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How to move bookmarks from dead Win10 to new Win11 machine?

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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Been using Firefox for long time on a Win10 machine. Motherboard failed. Saved the C drive. Question is how to move bookmarks (profile files ?) from the old C drive to the new Win11 computer? I tried moving the profiles over from the old C drive to the new computer but Firefox would not recognize them and shutdown. Restored the Win11 files and Firefox is again happy.

Been using Firefox for long time on a Win10 machine. Motherboard failed. Saved the C drive. Question is how to move bookmarks (profile files ?) from the old C drive to the new Win11 computer? I tried moving the profiles over from the old C drive to the new computer but Firefox would not recognize them and shutdown. Restored the Win11 files and Firefox is again happy.

Chosen solution

You can copy certain files with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to transfer or recover 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;32+) and key4.db (decryption key;58+) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
    key3.db support ended in 73+; to use key3.db in 58-72, make sure to remove key4.db
  • cert9.db (58+) for (intermediate) 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)
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Hi dlingen1, You only need to copy & paste a bookmark backup file and restore it. You will probably want your favicons, also.

This article covers everything: Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-data

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Chosen Solution

You can copy certain files with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to transfer or recover 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;32+) and key4.db (decryption key;58+) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
    key3.db support ended in 73+; to use key3.db in 58-72, make sure to remove key4.db
  • cert9.db (58+) for (intermediate) 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)