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

lost bookmarks

  • 6 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 8 views
  • Last reply by onimod13

more options

Today suddenly all my bookmarks have vanished but i still have all my toobar bookmarks, every time i restore to an earlier date it stays the same

Today suddenly all my bookmarks have vanished but i still have all my toobar bookmarks, every time i restore to an earlier date it stays the same

All Replies (6)

more options

Hi onimod13, could you explain this in a little more detail. Where did bookmarks vanish from?

Today suddenly all my bookmarks have vanished but i still have all my toobar bookmarks, every time i restore to an earlier date it stays the same

So that we can share common terminology:

more options

They vanished from Bookmarks (normal bookmarks not bookmarks toolbar those are still ok)

Nothing at all changes when i try to restore to an earlier date, bookmarks toolbar still the same normal bookmarks are not

more options

Hmm, it's possible that your "Places" database, the file that stores bookmarks and history, has become corrupted.

Before doing anything else, let's make sure the missing bookmarks are still in your backup. Could you use my tool to convert the backup to HTML and open that in a tab and take a look:

(A) To find a backup file

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, on the Profile Folder row, click the "Open Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.

Double-click into the bookmarkbackups folder.

Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and --

(B) Load the converter page

https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/bookbackreader.html

(C) Drag and drop a backup file onto the converter

Then try to export to HTML. You can open the HTML file in Firefox (or any browser) and see whether your missing bookmarks are safely stored in there.

more options

I have tried all files in the folder and each one is exactly the same and only has info on the toolbar bookmarks not the huge list of normal ones.

more options

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

  • switch to the DEFAULT theme: "3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Themes
  • do NOT click the "Refresh Firefox" button on the Safe Mode start window

If you use Sync then best is to disconnect Sync temporarily during troubleshooting.

You can check for problems with the places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder.

  • use "Verify Integrity" button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page

In case errors are reported with "Verify Integrity" close and restart Firefox and retry.

If "Verify Integrity" cannot repair places.sqlite, rename/remove all places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder. Firefox will rebuild places.sqlite and restore the bookmarks from a recent JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

  • keep a backup copy of places.sqlite in case a new places.sqlite database has to be created

See also:

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

Modified by cor-el

more options

Checked everything seems normal no issues with plug ins, always used default theme none of the above have made a difference.

Appreciate the help but looks like they gone for good and xmarks no longer works which was where i used to store incase of emergency.