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.

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

Este fío arquivouse. Faga unha nova pregunta se precisa axuda.

If I reset my PC, will my mozilla profile folder survive?

  • 2 respostas
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

Omranfarhad1
Omranfarhad1
more options

I've had to reset my laptop due to some issues, and once I re installed Firefox, I am left without my bookmarks.

Is there any way of retrieving them? Will the profile folder have survived? How do I find out? Help?

I've had to reset my laptop due to some issues, and once I re installed Firefox, I am left without my bookmarks. Is there any way of retrieving them? Will the profile folder have survived? How do I find out? Help?

All Replies (2)

FredMcD
FredMcD
more options

That depends on what you mean by reset. Why do you need to do this?

One thing you can do is buy a second hard drive as a backup.

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

If Windows didn't create a backup in C:\Windows.old and you didn't backup your Firefox personal data then your bookmarks might be lost.

Firefox uses two locations for the Firefox profile folder. Location used for the main profile in "AppData\Roaming" that keeps your personal data.

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

Location used for the disk cache and other temporary files in "AppData\Local".

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

You can copy files like these from another profile folder (on your current device or a different device) or from a backup to the current profile folder to recover specific personal data.

  • bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
  • bookmark backups: JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
  • cookies.sqlite for the cookies
  • formhistory.sqlite for saved form data
  • logins.json and key3.db (decryption key) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
  • cert8.db and possibly cert_override.txt for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  • persdict.dat for words you added to the spelling checker dictionary
  • permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other Site Preferences
  • sessionstore.js for open tabs and pinned tabs