Firefox Community Forum

Hello,

I'm writing because I’ve encountered an issue with the tab groups feature in Firefox.

Some time ago, after a browser update, I noticed a new feature that allowed me to group tabs thematically — I could name each group (e.g., "Study", "Work"), choose a color for it, and save and close groups to reopen them later. I found it very useful and used it a lot.

Last night, I decided to declutter my browser and closed several tab groups using the built-in menu. A bit later, I shut down my computer, but perhaps too quickly. This morning, when I turned my computer back on, Firefox was very slow to start. After a restart, everything seemed to work fine again, and the open tabs were restored.

However, all my previously saved (but temporarily closed) tab groups disappeared. In the tab group menu, I can now only see the ones currently open. I’ve searched through all the settings and history but cannot find any way to restore the missing groups.

Is there any way to recover the tab groups that I had previously saved and closed?

Thank you very much in advance!

I've been searching for three days now for a solution that will work to restore my profile from a crashed windows-7 machine to my new windows-11. Nothing listed in any forum or help desk works as described. I used to be able to just rename the folder to the exact file name on the new PC, but windows 11 won't let me do anything. It always needs admin permissions and even after I activated the admin account and assigned a password, I still cannot copy to the folder or rename the folder. Every attempt to do this on W-11 fails. It shouldn't be that hard and I'm tired of wasting days playing with this. I have important bookmarks, passwords etc. I want restored, and I need help. Nobody wants to pick up a phone anymore to assist!

I have never used "sync" because I have multiple PCs and each used for different applications and yes some go back to W-7, the operating system that actually worked well. Each PC has Firefox and a distinct bookmark file.

I went to "about:profiles" and created a new profile thinking I could copy to the new folder, but when i switched profiles I couldn't get back to the original default! HELP!

Sam

I'm using Firefox in Windows. I lost all of my bookmarks... never mind how, I think I can prevent it from happening again... and I'm trying to figure out whether there is a way to recover them.

Looking in the profile folder, I see three profiles. One is listed on the about:profiles page, and is identified as the default. The other two aren't listed there at all.

I need to select each of those other two and see whether my bookmarks can be recovered from them. But how. The about:profiles page has a button for creating a new profile, but not for adding an existing profile to the page. Either it's listed there or it's not.

It seems to me that I could create a new profile and make it the default folder, then quit Firefox and replace it with a copy of one of the profiles I want to investigate. However, I lost my bookmarks by doing something similar to that, so I'm wary of doing it again.

Can someone explain what is happening here--why there are three profiles in the default profile's folder but only one list listed, and why there's apparently no provision for making Firefox list the others?

I posted a question in here two days ago because my firefox wouldnt open anymore i got a follow up answer telling me to give the crash id but never got a follow up after i sent it . i tried shuffling between profiles and in the end got it working but today my pc had a crash while firefox was open and it had to restart when i tried to open firefox its as if i just installed it and i dont have any backups to be honest i tried checking the appdata folder and there is a profile folder that seems big enough that it might be mine but it doesnt seem like firefox is reading it for some reason i tried switching the data in the profile folder that firefox is considering but it didnt work .

• Old laptop can no longer access the internet; corrupt Windows 10. Bought a new HP laptop. Have Sync turned on on both laptops but am not getting any favorites, passwords that I desperately need. What are my options given the old laptop can't connect.

FireFox browser closed and when I opened it all my bookmarks are gone, all of my history is gone everything is gone as though I never ever used firefox in my life.

Just updated to FF 141.0.3. The browser had advised me to restart to finish the update. So I did. But in doing so, not all my tabs were recovered.

Most were, but like 3 were not.

My computer shut down. I turned it back on, and the browser was completely updated. Nothing! I'm panicking. There's not a single backup anywhere. there is no folder on the desktop «Old Firefox Data» I don't know what to do I tried to restore bookmarks, but the list only showed other browsers.

ello. My favorites have disappeared from my Windows 11 PC. It has happened once before and then I was able to get them back by deleting the sqlite file, now it doesn't work and I need your help with ending firefox processes etc.

I was asked to create a new profile in order to keep using Firefox, despite never having an account. After I clicked okay, it opened the new version of Firefox, but without all the passwords, bookmarks and history of the past few years. This is really inconvenient. I have since then made an account, but the fact that I can't find any of this data anywhere has me worried that every time I update Firefox it will wipe my account.

Hello and good afternoon. I have a problem with my last session as it doesn't appear, even when I try to do it manually in Settings-History-Import and backup-Restore, it shows me some options of different dates with all my last browser history, but none of them works, it simply doesn't open any of the web pages. I don't have any other profile, and I already tried the troubleshooting too I Hope you can help me. Thanks in advance

I am at a complete loss on this. A recent firefox update has shifted all my site logins and passwords elsewhere in mystery and impossible to recover nor find them. I tried "Restore bookmarks, passwords and data from an old Firefox profile" but the profile is simply not there and the instructions completely haywire. I have nothing on the profile page. What have you lot done to make this completely unusable for the small person ? I thought I was computer savvy but now firefox is making things unnecessarily invisible and over-complex.

Hi, All of a sudden, I lost absolutely all of my bookmarks. My PC is running Windows 11. My Firefox account was and still is logged in. At first, I thought the data loss was due to a CCleaner cleanup using their latest update. After the data was lost, I tried running another CCleaner cleanup, but this time it didn’t delete the bookmarks. So I honestly have no idea how this could have happened. These were bookmarks I had saved over many years... It’s a disaster.

PLZ Help

Dear Mozilla Support,

My name is Sizhe Xiong. Today when I launched Firefox on my Windows computer, the browser suddenly required me to select or create a new profile before continuing. I had no option to skip this step, so I created a new one.

After that, Firefox asked me to log in or register a Mozilla account. I used the same Gmail address that I’ve always used for Firefox Sync, but it seems that a new account was automatically created, and all my previous data — including bookmarks, history, saved passwords, and extensions — disappeared.

When I checked my local Profiles folder under C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles, I found several new folders created around the same time, but none of them contain my old data (all places.sqlite files are around 5120 KB).

These bookmarks and passwords are very important to me. Could you please help check if it’s possible to recover my old Firefox data, or if my previous Sync data can still be linked to my Mozilla account (using the same Gmail address)?

Thank you very much for your help.

Best regards, Sizhe Xiong

I think that this recent update removed all of my tabs and tab windows, it has done this before and I don't understand why, I have the old update session file still (The 11/11/2025 One) and I tried to use that one to bring the tabs back by putting the file in the sessionstore-backup folder with no other file in it, but they didn't come back. I am genuinely confused as to why it doesn't work, I have renamed and deleted sessionstore.jsonzl4 files but it still comes up as a new session.

Something very bad happened to me today (11/3)....

Firefox 144.0.2 was installed on 10/30/25, and everything has been fine until today. I don't know why or how, but ALL of my OPEN tabs (of which I have many--and have it fixed so they always re-open when Firefox starts), ALL went away.

In reading conventional steps to recover such from sessionstore-backups, those instructions sounded straightforward. However, even though ALL FIREFOX PROCESSES were ended, I could not copy the contents of the sessionstore-backups folder nor could I delete anything--EVEN THOUGH I am the owner.

Even after providing Admin perms.

I could get rid of profiles.ini, which initially proved diasterous, because then Firefox thought I was brand new, so ALL of my passwords saved through Firefox these many years, went "poof".

Fortunately, I was able to get that back, but I still cannot get all of my tabs back, and conventional instructions to do so aren't working.

After recovering from my heart attack for initially losing my passwords, I am breathing a little better right now, but it sure would be nice to get all of my open tabs back again. I don't know why I am not able to manipulate the files within sessionstore-backups. I think if I could eliminate the files in that folder EXCEPT for upgrade.jsonlz4-20251027123126, which possesses a 10/29/25 date, these should be the open tabs just before the 144.0.2 installation, and all should be right with the world, once more.

I have performed/examined many steps offered under this category, but most assume I can copy them elsewhere for safe-keeping and/or removing all but the one I want Firefox to "use". Because something is preventing me from doing this, though, I am being stymied in what ought to be the solution. As a test, I was able to copy files from a much older profile--so I can prove the basic steps SHOULD HAVE worked. Unfortunately, I cannot do the same with THE (more recent) folder in question. I can't get rid of parent.lock, either (and I have ensured no Firefox processes are running via Task Manager).

Repeatedly.

Something else is at work, here. Any help or assistance from community experts would be most helpful.

Thanks very much in advance.

-MG

What happened, All my important bookmarks are missing. I have had to log into every account I have, No saved passwords. Really upset. I need help to restore all this information that I need

After the update, a window popped up asking me to select a profile. But my profile, where all my passwords, bookmarks, etc. were, was gone. I couldn't restore my bookmarks because the only one available was from today and it`s "clean." Is there any way to restore my account data? Because everything was there: settings, bookmarks, passwords, history.

My SSD boot drive crashed -- Rebuilt system (brand new SSD boot drive) and reloaded all of my data from a separate backup, however Firefox profile is gone. I have copies of the old profiles including the places files, etc. Following Mozilla's instructions I reloaded the old profiles. Firefox starts right up but *without* my bookmarks, etc. Unfortunately there was no "old Firefox data" folder saved and I could not retrieve the bookmark specific backup. Thoughts? Thanks!

I thought I was updating firefox today but the process lost the order of my book marks and makes them extremely hard to find. Some I used several times a day with one click. Now it takes me five clicks just to get to them and then a search. The old system worked perfectly for my purposes. Is there anyway to get back the old bookmarks tab and my old bookmarks in relatively decent order? The text promised me all my bookmarks,etc. I never would had clicked refresh if I had any idea this would be the outcome.