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

managed to install new version of firefox instead of update, thus losing bookmarks and passwords, can i get them back?

  • 4 majibu
  • 4 wana tatizo hili
  • 8 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

more options

managed to install new version of firefox instead of update, thus losing bookmarks and passwords, can i get them back?

managed to install new version of firefox instead of update, thus losing bookmarks and passwords, can i get them back?

Chosen solution

Thanks for the replies. I did not have a file called 'old firefox' but I did find an old back-up of my bookmarks - importing this did solve all the problems.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (4)

more options

Look on your desktop. Do you see a folder called; Old Firefox?

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recovering-important-data-from-an-old-profile

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Type about:profiles<enter> in the address bar. How many profiles are listed? How many should be there?

more options

You shouldn't be losing your personal data in the profile folder because of an update. You can check if you have orphaned profiles that aren't registered in profiles.ini in the location for the profile folders

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

Note that "AppData" (XP: Application Data; Mac: ~/Library; Linux: ~/.mozilla) is a hidden folder.


You can copy files like these to the current Firefox profile folder to recover specific data.

  • bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
  • bookmark backups: JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
  • SQLite files like cookies.sqlite (cookies) and formhistory.sqlite (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 and tab groups
more options

Suluhisho teule

Thanks for the replies. I did not have a file called 'old firefox' but I did find an old back-up of my bookmarks - importing this did solve all the problems.

more options

Good work. You could restore your original profile using the instructions above.