I've just refreshed Firefox, but can't my bookmarks to open from the 'Old Firefox Date' file, where they are stored as .jsonlz4 files.
I've a few-years old Lenovo G501 laptop using Windows 8.1, and Firefox as my browser. When Firefox re-opened a couple of hours ago after I did a 'refresh', the browser 'open-page' tabs were all still there, but my bookmarks had completely gone from both my bookmarks toolbar, and bookmarks library. They were listed in the 'Old Firefox Data' file on my desktop, but as .jsonLz4 files, which neither I, the laptop or Firefox can get to open. I've tried all the suggestions I can find in the help maze, The bookmark library just says 'cannot process files' when I try to restore from there. I've checked that the 'places-sqlite' file properties are NOT read only. My menu bar and bookmarks toolbar are both in place and working. Any ideas gratefully received, thanks.
Chosen solution
Hi Fred,
Not sure how it happened, but I just got back and opened up to try your jscher2000 recommendation, and all my bookmarks are back in place... The 'old firefox data' file is still on my desktop, with the backed-up bookmarks still showing as jsonlz4 files... Thanks again for your help, Danny
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Look on your desktop. Do you see a folder called; Old Firefox? Look inside. Look for the folder with the latest creation date.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible
Hi Fred,
Yes, as I described it was the first thing I opened after seeing that my bookmarks were not there after the refresh. I went through two file layers to get the most recent file of my bookmarks. Clicking on that gave me the usual file dialogue box asking "What should Firefox do with this file?", but none of the 'open' options worked. Trying from the bookmarks library and using the Import and Backup:/Restore/Choose File steps and clicking again on the latest file of my bookmarks from the list displayed just a Revert Bookmarks dialogue box asking "Are you sure?" box, and then a Firefox dialogue box stating "Unable to process the backup file" It all seems to hinge on the .jsonlz4 file format...? Danny
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_process_the_backup_file_-_Firefox
jscher2000 has a tool on his website to extract out your bookmarks and save them to an HTML-format bookmark export file. If you want to try it, here is the page:
https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/bookbackreader.html
To open the bookmarkbackups folder in Finder, use the "Open in Finder" button in the first table on the Troubleshooting Information page, and double-click into bookmarkbackups where you should see several dated files. From there you can drag and drop onto the conversion tool.
To import the HTML file, see the steps in this article: Import Bookmarks from an HTML file.
Hi Fred,
Thanks for that; have to go out now but I'll try it later and let you know the result. Danny
Chosen Solution
Hi Fred,
Not sure how it happened, but I just got back and opened up to try your jscher2000 recommendation, and all my bookmarks are back in place... The 'old firefox data' file is still on my desktop, with the backed-up bookmarks still showing as jsonlz4 files... Thanks again for your help, Danny
Good to hear. Well Done. Please flag your last post as Solved Problem as this can help others with similar problems.