Restoring a deleted bookmark folder
Hello and thank you all in advance for giving your time to help us!
I run Firefox 114.0.1 on an Apple Mac Mini running Monterey 12.6.6.
Under the "Other Bookmarks" heading in the Library, I keep quite a lot of folders dividing my bookmarks into the various subjects they relate to and some of those folders are subdivided into subfolders.
One of my "simple" folders is called "PENDING" where i store stuff to look at when I have time. Last week I noticed that folder was missing! There's no other explanation than I stupidly deleted it without knowing, and it contained a lot of stuff!
I read up on restoring bookmarks from backup but
a) I only need this one folder and b) I don't want to overwrite all the bookmarks I've added in the past weeks.
Even if I could get the bookmarks from that one folder in a plain text file that I could read, I've no problem doing a bit of work, pasting each one into Google and re-acquiring it as a bookmark.
Any advice will be deeply appreciated!
Many thanks and very kind wishes,
Jim
Chosen solution
Hi Jefferson,
Thank you so much for a very rapid and comprehensive reply!
I'm sincerely grateful to you and I am "toying" around with the procedure before going for it. (Flying commercial jets many years ago causes such cautious thinking!!)
I revisited the idea of a misplaced folder and checked, re-checked and risked acquiring OCD with my very diligent and repeated checking! However it came down to plain ordinary stupidity in the end!
It's not a life changing disaster, but one is always left with the fear of "what did I lose?" (having done the same thing with a page of notes on my iPhone!)
However I think I'm now progressing towards a solution. I never would have made it without your advice, so again my very sincere thanks for giving your time and expertise. Kindest wishes, Jim
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Hi Jim, first, have you confirmed that the folder was completely deleted and not moved into a subfolder? It's a bit easy to drag and drop folders in odd locations. Check the Recent Bookmarks list at
menu button > Bookmarks
If there's one you know should be in Pending, right-click it (one-button: Ctrl+click it) and choose Show in Folder. Firefox should open the Bookmarks Sidebar with the bookmark highlighted so you can see where it is in the hierarchy.
If unfortunately the bookmarks are truly gone, and too much has changed to use Restore to roll back to an earlier date, there isn't a convenient way to add back just the missing bookmarks. Here is an inconvenient way:
(1) Convert an older backup file into an HTML-format Export file.
I have a tool for this on my website: https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/bookbackreader.html
The backup files live in your currently active Firefox profile folder, in the bookmarkbackups subfolder. More info on how to open that in Finder in this article: Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data.
(2) Open the HTML file in a tab and add back bookmarks using the right-click context menu.
Right-click the bookmark and choose Bookmark Link...
If there are huge number, then in theory it might be worth editing the HTML code of the file to remove all the unnecessary stuff so you can import it.
Chosen Solution
Hi Jefferson,
Thank you so much for a very rapid and comprehensive reply!
I'm sincerely grateful to you and I am "toying" around with the procedure before going for it. (Flying commercial jets many years ago causes such cautious thinking!!)
I revisited the idea of a misplaced folder and checked, re-checked and risked acquiring OCD with my very diligent and repeated checking! However it came down to plain ordinary stupidity in the end!
It's not a life changing disaster, but one is always left with the fear of "what did I lose?" (having done the same thing with a page of notes on my iPhone!)
However I think I'm now progressing towards a solution. I never would have made it without your advice, so again my very sincere thanks for giving your time and expertise. Kindest wishes, Jim