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how can I access "places.sqlite" so I can restore bookmarks?

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A week and 1/2 ago I unplugged my Satellite C-55a (W10, Firefox 61) laptop because I was going out of town til Sunday. When I plugged it back in on Sunday and turned it on all my bookmarks were missing. I have tried to follow different instructions but I get so far and then can't find the next item or place in their sequence, so I can't get any further.

A week and 1/2 ago I unplugged my Satellite C-55a (W10, Firefox 61) laptop because I was going out of town til Sunday. When I plugged it back in on Sunday and turned it on all my bookmarks were missing. I have tried to follow different instructions but I get so far and then can't find the next item or place in their sequence, so I can't get any further.

All Replies (6)

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Hi, you sure that Firefox did not Refresh and leave a Folder on your Desktop called : OldFirefoxProfile  ?

Inside the Profile in :

  • bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
  • bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
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I have an "Old Firefox Data"on my desktop, not OldFirefoxProfile. What does that mean?

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I clicked on OLDFIREFOXDATA and did not see anything about profile. Can anyone help me please? I've wasted hours and hours trying to follow directions with no bookmarks recovered!

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I got as far as Open Folder, then I got: C:\Users\Joe Henson\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\4udy0opb.default I have no idea what this tells me or what it is for or how I can go from that to getting back my bookmarks. Will some knowledgeable person help me?

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Hi, you found it. Sorry we are not always around. As Volunteers we are all over the world. The URL's given should direct you to your Profile and the places.sqlite and the bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder as I mentioned in my 1st reply.

Note : Work with Copies only. Do not work with Original Files.

This is where your new Profile was created :

You need to shut down Firefox and access the Profile Manager to open the one on the Desktop and the one in Firefox now :

Please work with instructions here :


fyi for the future :

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Hi Joeymaker, when you opened Old Firefox Data what did you find inside? Were there any files updated in the past 72 hours?

You would want to find a folder named bookmarkbackups that would be inside a profile folder. Since profile folders have a random component at the start of the name, we can't really guess the exact path, but for example:

C:\Users\username\Desktop\Old Firefox Data\a1b2c3d4.default\bookmarkbackups

Anything recent there?

If you find a recent backup file you want to restore:

Don't try opening it, it's compressed and looks like gibberish. Instead, use Firefox's Restore feature. On that menu, the bottom item is "Choose File" and you can point Firefox up to your Desktop to that bookmarkbackups folder.

See: Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer