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Attempted to delete duckduckgo.com ... and the process deleted ALL MY BOOKMARKS!!!!

Attempted to uninstall duckduckgo.com On line article said to 1. Press Alt+H 2. Click Troubleshooting information 3. Click Reset Firefox - > Reset Firefox - > Finish I did so. My new Firefox Homepage has ZERO BOOKMARKS!!! I seem to have lost years of BookMarks. Any ideas / help would be most appreciated!!!! Thank you for your time & interest. --Terry

Attempted to uninstall duckduckgo.com On line article said to 1. Press Alt+H 2. Click Troubleshooting information 3. Click Reset Firefox - > Reset Firefox - > Finish I did so. My new Firefox Homepage has ZERO BOOKMARKS!!! I seem to have lost years of BookMarks. Any ideas / help would be most appreciated!!!! Thank you for your time & interest. --Terry

All Replies (3)

Hi, to delete Search engines you would go to Options --> Search Click on the Search Engine and then Click Remove.

Sounds like you have done a refresh, but not sure. Please look on your Desktop for a folder called OldFirefoxData Bookmarks will be in there.

Before doing any work on any program or system the best course of action is to Backup 1st :

Using the Reset feature in Firefox shouldn't have resulted in losing your bookmarks or any other user data in Firefox. The Firefox Homepage does not display "Bookmarks", but rather most used history which will include Bookmarks. Part of the Reset process is clearing out browsing history, so of course the Homepage won't display any of your history until that history is built up again.

As far as the DuckDuckGo search engine in Firefox goes, that is a "supplied with the Firefox program" search engine and it can't be deleted permanently; delete it now and it will come back with the next update. It is in a "protected area" of Firefox to keep malware from messing with the search engines that Mozilla has agreements with for "money" / commissions revenue based upon users using those "provided default search engines and that "area" is replaced with every update so as "partnerships" change Mozilla can easily remove or add to the revenue generating search engines that Mozilla relies upon to fund their operations.

But you can disable DuckDuckGo in Options > Search by unchecking it so it is hidden from view; Firefox will respect your decision to hide it thru updates, so it is best to handle it that way.


As far as the Rest process goes, if you got impatient while waiting the 5 minutes or so that it takes the Reset process to run and be completed; and killed the Firefox process (or closed Firefox), all your Profile data could have been lost. It would have been nice if the developers include a progress meter as part of that Reset procedure to let the user know how the Reset is proceeding and give some sort of indication that it is working, with some idea how long until it is complete. The first time I used Reset I thought Firefox was hung-up and killed to process, thus losing my user data. But from past experiences with new features like that, I was prepared by making a backup of my Profile before trying that Reset procedure.

If the Old Firefox Data folder is not on the Desktop, that is an indication that the Reset process didn't run its course and your data is gone.

Hi Terry, in case the problem has not been resolved, could you check a few different places?

First, check the Library window, either "Show All Bookmarks" or Ctrl+Shift+b.

By default, Firefox will show the contents of the "Other Bookmarks" category. To check "Bookmarks Toolbar" and "Bookmarks Menu", you can click those in the left column.

Are your own bookmarks visible in the Library, or just the basic ones that come with Firefox?

If your bookmarks are here:

There could be a problem with missing controls from the user interface. I'll give suggestions for that below the line (toward the end of this reply).

If your bookmarks are missing:

Try using the Restore feature, see whether you can restore a backup from the files Firefox can currently see: Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer.

If the Restore menu has no dated backups listed, click "Choose File" and point Firefox to your desktop, into Old Firefox Data, into the profile folder with the partially random name (like a1bc23d.default), and then into the boomarkbackups folder where you should see some dated backup files you could restore.

Any luck?


Bookmarks Toolbar is Not Displayed

To turn different bars on and off, you can use one of these methods to show the toolbar list and select the desired bars there:

  • right-click (on Mac Ctrl+click) a blank spot on the tab bar (or the "+" button)
  • (menu bar) View > Toolbars
    On Windows, tap the Alt key to activate the menu bar temporarily.
  • in Customize mode > Toolbars button (see: Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars)

To turn on the Bookmarks Toolbar, Menu Bar, or other bars, click it on the list.

Bookmarks Toolbar is Displayed, but Bookmarks are Missing

Use the "Restore Defaults" button on the Customize page to move bookmarks back to the bar. See: Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars.

Need a Better Bookmarks Menu Toolbar Button

The optional new bookmarks menu button () works the same way as the old bookmarks menu button (the "right-half" of the inseparable star+book duo). To add that button, either:

(A) Use the Customize panel (Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars) to drag the icon to the desired spot on the toolbar

(B) Use the method from Bookmarks in Firefox - section entitled: How do I add the Bookmarks Menu button to the toolbar?

  • Click the "Library" button:
  • Click "Bookmarks"
  • Click "Bookmarking Tools"
  • Click "Add Bookmarks Menu to Toolbar"

Hope this helps!