the above steps or need more help! Relevant Article.

Cheers!