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I used Sync to move all bookmarks to a new laptop & erased them from the original. Now they are all gone!

GaryWizard42
GaryWizard42
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I bought a new laptop & set up Sync on my old one. After configuring the new laptop & installing Mozilla, I enabled Sync on the new laptop and got all my bookmarks, etc. Everything was good.

I had made arrangements to donate my old laptop to a school program and so cleaned off all my apps & private data. I then removed all the bookmarks from Mozilla (thinking I would leave the app there for the new users). I had planned to wipe my cookies and then wipe the unused drive space prior to turning it over when I found all my bookmarks on my new laptop had disappeared!

Both systems are running Win 7 with the latest version of Mozilla.

Is there any way to get these back?

I bought a new laptop & set up Sync on my old one. After configuring the new laptop & installing Mozilla, I enabled Sync on the new laptop and got all my bookmarks, etc. Everything was good. I had made arrangements to donate my old laptop to a school program and so cleaned off all my apps & private data. I then removed all the bookmarks from Mozilla (thinking I would leave the app there for the new users). I had planned to wipe my cookies and then wipe the unused drive space prior to turning it over when I found all my bookmarks on my new laptop had disappeared! Both systems are running Win 7 with the latest version of Mozilla. Is there any way to get these back?

Chosen solution

Sorry that happened to you, but you should have used Disconnect ... in Options > Sync before deleting your bookmarks from the old laptop.

Maybe you can recover your bookmark backups on that old laptop, which would probably have more backup files than the new laptop. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-bookmarks-from-backup-or-move-them

Save the bookmarksbackup JSON file to a USB flash stick on the old laptop and then use that USB flash stick on the new laptop to Restore using the menu item Choose File ... as shown here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-bookmarks-from-backup-or-move-them#w_restoring-from-backups

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the-edmeister
the-edmeister
  • Moderator
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Chosen Solution

Sorry that happened to you, but you should have used Disconnect ... in Options > Sync before deleting your bookmarks from the old laptop.

Maybe you can recover your bookmark backups on that old laptop, which would probably have more backup files than the new laptop. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-bookmarks-from-backup-or-move-them

Save the bookmarksbackup JSON file to a USB flash stick on the old laptop and then use that USB flash stick on the new laptop to Restore using the menu item Choose File ... as shown here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-bookmarks-from-backup-or-move-them#w_restoring-from-backups