Finding Firefox bookmarks on old hard drive to transfer to new HD?
I had to replace my motherboard and install a new operating system on a new hard drive. Windows 7.
The old hard drive has windows 7 OEM and would not boot with the new MB.
I need to recover the bookmarks from the old HD which is connected to the new MB.
I can access the folders. I just can't find the bookmarks.
I need them to be complete because I used hints in the bookmarks to be able to sign in to some sights that I can't remember.
Help Please!
الحل المُختار
Hi wertach, the JSON-format files are "Restored" instead of "Imported". Please see: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1024626#answer-638819
Read this answer in context 👍 2All Replies (8)
By default, the AppData folder is hidden, so step #1 is to change a Windows setting so you can browse into it. This article has the steps: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/show-hidden-files
Then on your old hard drive look for (assuming E drive):
E:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
You might find only one semi-randomly-named profile folder to explore, but if you find more than one, you can check each of them.
Look for a folder named bookmarkbackups which contains files with a .json or .jsonlz4 extension. Each has the date coded into the file name, so you should be able to find the most recent.
You can restore one of these files to your new installation of Firefox. This is a complete drop-in replacement, so if you have saved new bookmarks you will lose them. If that is a problem, you can work around it by exporting them first, then importing them after you restore. Here are the help articles for each step:
- (Optional) Export current bookmarks: Export Firefox bookmarks to an HTML file to back up or transfer bookmarks
- Restore the old backup: Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer
- (Optional) Import the HTML file you created: Import Bookmarks from an HTML file - note: these may end up as a folder on the Bookmarks Menu or in the Unsorted Bookmarks category.
Hi wertach, I think the bookmarks file located in your firefox profile is "places.sqlite" as explained here.
Tell me if it helped you. :)
Romain
Modified by Romain
Hi Romain, the "places.sqlite" database file contains both bookmarks and history, so copying that over would replace history, too. Not sure if that is a problem in this case.
I found .json bookmarks. When I try to open it I go to windows media.
What do I need to do to open and/or transfer?
to transfer your bookmarks from the .json file you can go "Bookmarks - Show all bookmarks - Restore - Choose file(folder where .json is saved)".
Hi wertach, if you haven't found the menu that Romain mentioned, please see the "Restore" article linked in my earlier post: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1024626#answer-638819
OK I finally found the json files on the old hard drive. I can't find a way to convert one of them to HTML so that I can import to my bookmarks.
I only have wordpad, which will open it. But then I can't do anything with it.
الحل المُختار
Hi wertach, the JSON-format files are "Restored" instead of "Imported". Please see: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1024626#answer-638819