They are stored in the profile folder. On Windows XP this is normally here C:\Documents and Settings\<User Name>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\ (xxxxxxxx is a random string, the profile folder is normally named .default but may be named something else).

To recover bookmarks and other data, copy the files from the old backed up profile folder into you current profile folder a shown in the recovering important data from an old profile article.

Thanks for your help. It seems though that my system backup strangely enough didn't cover the Applications folders - under C:\Documents and Settings\<User Name>\ there are only these folders: Desktop, Favorites, My Documents, Start Menu, Tracing.

I believe that the Applications folder is a "hidden" folder. You need to turn on "Show hidden folders" and/or "Show system files" in your file explorer program under Tools-FolderOptions-View, and it will show up.

Thanks - now I can see an applications folder, and have found a .default file, hope this is the one. Should I now follow these instructiosn to restore my profile, or just go to organise bookmarks and import the default file?

Copying files between profile folders

   Note: Firefox must be closed down while copying files between profile folders.

  1. Open your profile folder:
         * (Firefox 3.0 and 3.5): See How to find your profile 
        1. (Firefox 3.6): At the top of the Firefox windowOn the menu bar, click on the Help menu and select Troubleshooting Information.... The Troubleshooting Information tab will open.
        2. Under Application Basics, click on Open Containing FolderShow in Finder. 
  2. From the menu at the top of the Firefox windowbar, select FileFirefox and then select the ExitQuit FirefoxQuit menu item.
  3. Right-clickHold down the Ctrl key while you click on a file you want to copy and choose Copy.
  4. Open the new Firefox profile folder.
  5. Right-clickHold down the Ctrl key while you click inside the profile folder and choose Paste Item. 

Repeat steps 2-5 for each file you wish to transfer over to your new profile folder.

While copying your personal data from an old Firefox profile to a new Firefox profile, it is possible that you could copy over the file that is causing the problem you are trying to get rid of! The more files you copy over, the greater the chance of this happening. It is therefore recommended that:

You can copy the files as shown in that article from the old profile folder into your current profile folder, replacing the ones that are already there. If you did not have a problem with Firefox before you can copy all of the files that are listed. If you just want the bookmarks you can copy the places.sqlite file.

Thanks for all your help. I have now created a new profile and have copied over all files from the .default file to the new one. Still no old bookmarks etc show up. Am I missing some vital step, or is it simply the case that the .default file is simply empty as regards bookmarks (ie the places.sqlite file does not hold my old bookmarks)? I am not sure if my external hard drive backup of files actually copied over these hidden files in the Applications folder, so I'm wondering if the .default folder and files might just have been automatically generated.

The bookmarks are contained in places.sqlite

As you created a new profile, make sure that Firefox is using the profile that you copied the files into. You can do that by running the profile manager again and make sure that the new profile is selected, then click the Start Firefox button. Unless you use a command line parameter to select a different profile, Firefox will then use that profile whenever you start Firefox.

Another thing you can try, in the backed up copy of the profile, open the bookmarkbackups folder, it will contain several files with names in the format bookmarks-yyyy-mm-dd.json, those are backups of your bookmarks. You can import one of those files into your current profile by following the restore bookmarks procedure in the Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer article. Select the "Choose File" option, and point it to one of those json files.

Do you have a file places.sqlite in that .default folder or files bookmarks-xxxx-xx-xx.json in the bookmarkbackups folder ?

You can locate the current Firefox Profile Folder via:
Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Open Containing Folder

See also:

• Recovering important data from an old profile
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Backing_up_and_restoring_bookmarks_-_Firefox