If you lost personal data then it is possible that a new default-release profile folder has been created. See "Determine if Firefox has created a new profile":

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recover-lost-or-missing-bookmarks

You can open the about:profiles page via the location bar to check whether multiple profiles are present and what profile Firefox currently is using.

• Do NOT click any Remove button on this page.
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles

Firefox 67 and later can use a dedicated profile for each of the Firefox update channels and will lock the profile, so it can only be used by Firefox in a specific installation folder. For Release versions this profile would be a xxxxxxxx.default-release profile, profiles used in older Firefox versions usually used a xxxxxxxx.default profile (a refresh adds a time stamp).

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/dedicated-profiles-firefox-installation

You can also look for a "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop in case the refresh feature in Firefox was used.

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

My bookmarks are still saved. But i cannot open the bookmark sidebar at left. Makes it very painful to navigate to difft sites as i have always done.

having to click bookmarks in the top menu bar each time much worse than seeing static list at left to bounce around from

Hi bcparadine, I think your issue is different from the one asked about in this thread. It would be better to open a new thread for your problem. You can start that here:

https://support.mozilla.org/questions/new/desktop/fix-problems

Please scroll down past suggested links to continue with the form on that and following pages until your question is submitted successfully.

In your new question, please also mention whether the keyboard shortcut for the Bookmarks Sidebar has stopped working. That would be:

• Windows and Linux: Ctrl+b
• MacOS X: Command+b

Or if the problem is that your Sidebars button has departed from the main toolbar, check whether it is available to re-add or move through the Customize feature. See:

Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars

jscher2000 said

Hi bcparadine, I think your issue is different from the one asked about in this thread. It would be better to open a new thread for your problem. You can start that here: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/new/desktop/fix-problems Please scroll down past suggested links to continue with the form on that and following pages until your question is submitted successfully. In your new question, please also mention whether the keyboard shortcut for the Bookmarks Sidebar has stopped working. That would be:

• Windows and Linux: Ctrl+b
• MacOS X: Command+b

Or if the problem is that your Sidebars button has departed from the main toolbar, check whether it is available to re-add or move through the Customize feature. See: Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars

The issue is now solved. Really appreciate the help