Firefox Support Forum

tl;dr - Refreshed Firefox, most of my profile has restored normally, but not Bookmarks (or Browsing History). I cannot restore Bookmarks from the .json backups, and I do not have an HTML backup.

Firefox would not load any pages this morning, even after updating to most recent version (89) and restarting the app then the entire computer, so I refreshed Firefox. Good news is, pages load now! Bad news is my bookmarks all disappeared, and they were still gone even after I made the Bookmarks Toolbar visible. The Import Bookmarks button only gives me the option to import from Internet Explorer or Chrome, but not from previous version of Firefox.

I went to Manage Bookmarks, and the Import and Backup seems to have some recent bookmark back-ups, giving me options for back-ups from today (Monday) then Saturday (last new bookmark), etc. But when I try to import bookmarks this way, it says Unable to process the backup file. My Firefox profile has backups, but only as .json files, no HTML bookmark files, which is the only other importing option. The rest of my profile seems to have imported fine - when I go to my inboxes or regularly visited websites, I'm still logged in.

Strangely, Firefox also seems to have forgotten my browsing history. In the URL bar, it'll show my search history, but not my visited pages, which makes the lack of Bookmarks even more aggravating and harder to deal with.

Edit: I restarted the app again and this time, my bookmarks were in place, and my browsing history is back when I type into the URL bar. I do not know how to mark this question as solved or delete this question.

Hello,

I use firefox on the server at work. A lot of bookmarks are there for sites I have to go to for work. When Firefox updated, I can no longer open Firefox. I get an error message saying that I can't open the older version because it can corrupt some bookmarks and instead it says to make a new profile, but the other one has all of my data. I didn't sign in with my personal Firefox, so I have no idea how to get the bookmarks back. Any help is appreciated.

Judson

I just got a new laptop after my old one just went full on dead....no power, nothing. I now cannot retrieve all my years of bookmarks and have lost years of music and profession-related bookmarks. Are they just gone now and I'm screwed or is there a way to retrieve them?

I have restored/retrieved all my bookmarks with no problem at all on previous laptops even after I have gotten rid of the one before. For some reason I cannot restore or sync and retrieve any of my bookmarks. through 3 laptops that have gone dead, this has never happened before. Are they all just gone for good and Im screwed or is there a way to get them back...sync and everything is not bringing them back like before.

Is there a way to have the Bookmarks(menu) appear by their respective Containers?

Bookmark DropMenu: (container) Banking

                      Bank of Green

                      Savings and Life

(container) Cooking

                      Sweets for the Sweet

                      Chicken Every Night

Thanx for any help!

I was having some trouble with Firefox and decided to uninstall and reinstall it. I selected it in MS Control Panel and clicked on uninstall. A Firefox window popped up and suggested that I try refreshing it instead. I selected that. The result was that a "Welcome to Firefox" webpage opened. Clicking on its link for Bookmarks showed that "Recent Bookmarks" and "Library" were both empty. How can I retrieve my Bookmarks?

Hi! I have been a Firefox user on PC/Windows for a long time, years, and had quite a lot of bookmarks. One day, while various FireFox updates were happening, I noticed something, I think it was a popup, saying something to the effect that all your bookmarks will be deleted. Huh!? Couldn't click on anything to stop the install. And after computer restarted, all the bookmarks were gone from FireFox, meaning when I go to the bookmarks button, nothing shows anymore. What happened? They are really gone or where to find a backup to get them back again? I don't recall ever backing them up on purpose, so if there was a backup, it would have been an automatic thing. Please give input. Thank you!

Hi, This is from loooong time a very seriously problem of Firefox. When you are trying bookmarking link, the window doesn't give a possibility to resize. It is a very useful. Can Firefox team sorting this malfunction, please?

My system Linux, Manjaro.

Thank you.

I tried to import saved data and bookmarks as usual from Chrome and miserably failed both on macOS and Windows 10 (using the steps as shown in the attached screenshot). Reproduced on Firefox 90.0.2.

Any tips on how to fix that? Sure, I could export all the bookmarks in a HTML file and import it later, but it does not include saved logins nor history.

Neither of the cited solutions in the support articles, regarding the recent sudden demolition of bookmarks, work, and the articles do not offer a how-to-escalate option.

When surfing from Menu > Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks > Library arrows, it does "successfully" recognize a July 15 backup copy existing, but when clicking on it, it only brings up an error message saying "unable to process."

When going instead to Firefox Help > More Troubleshooting > Profile > Show in Finder, it again finds the same July 15 backup, but only produces an error message saying that no document can be opened. It offers generic referral to the entirety of the Apple Store and entirety of all existing applications on the hard drive, that already didn't step up to open it, but no clue as to what opening Firefox's own proprietary reference actually requires, or who to ask if the user fails.

This is a catastrophic result for bazillions of users, especially any involved in research or use of deep websites in which the shortcut-route or source-reminder bookmarks were harvested over time in a way that isn't easily reconstructed from "accounts" or emails or notes. Why in the world would anyone think it wise to make the default browser setting automatically "upgrading" by wiping out all accumulated user data without any warnings to the user to first do a manual backup of personal data, such as by exporting all existing FF bookmarks into another browser first and then manually making whatever additional transition or re-import FF wanted? Had I known I needed to have made a lot of notes in order to have backup at all, I would have... or would have picked a safer browser to rely on, if auto-update wipe-out risk is to be the "normal" given environment now. Bookmarks are not just frivolous things for a fair number of folks.

Heartsick. Hoping there's still a third route for restoring, beyond the total loss and brickwalls experienced so far.

Both my History and Bookmarks have disappeared. "File is being used by another..bla..bla" "Your antivirus may be interfering with your History & Bookmarks". Firefox "help" says to create another data base via my profile page. *That feature does not exists ** How a bout a quick fix link? Or do I have to dump Firefox and use another browser??

I am joining a Yahoo fantasy league. To support an on-line draft, the Yahoo website instructed me to download an extension (something I have done safely before with other sites). Well, instead of it being an extension, it turned out to be Google Chrome, which made itself my default browser. I uninstalled the Chrome but it did something to my Firefox app that I no longer have my bookmarks which are very important to me. What can I do to get my Firefox restored.

1)

I use the internal FF bookmarks manager, as sidebar (per menu "View - Sidebar - Bookmarks"). There (in this bookmarks sidebar) I need to format just SOME bookmark entries in a way so they stand visually out, for easier navigation.

Ideally, I would want to BOLD those entries, by changing the font from the default one (which would continue to be valid for all the other and any new bookmark) to a naturally bold one, since I understand that FF does not allow to "bold" (or otherwise specifically format) the existing font, just for some bookmark list entries.

This "formatting", in fact assignation of a different font than the "regular" one, should be persistent between sessions, so it should be stored, together with the other data of the bookmark, within the FF bookmarks database.

2)

If the above is not possible, would it possible to insert some special characters, from another font than the "regular" one, into the text of the bookmark entry, so as to "stand out" that entry by this means?

How could I do 1) or 2), from the point where, by rightclick, I would open the dialogue "Edit Bookmark"?

(Using the current FF for Windows version (90 currently).)

Thank you very much for any help with this; I'm sure many FF users would be interested in a solution to this problem, all the more so since the newest FF developments have replaced the bookmarks folder symbol with something which is really drowned between the various icons of the bookmarked pages.

I don't have looked into add-on bookmark managers because, for so-called "security" reasons, FF does not allow developers to write them in a way that they would replace the in-built bookmark manager, the add-on bookmark manager just replacing the in-built one, WITHIN the FF parent window. In other words, add-on bookmark managers would necessary all be within their own, floating window, which makes switching between the browser and your other, main, application a nightmare. Over the last years, FF has lost most of its users, but before saying good-bye on my turn, I really would like to have resolved the above problem, which in fact is my only problem with FF, but a constant and most awful one.