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

My hard drive crashed. How do I restore my bookmarks ?

more options

My hard drive crashed. How do I restore my bookmarks ? Where are they located on my hard drive ?

Doesn't Firefox provide some type of support - call center, chat so you can reach a real HUMAN ?

My hard drive crashed. How do I restore my bookmarks ? Where are they located on my hard drive ? Doesn't Firefox provide some type of support - call center, chat so you can reach a real HUMAN ?

Chosen solution

You mentioned that they recovered "all my files, photos and data" so it's a question of whether they recovered files from the path I mentioned.

Ler a resposta no contexto 👍 0

All Replies (9)

more options

There is not a live person Help center. This is firefox Browser End user help forum only. If the drive crashed and it doesn't recover itself everything is lost. And you need to take to a computer shop to see what if they can save from it. The only other thing is if you had everything sync then maybe but if not then nothing can be done.

WestEnd modificouno o

more options

Thank you, but that's not my question. They were able to retrieve all my files, photos and data - but could not find the bookmarks. Where are they saved on the hard drive ? File location ? I also thought they were saved by Mozilla ? This is why I need to speak to someone directly at Firefox. I really don't like wasting my time - or others for that matter.

more options

Firefox stores data under your user profile, which is along a hidden path.

You can set Windows to show hidden files and folders using the steps here:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14201/windows-show-hidden-files

Then explore up this path to find your current data:

C:\Users\your-user-name\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

Did they back up that folder from the old drive?

Under Profiles are one or more semi-randomly named folders. For example:

a34be6yz.default

In each profile folder, look for a folder named bookmarkbackups containing compressed files.

You can restore one of those backups to your current installation of Firefox using the steps in this article (since you need to use Choose File to point Firefox to it, it's most convenient if you copy/paste it to your Desktop or Documents folder):

Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer

more options

Thank you. But I did not have 'Firefox' account and the hard drive crashed...so I am not clear on how your directions would work under these circumstances. Please clarify.

more options

Chosen Solution

You mentioned that they recovered "all my files, photos and data" so it's a question of whether they recovered files from the path I mentioned.

more options

Sorry - should have been more specific. They recovered documents and pictures from hard drive.....could not get bookmarks. Is there any other way to recover them ?

more options

Bookmarks are stored purely locally unless you set up the Firefox Sync service or you make backups to an external disk or the cloud. Is there any possibility for recovering additional files from your crashed hard drive?

more options

The IT tech said he could not reach that part of the hard drive. He kept getting an error message. He could not clone the hard drive but was able to copy everything in the 'user' file. The hard drive was not physically damaged - just stopped working due to age, I suppose. It spins intermittently and doesn't stay on. I guess the bookmarks would not be in the 'user file' and/ or the 'app/data' location is not in this file ? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thx.

more options

LeslieA said

He could not clone the hard drive but was able to copy everything in the 'user' file.

I think the only way to know is to look at everything that was recovered and see whether it contains the files from

C:\Users\your-user-name\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

As noted before, it's a hidden folder, so you need to set Windows to show hidden files and folders in order to see AppData.