Hi Yield, when you use the Restore feature in the Library window, the bookmarks should return to their last locations. However, 11 items isn't very many, so I'm not sure restoring that particular backup will be useful. Are there any others listed?

Possibly your Windows upgrade created this folder:

C:\Windows.old

Can you find such a folder on your system?

If so:

Before proceeding, please set Windows to show you hidden files and folders: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14201/windows-show-hidden-files

Then check here:

C:\Windows.old\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

You might just have one profile folder, or you might have more than one. The bookmark backup files are in a folder named bookmarkbackups in each profile. You can copy promising files to the Desktop to try in a Restore.

Anything so far?

jscher2000 said

Hi Yield, when you use the Restore feature in the Library window, the bookmarks should return to their last locations. However, 11 items isn't very many, so I'm not sure restoring that particular backup will be useful. Are there any others listed? Possibly your Windows upgrade created this folder: C:\Windows.old Can you find such a folder on your system? If so: Before proceeding, please set Windows to show you hidden files and folders: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14201/windows-show-hidden-files Then check here: C:\Windows.old\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ You might just have one profile folder, or you might have more than one. The bookmark backup files are in a folder named bookmarkbackups in each profile. You can copy promising files to the Desktop to try in a Restore. Anything so far?

YES!!!!! this got every single thing back!!. Thank you so much it worked! I had lots of school things I needed back, Thank you thank you!

Thank you for reporting back.

By the way, Windows deletes that folder automatically after about 28 days, so if there's anything else in there you might want to rescue, make a little time in coming days to look through it.

Sorry mister jscher2000, i followed the instructions given in a previous post but it doesn't work. I tried to restore the following file:

bookmarks-2020-05-11_11_ntRhORY92JyZG23KzkglbA==.jsonlz4

and as an alternative

bookmarks-2020-05-15_13_qXFxELlarkeDJwuqDrOTMQ==.jsonlz4

and it didn't work at all.

I know Mozilla Firefox is free and I shouldn't have any expectations and I shouldn't complain, but this is really frustrating because I lost my bookmarks from the PC from workplace.

At home I didn't have this problem. As an additional remark: at home I have a legal Windows 10 license; I suppose I have a legal one at workplace too (I hope)(I work in a state university).

If Mozilla Firefox is not safe anymore, I should migrate to Chrome or another browser.

I know I'm 51 years old and I teach in social sciences but I get the feeling that some IT things are going a little bit too far for me, at least. I don't like modern technology and I feel I'm technologically harassed.

Sorry for the last part of my posting. But technological harassment is the least I need now, with this pandemic complication.

I forgot to mention. I didn't copy promising files to the Desktop to try in a Restore. I tried the restoration directly from the folders bookmarkbackups because I don't know what "promising files" means (english is not my native language).

Oh boy, do I feel like an idiot in this High Tech world...

Now I just tried to restore the "bookmarks-2020-05-11_11_ntRhORY92JyZG23KzkglbA==.jsonlz4" saved on Desktop (as you suggested) and after I closed my Mozilla browser and reopened it, I just realized not only that it didn't restored my old bookmarks but I lost the few ones which were saved (I don't remember saving them in Bookmarks toolbar) and were available a couple o minutes ago. I lost even a bookmark for this thread (or how do you call it) which I recently made in Bookmark Toolbar because I was sure that I wouldn't be able to trace it back in the whole topic "jungle" from mozilla forum (no offense). But I was able to find it again because it was still available in "History". Lucky me.

Jesus, I knew I suffer from depression but now I just added a super IT depression for sure...

Sorry again for the off-topic remark.

Hi Sceptic1968, the two files you mentioned hardly have anything in them. The number after the date is the total number of items in the file, so only 11 or 13, which might be the built-in list of bookmarks and folders:

• bookmarks-2020-05-11_11_gibberish==.jsonlz4
• bookmarks-2020-05-15_13_gibberish==.jsonlz4

Do you have any other backup files available?

Firefox freezes up (Not Responding) when a bookmark recovery attempt is made. Copying files from other profiles does absolutely nothing, not to mention that the bookmarks arent even in that old profile. This is the third time that I have lost all my saved bookmarks on Firefox due to the dumb multiple profile issue which also throws the user into an endless loop of incorrect passwords and changes between Google and Firefox and between PC and Mobile device. I hope you guys at Mozilla are having fun because you're driving the rest of us insane. Firefox is always a complicated user experience. There is simply no way to recover lost bookmarks on Firefox. I still don't even understand why I lost them all or why new profiles were created. Really think I'm going back to Chrome and MS Edge.

Appears to be no way to delete these comments - only edit.

There is no way to delete a reply.

Hi Rafael Lecuona

If you use Sync then best is to disconnect Sync temporarily during troubleshooting.

This can be caused by a problem with the places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite databases in the Firefox profile folder.

• use "Verify Integrity" button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page

If errors are reported with "Verify Integrity", close and restart Firefox and retry.

If "Verify Integrity" cannot repair places.sqlite, rename/remove all places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder. Firefox will rebuild places.sqlite and restore the bookmarks from a recent JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

• keep a backup copy of places.sqlite in case a new places.sqlite database has to be created

See also:

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/fix-bookmarks-and-history-will-not-be-functional

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

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Folder/Directory:
  Windows: Open Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data

I am confused by your reply and instructions. I can see no way to turn off sync. Either way, my issue is that Firefox freezes up and will not recover my old bookmarks. I don't even know why they disappeared. The instructions for recovery do not work or are way too complicated for average user.

I was about to give up on finding any button called "verify integrity" but when I finally saw it at the very bottom of several pages of unintelligible gibberish, it did nothing. Then Firefox froze up again. This is great fun. I see that as the last several times, it simply isn't going to be possible to recover my bookmarks from just the day before yesterday.

Hi Rafael, if Verify Integrity is locking up, that probably indicates one of the database files is corrupted. Sorry about that. See: Fix "The bookmarks and history system will not be functional" error message.

I do not see that yellow security software warning. Otherwise, I also do not want the most recent bookmarks. Those would be from this morning, after I had already lost all my bookmarks yesterday. I am trying to restore the stored backup of two days prior, which is in fact there but will not restore. I have tried as much as I can understand, all the mthods and none has done the trick. This has already happened several times with Firefox, that all of a sudden, for no known reason, all my bookmarks simply disappear, never to be recovered again despite them being visibly stored. Nothing worked the last several time, so I'm not holding my breath this time.

None of the files can be deleted to create a new database because Firefox has them open the error message reads. So once again, another solution fails.

I also do not want the most recent bookmarks. Those would be from this morning, after I had already lost all my bookmarks yesterday. I am trying to restore the stored backup of two days prior, which is in fact there but will not restore.

Okay, so setting aside the backup for a moment, are you able to add new bookmarks now? That would be a contrary indication, that the Places and Favicons databases are in fact healthy, even though Verify Integrity locked up.

If you want to check the validity of the backup files, you can try converting them to HTML using the following tool on my website:

https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/bookbackreader.html

Note: If the page doesn't decompress the file successfully within 15 seconds of loading the file, or prepare the export successfully within 15 seconds of clicking the button, the scripts may have locked up. It's best to close the tab at that point.

I am able to and never lost the ability to add new bookmarks but they are all in a new folder with todays date. Everything I had before appears irrecoverable. I found some other suggested solution earlier about finding the html file for the older bookmarks and I did but then didn't know what to do with it. It was another solution that led to nowhere.

Everything I had before appears irrecoverable. I found some other suggested solution earlier about finding the html file for the older bookmarks and I did but then didn't know what to do with it. It was another solution that led to nowhere.

Firefox doesn't create backups in HTML format, it creates compressed JSON files (.jsonlz4 extension). No point looking for HTML files.

Did you get an error message when you tried to convert your most recent large backup file on my page?

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/import-bookmarks-html-file

Here is how Firefox suggests using html to recover. But it didn't work. I did not try anything on your page as I have no idea what I would have been doing nor why. As mentioned before. This is all way too complicated for an average PC user. It's frustrating to know that my data is there but I can't access it. I already know computers and programs kind of suck that way.