Look on your desktop. Is there a folder called Old Firefox?

Open the Bookmarks Manager. Press the Alt or F10 key to bring up the tool bar. Then select Bookmarks. Hot key is <Control>(Mac:<Command>) <Shift> B.

Is everything gone?

Bookmark / History Backups

Type about:support<Enter> in the address bar.

Under the page logo on the left side you will see Application Basics. Under this find Profile Folder. To it’s right press the button Show Folder. This will open your file browser to the current Firefox profile. Now Close Firefox.

Enter the bookmarkbackups folder. This is where Firefox makes backups of your bookmarks. Look for the jsonlz4 file you want to restore (check the time / date / size). Right click on that file and select Copy. Now go back to the profile folder where you started. Rename the file places.sqlite by adding .old to it. Now right click in the folder and select Paste. The file you just pasted here, rename it to places.sqlite. After you are done, restart Firefox.

thank you Fred McD for the information. I am a Mac user and I was able to following your directions up to the point after "select COPY." I got a bit lost and then with the right click, I was even further lost. Can you still help me but using Mac info? thank you, Nadine

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

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bookmarks_history_and_toolbar_buttons_not_working_-_Firefox
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file

• Places Maintenance: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/places-maintenance/

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/restore-bookmarks-from-backup-or-move-them
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Lost_bookmarks

If you use the Time Machine then try to restore the places.sqlite file from that backup.

• http://www.apple.com/support/timemachine/

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Recovering+important+data+from+an+old+profile
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox

You can use this button to go to the currently used Firefox profile folder:

• Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

nadinespr said

I am a Mac user and I was able to following your directions up to the point after "select COPY." I got a bit lost and then with the right click, I was even further lost. Can you still help me but using Mac info?

I don't know Mac's. Try this, in the file browser, can you move a file from one folder to another? With Windows, you hold down the left mouse on what you want, and drag it to where you want it to be.

Again thank you FredMcD but nothing worked. Cor-el-thank you for your ideas. I did go to the link to restore my bookmarks and I got to the place to restore, but a pop up informed me that Firefox was unable to restore;( I'm not having much luck restoring my bookmarks Mozilla! I can't imagine the time that it will take for me to create new book marks.;( Not a happy camper;( Maybe time for a new browser.

I've called the big guys to help you. Good luck.

Did you run the Places Maintenance extension?

This extension may not always be able to correct issues with the places.sqlite file and you need to delete all places.sqlite files to make Firefox create a new file.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_process_the_backup_file_-_Firefox

Do you have more than on installation of Firefox? Do you have more than one profile: check by running this in the terminal: /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin -p

What are your settings in this menu: http://kb.mozillazine.org/images/Clearcache.png

Otherwise a third party recovery tool will be needed if Firefox cannot restore the bookmarks. I am sorry for the inconvenience.

I do have more than one installation of Firefox...always have had two (with one being a portal to my work's site and I am able to bookmark sites.) With my other Firefox, my bookmarks are gone PLUS i am now unable to bookmark anything!!! I just had my portal back working (for my job) and I would like my default Firefox to have its bookmarks restored and have the feature of new bookmarking. Does this help you all solve my problem? thank you!!!!

These can't get your data back, but will help in the future.

These add-ons can be a great help by backing up and restoring Firefox

FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension) {web link} FEBE allows you to quickly and easily backup your Firefox extensions, history, passwords, and more. In fact, it goes beyond just backing up -- It will actually rebuild your saved files individually into installable .xpi files. It will also make backup of files that you choose.

OPIE {web link} Import/Export extension preferences

Set up a backup folder Outside of Firefox. You should also make a separate backup directory for the work profile.

FredMcD said

nadinespr said

I am a Mac user and I was able to following your directions up to the point after "select COPY." I got a bit lost and then with the right click, I was even further lost. Can you still help me but using Mac info?

I don't know Mac's. Try this, in the file browser, can you move a file from one folder to another? With Windows, you hold down the left mouse on what you want, and drag it to where you want it to be.

Sooner or later the backup files will be normally removed. They need to by copied now. Can you copy these to a thumb drive?

I just purchased an external back up system that will help me in the future, but I sure would like to bookmark sites now! Any idea why Firefox is not letting me bookmark?? thank you for your continued help....

Did you check for issues with the places.sqlite database file?

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bookmarks_history_and_toolbar_buttons_not_working_-_Firefox
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file

• Places Maintenance: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/places-maintenance/