You would normally only have places.sqlite to restore and there wouldn't be places.sqlite-shm and places.sqlite-wal temp SQlite files present unless this backup got created when Firefox was running (i.e. you hadn't Exit/Quit Firefox).

Note that on Mac closing Firefox can be more complicated because you can close all open windows, but keep Firefox running with the menu bar visible or minimized in the Doc. Make sure to use "Quit Firefox" with all windows still open, especially if you want to use "Restore Previous Session".

Really? No one has any ideas???

Are those places.sqlite-shm and places.sqlite-wal temp files still present after you have closed Firefox ? You could try to start with a clean/fresh places.sqlite and restore the bookmarks from a recent backup in the bookmarkbackups folder or create a backup yourself. You will lose the history this way.

Make sure to use "Quit Firefox" with all windows you may want to restore still open, especially if you want to use "Restore Previous Session" to ensure Firefox closes properly.

I truly appreciate your input. Sadly, this didn't work. I removed any "places..." file and the bookmarkbackups folder and replaced them with fresh files from my back up that at one time were good.

Somehow, I think the problem may be with Firefox itself. Each time I open up the app, a "places.sqlite.corrupt" file is created and my old bookmarks are not present.

Maybe, I'll just uninstall Firefox and install a fresh copy.

Well, that didn't work either...

Same. I have had this issue for almost a year now. Every time Firefox was closed, it'd corrupt the places.sqlite file and rename it as places.sqlite.corrupt, which I'd just rename and it'd work. My PC is on 24/7, so I had to do it maybe once every 3 weeks or 3 months, but since the last update that happened a few hours ago, this doesn't work. Every time I open Firefox, it renames the old places.sqlite file to places.sqlite.corrupt and creates a new one and I lose all my history. Note that places.sqlite.corrupt is about 95MB, so it has all my history since 2015, and the new one is only 5mb. I have been loyal to Firefox since 2008, and they're making it so hard with stupid updates trying to become Chrome. We like you because you're not Chrome. You don't start slapping yourself just because someone else has reddish cheeks. Should I just switch to Chrome?

It is not normal that you get a places.sqlite.corrupt file, so it is possible that other software prevents access to the file and forces Firefox to create a fresh file.

What security software do you have?

You can create a new profile as a quick test to see if your current profile is causing the problem.

See "Creating a profile":

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles

If the new profile works, you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.

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

@cor-el It's the stupid new version, dude. I un-installed 111 and reinstalled 110 and disabled updates, plus --allow down-grade and it worked.

Already tried everything you said before posting this thread.

Thank you.

Downgrading to 110 seemed to work. I don't think it saved any of my passwords, but at least my bookmarks have returned.

Thanks for all your help.

Don't you have an old backup of your profile? I generally take a backup every 3-4 months of all the profiles of all browsers I use. I didn't know about --allow down-grade feature, otherwise I was happy with version 96 and would still be using it if I wasn't forced to update.

I have restored my profile from a TimeMachine backup from early March of this year. It did not restore my passwords. Is there another file that stores the passwords?

Also, where is the "allow down-grade feature" option?

No idea about that. I copy whole profile and paste it in D drive. I don't know where passes or any other infos are stored, I'm quite dumb. The only reason I know about places.sqlite is it's been happening to me since 2017 in some capacity and a lot after the version 96.

Windows key+ R, and in there paste "firefox --allow-downgrade" without quotes and run it. It will allow an older version of Firefox work with a profile made with a newer version of Firefox. Generally speaking, you can't run a profile made with 110 on 109 version, even though it's only one beta between them.