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Restoring Bookmarks from another drive

  • 1 reply
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  • Last reply by cor-el

ipadsilverman
ipadsilverman
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I have been using Firefox for well over a decade. Recently, I had to reformat my boot drive, the hard drive C drive.

I lost programs, but not files, as I had done a simple copy of the entire file structure, directories, files, everything, to an external drive. However, I stupidly forgot to export the firefox bookmarks first. So i have a brand new firefox install, but no bookmarks.

Can someone please direct me to where I would go on the external drive to get all my old firefox bookmarks, and the best way to import them into my new installation?

Thank you.

I have been using Firefox for well over a decade. Recently, I had to reformat my boot drive, the hard drive C drive. I lost programs, but not files, as I had done a simple copy of the entire file structure, directories, files, everything, to an external drive. However, I stupidly forgot to export the firefox bookmarks first. So i have a brand new firefox install, but no bookmarks. Can someone please direct me to where I would go on the external drive to get all my old firefox bookmarks, and the best way to import them into my new installation? Thank you.

All Replies (1)

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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Firefox uses two locations for the Firefox profile folder.

One location for your personal data (e.g. bookmarks) and another location for temporary files like the disk cache, so make sure to look in the correct location.

Location used for the main profile that keeps your personal data (Root Directory on about:profiles).

  • C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>

Location used for the disk cache and other temporary files (Local Directory on about:profiles).

  • C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>

You can copy certain files with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to transfer/recover/backup your personal data. Note that best is to avoid copying a full profile folder.

  • bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
  • favicons: favicons.sqlite
  • bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
  • cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
  • formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
  • logins.json (encrypted logins) and key4.db (decryption key and primary password) for logins saved in the Password Manager
  • cert9.db for certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  • persdict.dat for words added to the spell checker dictionary
  • permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
  • sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)