I use "From Internet Explorer" to store my new bookmarks but they do not show up in my "Favorites" - where are they?
When I changed from IE7 to Firefox (and am very glad I did) I migrated my large list of Favorites (which was divided into sub-headings to make it easier to find items) to Firefox Bookmarks. As I continued to bookmark web sites, I added them to to the sub-headings in "From Internet Explorer" from which I can readily retrieve them. However, when I wanted to copy them to my laptop, I discovered that the only "Favorites" I can find on my PC are the old IE7 Favorites - none of the additions made within Firefox were there. Similarly, the Bookmarks Toolbar which I now use is different from the Favorites Toolbar still accessible from my Windows Explorer.
Where is this information stored in Firefox so I can copy it?
My OS is Wndows 7 Professional.
Chosen solution
You can't read places.sqlite without specialized software that understands its format.
If you would like to create .url shortcuts on disk in the style of IE Favorites, the easiest thing would be to actually have IE create them for you by importing your Firefox bookmarks. There's actually a support article on this: Export bookmarks to Internet Explorer.
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You must go in your Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data and then see Recovering important data from an old profile
Modified by Nellus
Thank you for your suggestions. I may be doing something wrong, but they did not work. I could not find "Favorites" anywhere, could not open the file "places.sqlite" and the instructions seem to be for copying from one profile within Firefox to another - I want to copy from the profile to a different computer.
Your further help will be much appreciated.
See Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer
Moving bookmarks to another computer
Using Firefox Sync
You can use Firefox Sync to move your bookmarks from one computer to another. Note: Firefox Sync continuously updates itself as you change bookmarks, so it does not provide a true backup service, nor is it intended to be used as one.
Firefox Sync is the best way to keep your bookmarks (and other profile data) synchronized between all of the computers you use. See Firefox Sync - Take your bookmarks, tabs and personal information with you for more information and Share bookmarks, tabs and more with your other computers for instructions on setting it up. Using a bookmark backup file
You can also use a bookmark backup file from one computer and restore it on another computer. This is useful if you can't Sync the two computers, for some reason.
The bookmark backup file can either be a manual backup (see above) or one of the automatic dated backups located inside the Firefox profile folder bookmarkbackups folder. Place the bookmark backup file on your transfer media (e.g. a Flash drive) and copy it to the desktop (or any location) of the other computer. You can then restore the backup from the Firefox Library window, using the Choose File... option, as described in the Restoring from backups section above.
If your favorites are Backup,you can get them back. Thank you.
Thank you - my problem is not to get them back. My problem is where to find them on my hard drive so that I can copy them
Thank you again - I really appreciate your efforts but they do not answer my problem. Perhaps that is because of the way I asked my question, so let me ask it in an entirely different way.
When I was using IE7, I could go to Windows Explorer C:\Users\my name\Favorites and it opened my list of Favorites exactly the same way as they appeared when I clicked on Favorites within IE7. Where does Firefox store the equivalent of "Windows Explorer C:\Users\my name\Favorites"?
Firefox doesn't use a folder on the hard drive to store the bookmarks, but stores the bookmarks and history in the places.sqlite database file.
The "From Internet Explorer" shows the IE favorites as imported in Firefox and changes made to bookmarks in this folder are only in Firefox and aren't ported back to IE.
See also:
- Plain old favorites: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/plainoldfavorites/
Hi cor-el,
Now we are getting somewhere. This is what I was looking for.
BUT - how do you open that file? When I tried, I got the standard "where did it come from" message.
Chosen Solution
You can't read places.sqlite without specialized software that understands its format.
If you would like to create .url shortcuts on disk in the style of IE Favorites, the easiest thing would be to actually have IE create them for you by importing your Firefox bookmarks. There's actually a support article on this: Export bookmarks to Internet Explorer.
thank you all - I am now on track.