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.

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.

I have a json file from firefox for my bookmarks. I had to complete delete firefox & restore it. How do I now recover the json file of my former bookmarks?

  • 1 reply
  • 3 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

RickinHonolulu
RickinHonolulu
more options

I have saved a json file from Firefox with my bookmarks. I had to completely delete Firefox from my computer along with its bookmarks. I re-installed Firefox 27. How do I get Firefox to accept/restore my saved json file as its bookmarks?

I have saved a json file from Firefox with my bookmarks. I had to completely delete Firefox from my computer along with its bookmarks. I re-installed Firefox 27. How do I get Firefox to accept/restore my saved json file as its bookmarks?

All Replies (1)

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

Make sure that the bookmarks backup file has the correct (lowercase) file extension:

  • .html for a HTML backup
  • .json for a JSON backup

You can check the file type via the right-click context menu of that file and open the Properties.
If you are not sure about the file type then you can open the file in Firefox via "Firefox > New Tab > Open File" or "File > Open File".
A JSON backup will show as one long text line without line breaks and a HTML backup shows as a web page with clickable links. 

A  JSON backup starts with: {"title":"","id":1,"dateAdded":
An HTML backup starts with: <!DOCTYPE NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1>

Verify the file type in the Properties via the right-click context menu to make sure that the change has been successful.

Note that Windows hides some file extensions by default. Among them are .html and .ini and .js and .txt, so you may only see the name without file extension. You can see the real file type (file extension) in the Properties of the file via the right-click context menu in Windows Explorer.