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Help - All bookmarks lost on updating to Firefox 23

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  • Igcine ukuphendulwa ngu Chris Glass

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Hello I have been using firefox for many years with no problems. However, yesterday I was offered to download a new version (number 23 I believe). I was informed my download had been successful but I lost all my bookmarks. I literally had hundreds of these. This happened at about 18:15 on 20th August. Can you please try and see if my old version can be located so that my bookmarks can be migrated to the new version. Thank you Paul Gilberg

Hello I have been using firefox for many years with no problems. However, yesterday I was offered to download a new version (number 23 I believe). I was informed my download had been successful but I lost all my bookmarks. I literally had hundreds of these. This happened at about 18:15 on 20th August. Can you please try and see if my old version can be located so that my bookmarks can be migrated to the new version. Thank you Paul Gilberg

Okulungisiwe ngu John99

All Replies (5)

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Hello,

Please see the support article below. Firefox automatically takes backups of your bookmarks and saves them.

Using the instructions you should be able to recover your bookmarks from the automated backup.

Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer

Also check that the bookmarks file is not marked as Read Only:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/cant-add-change-or-save-bookmarks?redirectlocale=en-US&redirectslug=Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file

I hope that works. Let me know if there are any problems.

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Just a comment and I have no time to consider following this up until next week but we seem to have seen a few similar posts after Firefox 23 updates. I wonder if anyone knows the reason why this happens.


Anyone with this problem

  1. Immediately backup bookmarks on all machines using the method eddyc linked to
    Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer#w_manual-backup
    and put them somewhere safe but not within any firefox program or profile path
  2. You should also find and backup the folder in your profile that contains bookmark backups, or better still the entire profile
    Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles (You probably have ten Firefox days from the problem date before you lose all the pre-existing bookmarks)
  3. Always back up the bookmarks again before attempting any restore or import of bookmarks

Windows previous file versions is often useful here but please make all the backups mentioned above before even contemplating that. Then note that the files concerned are the bookmarks backups and places.sqlite but it is best to post back for further advice before trying that.

Firefox sync may also be useful if you have bookmarks on a second machine but as I said above please manually backup all bookmarks on all machines. Remember your copies are the backups and sync is a bit fragile and all too easy to make mistakes with.

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P.S.

I have edited the title

  • From "Responsible for Information General"
  • To "Help - All bookmarks lost on updating to Firefox 23"
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Problems with bookmarks and history not working properly can be caused by a corrupted places.sqlite database file.

You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database file in the Firefox profile folder.

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I have the same issue.

I have a number of devices setup with Firefox sync. (Three phones, two tablets, 1 desktop, 2 laptops)

Since FF23, my bookmarks are REGULARLY overwritten on a daily basis. I restore from a working backup on August 15th, and even tell Sync to OVERWRITE the server data with what's on this machine, but I come back later and they're overwritten again. Some part of sync has gone haywire in V23

Okulungisiwe ngu Chris Glass