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Importing bookmarks from past use of Firefox on a computer which had its operating system changed

alwaltz1
alwaltz1
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I have used Firefox for many years without opening a Firefox account and have accumulated many bookmarks. My computer has just had its operating system and solid state hard drive replaced and all of the old files and data transferred to the newly installed hard drive. I just now opened a Firefox account so I could ask the question about how I might recover the bookmarks and load them in Firefox. After reading some of your support pages it seems likely that the bookmark file was transferred into the new operating system. I would like to find out how these old bookmarks can be loaded to the Firefox program now loaded onto my computer.

I have used Firefox for many years without opening a Firefox account and have accumulated many bookmarks. My computer has just had its operating system and solid state hard drive replaced and all of the old files and data transferred to the newly installed hard drive. I just now opened a Firefox account so I could ask the question about how I might recover the bookmarks and load them in Firefox. After reading some of your support pages it seems likely that the bookmark file was transferred into the new operating system. I would like to find out how these old bookmarks can be loaded to the Firefox program now loaded onto my computer.

All Replies (2)

markwarner22
markwarner22
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How did you backup those past data? You can't just transfer copy folders as that will corrupted Firefox and if the checksum doesn't match it will reset those data.

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jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Do you know where they put your old data? The files that would be useful to you are either:

(A) A compressed automatic bookmark backup (named similarly to bookmarks-2025-02-26_2409_gibberish=.jsonlz4)

(B) A pair of database files that store bookmarks and history together (places.sqlite + favicons.sqlite, or at least the first one)

These files would have been in your Windows Users folder under a hidden path:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox

To view hidden files and folder, see the steps here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/file-explorer-in-windows-ef370130-1cca-9dc5-e0df-2f7416fe1cb1

Within that folder, there would be two index files (installs.ini, profiles.ini) and a Profiles folder with other folders within it.

Can you find the older folders somewhere convenient? Or if you check that location in your live installation, do you see more than two folders under "Profiles"? Please don't move or rename anything until we get a clear view of the situation.

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