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Firefox updated and erased all of my bookmarks. How do I get them back?

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  • 15 have this problem
  • 9 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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The bookmark menu is the same, but all of them are gone. Firefox created another folder on my desktop, but it's all in code, and I have no clue what is in there or how to get it back on this version.

The bookmark menu is the same, but all of them are gone. Firefox created another folder on my desktop, but it's all in code, and I have no clue what is in there or how to get it back on this version.

Chosen solution

Did you reset Firefox and create a new profile and did Firefox create and "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop with the content of the old profile?

If your bookmarks didn't make it to the new profile then check if there are JSON backups (.json or compressed .jsonlz4 files) in the bookmarkbackups folder.

You may have to delete the places.sqlite file and restore a JSON backup in the Bookmarks Manager (Library).


More information about resetting Firefox.

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Chosen Solution

Did you reset Firefox and create a new profile and did Firefox create and "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop with the content of the old profile?

If your bookmarks didn't make it to the new profile then check if there are JSON backups (.json or compressed .jsonlz4 files) in the bookmarkbackups folder.

You may have to delete the places.sqlite file and restore a JSON backup in the Bookmarks Manager (Library).


More information about resetting Firefox.

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This is my same identical problem, but the "solution" is WAY to complicated for me to even begin to do it safely without messing things up even more. PLEASE give more info about how to do this!

HELP. All of my bookmarks were deleted. All of my defaults changed. All of my "new tab tiles" were replaced by Mozilla's tiles. This REALLY SUCKS. PLEASE HELP ME GET BACK TO MY OLD NORMAL !

PS: I do have a new file on my desktop labled "Old Firefox Files." There is a folder called bookmarkbackups and in it are 15 blank bookmarks icons (a small fraction of what I used to have). One example of a bookmark is "bookmarks-2015-02-12_394_W+M7xv5egtzLnoMxKYZPLg==.jsonlz4" I have no clue what to do with this file to get that particular bookmark back, or where to find the rest of them. PLEASE HELP.

renegadebuck said

The bookmark menu is the same, but all of them are gone. Firefox created another folder on my desktop, but it's all in code, and I have no clue what is in there or how to get it back on this version.

Chosen solution

Did you reset Firefox and create a new profile and did Firefox create and "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop with the content of the old profile?

If your bookmarks didn't make it to the new profile then check if there are JSON backups (.json or compressed .jsonlz4 files) in the bookmarkbackups folder.

You may have to delete the places.sqlite file and restore a JSON backup in the Bookmarks Manager (Library).

   http://kb.mozillazine.org/Backing_up_and_restoring_bookmarks_-_Firefox
   http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bookmarks_history_and_toolbar_buttons_not_working_-_Firefox 

More information about resetting Firefox.

   https://support.mozilla.org/kb/reset-firefox-easily-fix-most-problems
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The name of the bookmark backups in the bookmarkbackups on the desktop includes the number of bookmarks in the file besides the date, so this one has 394 bookmarks. The "W+M7..." part is a hash to make it possible to only create a new backup if that differs from the previous backup.

  • "bookmarks-2015-02-12_394_W+M7xv5egtzLnoMxKYZPLg==.jsonlz4"

It is a compressed .jsonlz4 file and thus can't be opened for inspection (a manually created .json backup can) and can only be restored in the Bookmarks Manager (Library) to replace all current bookmarks.

In case of problems with restoring then check for problems with the places.sqlite database file in the Firefox profile folder.