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Where did my bookmarks go in the new update?

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I can't find my years of bookmarks in the new update. Everything is gone. Any ideas?

I can't find my years of bookmarks in the new update. Everything is gone. Any ideas?

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Did you try to reboot the computer? Do you have automatically created compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder available?


You can check for problems with the places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder.

  • use "Verify Integrity" button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page

In case errors are reported with "Verify Integrity" close and restart Firefox and retry.

If "Verify Integrity" cannot repair places.sqlite, rename/remove all places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder. Firefox will rebuild places.sqlite and restore the bookmarks from a recent JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

  • keep a backup copy of places.sqlite in case a new places.sqlite database has to be created

See also:

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

Modified by cor-el

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Thanks for your help!

In order: I did re-boot my computer and it did nothing.

I did look at restoring them through the Bookmarks Tab, but it only shows the last few days--no help there.

No errors reported when I clicked "Verify Integrity."

I'm not terribly techy, but I am still left with no options. (Unless I missed something.) Is there somewhere my old bookmarks are saved? This is incredibly important to me...

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Hi JVKS, thank you for completing those tests.

Are bookmarks the only thing that got lost in the process, or were other settings reset, add-ons removed, etc.?

Second question: if you could do a little reconnaissance for other profile folders, that may help in locating your bookmarks. The most typical spots are:

(A) Desktop: new folder named Old Firefox Data

If Firefox performed a Refresh during your update (for example, mentioning needing a tune-up), this would be a logical place to find your old profile folder and, within in, a folder named bookmarkbackups. If you find one, do the files indicate they are recent? (The file name contains the creation date.)

(B) Profile Manager Page

Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it. You may see one or more profiles on this page, each of which has two associated folders (the "Root" folders have the good stuff in them).

The currently active profile has the line "This is the profile in use and it cannot be deleted."

Do you see others? If so, you can check each one to see what bookmarks it has:

Click the Launch profile in new browser button for one profile. Firefox should open a new window that may look different from your current windows due to different toolbar layout or theme.

If you pop up the Library window (Ctrl+Shift+b) in the other profile, does it have the missing bookmarks when you click the various categories on the left side?

If no: You can close the Library window and the regular window for this profile, then return to your about:profiles page and try any others.

If yes: Do you want to switch to using this profile as your default, or just extract its bookmarks?

To switch your default profile: return to the about:profiles page you left open and use the Set as default profile button for this profile. Then you can close all the windows. The next time you start Firefox, it should start up in the profile you designated as default. If you accidentally got the wrong one, you can use the about:profiles page to change again.

To extract bookmarks: Use the Export feature to export these bookmarks to a file on your Desktop for easy access. See: Export Firefox bookmarks to an HTML file to back up or transfer bookmarks. Then close this Library window and the regular window for this profile. In a Library window in your normal profile, use the Import feature. See: Import Bookmarks from an HTML file.

Any progress so far?

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Firefox 67 and later can use a dedicated profile for each of the Firefox update channels. For Release this would be a xxxxxxxx.default-release profile.

See also "Determine if Firefox has created a new profile":

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Why does Firefox do this ? Why should I need to do anything ? In this era this problem should not happen, thisclose to dumping Firefox Ken Boyd P.... off in Napa

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Hi kenboydart, what happened with your Firefox? There are a lot of potential issues already discussed in this thread but you may benefit from a more specific response to your situation. As a starting point:

  • Did your Firefox say it needed you to create a new profile?
  • Do you have any bookmark functionality at all, for example, can you save a new bookmark?