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Trying to restore bookmark backup not working

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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Firefox crashed. After I restarted it, I noticed all my cookies, bookmarks and history were gone. When I tried to restore my bookmarks from backup, however, it says "unable to process the backup file". It does this with any backup I click. Can I resolve this in any way at all? I had a lot of important stuff in my backups.

Firefox crashed. After I restarted it, I noticed all my cookies, bookmarks and history were gone. When I tried to restore my bookmarks from backup, however, it says "unable to process the backup file". It does this with any backup I click. Can I resolve this in any way at all? I had a lot of important stuff in my backups.

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Hi, we're sorry you're having an issue.

Please can you go to Tools -> Web Developer -> Browser Console which will open a new window.

Then try importing one or two of your backups again, and see if any messages appear there.

If they do, please can you copy and paste them here, or take a screenshot?

That will hopefully give us more information to understand what's happening and advise you from there.

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

You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database (bookmarks and history) in the Firefox profile folder.

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

See also:

If "Verify Integrity" on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page cannot repair places.sqlite then remove all places.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder. Firefox will rebuild places.sqlite and restore the bookmarks from a recent JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

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