Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

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 restoration

  • 9 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 8 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

I lost some of my bookmarks (I have 19000) when my cat stepped on my keyboard. No problem i make a daily back-up of my bookmarks since they are so precious for me (Thousand of BM are related too my work) It's not the first time I restore and I never encountered any probleme before. This morning, I did the usual but FF crashed and I had to restart my computer a few time. At one point, and I have no clue why, it restored a part of the BM but not the pesonal bar which is the most important since that's where I keep my BM for my research work.

Is the file too big now (It's about 5 Mo) if so why am-i not advise by FF when I save? Otherwise what could be the source of my problem??

Thanks

Sylvain Bernier Montréal

I lost some of my bookmarks (I have 19000) when my cat stepped on my keyboard. No problem i make a daily back-up of my bookmarks since they are so precious for me (Thousand of BM are related too my work) It's not the first time I restore and I never encountered any probleme before. This morning, I did the usual but FF crashed and I had to restart my computer a few time. At one point, and I have no clue why, it restored a part of the BM but not the pesonal bar which is the most important since that's where I keep my BM for my research work. Is the file too big now (It's about 5 Mo) if so why am-i not advise by FF when I save? Otherwise what could be the source of my problem?? Thanks Sylvain Bernier Montréal

All Replies (9)

more options

Hi Sylvain, sorry to hear about this problem. It's possible your cat needs more attention?

If the Bookmarks Toolbar is not displayed, you can use the Ctrl+Shift+B keyboard shortcut to turn it back on.

What appears in the bookmarks bar currently? For example:

  • A placeholder message indicating that you can add bookmarks there*
  • Just the default content for a new installation
  • Something else

* If you have the placeholder message:

The "Bookmarks Toolbar Items" control which designates where Firefox will display the Bookmarks Toolbar content may have moved. Please see the attached screenshot for more context of what I mean. The article on Customizing is: Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars.

more options

Since you mentioned crashes, we are also concerned about possible file corruption of the Places database -- the file which stores bookmarks together with history. Could you let us know what you get when you run the "Verify Integrity" function. That's here:

Open Firefox's Troubleshooting Information page using any of these methods:

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

Near the bottom, there is a section titled Places Database -- that's the file which stores history and bookmarks. Click the button labeled Verify Integrity. There may be a 10-15 second delay before results appear.

If all is well, the report that appears below the button should start with:

> Task: checkIntegrity
+ The places.sqlite database is sane
+ The favicons.sqlite database is sane

Does yours say that, or something else? You can select and copy the report, and then paste it into a reply for review and comment.

more options

19,000?

I recall years ago, my cat knocked over my mug of coffee onto my keyboard. My PC literally went coo coo on me! :-)

Recently, I did an experiment by installing an older version of FireFox on the PC. So i have 2 versions installed an operating at the same time.

I was pleasantly surprised that when i re-established my FireFox account on the newly installed older version, all the bookmarks i had sync'd from the other version, were downloaded to the older version.

So the above is a trick to preserve your bookmarks "if" you had previously sync'd them up to your FireFox Account.

But be "WARNED".

Do not sync your current browser at this time because it will wipe out everything that is stored in your FireFox Account. If your current FF account is logged on, then log out asap and do not do a sync.

In otherwards, the sync feature cannot determine if you had intentionally chosen to delete bookmarks and then have this action updated to the account.

In any case, i have no other "safe" way to download your bookmarks from your FF account other than by installing a different version of FF.

Afterwards, you can then manually export/import your bookmarks from the older version into the new one.

Modified by ·´¯`·...¸>-)))º> ~dbben

more options

Hello the problem is fixed. The source was related to the fact that FF does not give any sign that it is working while it is loading my large BM file. So after a certain time I clicked on it and that's where it went berzerk et and turn for eternity until I restart. Then I tried again. But the last time I trid a restore, I went to cook my dinner and everything was back.. Ho and I reinstall FF but the problem was still there so I thionk that what I ideitifed as a flaw is stil the issue to be dealt with.

Sylvain

more options

great.

this might be a good time to consider a strategy called "back up", for these just-in-case scenarios  :-)

more options

@dbben

That's what I was doing restoring a BU. The thing now is that I'M using the synchro in my account which I did not have since today.

Thanks again for your contribution


Sylvain

more options

I see. Thanks!

more options

sylvaynbernyer said

Hello the problem is fixed. The source was related to the fact that FF does not give any sign that it is working while it is loading my large BM file.

Yes, in the old days, everything was synchronous: Firefox just locked up until the restore was done. Now it's asynchronous and you can't tell what is going on. They certainly could improve on that by showing some kind of progress indication.

more options

Note that you can use "Organize -> Undo" (Ctrl+Z) in the Bookmarks Manager (Library) to undo an accidental delete if you haven't closed Firefox yet. You may have to use "Ctrl+Z" more than once. Firefox keeps a full undo stack during a session and allows to undo any change made during the session.