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How to recover deleted Firefox bookmarks on an individual basis

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I find recovering deleted bookmarks difficult in Firefox. Typically, I am told: "on August 12 you deleted 12,540 bookmarks. Do you want to recover them all and over-write your existing bookmarks?" To which the answer is obviously, no.

What I want is a system much more similar to the Microsoft File Explorer Recycle Bin, which lists deleted files on an individual basis, so if I have deleted a file, I can see its name, the date it was deleted, and where it came from, and I can restore that particular file. Or, since we are talking bookmarks here, recover a particular bookmark.

How can I achieve that? Is it possible?

I find recovering deleted bookmarks difficult in Firefox. Typically, I am told: "on August 12 you deleted 12,540 bookmarks. Do you want to recover them all and over-write your existing bookmarks?" To which the answer is obviously, no. What I want is a system much more similar to the Microsoft File Explorer Recycle Bin, which lists deleted files on an individual basis, so if I have deleted a file, I can see its name, the date it was deleted, and where it came from, and I can restore that particular file. Or, since we are talking bookmarks here, recover a particular bookmark. How can I achieve that? Is it possible?

All Replies (1)

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Currently, Firefox doesn't have a visible Recycle Bin folder. The only way to restore a bookmark deleted earlier in your session is to use the "Undo" feature here:

Library window > Organize menu > Undo

You can open the Library window using either:

  • Ctrl+Shift+O as in Organizer
  • menu button > Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks
  • (menu bar or Alt+B) Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks

If this blind Undo feature isn't helpful, an alternative would be to convert one of your Firefox's automatic bookmark backups to a web page of clickable links that you could use to open tabs or right-click > Bookmark Link. I have a tool for that on my website here:

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

To find your backup files:

You can open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either

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

In the first table on the page, find the Profile Folder row and click the "Open Folder" button. This should launch Windows' File Explorer listing the contents of your current profile folder.

Then double-click into the bookmarkbackups folder and check the file names. The pattern is:

bookmarks-year-month-day_item-count_gibberish=.jsonlz4

If you see an older one that has a larger item count than your current file, that could be a good candidate for extraction. You may want to copy/paste it to your Desktop for easier access.

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