Hi

Thank you for your question about the Firefox Sync service.

It appears from your question, that you are using Firefox Sync as a back up service. This is not what Sync is designed to do. The Firefox Sync service takes a copy of the data you wish to include and transfers it to a second device (typically a mobile device such as a tablet or a telephone) running a copy of Firefox. The storage in between all attached devices is both temporary and fragile and is not stable enough to be (and is not designed as) a reliable backup service.

If you have a copy of your Firefox profile for desktop Firefox, you may be able to recover your bookmarks and other data. Please have a read of this article.

If you have a copy of your data on a mobile version of Firefox, please follow these instructions to connect it to Firefox Sync to copy your data.

Hi Bhodi, do you recall what folders you deleted? Any chance they might still be available in a "Recycle Bin" or similar MacOS feature for restoration?

Some MacOS devices might make automatic Time Machine backups. It will be a little difficult to access a backup for a deleted folder, but you may be able to find advice on that from people more familiar with it than I am.

I ended up using a Windows laptop on which I ran Firefox and was syncing the bookmarks. I imported the bookmarks in HTML form.

Seburo, if I want to truly sync the various files, including bookmarks, do I need an extension? Suggestions?

jscher2000 I did look thru the trash but was not sure where to find the bookmarks in the file structure.

Thank you both.

Hi, please distinguish between "sync" (synchronize) and back up. As described, Firefox Sync is designed to synchronize your bookmarks, tabs, history, passwords and so on. But that is not the same as backing such information up.

For me, the easiest way to make a backup is to use a program like FreeFileSync to sync (make a copy of) the Firefox profile folder to a local backup location like an external hard drive or USB stick. This backs up everything, but only for the profile of the local computer. I do it this way for my most important Firefox profiles, such as the work and home computers. (I also use Firefox Sync to connect some of my devices.) You can of course do this just in a file manager, but a program like FreeFileSync will save some time by remembering the task and only copying the data that has been added or changed.

If you only want to make a backup of your bookmarks, you can do that manually. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/export-firefox-bookmarks-to-backup-or-transfer

Thank you atat.