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My history and bookmarks are gone. How do I get them back?

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I downloaded a program that somehow deleted my history and bookmarks? I also for some reason don't have a copy of the system to restore to, which is really odd. My places.sqlite file is only what I've searched today in trying to find out how to fix this. I don't use profiles.

I downloaded a program that somehow deleted my history and bookmarks? I also for some reason don't have a copy of the system to restore to, which is really odd. My places.sqlite file is only what I've searched today in trying to find out how to fix this. I don't use profiles.

Chosen solution

You always have a Firefox profile folder. The profile folder is located in a hidden location.

  • C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\

"AppData" (XP: Application Data; Mac: ~/Library; Linux: ~/.mozilla) is a hidden folder.

Did you refresh (reset) Firefox and have created a new profile?

When you reset/refresh Firefox then a new profile is created and some personal data (bookmarks, history, cookies, passwords, form data) is automatically imported. The current profile folder will be moved to an "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop. Installed extensions and other customizations (toolbars, prefs) that you have made are lost and need to be redone.

If you have an "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop then you can recover your personal data and copy files to the current profile folder. For the Bookmarks you can copy the places.sqlite file (history and bookmarks) and the bookmarkbackups folder. For the passwords you need logins.json and key3.db. The latter stores the encryption key (master password) needed to decrypt the passwords stored in logins.json (signons.sqlite is no longer used). You can recover more personal data.


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Chosen Solution

You always have a Firefox profile folder. The profile folder is located in a hidden location.

  • C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\

"AppData" (XP: Application Data; Mac: ~/Library; Linux: ~/.mozilla) is a hidden folder.

Did you refresh (reset) Firefox and have created a new profile?

When you reset/refresh Firefox then a new profile is created and some personal data (bookmarks, history, cookies, passwords, form data) is automatically imported. The current profile folder will be moved to an "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop. Installed extensions and other customizations (toolbars, prefs) that you have made are lost and need to be redone.

If you have an "Old Firefox Data" folder on the desktop then you can recover your personal data and copy files to the current profile folder. For the Bookmarks you can copy the places.sqlite file (history and bookmarks) and the bookmarkbackups folder. For the passwords you need logins.json and key3.db. The latter stores the encryption key (master password) needed to decrypt the passwords stored in logins.json (signons.sqlite is no longer used). You can recover more personal data.


Modified by cor-el