Lost ALL my bookmarks, browsing history, and add ons
My 'old' Firefox crashed a bit ago, and the 'new' version installed on me. All my add ons & book marks are gone, including several saved sessions.
I tried restoring to a default state, and also found the Old Firefox data file on my desktop. Please help!
Note- I'm pretty 'computer illiterate', too.
All Replies (13)
Did you find the JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder in the "Old Firefox Data" folder folder on the desktop?
You can restore such a JSON backup in the Bookmarks Manager (Library).
- Bookmarks > Show All Bookmarks
You can click the third button (Import and Backup) on the toolbar in the Library and open the Restore menu .
Ok, it looks like I've got my bookmarks. Thanks.
What about all my add-ons & saved browsing sessions? I had a bunch of websites open that I can't find right now.
Are you trying to restore your previous session?
Try go to History >> Restore Previous Session
Also see: How do I restore my tabs from last time?
Recovering important data from an old profile
You can try to restore a previous version of the sessionstore.js file.
- Right-click: Properties > Previous Versions
You can use this button to go to the Firefox profile folder:
- Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)
These can help you in the future;
FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension) {web link} FEBE allows you to quickly and easily backup your Firefox extensions, history, passwords, and more. In fact, it goes beyond just backing up -- It will actually rebuild your saved files individually into installable .xpi files. It will also make backup of files that you choose.
OPIE {web link} Import/Export extension preferences
In your old profile folder, extensions are identified with long unique IDs instead of their names, so they can be hard to research. One option would be to make your old profile usable again, at least for research, by taking advantage of Firefox's ability to have multiple profiles. This post has the steps I suggest: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1003760#answer-583574
You can check the install.rdf file in each folder in the Extensions folder to see which extension it is. Some extension also use an e-mail address as the ID and that usually makes it easier to locate a specific extension.
I also had this problem, but with a few differences.
In my case Firefox warned that to recover from a crash it would reset Firefox, and I would probably lose all my bookmarks, add-ons (and unfortunately it didn't write anything about my time trying to restore everything). I had two buttons to click: Cancel or Reset.
Cancel didn't open Firefox, and obviosly my secont try was using Reset.
But I was relaxed because I was using Firefox Sync!!
- fail should be the hashtag...
Everything but bookmarks were gone. My ingenuity took me to believe that setting up sync would solve everything, but it didn't!!
Sync is different now. After trying to sign in several times, I tried the "forgot password" link. My account was not found - #EPICFAIL
Now I lost everything and the worst my trust in the Sync reliability.
Does anybody here experienced something like this?
Bookmark Backups
Open a new tab or window. type about:support in the address box and press enter. Or Press the Alt or F10 key to bring up the tool bar. Then Help > Troubleshooting Information.
Under the page logo on the left side you will see Application Basics. Under this find Profile Folder. To it’s right press the button Show Folder. This will open your file browser to the current Firefox profile. Now Close Firefox.
Enter the bookmarkbackups folder. This is where Firefox makes backups of your bookmarks. Look for the json file you want to restore (check the time / date / size). Right click on that file and select Copy. Now go back to the parent folder where you started. Rename the file bookmarks.html by adding .old to it. Now right click in the folder and select Paste. The file you just pasted here, rename it to bookmarks.html. After you are done, restart Firefox.
Hi alexanderscouto, did you find a file on your desktop named Old Firefox Data? The Reset feature moves your old profile folder (Firefox personal settings/data folder) there. If you have it, there is a good chance you can recover your bookmarks and much of your data from that folder. In fact, that is the point of this thread.
If you want assistance with Sync, please start a new question. You can use the "Ask a Question" link at the top of each page on this site. Scroll down past suggested solutions if they don't help to continue with the submission process.
Sync is not meant as a backup. And some have reported problems. Use the add-ons I posted above; https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1004065#answer-584762
Have similar problem; on a shutdown and then start on my Mac - EVERYTHING: all my tabs, settings, add-ons, history, bookmarks GONE.... I do have back-up on external drive, but not sure where the files live, and how to go about. I have a Mac: OSX Version 10.9.4; Firefox 31.0.
Not sure if info above tells me everything I need - thank you.
Hi ccgreen:
(1) Are you saying this happens every time you shut down your computer?
(2) Did you find an Old Firefox Data folder on your desktop?
(3) Do you have multiple profile folders? Here's how you can check that:
Open the Troubleshooting Information page using one of these methods:
- "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
- (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
- type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter
In the first table on that page, click "Show in Finder" to launch your current settings folder (Firefox profile folder) in a Finder window. Then click up one level. Any other recent folders?
Hi ccgreen, never mind, I see you have a personal thread going here: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1016347