Data recovery
My 2008 iMac died recently and after several attempts by professionals, I was unable to get her started. I then had the hard drive taken out and cloned, so I have all the data that was on that computer. copying files is easy enough. But, I need to restore all the bookmarks I had stored on my browser (Firefox).
I have tried using the clone as the start up disk, but it will not recognize the external drive and allow me to use it as a start up disk. my laptop reads the external HD fine, and I'm able to navigate the various folders and copy and move files as normal. I just can't use it as my start up drive.
I imagine I have to navigate the various Firefox system files to get to the file that has my bookmarks and place it in the appropriate folder in my laptop's system folders to get them to open?
Can anyone help with this?
Chosen solution
As a footnote to the above -- which would be a "complete" recovery -- if you decide to keep a fresh profile and just restore bookmarks, it's a bit simpler.
After you find your hidden profile folder, look for a subfolder named bookmarkbackups. Copy a couple of the most recent backup files to a more convenient location, such as your desktop, then try the steps in the following article -- you'll use "Choose File" to get to those backups.
Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer
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Your Firefox data is stored within your profile folder. It might be a little different to access this folder from your hard drive if you are connected externally, but it should be in the following folders:
Application Support > Firefox > Profiles
You will have to copy the folders within that folder onto the same location on the hard drive in your working laptop.
If you go up one level on the drive to the Firefox folder, there should be a file called profiles.ini, which you will also need to copy to your working drive in the same location.
If you already have a profiles.ini file on your working drive, rename it to profiles.ini.old before copying the file from the old drive.
Hope this helps.
Chosen Solution
As a footnote to the above -- which would be a "complete" recovery -- if you decide to keep a fresh profile and just restore bookmarks, it's a bit simpler.
After you find your hidden profile folder, look for a subfolder named bookmarkbackups. Copy a couple of the most recent backup files to a more convenient location, such as your desktop, then try the steps in the following article -- you'll use "Choose File" to get to those backups.
Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer
Thank you both!
Jscher, If I restore the bookmarks using the back up files, will current bookmarks remain available on this browser?
HecMiranda said
Jscher, If I restore the bookmarks using the back up files, will current bookmarks remain available on this browser?
No!! The Restore procedure is a complete replacement for your current Firefox bookmarks!!
As a workaround, you can convert the backup file (.jsonlz4 extension) to an HTML-format file an import it. Import adds to your bookmarks rather than replacing them. Unfortunately, you can end up with a lot of duplicates... But if you want to try it:
- Tool on my website to convert the backup file: https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/bookbackreader.html
- How to import: Import Bookmarks from an HTML file
So far, no good. I found the application support folder, but there is no 'firefox' folder. There is a 'Mozilla' folder, but there is nothing within it that is marked as either 'profiles' or 'bookmarkbackup.' Any thoughts on that?
Did you already do whatever trick Finder requires to see hidden folders? I'm a Windows person myself, so can't help much with that issue...
jscher2000 said
Did you already do whatever trick Finder requires to see hidden folders? I'm a Windows person myself, so can't help much with that issue...
Good question. I'll try that.
hello firefox here. the article has been read that has been sent. it is the intention that the HDd-d hard disk is clocked. First you put the startup installation of choice on the hard disk. then the cloned stuff from your old hdd-d. Check carefully which versions you use for operating systems, that they are the same as the current quality and that of your mac or PC. otherwise it could be that these are not accepted together. also can not work.
it is not difficult to transfer it.
also tell youtube instructions how to do it. easy to find on the firefox browser.
greating firefox.
Hi, please ignore above.
Ok, it's been a couple of weeks but I have finally restored my bookmarks. So, thought I would share my journey a little bit to help others who are going through the same thing.
1. I used Jscher's solution for the most part. I dug up the bookmarkbackups and dragged them to the desktop where I then imported the most recent one. BOOM. They're all back.
2. The problem I ran into was twofold. The folders in question are 'hidden' on Macs, which is not hard to 'unhide.' (command + shift + dot) The second part of the problem is that my Mac has two profiles; the guest account and my own account. So, this added a level or two of folders to navigate to find the folders I needed.
The folder structure I discovered looked like this: Users>(Profile Name)>Library*>Application Support>FireFox>Profiles>95yhgmul.default>Bookmarkbackups
I added to the asterik to the Library folder name to denote that this folder was hidden. Therefore all further folders beneath it were hidden. So, 8 folders total before I could find the back ups I was searching for.
HUGE thank you to Jscher2000 and Wesley Branton for their invaluable information.