Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

How do I retrieve bookmarks from a computer I no longer have; Sync is not working, want to be careful so they're not erased & first find out if they are there.

  • 5
  • 1 nwere nsogbu anwere nsogbu a
  • 1 view
  • Nzaghachi ikpeazụ nke cor-el

more options

Hi, I no longer have my former laptop. It had a library of bookmarks in Firefox. I did set up Firefox to attach it to an account, so the bookmarks should still be there. I see that if I do Sync, I can possibly overwrite the bookmarks if I do it twice. My hope is to first confirm the bookmarks are in the system somewhere, and then find out how to retrieve them. I thought I registered my new Firefox with the other account, but no bookmarks appeared. Would be so grateful for help. Very important research etc. was stored there :) Thank you, Skylar

Hi, I no longer have my former laptop. It had a library of bookmarks in Firefox. I did set up Firefox to attach it to an account, so the bookmarks should still be there. I see that if I do Sync, I can possibly overwrite the bookmarks if I do it twice. My hope is to first confirm the bookmarks are in the system somewhere, and then find out how to retrieve them. I thought I registered my new Firefox with the other account, but no bookmarks appeared. Would be so grateful for help. Very important research etc. was stored there :) Thank you, Skylar

All Replies (5)

more options

Hello,

Sync is not meant to be a personal cloud storing your bookmarks etc. It's meant to be used to sync two Firefox (or more) with each other. So, if you don't have access to the other computer, you can't sync them.

For more information about Sync see:

more options

hi Daniel, thanks, though can't I sync these two firefoxes together even without the old computer? since i did link it to an account? thank you

more options

Look at the account like a way to identify the two browsers you want to sync your data between.

more options

Do you have the original Recovery Key for that Sync account?
If not, you can't restore your data from the Sync server.

You can log into your Sync Services account here - https://account.services.mozilla.com/ - with your Username / Email address and Password, to see how much data is stored in your account on the server. But that won't tell you any user understandable information, such as, how many bookmarks you have stored there.

more options

Did you use Sync before with that laptop that you no longer have?

You would still need a backup copy of the Sync key that was used to be able to access data stored in that account.

If you have this Sync key then a possibility is to create a second Firefox profile folder and see if you can connect to the Sync account.

You can use the Profile Manager to create another profile.

Create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problem.

See also: