Forum Bashkësie Firefox

I have recently purchased a new Windows 11 computer, and want to install Firefox there and transfer all my bookmarks, passwords, etc. There are obviously quite a few Support articles on this topic, and seemingly quite a few methods to use: copy and paste profile folder, sync, the backup/restore function within Settings, etc. I'm a bit reluctant to use sync, as some users report it can be an incomplete transfer. My current profile also may contain some "corruption", so I'm reluctant to copy the entire profile folder to the new computer.

Comments by esteemed and superb contributor cor-el in this Support article: [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/que.../1454070] therefore may be my best option. He wrote:

Note that best is to avoid restoring a full profile folder and only restore important files that are safe to restore/transfer.

   bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
   favicons: favicons.sqlite
   bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
   cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
   formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
   logins.json (encrypted logins) and key4.db (encryption key/primary password) for logins saved in the Password Manager
   cert9.db for certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
   persdict.dat for words added to the spell checker dictionary
   permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
   sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder) 

My questions are: 1. Why is it "best is to avoid restoring a full profile folder"? 2. Is this the complete list of "important files that are safe to restore/transfer"? 2. In my profile folder, there are several files that start with the same file name, but then have different file extensions. For example: cookies.sqlite, cookies.sqlite.bak, cookies.sqlite-shm, cookies.sqlite-wal. Should I restore ALL these files, or just "cookies.sqlite"? 3. Is the correct procedure to copy the selected files from the "old" profile, and then paste them to the "new" profile, which presumably would overwrite files of the same name in the "new" profile? Thanks!

(Apologies for any formatting, bold text, and italicized test oddities. I selected these options for parts of this text, but am not sure I did that correctly. It would be very helpful if a question/message could be previewed prior to sending!)

I have enabled the option to open the previous windows and tabs. I had one window that I always closed last as it had a lot of groups that are important for my work, so it used to open every time I started Firefox. Sometimes, even if I closed the window by mistake without closing other windows, I was able to get it back by pressing ctrl+shift+n.

But yesterday, I might have closed it by mistake and when I pressed ctrl+shift+n , it didn't come back. I wasn't able to access my window and now it's all gone. I don't see anything in recently closed windows in history.

I need those tabs back as they are very important for my work. they were a lot of tabs. I had many groups but now all are gone. I tried by using the previous.jsonlz4 in the sessionstore-backup by renaming it in the default-release profile as sesstionstore.jsonlz4 but still wasn't able to access my window.

I didn't clear my history as the tabs opened in the window still show up in the history.

Kindly help as soon as possible

I updated Firefox to 145.0 this morning, and after Firefox had restarted, it had lost all bookmarks and the bookmarks toolbar. I have spent all day following links to correct the problem and got nowhere. I have restarted Windows and Firefox countless times - no change. I've even tried reinstalling Firefox over the existing version. If I go to bookmarks > manage bookmarks > restore and backup, sometimes that will load, others not. When it does load, it fails to find a file to restore from. 10 years of bookmarks, links & research vanished.

Can someone please provide a solution (preferably in Layman's terms) to this??

Hello! I accidentally logged into my account after switching to a new computer, creating a new recovery key. Now i do not have access to all my saved passwords. I have my recovery key but cannot find where should I type it to get back all my information. Is it possible to recover my information using the original recovery key, not the one I accidentally created? I really need to get the access to all my saved passwords, please help me with it. Thank you!

Mozillers,

I depend heavily in my environmental and other work on Firefox and am grateful for its ability to restore previous tabs when my laptop, not infrequently, stops working abruptly.

Now the much-used bookmarks have disappeared. A search site states promisingly:

"To restore Firefox bookmarks, use the built-in backup feature by going to Menu > Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks > Import & Backup > Restore, then select a dated backup or a manual file (like a JSON backup) to bring back lost bookmarks..."

But my Firefox's Bookmarks drop-down menu has no Manage Bookmarks option. PLEASE, what must I do?

Elsewhere I managed to find this file which apparently contains recent bookmarks:

"C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\unk14jlv.default-release-1647366062305\bookmarkbackups\bookmarks-2025-12-26_95_4IdGtYxezJpwuH1UIiT1bRwe1K6bcGO8rv0mqa9rUWU=.jsonlz4"

But attempting to open it with Applications\firefox.exe (default) accomplishes nothing.

FOOL-proof instructions would be wonderful. Thank you.

I opened FF this afternoon and it op0end like a new first time install- asking about setting up some damn profiles and showing news, AI, weather and crap I do not want or use..

I can not seem to restore it. All bookmarks, PW, menu bars and links are now gone.

I am incredibly frustrated by the continuing problem of all my Bookmarks disappearing with the usual "The bookmarks and history system will not be functional because one of Firefox's files is in use by another application. Some security software can cause this problem." This issue has been going on since NOVEMBER!!! I usually manage to get my Bookmarks back by closing all txt files that I need to keep open, store them in a new folder on my laptop, and then restart my laptop. This time, it didn't work.

Can anyone steer me to a permanent solution to this problem?

Thanks, in advance, for any help offered.

CCleaner wiped out my bookmarks and their functionality. I have repaired, then uninstalled CCleaner. I have refreshed, uninstalled then reinstalled Firefox. I have logged in and out of Firefox. I have made an HTML file of bookmarks from another device in order to try to import them. Firefox bookmarks will not proceed to an upload stage. I went into setting to add the HTML of bookmarks and it said "this is not a bookmarks file." Well, Firefox made that HTML bookmarks file so I have no idea how that could be. Nothing I have tried has worked.

I still have not made any progress recovering my lost Firefox bookmarks. I have tried several methods with no success. The bookmark toolbar doesn't work, so I can't bookmark any more pages. I tried restarting the computer and Firefox to no avail. I am considering switching to another browser. I am using Duck Duck Go which is not as good as Firefox that I have been using for about the last 10 years. I might try Microsoft Edge or Bing or some other browser.

Sincerely

Jeff [email address]

My Bookmarks are missing. I see backups under the profile/bookmarkbackups folder but when I manage bookmarks, they are not in the restore dropdown. I have followed the steps to delete the places.sqlite but when I reopen firefox, I do not see the bookmarks have been restored. I thought it might have been related to Norton Utilities so I renewed a subscription but no luck. I also have a json file with my bookmarks but I cannot choose it from Manage Bookmarks, either

This is the message I get when I try to access my Bookmarks: "The bookmarks and history system will not be functional because one of Firefox's files is in use by another application. Some security software can cause this problem." I have already tried to find out from Microsoft if their latest reinstallation of Office Professional could have caused the problem. They say they have nothing to do with Firefox. How can I get my Bookmarks and History back?

Several times now I've closed firefox while having the open previous windows and tabs on startup on only for all my tabs to have been closed (with this time in particular being annoying due to losing tabs that I needed to have the specific link for). Is there any way to restore tabs lost in this way?

Firefox updated automatically. No bookmarks or history??? I cannot find anything. This is my old Windows 10 computer. Have bookmarks on Windows 11 computer. Afraid of updates. any help?