Losing bookmarks

User Help for Mozilla Firefox
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mcm_ham
Posts: 1747
Joined: June 16th, 2004, 6:09 am
Location: Christchurch, New Zealand

Post by mcm_ham »

The whole task manager thing is because sometimes Firefox might crash for whatever reason and so people close the window down. Unfortunately Firefox is still running in the background so when they try to start Firefox again it finds the profile with all their settings still in use (normally if Firefox is open, double clicking on the icon shares the existing instance of Firefox to give you the new browser window but if it's unresponsive a new instance is started). Now the only way they can get Firefox to work is by creating a new profile, and then they wander where all their settings and bookmarks have gone.

http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/profile

If you are on a shared computer then someone else may have gone through that experience in you family. Therefore the best I can offer is to go looking into your profile folder. Your bookmarks are stored in a file called bookmarks.html. If you do have more than one profile try looking in the various subfolders of the profile directory, and look at any html file you see.

If that has not been the cause for you and everything else like installed extensions, preferences and so on did not disappear at the same time then any extra information you can think of would help fix the data loss bug if there is one i.e what extensions do you have or what were you doing the last time you used it. For example if I manually remove the bookmarks.html file from my profile folder then Mozilla does not copy the default one across, it just creates a new bookmarks.html file that is blank no bookmarks at all. Was it totally blank after you lost yours? If not then I can only get the default set by creating a new profile.
t9clkclnr
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Post by t9clkclnr »

My bookmarks have been deleted, and this is the third time. I read, and followed all instructions, directions and advice on this bbs, but no luck. Bookmarks are gone.

I've been forced to switch back to the DREADED IE. I will continue to use firefox to test my stylesheets but won't use firefox for my main browser.

Sorry, i do love the app but can't afford down time.
PS: I develop backend web applications and use my browser 90% of the day. (Sounds sad, but it's not. )
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mcm_ham
Posts: 1747
Joined: June 16th, 2004, 6:09 am
Location: Christchurch, New Zealand

Post by mcm_ham »

Fair enough, if you do want to continue using Firefox and this doesn't occur too often then I suggest installing this extension. It makes a copy of all your import settings and files and does so by the days of the week so you have multiple copies. Then if it happens again simply copy the files from the backup location to your profile folder to restore them. I suggest going to the settings and changing the backup location to somewhere like My documents\Backup, the default is still in the profile folder.

http://www.pikey.me.uk/mozilla/?extension=bb

But if it happens regularly then it will become a hassle. However if you could narrow down the cause then the developers will be able to get a patch out to fix the data loss bug if it exists and will help many others in the same situation.
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Rudy
Posts: 5
Joined: December 18th, 2004, 12:20 pm

Post by Rudy »

Well, it looks like I'm not the only one with this problem. I've tried searching, and everything, but with no luck. This has never happened to me before, (I've been using FF for about 4 or 5 months now) until a few days ago. Then it just happend to me again. Turned on my computer, and no more bookmarks!

I've also noticed that somehow all of my cookies are screwed too. I still have them, but I am logged out of all the forums and membership websites that I go to on a regular basis. Anyone notice this, with the "missing bookmarks" which is becoming quite common? For me, it's not a real pain, because I reformated my computer about a month ago, and haven't gotten around to deleting the text file I saved with a list of my bookmarks.

But then again....

At any rate, lets keep our fingers crossed, and hope that an update comes out soon with a fix for this problem.
Amycitia
Posts: 1
Joined: February 4th, 2005, 7:25 am

Lost bookmarks after upgrade

Post by Amycitia »

Help!
I lost my bookmarks when I upgraded from Firefox 0.9.2 to 1.0
I tried the above but still couldn't find my old ones....:-(
Guest
Guest

Post by Guest »

I have had the same experience with bookmarks under ff 1.0.
It was bacause of a system crash. I do regulary backups of
important data, so to recover my bookmarks was no issue.

Unforthunately I have lost on this event my personized layout of the tool bars.
The personalization reflects the number of bars, theirs placing order,
and placing order of tool icons on the tool bars.

How can I recover the tool bar layout after ff loses its configuration data ?
onlylnparadise
Guest

Post by onlylnparadise »

I too lost my book marks yesterday and I have tried the start run deal and default did not have the bookmarks.
Any thing else I can do
I had everything that I need to do my job on them and today has been frustrating to say the least.
I have never been asked to make a new profile. I do know that one day this week firefox did not want to shut down and
i had to ctrl alt del and end task to log off.
azmar
Posts: 825
Joined: December 20th, 2004, 8:01 am

Post by azmar »

Anonymous wrote:I have had the same experience with bookmarks under ff 1.0.
It was bacause of a system crash. I do regulary backups of
important data, so to recover my bookmarks was no issue.

Unforthunately I have lost on this event my personized layout of the tool bars.
The personalization reflects the number of bars, theirs placing order,
and placing order of tool icons on the tool bars.

How can I recover the tool bar layout after ff loses its configuration data ?
The localstore.rdf file stores the toolbar/button layout info. Maybe see if you can find your old one, and try copying it into your current profile? Backup first of course, just in case.
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rtmjr50
Posts: 6318
Joined: August 2nd, 2004, 5:06 pm
Location: Raleigh, NC USA

Post by rtmjr50 »

82 folks complaining about how its all firefox fault that I lost my bookmarks ....

unless firefox crashes due to a OS crash or is lockup due to problem with a bad profile and you do the old <ctrl-alt-del> . then its almost imposible to loss your user settings ...


If anyone wants to fix the problem ....
read: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... 64#1250164

INSTALL the bookmark backup extension which does a automatic daily backup of all 13 user files when you close firefox .... this gives you seven different copies of each user file before overwriting one ..... it won't help with a bad profile ... but you will never loose your bookmarks ... To add other files (default is only bookmarks.html) to the backup .... highlight the extension in the extension manager (tools -> extensions) and press the option icon.
see: http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=13

for four more bookmark backup extension and utilities
read: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... 25#1252725

later, RIchard
Last edited by rtmjr50 on February 22nd, 2005, 5:37 am, edited 2 times in total.
Rule #1: My computer is always right, the human is always the problem .. RULE #2: See Rule #1
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azmar
Posts: 825
Joined: December 20th, 2004, 8:01 am

Post by azmar »

Just to add on to the previous post... Bookmark Backup backs up only bookmarks by default. To set it to backup other settings as well or change the location where it stores the backups, go to Tools > Extensions, select Bookmark Backup & click Options.
Guest
Guest

Post by Guest »

VectorThunder wrote:Dan E: Why don't you read this thread? Your answer to how to get back to the original profile is already here at post number 6!!!


That should launch Profile Manager and you should see TWO profiles listed.

The original 'default' one has all your old settings. Delete the new one you created and launch with the old one.


i have a similar problem
i lost my bookmarks too

and the profiles thingy didnt help

and
i foum them in
C:\FOUND.000
so i opened this file, it contained bookmarks, copied it to safer place, and imported it into firefox thru import button in bookmark manager

and the thing is, that yesterday i was installing a globe trotter flash mobility manager app, wich crashed 17 seconds before end. my nx7010 locked up and restarted.
and i didnt use the browser till today

even bigger problem is, that i lost all the settings, the theme ... could select it back dough, the home page ...

so ... it looks to me that firefox is not using the temporary files, to write the data, but holds opened files where the data actually is ...
or what?

the thing is that app that i was installing tampers a lot with network settins / drivers ...

maybe it helps ... someone

thanks for the tip about the repaired scan disk files ...

... i checked ... all the files in found dir are firefoxe's
Guest
Guest

Post by Guest »

F...K mozilla firefox.... i had bokmarks for almost 3 years ago in Internet explorer. Then i imported them in firefox and deleted from IE... they are all gone after a accidental system restart. I read about "FOUND.00X" directories and open all *.chk files with notepad and finally find the "bookmarks.html". Rewrite the new empty one with this, I found in "FOUND.00X" directory and all are good. Then export all bookmarks to "Favorites" folder and kick forever Mozilla firefox from my system. This bookmark issue is inadmisible for such browser.
And this problem is still unsolved from 2 months already.... to bad.
Bye bye mozilla firefox.... you leave me not me.
Guest
Guest

Post by Guest »

This happened with me too, my bookmarks disapeared. Happily i did an old backup of them and recupered. I instaled the Bookmark Backup to avoid that i lose my bookmarks. But this extension backup the files when you close the firefox program, then, if you closes the firefox and the OS Crashs, the backup isnt done. I wont leave firefox, but I would like that the programers make a correction of the problem.
User avatar
greenknight
Posts: 6187
Joined: December 13th, 2004, 2:28 am
Location: In the shadow of Mount St. Helens

Post by greenknight »

At least,with Bookmarks Backup you'd only lose new bookmarks in a crash. But this should be fixed, I agree.
Win 10 Pro x64, AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 6 core, 3900 MHz (4450 Turbo), AMD Radeon Vega (integrated graphics). 16GB DDR4-3200, Firefox 124.0.1, Developer Edition 125.0b5, Nightly 126.0a1.
Guest
Guest

Post by Guest »

I have typed firefox.exe -ProfileManager ..... and it does nothing but open a firefox internet window. It doesn't list profiles. When I type it, it is no different than if I were to click on the icon on the desktop.
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