This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

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

Bookmarks deleted after import

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 17 views
  • Last reply by mariov652

more options

Hi,

Running Firefox 38 on Linux Mint 17.2.

I was rearranging my bookmarks and wanted to move one of the folders to the top, placing it above the default 'Mozzila' bookmark. The folder I moved disappeared and I could no longer locate it.

Advice on the forums recommended running an import in the 'Show All Bookmarks' window. I had not previously run a manual backup myself. Thinking the last file may contain the deleted folder, I imported the backup shown for today.

Consequently all my bookmarks disappeared.

Is this normal, and how can I go about restoring my old bookmarks? Are the deleted ones placed in a temporary folder somewhere?

Thanks.

Hi, Running Firefox 38 on Linux Mint 17.2. I was rearranging my bookmarks and wanted to move one of the folders to the top, placing it above the default 'Mozzila' bookmark. The folder I moved disappeared and I could no longer locate it. Advice on the forums recommended running an import in the 'Show All Bookmarks' window. I had not previously run a manual backup myself. Thinking the last file may contain the deleted folder, I imported the backup shown for today. Consequently all my bookmarks disappeared. Is this normal, and how can I go about restoring my old bookmarks? Are the deleted ones placed in a temporary folder somewhere? Thanks.

Chosen solution

mariov652 said

I was rearranging my bookmarks and wanted to move one of the folders to the top, placing it above the default 'Mozzila' bookmark. The folder I moved disappeared and I could no longer locate it. Advice on the forums recommended running an import in the 'Show All Bookmarks' window. I had not previously run a manual backup myself. Thinking the last file may contain the deleted folder, I imported the backup shown for today.

1. When you lose bookmarks or folders when rearranging them - use the Undo menu item in the Organize menu at the top of the Library window. As long as Firefox isn't closed you should be able to Undo previous changes that are made in the Library window.

2. The bookmark backups that Firefox automatically saves are in the JSON format and need to be Restored. When you restore a JSON file it overwrites the existing bookmarks, which in this case shouldn't be a problem.

Import is for bookmarks.html format bookmarks that came from another browser or from an export from Firefox. The import via HTML format will append existing bookmarks, which in this situation would create many duplicates or all then would be duplicated.


See this support article to learn where Firefox bookmarks and other user data is stored. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data

Read this answer in context 👍 1

All Replies (3)

more options

Update: I've managed to restore my bookmarks from a separate system which hadn't yet synced.

I would still be interested to know where to find the bookmark folders/files if moved to the space just below 'recent tags'.


Thanks,

more options

Chosen Solution

mariov652 said

I was rearranging my bookmarks and wanted to move one of the folders to the top, placing it above the default 'Mozzila' bookmark. The folder I moved disappeared and I could no longer locate it. Advice on the forums recommended running an import in the 'Show All Bookmarks' window. I had not previously run a manual backup myself. Thinking the last file may contain the deleted folder, I imported the backup shown for today.

1. When you lose bookmarks or folders when rearranging them - use the Undo menu item in the Organize menu at the top of the Library window. As long as Firefox isn't closed you should be able to Undo previous changes that are made in the Library window.

2. The bookmark backups that Firefox automatically saves are in the JSON format and need to be Restored. When you restore a JSON file it overwrites the existing bookmarks, which in this case shouldn't be a problem.

Import is for bookmarks.html format bookmarks that came from another browser or from an export from Firefox. The import via HTML format will append existing bookmarks, which in this situation would create many duplicates or all then would be duplicated.


See this support article to learn where Firefox bookmarks and other user data is stored. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data

more options

Thanks for the tips. Appreciated!