Restoring bookmarks in FF

[gmaster456]

So I went from Firefox 10.4 esr to Firefox 12 and in the process of upgrading, lost all of my bookmarks. Is there any way to get them back? I really need them. I also lost all of my addons but I'm not too worried about those.

 

[lxskllr]

Poke around in your profile in the hidden App Data directory, under Roaming. Unless it wiped everything which would be unusual, they should be in there as bookmarks.html. If so, you can import them to your new install.

 

[gmaster456]

Alright, I just looked there. Whatever FF did when I upgraded wiped out whatever I already had and replaced it. They're gone from what I can see. Everything in the Mozilla roaming folder says it was just created today.

 

[lxskllr]

Hmm... Maybe try the Local folder. There's some stuff in there also.

 

[AFurryReptile]

Alright, I just looked there. Whatever FF did when I upgraded wiped out whatever I already had and replaced it. They're gone from what I can see. Everything in the Mozilla roaming folder says it was just created today.

Do you have shadow copy enabled in Windows? Right click the affected directory, and go to properties. Look for a 'Previous Versions' tab, and see if you can restore something useful.

 

[gmaster456]

Do you have shadow copy enabled in Windows? Right click the affected directory, and go to properties. Look for a 'Previous Versions' tab, and see if you can restore something useful.

Alright, I have restored the previous version of the Mozilla folder. Now how do I import my old bookmarks?

 

[lxskllr]

Bookmarks-Show all bookmarks-Import and backup-Import bookmarks from HTML, then point it to your bookmarks.html file.

 

[gmaster456]

Thanks a ton you guys. It worked! I owe you one. If there's anything you need, contact me.

 

[Revolution 11]

gmaster, I would suggest, if the bookmarks are that important to you, that you backup a JSON file of the bookmarks along with a HTML version as part of your backup files (you are making backups, right?). This will save you major headaches in the future.

My JSON file is 18.6 MB, 4 years old, and growing at a healthy pace.

 

[gmaster456]

gmaster, I would suggest, if the bookmarks are that important to you, that you backup a JSON file of the bookmarks along with a HTML version as part of your backup files (you are making backups, right?). This will save you major headaches in the future.

My JSON file is 18.6 MB, 4 years old, and growing at a healthy pace.

That is a good idea. And yes, I do back up .

 

[lxskllr]

You could also consider setting up Firefox sync. I played with it awhile ago, but syncing doesn't really fit my style. I prefer a straight backup, and manually transferring settings I want between my different machines. It seemed to work ok though. I don't remember how to set it up, but it was pretty straight forward. A quick DuckDuckGo would get you the details.

 

[gmaster456]

You could also consider setting up Firefox sync. I played with it awhile ago, but syncing doesn't really fit my style. I prefer a straight backup, and manually transferring settings I want between my different machines. It seemed to work ok though. I don't remember how to set it up, but it was pretty straight forward. A quick DuckDuckGo would get you the details.

I will give that a try as well. Thank you.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

FYI you may also want to look into the mozy backup utility to backup your FF profiles.