Years of carefully curated bookmarks all gone after Firefox Refresh. Please advise
Can I recover my bookmarks from a Firefox Refresh?
Chosen solution
Hi danosq, I'm sorry to hear about this problem. Normally if the Refresh runs to completion, you get your bookmarks and history back. Do you have the history or is that not there, either?
Could you quickly check a couple things before we make further suggestions:
(1) Are you able to use Restore?
Firefox may have migrated your recent bookmark backups. This article describes how to use the Restore function with one of those backups: Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer.
If the Restore menu doesn't list any backups, or restoring doesn't work, we'll move on:
(2) Are your Places and Favicons databases healthy?
Firefox stores bookmarks and history in a pair of database files. If there is a problem with either file, then Restore won't work and you won't be able to save any new bookmarks, either.
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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Chosen Solution
Hi danosq, I'm sorry to hear about this problem. Normally if the Refresh runs to completion, you get your bookmarks and history back. Do you have the history or is that not there, either?
Could you quickly check a couple things before we make further suggestions:
(1) Are you able to use Restore?
Firefox may have migrated your recent bookmark backups. This article describes how to use the Restore function with one of those backups: Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer.
If the Restore menu doesn't list any backups, or restoring doesn't work, we'll move on:
(2) Are your Places and Favicons databases healthy?
Firefox stores bookmarks and history in a pair of database files. If there is a problem with either file, then Restore won't work and you won't be able to save any new bookmarks, either.
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.
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
Can't UNDO the thumbs Down. YES! -- this worked thank you both (above) !!!