Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Windows 7 lost my Firefox bookmarks.

  • 1 reply
  • 6 have this problem
  • 8 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

JFanshaw
JFanshaw
more options

Windows 7 on my new Dell Inspiron 580s performed some sort of Dell backup and lost all of my Firefox bookmarks (except for the ones in the Bookmarks Toolbar). Nothing I've tried has been able to get them back. I Googled for a solution and got this: In Windows Vista and Windows 7

1.Click on the "Computer" icon in the "Start" menu or double-click on the "Computer" Desktop icon.

2.Double-click on the "OS (C:)" icon.

3.Double-click on the "Users" folder icon.

4.Double-click on the folder icon that corresponds to the Windows user account name whose Mozilla Firefox Bookmarks you are attempting to locate.

5.Double-click on the "AppData" folder icon.

6.Double-click on the "Roaming" folder icon.

7.Double-click on the "Mozilla" folder icon.

8.Double-click on the "Firefox" folder icon.

9.Double-click on the "Profiles" folder icon.

10.Double-click on the "xxxxxxxx.default" folder icon (where "xxxxxxxx" represents a random string of eight characters that differs on a computer-to-computer basis).

11.Double-click on the "bookmarkbackups" folder icon. This folder contains a number of dated .json files, which themselves contain your bookmarks.

So now what do I do with the file? The article doesn't go any farther.

Windows 7 on my new Dell Inspiron 580s performed some sort of Dell backup and lost all of my Firefox bookmarks (except for the ones in the Bookmarks Toolbar). Nothing I've tried has been able to get them back. I Googled for a solution and got this: In Windows Vista and Windows 7 1.Click on the "Computer" icon in the "Start" menu or double-click on the "Computer" Desktop icon. 2.Double-click on the "OS (C:)" icon. 3.Double-click on the "Users" folder icon. 4.Double-click on the folder icon that corresponds to the Windows user account name whose Mozilla Firefox Bookmarks you are attempting to locate. 5.Double-click on the "AppData" folder icon. 6.Double-click on the "Roaming" folder icon. 7.Double-click on the "Mozilla" folder icon. 8.Double-click on the "Firefox" folder icon. 9.Double-click on the "Profiles" folder icon. 10.Double-click on the "xxxxxxxx.default" folder icon (where "xxxxxxxx" represents a random string of eight characters that differs on a computer-to-computer basis). 11.Double-click on the "bookmarkbackups" folder icon. This folder contains a number of dated .json files, which themselves contain your bookmarks. So ''now'' what do I do with the file? The article doesn't go any farther.

All Replies (1)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

First make a backup of all the JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder to be sure that you do not lose a backup that has your bookmarks.

A JSON backup needs to be restored, there is not much else that you can do with it.
You can open such a JSON backup in a text editor (use Open With in the right-click context menu) to see if you recognize some links. The file consists of one long line with no line breaks, so you need to wrap the text to make it easier to see everything. Make sure that you do not save the file should the editor prompt you to do so.

See:

Such issues can also be caused by a corrupted places.sqlite file, so you may have to delete places.sqlite to get the bookmarks working again.

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Lost_bookmarks