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How do I recover all my bookmarks after uninstalling NIGHTLY which removed ALL my bookmarks and setting for standard firefox please, thanks Andy

  • 13 replies
  • 8 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by sinagaraw

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That is it basically.

clearing old progs, including nightly which i tried briefly for interest.

let it remove bookmarks ( presuming quite reasonably that it only would remove its own files not another programs ) now lost all firefox setting, addons, everything. like a bare bones firefox window now.

Attempted to find answers in forums/you Q & A but no resolution.

Has it hidden a backup somewhere, can i undelete somehow ??

I also now find my recycle bin corrupted.

using zone alarm, paid for antivirus, windows firewall.

That is it basically. clearing old progs, including nightly which i tried briefly for interest. let it remove bookmarks ( presuming quite reasonably that it only would remove its own files not another programs ) now lost all firefox setting, addons, everything. like a bare bones firefox window now. Attempted to find answers in forums/you Q & A but no resolution. Has it hidden a backup somewhere, can i undelete somehow ?? I also now find my recycle bin corrupted. using zone alarm, paid for antivirus, windows firewall.

All Replies (13)

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Oh no. Let's hope that we can find it, but if you checked the remove personal data book, then it most likely removed your personal data. all of it :(

Read Backing up your information, which has the default location of your Profile. This is likely going to be your new blank profile, but, check. If there are multiple folders, then you might be in luck. Recovering important data from an old profile tells you what files you need to recover from your old profile.

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Thanks for the assist.

All data reset, no backup copies.

OK I do have the odd old copy but a couple of months old. on usb. I am good with data backups but neve having a problem with browsers losing data a different regime was reasonable.

Ths should not have happened, removing nightly should not have removed all the standard fireforx data/settings. Yes, I know nightly is a trial and if I remember correctly it copied my data upon install.

Trying for a system restore point a few days ago.

Any nightly users beware.

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No resolution with system restore, which failed. Had a restore point less than two days old.

Grrrr. Brilliant. Thanks Mozilla!

No need to post anything here as I will not be following this thread.

Thanks for the help Tylerdowner.

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Just in case you decided to return to the thread --- Do a Windows search for bookmarks.html and see if you get any hits. If you do then you may have found your lost profile. Or search for the file places.sqlite

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A system restore only restores programs, etc. Not files such as Mozilla folders. Firefox, Beta, Aurora, Nightly, etc. all use the same profile folder, so when you told it to remove it, it removed it.

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The uninstall routine only removes the program files as a rule. Your profile may still be there and if you re-install FF 11.0 latest release, you may find that your profile is still there and active.

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dad7732, read his original post "let it remove bookmarks ( presuming quite reasonably that it only would remove its own files not another programs ) now lost all firefox setting, addons, everything. like a bare bones firefox window now. "

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Depends on how the bookmarks were removed, by the .html file or whatever else. However, the profile may still be there and that's why I asked him to do the search. The .json files may still be there. If he re-installs and the profile is no longer there then that will be the ultimate test. A normal uninstall will not remove the profile. Sounds like there is more to this "uninstall" than being reported as just removing bookmarks will not remove anything else.

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Well I have come back,

Thank you for the continued posts.

bookmarks.html was not present anywhere, similar .json files.

After I had uninstalled nightly ff 11 was still present on my system, working, with no history or bookmarks.

Also tried a new download and install with no difference.

I can not think of anything unusual to this "uniinstall" ( dad ) I am quite computer literate and believe it was a standard uninstall.

Anyway copying bookmarks from another pc, so only losing a couple of months, but still a real pain.

Regards to you both

Andy

Modified by Pyrolich

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One more try .... Go to Bookmarks => Show all bookmarks => Import and Backup => Restore .. see how many days back are listed.

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Make it an habit and NEVER remove personal data when you uninstall a Firefox version, because all profile folders will be removed and you will also lose your personal data like bookmarks and passwords from profiles of other Firefox versions.

You can try to recover the deleted profile folder with and undelete utility like Recuva and see if you can restore a not corrupted JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

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using recova I was able to recover my bookmark backup .json files!

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Windows users should make sure they can view and search hidden files and folders as the profile folder containing your stored bookmarks is hidden by default.

Just follow sample path(mine) below:

C:\Users\YourAccountName\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\********.default\bookmarkbackups

Once you confirm that the *.json files are there -go back to FF and Show all bookmarks then click Import and Backup under FF Library; restore; choose a file by following the path indicated above.

Not sure if you can make sense of this post..? Not even sure if this is what you need -too lazy to back-read.  ;-)

Modified by sinagaraw