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Lolu chungechunge lwabekwa kunqolobane. Uyacelwa ubuze umbuzo omusha uma udinga usizo.

Suddenly demolished bookmarks and cited solutions that don't work

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Neither of the cited solutions in the support articles, regarding the recent sudden demolition of bookmarks, work, and the articles do not offer a how-to-escalate option.

When surfing from Menu > Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks > Library arrows, it does "successfully" recognize a July 15 backup copy existing, but when clicking on it, it only brings up an error message saying "unable to process."

When going instead to Firefox Help > More Troubleshooting > Profile > Show in Finder, it again finds the same July 15 backup, but only produces an error message saying that no document can be opened. It offers generic referral to the entirety of the Apple Store and entirety of all existing applications on the hard drive, that already didn't step up to open it, but no clue as to what opening Firefox's own proprietary reference actually requires, or who to ask if the user fails.

This is a catastrophic result for bazillions of users, especially any involved in research or use of deep websites in which the shortcut-route or source-reminder bookmarks were harvested over time in a way that isn't easily reconstructed from "accounts" or emails or notes. Why in the world would anyone think it wise to make the default browser setting automatically "upgrading" by wiping out all accumulated user data without any warnings to the user to first do a manual backup of personal data, such as by exporting all existing FF bookmarks into another browser first and then manually making whatever additional transition or re-import FF wanted? Had I known I needed to have made a lot of notes in order to have backup at all, I would have... or would have picked a safer browser to rely on, if auto-update wipe-out risk is to be the "normal" given environment now. Bookmarks are not just frivolous things for a fair number of folks.

Heartsick. Hoping there's still a third route for restoring, beyond the total loss and brickwalls experienced so far.

Neither of the cited solutions in the support articles, regarding the recent sudden demolition of bookmarks, work, and the articles do not offer a how-to-escalate option. When surfing from Menu > Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks > Library arrows, it does "successfully" recognize a July 15 backup copy existing, but when clicking on it, it only brings up an error message saying "unable to process." When going instead to Firefox Help > More Troubleshooting > Profile > Show in Finder, it again finds the same July 15 backup, but only produces an error message saying that no document can be opened. It offers generic referral to the entirety of the Apple Store and entirety of all existing applications on the hard drive, that already didn't step up to open it, but no clue as to what opening Firefox's own proprietary reference actually requires, or who to ask if the user fails. This is a catastrophic result for bazillions of users, especially any involved in research or use of deep websites in which the shortcut-route or source-reminder bookmarks were harvested over time in a way that isn't easily reconstructed from "accounts" or emails or notes. Why in the world would anyone think it wise to make the default browser setting automatically "upgrading" by wiping out all accumulated user data without any warnings to the user to first do a manual backup of personal data, such as by exporting all existing FF bookmarks into another browser first and then manually making whatever additional transition or re-import FF wanted? Had I known I needed to have made a lot of notes in order to have backup at all, I would have... or would have picked a safer browser to rely on, if auto-update wipe-out risk is to be the "normal" given environment now. Bookmarks are not just frivolous things for a fair number of folks. Heartsick. Hoping there's still a third route for restoring, beyond the total loss and brickwalls experienced so far.

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If you use Sync then best is to disconnect Sync temporarily during troubleshooting.

You can check for issues with the places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite databases in the Firefox profile folder.

  • use "Verify Integrity" button on the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page

If errors are reported with "Verify Integrity", close and restart Firefox or reboot and retry.

If "Verify Integrity" cannot repair places.sqlite, rename/remove all places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder with Firefox closed. Firefox will rebuild places.sqlite and restore the bookmarks from the most recent JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

  • keep a backup copy of places.sqlite in case a new places.sqlite database has to be created
  • you lose the history when a new places.sqlite is created

You may have to restore an older bookmarks backup in the bookmarkbackups folder via the Bookmarks Manager (Library).

See also:

You can use the button on the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.