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Refreshed Firefox and bookmarks disappeared

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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When I refreshed Firefox because it was running too slowly, I lost all of my bookmarks. Also, I cannot bookmark new pages - teh star does not turn blue and thr=ere is no bookmark listed.

When I refreshed Firefox because it was running too slowly, I lost all of my bookmarks. Also, I cannot bookmark new pages - teh star does not turn blue and thr=ere is no bookmark listed.

All Replies (5)

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Perhaps, the profile is not the correct one. But its only a thought.

As a test, try selecting a different one via:

Windows start > search (or run) > FireFox -p

If the profile you switched to is not right, in your opinion, you can switch back via the above methodology

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Thank you, but that did not work.

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sally.ellyson said

When I refreshed Firefox . . . . I lost all of my bookmarks

Look on your desktop. Do you see a folder called; Old Firefox? Look inside. Look for the folder with the latest creation date.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible


https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recover-user-data-missing-after-firefox-update

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Hi Sally, your Firefox has lost the ability to work with the Places database, which is where bookmarks and history are stored.

As the first step, could you do a regular shutdown and restart of Windows? The goal of that is to release file locks and hopefully resolve any temporary file privileges issues preventing normal use of the database.

If problems continue after the restart, could you let us know what you get when you run the "Verify Integrity" function. That's here:

Open Firefox's Troubleshooting Information page using any of these methods:

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

Near the bottom, there is a section titled Places Database -- that's the file which stores history and bookmarks. Click the button labeled Verify Integrity. There may be a 10-15 second delay before results appear.

If all is well, the report that appears below the button should start with:

> Task: checkIntegrity
+ The places.sqlite database is sane
+ The favicons.sqlite database is sane

Does yours say that, or something else? You can select and copy the report, and then paste it into a reply for review and comment.

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

This can be caused by a problem with the places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite databases in the Firefox profile folder.

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

If errors are reported with "Verify Integrity", close and restart Firefox or reboot and retry.

If "Verify Integrity" cannot repair places.sqlite, rename/remove all places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder with Firefox closed. 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

You lose the history when a new places.sqlite is 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.