Restore bookmark folders
Hello,
I followed the steps in order to be able to restore the bookmark folders, I found the latest backup, but when I do that nothing changes. Please advise Thank you Eleni
All Replies (18)
Did you try restoring the backup using the Bookmarks Manager? Do you get any error messages?
I did do that with no errors. Still though I don't seem to be able to find the folders and lost many bookmarks too
See if this helps;
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_process_the_backup_file_-_Firefox
jscher2000 has a tool on his website to extract out your bookmarks and save them to an HTML-format bookmark export file. If you want to try it, here is the page:
https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/bookbackreader.html
To open the bookmarkbackups folder in Finder, use the "Open in Finder" button in the first table on the Troubleshooting Information page, and double-click into bookmarkbackups where you should see several dated files. From there you can drag and drop onto the conversion tool.
To import the HTML file, see the steps in this article: Import Bookmarks from an HTML file.
How can I download the bookmarks in HTML since they are lost? I can find the backup but cannot be restored Please advise The toolbar still shows that it was last modified on the 27th of Oct but I am trying since yesterday to restore the bookmarks from the 12th of November
Hi Eleni, on the "Restore" menu list, the different options should list the number of items in that backup. If the number is small, like 10-20, it probably contains the standard set of bookmarks that comes with Firefox. Do you have any larger ones available? How recent?
If these do not seem to be your backups, skip the rest of this reply and check for additional profiles as described in the following article: Recover lost or missing Bookmarks ("Determine if Firefox has created a new profile" section).
Two notes on failed restores:
(1) Sometimes the database file that stores bookmarks and history stops working correctly. There is a diagnostic/repair function you can run to look into that. I'll give the steps below the line.
(2) If you use the "Default Bookmark Folder" add-on, you need to disable it when doing a Restore or Import, otherwise every single item will be immediately moved to the add-on's current default folder instead of returning to its original location.
Places Database Diagnosis/Repair
First, if you haven't already, please do a normal shutdown and/or restart of your system. Restarting Windows can help by freeing up locked files, completing any deferred updates, and resolving temporary file permission issues.
Next, if Firefox still has bookmark problems, could you let us know what you get when you run the "Verify Integrity" diagnosis and repair function. That's here:
Open Firefox's Troubleshooting Information page using any of these methods:
- "3-bar" menu button > Help > More Troubleshooting Information
- (menu bar) Help > More 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 > Task: invalidateCaches + The caches have been invalidated > Task: checkCoherence + The database is coherent
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.
This is what it says: > Task: checkIntegrity + The places.sqlite database is sane + The favicons.sqlite database is sane > Task: invalidateCaches + The caches have been invalidated > Task: checkCoherence + The database is coherent > Task: expire + Database cleaned up > Task: originFrecencyStats + Recalculated origin frecency stats > Task: vacuum + Initial database size is 5120KiB + The database has been vacuumed + Final database size is 5120KiB > Task: stats + Places.sqlite size is 5120KiB + Favicons.sqlite size is 5120KiB + pragma_user_version is 57 + pragma_page_size is 32768 + pragma_cache_size is -2048 + pragma_journal_mode is wal + pragma_synchronous is 1 + History can store a maximum of 71952 unique pages + Table moz_origins has 243 records + Table moz_places has 3330 records + Table moz_historyvisits has 6573 records + Table moz_inputhistory has 18 records + Table moz_bookmarks has 124 records + Table moz_bookmarks_deleted has 0 records + Table moz_keywords has 0 records + Table sqlite_sequence has 0 records + Table moz_anno_attributes has 3 records + Table moz_annos has 87 records + Table moz_items_annos has 0 records + Table moz_meta has 4 records + Table moz_places_metadata has 0 records + Table moz_places_metadata_search_queries has 0 records + Table sqlite_stat1 has 17 records + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_origins_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_inputhistory_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_bookmarks_deleted_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_keywords_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_anno_attributes_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_places_metadata_search_queries_1 + Index moz_places_url_hashindex + Index moz_places_hostindex + Index moz_places_visitcount + Index moz_places_frecencyindex + Index moz_places_lastvisitdateindex + Index moz_places_guid_uniqueindex + Index moz_places_originidindex + Index moz_historyvisits_placedateindex + Index moz_historyvisits_fromindex + Index moz_historyvisits_dateindex + Index moz_bookmarks_itemindex + Index moz_bookmarks_parentindex + Index moz_bookmarks_itemlastmodifiedindex + Index moz_bookmarks_dateaddedindex + Index moz_bookmarks_guid_uniqueindex + Index moz_keywords_placepostdata_uniqueindex + Index moz_annos_placeattributeindex + Index moz_items_annos_itemattributeindex + Index moz_places_metadata_placecreated_uniqueindex > Task: _refreshUI
All the bookmarks and folders that have been created between the 29th of October and the 12th of November are lost. Please help me recover them
Okulungisiwe
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
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recover-user-data-missing-after-firefox-update
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Navigating_to_the_profile_folder
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles
Type about:profiles<enter> in the address bar.
How many profiles are listed?
How many should be there?
Also, open the profile folder in your file explorer.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recover-user-data-missing-after-firefox-update
It seems like the bookmarks I saved in a certain period of time were not backed up. The two profiles don't have them. I have unhidden files and nothing changed. I restarted my pc several times. I don't know what to do. Please help
You can try checking history. But I dought this would he;[.
There is nothing in history
How did that happen?
History could be empty if the places.sqlite database file was recently removed (or renamed as places.sqlite-corrupt) and you have not visited any new sites yet.
However, your earlier report from the database showed several thousand history records, so many it's just that the recent date ranges do not show any history and you need to select an older one.
Is it possible your system did a "System Restore" rolling back your data by a few months?
I am not sure I understand your comment above. The situation is that yesterday morning all my bookmark folders were lost along with all the bookmarks saved between the 28th of October and 12th of November. There is nothing in the backup files, nothing in the profiles and nothing in history Is there a way I can find them somewhere? Anything you can think of? I have looked at any possible comment and all the links you provided above, but still nothing Thank you
Here's the next thing to check. During updates, and at other times, Windows may capture a snapshot of your Firefox profile folder in a Shadow Copy. You can use a utility program to search inside restore points to try to locate an old file that's usable. (Please do NOT try to use the built-in Windows System Restore for this because you probably would lose data.)
First, set Windows to show hidden files and folders: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14201/windows-show-hidden-files
Then download and run one of these two programs:
- ShadowExplorer: http://www.shadowexplorer.com/
- Shadow Copy View: https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shadow_copy_view.html
Within the most recent restore point shown in the program, you can explore along this path to see whether you can find a shadow copy of your profile:
\Users\your-user-name\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\your-profile
You can export recent files from the bookmarkbackups folder to a convenient location such as your currently live desktop.
Hope this helps.
What backups are available in the bookmarkbackups folder (date and count) or if you check the profile folder ?
- Bookmarks -> Show All Bookmarks -> Import & Backup -> Restore
Is there only one profile present in case you switched to an older profile ?
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 (Root directory).
- Help -> More Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Folder/Directory:
Windows: Open Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data
Location used for the main profile that keeps your personal data (Root Directory on about:profiles).
- C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>