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all my bookmarks disappeared, how to restore them?

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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Firefox restarted but all my bookmarks have been disappeared I have tried but not able to restore them Please help Thanks

Firefox restarted but all my bookmarks have been disappeared I have tried but not able to restore them Please help Thanks

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Sorry to hear about this problem. Could you describe the circumstances in more detail? Did Firefox crash, or did your whole system crash? Did you try using the Refresh feature?

If the Restore menu described in this article --

Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer

-- doesn't show any older backups, then your Firefox may be using a different profile (settings folder) than it was using before.

If you haven't already, you may want to do a normal system shutdown and startup to release any file locks and complete any pending updates.

If your data does not magically reappear, the most likely scenarios for complete data loss are:

(1) A Refresh started but the migration of data from your old profile to your new profile was incomplete, or
(2) Your old profile was locked, so Firefox ignored it and created a new one.

Here's how to investigate those two possibilities:

Did Firefox perform a Refresh?

Unless it was interrupted in progress, you should find a folder on your desktop named Old Firefox Data. Inside would be a semi-randomly-named folder with freshly updated files. Do you see anything like that?

If so, we'll suggest how to rescue key files or completely restore the earlier profile folder.

If not...

Does the Profile Manager list your immediately previous profile folder?

To check on that, inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.

This page should list all the profiles Firefox is currently aware of. If you see a profile that is not currently set as default that looks promising, scroll down to it and click the Set as default profile button below that profile, then scroll back up and click the Restart normally button. (There are some other buttons, but I think those are still "under construction" so please ignore them.)

Firefox should exit and then start up using the other profile. Is that the right one?

If it's not there...

Did Firefox orphan your old profile folder?

Here's how to check whether there are additional profile folders in the standard location in addition to the one you're using. Start by opening your current Firefox profile folder using either:

* "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
* (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
* type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter/Return

In the first table on the page, click the "Open Folder" button, to launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.

In the Windows Explorer address bar, click the capitalized word Profiles to move up one level in the folder hierarchy. More than one folder here by any chance? Do the files in those folders look like they were last updated around the time of the update?

If you've got any promising looking folders, we can discuss next steps to recover use of them.

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You can add the "Bookmarks Menu" button that shows the bookmarks in a drop-down list to the Navigation Toolbar via these steps:

  • click the bookshelf 57 library icon icon on the Navigation Toolbar or alternatively use the Library menu in the "3-bar" Firefox menu button New Fx Menu drop-down list
  • click Bookmarks
  • click "Bookmarking Tools", then click "Add Bookmarks Menu to Toolbar"
The Bookmark Menu button Bookmark Menu icon (star on tray) should appear on the Navigation Toolbar.

You can also drag the Bookmarks Menu button from the Customize palette to the Navigation Toolbar

See also "How do I add the Bookmarks Menu button to the toolbar?":