Loss of historic bookmarks / toolbar
This is a new desktop PC. I uploaded Firefox expecting my old hard earned bookmarks to transfer - but no - it was my little used Microsoft Edge Ones. Happily, I still had old Firefox and bookmarks & toolbar on laptop but, attempting to follow online instructions to migrate those to this machine I have lost them too. Please help. Many Thanks.
It's all happened in last hour or so.
All Replies (2)
Hi, two questions:
(1) What did you try here:
> I still had old Firefox and bookmarks & toolbar on laptop but, attempting to follow online instructions to migrate those to this machine I have lost them too.
(If you deleted a folder or files on your old laptop, try using the Windows Recycle Bin to restore them.)
(2) Were you using Firefox Sync in your previous Firefox -- signing it in to your Firefox Account?
As long as you haven't reset the login for your Firefox Account, that data should still be there. Here's a method to check on that:
(A) Install the About Sync extension on your new Firefox from here: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/about-sync/
(B) After installation, type or paste about:sync in the address bar and press Enter to load that page
The add-on should show what is stored in the Sync cloud in various categories of data. If you scroll down to bookmarks and use the records/table mini-tab, can you see your old bookmarks there?
On the old device you should still have compressed jsonlz4 backups in the bookmarkbackups folder. You can restore a recent backup to recover lost bookmarks.
You can copy certain files with Firefox closed from another profile folder to the current profile folder to transfer personal data. Note that best is to avoid restoring a full profile folder and only restore important files that are safe to restore/transfer.
- bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
- favicons: favicons.sqlite
- bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
- cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
- formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
- logins.json (encrypted logins) and key4.db (encryption key and primary password) for logins saved in the Password Manager
- cert9.db for certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
- persdict.dat for words added to the spell checker dictionary
- permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
- sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)