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Linux Mint updated Firefox to 89.0.2. Lost History and Bookmarks. No Old Firefox data.

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  • Last reply by dschroed13

dschroed13
dschroed13
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Firefox was one of the system updates I installed today on my Linux Mint 19.3. I updated it and discovered all history and bookmarks are gone. I have no Old Firefox Data folder. I tried about:profiles but the only other profile is the default Linux one. I tried to Restore from Import and Backup in Manage Bookmarks for several different dates, but only get "Unable to process the backup file" error. I also tried to choose several .json files from the STG-backups-FF-8x folders in Linux Downloads directory, but it doesn't seem to do anything. I've tried using Timeshift to restore from previous system dates, but it would only create Firefox folders with the same outcomes as above. I don't really care about history, but I have a lot of bookmarks that would be very difficult to recreate.

Thanks, in advance, for any help getting my bookmarks back!

Firefox was one of the system updates I installed today on my Linux Mint 19.3. I updated it and discovered all history and bookmarks are gone. I have no Old Firefox Data folder. I tried about:profiles but the only other profile is the default Linux one. I tried to Restore from Import and Backup in Manage Bookmarks for several different dates, but only get "Unable to process the backup file" error. I also tried to choose several .json files from the STG-backups-FF-8x folders in Linux Downloads directory, but it doesn't seem to do anything. I've tried using Timeshift to restore from previous system dates, but it would only create Firefox folders with the same outcomes as above. I don't really care about history, but I have a lot of bookmarks that would be very difficult to recreate. Thanks, in advance, for any help getting my bookmarks back!

Chosen solution

So, I continued to try previous Timeshift system recovery dates. I had to go back to a system backup from 30 days previous, and thankfully, it finally works! I was able to recover my Firefox history and bookmarks (at least from 30 days ago, which is much better than not at all)!

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dschroed13
dschroed13 Question owner
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Chosen Solution

So, I continued to try previous Timeshift system recovery dates. I had to go back to a system backup from 30 days previous, and thankfully, it finally works! I was able to recover my Firefox history and bookmarks (at least from 30 days ago, which is much better than not at all)!

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Note that this "Unable to process the backup file" error is an indication that places.sqlite is corrupted. This can usually be fixed by deleting all places.sqlite files with Firefox closed to make Firefox rebuild the file from a recent JSON backup or possibly by restoring a JSON backup manually.

See also:

You can use the button on the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

dschroed13
dschroed13 Question owner
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Thank you for your response. I will keep your information available for the next time I get these issues (hopefully, never). Meanwhile, as of now, the restore from an old backup worked!