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Lost Shortcuts on TOOLBAR after restoring bookmarks file

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 26 views
  • Last reply by mnalep

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I have lost my shortcuts in the TOOLBAR. This happened after I attempted to RESTORE bookmarks from the MANAGE BOOKMARKS - from a BOOKMARKS file from a different PC. The RESTORE ran for a while, then failed with an error message of some sort. Well, I decided to do an END TASK in FILE MANAGER to end Firefox.

Since I had a good copy of my bookmarks file from another PC, I thought I could copy that into the PROFILE directory somewhere, but at that point FILE MANAGER only showed me bookmark files in a BOOKMARKSBACKUP folder.

Rather than guessing where to put the 'good' BOOKMARKS file from my other PC, I decided to just restart Firefox.

After I did, I was pleasantly surprised to see that my bookmarks seemed to be restored ok (previously, there were many duplicates entries, possibly dozens of duplicates for each bookmark - for some reason, that made SEARCHING the bookmarks impossible - I would type on or two characters in the SEARCH box and FIREFOX would hang forever.)

Anyways, I think my Bookmarks might be restored/imported properly (I don't recall which command I used at this point). But, all the shortcuts on the TOOLBAR are missing. And I had dozens.

Is there a way to restore just shortcuts to the TOOLBAR now? (since I think my others are now ok, in the menu.) Should I try the restore again? Can I just copy the bookmarks.JSON, or bookmarks.HTML file, into the PROFILE FOLDER somewhere? Any other solution other than just manually putting the shortcuts back in the toolbar?

Oh, and any idea why I had dozens of duplicate bookmarks, that made the search function impossible? (I don't want that to happen again.)

I have lost my shortcuts in the TOOLBAR. This happened after I attempted to RESTORE bookmarks from the MANAGE BOOKMARKS - from a BOOKMARKS file from a different PC. The RESTORE ran for a while, then failed with an error message of some sort. Well, I decided to do an END TASK in FILE MANAGER to end Firefox. Since I had a good copy of my bookmarks file from another PC, I thought I could copy that into the PROFILE directory somewhere, but at that point FILE MANAGER only showed me bookmark files in a BOOKMARKSBACKUP folder. Rather than guessing where to put the 'good' BOOKMARKS file from my other PC, I decided to just restart Firefox. After I did, I was pleasantly surprised to see that my bookmarks seemed to be restored ok (previously, there were many duplicates entries, possibly dozens of duplicates for each bookmark - for some reason, that made SEARCHING the bookmarks impossible - I would type on or two characters in the SEARCH box and FIREFOX would hang forever.) Anyways, I think my Bookmarks might be restored/imported properly (I don't recall which command I used at this point). But, all the shortcuts on the TOOLBAR are missing. And I had dozens. Is there a way to restore just shortcuts to the TOOLBAR now? (since I think my others are now ok, in the menu.) Should I try the restore again? Can I just copy the bookmarks.JSON, or bookmarks.HTML file, into the PROFILE FOLDER somewhere? Any other solution other than just manually putting the shortcuts back in the toolbar? Oh, and any idea why I had dozens of duplicate bookmarks, that made the search function impossible? (I don't want that to happen again.)

Modified by mnalep

All Replies (2)

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Sounds that still something went wrong with restoring a JSON backup and that places.sqlite got corrupted if that is what you did or did you recover a places.sqlite database ?

You can use this tool to inspect a compressed .jsonlz4 backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.


You can try these steps in case of issues with webpages:

You can reload webpage(s) and bypass the cache to refresh possibly outdated or corrupted files.

  • hold down the Shift key and left-click the Reload button
  • press "Ctrl + F5" or press "Ctrl + Shift + R" (Windows,Linux)
  • press "Command + Shift + R" (Mac)

Clear the Cache and remove the Cookies for websites that cause problems via the "3-bar" Firefox menu button (Settings).

"Remove the Cookies" for websites that cause problems:

  • Settings -> Privacy & Security
    Cookies and Site Data: "Manage Data"

"Clear the Cache":

  • Settings -> Privacy & Security
    Cookies and Site Data -> Clear Data -> [X] Cached Web Content -> Clear

Start Firefox in Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of the extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) or if hardware acceleration or userChrome.css is causing the problem.

  • switch to the DEFAULT theme: "3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Themes
  • do NOT click the "Refresh Firefox" button on the Troubleshoot Mode start window
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I restored on my LAPTOP using MANAGE BOOKMARKS / IMPORT & BACKUP / RESTORE / CHOOSE FILE ... and then selected the BOOKMARKS.json file that I had just saved on a USB stick from my DESKTOP PC. (I did not choose a backup from the two weeks, or so, of backup files already on my LAPTOP, as they all indicated they had over 262,000 ENTRIES - so I figured they all had the unwanted duplicates.)

I do not know what the PLACES.SQLITE database is. So, I don't believe I did anything to that...

Any idea how the duplicates got into my Bookmarks list?

I will do some more digging tomorrow, on the RELOAD, with "Ctrl + F5", that you suggested. (Too late tonight already.)