Hi

Thank you for your question about the Firefox Sync service.

It appears from your question, that you are using Firefox Sync as a back up service. This is not what Sync is designed to do. The Firefox Sync service takes a copy of the data you wish to include and transfers it to a second device (typically a mobile device such as a tablet or a telephone) running a copy of Firefox. The storage in between all attached devices is both temporary and fragile and is not stable enough to be (and is not designed as) a reliable backup service.

If you have a copy of your Firefox profile for desktop Firefox, you may be able to recover your bookmarks and other data. Please have a read of this article.

If you have a copy of your data on a mobile version of Firefox, please follow these instructions to connect it to Firefox Sync to copy your data.

Hi Seburo, Thank you for your reply. So, what I thought I was attempting to do will not work. Let me ask you this, Seburo. If I were to rebuild my Windows 7 operating system, and I presume lose all my Firefox data, (bookmarks and such), how do I retrieve all that Firefox data, once my computer is back up and running again? Is it worth while to have Firefox account back up so to speak to retrieve all my Firefox data, and then just plug it in to my rebuilt system? If so, how do I go about that, Seburo? Thank you.

Don't use a "Firefox Account" & Sync for "backing up" one PC. Too many poor experiences have been reported in this forum by users who tried to do that. But of course users who may have done that successfully don't ask for support.

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

the-edmeister, thank you for your reply. I will take your advice. I don't want to see my Firefox all screwed up after I try and rebuild my system. I just was told by someone how knows more than I do about computers, that getting a Firefox account would be helpful in reacquiring my Firefox data once the rebuild is done.

sciencemagic said

... I just was told by someone how knows more than I do about computers, that getting a Firefox account would be helpful in reacquiring my Firefox data once the rebuild is done.

"someone" misunderstood what Sync is intended to do - to synchronize Firefox data and prefs across multiple devices. Common mis-perception by a person with general knowledge about "data clouds", but no specific knowledge about Sync.

The difference being that the data would still be "safe" on another device during the course of the first device losing its. So if something goes wrong, or the user screws up and resets the Sync password thus wiping there data from the Sync server; their data is still on that other device.

the-edmeister, thank you for your reply. I understand your comments. So, when it's all said and done, what would be the best way; realizing I am not a computer genius, to ensure I keep all my Firefox data when I rebuild my computer system? Thank you.

I posted a link to a support article - "Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles"

the-edmeister said

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

Also, there is this older extension for Firefox so you can do that more automatically. http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/

Downside is that extension is no longer supported by its' developer. Many MozBackup say is still works - I can say myself, as I never used MozBackup. I do it as outlined in the "Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles" support article.

the-edmeister, thanks for your reply and help.