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How can I restore one missing bookmarks folder without overwriting all my bookmarks?

  • 4 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 10 views
  • Last reply by RoseThorn

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An important folder in my bookmarks is missing. I checked to see if I had accidentally moved it, but it no longer iexists. Is there a way to restore just that folder?

If that's not possible, I have an older copy of it imported into Avast SafeZone. Is there a way I could copy that folder and import it into my current bookmarks? TYIA!

An important folder in my bookmarks is missing. I checked to see if I had accidentally moved it, but it no longer iexists. Is there a way to restore just that folder? If that's not possible, I have an older copy of it imported into Avast SafeZone. Is there a way I could copy that folder and import it into my current bookmarks? TYIA!

Chosen solution

Hi RoseThorn, unfortunately Firefox doesn't have a convenient method to export or import only one folder of bookmarks. I don't know about Avast.

Two thoughts:

(1) You could try to restore the last backup if this is the only change since then. I suppose it may be difficult to know exactly when the problem started, and a restore is a complete replacement of your bookmarks, so it may be risky to experiment around too much.

See: Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer

(2) You could convert a recent bookmark backup to an importable HTML file. Import the file, move the important folder where you want it, and delete the rest of the Imported Bookmarks folder. This would use a tool on my website:

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA 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

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

Double-click into the bookmarkbackups folder. Each file has a date and number of items coded into its name which could help in deciding which one(s) to convert.

To try converting the file, drag and drop a backup file onto this page:

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

then click Export HTML.

To check the generated file, you can open it in a Firefox tab.

To import the generated file to your bookmarks, see: Import Bookmarks from an HTML file. Usually that will create a new folder at the bottom of your Bookmarks Menu named Imported Bookmarks.

Read this answer in context 👍 2

All Replies (4)

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Are you using Sync?

You can run the Integrity Check for the Places Database which is where Bookmarks are stored.

  1. Open Help > Troubleshooting Information and scroll down that long page to Places Database and then use the Integrity Check button.
  2. Once that is done the "verification data" will show there.
  3. Then view your Bookmarks and see if that folder reappears.


As far as Avast SafeZone, never used it and never heard of it before, so no idea what it is capable of doing. And our experience here is that using any 3rd party external application with Firefox SQLite files can create problems and can be unpredictable as to the intended results. If you try it, back-up your places.sqlite file is a safe place before trying to use that Avast SafeZone application.

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Thanks so much for your reply! I am not using Sync, because I haven't looked into it. Would that help? In any case, I did as you suggested and I'm still in the dark. This is what I got when I clicked on Verify Integrity. btw, I backed up my bookmarks a month ago. Is there a way to restore just that one folder? That would be a great solution if the below doesn't help.

> Task: checkIntegrity + The database is sane > Task: checkCoherence + The database is coherent > Task: expire + Database cleaned up > Task: vacuum + Initial database size is 10240 KiB + The database has been vacuumed + Final database size is 10240 KiB > Task: stats + Database size is 10240 KiB + pragma_user_version is 39 + pragma_page_size is 32768 + pragma_cache_size is -2048 + pragma_journal_mode is wal + pragma_synchronous is 1 + History can store a maximum of 100549 unique pages + Table moz_places has 12457 records + Table moz_historyvisits has 17094 records + Table moz_inputhistory has 2 records + Table moz_hosts has 3669 records + Table moz_bookmarks has 8529 records + Table moz_keywords has 0 records + Table sqlite_sequence has 1 records + Table moz_favicons has 0 records + Table moz_anno_attributes has 11 records + Table moz_annos has 1072 records + Table moz_items_annos has 1023 records + Table sqlite_stat1 has 18 records + Table moz_bookmarks_deleted has 0 records + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_inputhistory_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_hosts_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_keywords_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_favicons_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_anno_attributes_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_bookmarks_deleted_1 + Index moz_places_faviconindex + Index moz_places_hostindex + Index moz_places_visitcount + Index moz_places_frecencyindex + Index moz_places_lastvisitdateindex + Index moz_historyvisits_placedateindex + Index moz_historyvisits_fromindex + Index moz_historyvisits_dateindex + Index moz_bookmarks_itemindex + Index moz_bookmarks_parentindex + Index moz_bookmarks_itemlastmodifiedindex + Index moz_places_url_hashindex + Index moz_places_guid_uniqueindex + Index moz_bookmarks_guid_uniqueindex + Index moz_annos_placeattributeindex + Index moz_items_annos_itemattributeindex + Index moz_keywords_placepostdata_uniqueindex + Index moz_bookmarks_dateaddedindex > Task: _refreshUI

Modified by RoseThorn

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Chosen Solution

Hi RoseThorn, unfortunately Firefox doesn't have a convenient method to export or import only one folder of bookmarks. I don't know about Avast.

Two thoughts:

(1) You could try to restore the last backup if this is the only change since then. I suppose it may be difficult to know exactly when the problem started, and a restore is a complete replacement of your bookmarks, so it may be risky to experiment around too much.

See: Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer

(2) You could convert a recent bookmark backup to an importable HTML file. Import the file, move the important folder where you want it, and delete the rest of the Imported Bookmarks folder. This would use a tool on my website:

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA 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

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

Double-click into the bookmarkbackups folder. Each file has a date and number of items coded into its name which could help in deciding which one(s) to convert.

To try converting the file, drag and drop a backup file onto this page:

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

then click Export HTML.

To check the generated file, you can open it in a Firefox tab.

To import the generated file to your bookmarks, see: Import Bookmarks from an HTML file. Usually that will create a new folder at the bottom of your Bookmarks Menu named Imported Bookmarks.

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jscher2000, I'm going to try your second suggestion - it just might work! Thank you so much - I really appreciate it. ! I'll report back when I've given it a try. :-)