[Mozeta]

I'm running Windows 8.1 on my laptop and using Firefox 54.0.1 (32 bit).  My daughter was on the computer one evening about 5-6 months ago and shut it down with several applications still running by holding the power button and not powering it down the proper way.  the next time I started the computer, I noticed I no longer had any bookmarks (except a few I had created recently).  All the others, and there were dozens, were gone.   Also, the few bookmarks that were there didn't work and could not be clicked on.  Also, I cannot add new bookmarks.  I can go to a page and click the blue star or click on Bookmarks and click Bookmark this page, but nothing happens.  If I click Bookmarks/ Show All Bookmarks, the list is blank.  I can't import or restore bookmarks. 

 

 

So what I did was install Internet Explorer.  Surprisingly, when I installed that and clicked on Favorites, all my old bookmarks from Firefox were there and worked.  However, with Internet Explorer, many pages won't load and anytime I click on a video, Internet Explorer crashes after a few seconds. 

 

What I do now is if I want to use my bookmarks, I use Internet Explorer.  If I want to view a video or go to a website that won't load, I have to go back to Firefox and navigate to the page by searching for it.  I would like to just have my bookmarks (or be able to create bookmarks) on a single web browser that doesn't constantly crash or won't load pages. 

 

Oh yeah, did I mention this is a work computer.  They don't typically care if you use it for personal reasons, but anytime you contact IT with any sort of problem like this, they just immediately re-image the machine because it's quicker for them and above their expertise to solve the problems.   

 

Any help would be appreciated. 

 

Thanks,

 

Scott

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Hello Mozeta,

My name is UnloosedCake, and I'm here to help you fix this issue!

 

This seems to be a relatively simple fix, especially since you said that IE can see your Firefox bookmarks!

 

Please follow these steps:

• Simultaneously press the Windows button and R to open the Run dialog
• Type %APPDATA% and hit enter
• Navigate to the following folder path inside of the App Data folder: Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
• Inside that there should only be a single folder with an odd name. If there are multiple, look in each for the "bookmarkbackups" (or similarly named) folder
• Inside there should be a .JSON file. If there isn't, be sure to enable "view hidden files and folders" which you can do by typing it into the Cortana search, or the Control Panel/Settings search bar. 
• If there is a file in there, drag/copy and paste it to your DESKTOP.
• If there are multiple, you'll need to experiment with it to see which one holds the correct information. You can either do the following steps with each file, or you can open the file and attempt to read the contents to find the right one (or look at the dates modified).
• Open Firefox
• Click "Bookmarks" or otherwise open the bookmarks menu (depends on the version and OS, usually it's in the top menu, if not, click the list looking icon next to the star, select "show all bookmarks"
• Select "import and backup"
• Select "restore"
• Choose the file you dragged to your Desktop

 

If this works (or doesn't) please let me know!

[UnloosedCake]

Hello Mozeta,

My name is UnloosedCake, and I'm here to help you fix this issue!

 

This seems to be a relatively simple fix, especially since you said that IE can see your Firefox bookmarks!

 

Please follow these steps:

• Simultaneously press the Windows button and R to open the Run dialog
• Type %APPDATA% and hit enter
• Navigate to the following folder path inside of the App Data folder: Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
• Inside that there should only be a single folder with an odd name. If there are multiple, look in each for the "bookmarkbackups" (or similarly named) folder
• Inside there should be a .JSON file. If there isn't, be sure to enable "view hidden files and folders" which you can do by typing it into the Cortana search, or the Control Panel/Settings search bar. 
• If there is a file in there, drag/copy and paste it to your DESKTOP.
• If there are multiple, you'll need to experiment with it to see which one holds the correct information. You can either do the following steps with each file, or you can open the file and attempt to read the contents to find the right one (or look at the dates modified).
• Open Firefox
• Click "Bookmarks" or otherwise open the bookmarks menu (depends on the version and OS, usually it's in the top menu, if not, click the list looking icon next to the star, select "show all bookmarks"
• Select "import and backup"
• Select "restore"
• Choose the file you dragged to your Desktop

 

If this works (or doesn't) please let me know!

[Mozeta]

I'm afraid this didn't work.  I followed the steps and when I choose to restore the adddons.json file I got a pop up that said Revert Bookmarks:  This will replace all of your current bookmarks with the backup.  Are you Sure.  I clicked OK and got a pop up that said "Unable to process the backup file"

 

I did notice you said when I go to AppData/Roaming/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles, there should only be one file.  However in mine there are 3.  One was empty.  One only contained 3 files that started with gmp.  The 3rd one was the correct one and the only one with an addon.json file.  However, it also contained the same 3 files that started with gmp as the other file.  Not sure if that matters.

 

Thanks,

 

S

[Mozeta]

So I think I didn't go far enough last time and I tried this again with fresh eyes this morning.  Yesterday didn't go into the bookmarksbackups files, I just went to the first .json file I saw which was wrong.  I went into Bookmarksbackups today and saw a list of about 15 .jsonlz4 files all with some pretty old dates.   I'm assuming they were from about the time I stopped using Firefox.  I tried all of them and each one gives me the same error that says Cannot Process the Backup File. 

 

 

 

[Mozeta]

The next thing I notice while in Firefox is when I click "Show Your Bookmarks"  Under the Import and Backup drop down list there is an option to "Import Data from another Browser".   I clicked that and choose  Mircrosoft Internet Explorer.  I choose Favorites and click Next and it says my Favorites were successfully imported, but when I go back to Firefox, my bookmarks are still not there and still nothing in Bookmarks works.  I can't click on one of the few bookmarks that are listed and I can't bookmark a new page.  Basically nothing happened. 

[UnloosedCake]

Hmm... definitely quite the intriguing issue!

 

At this point, I would copy the bookmarkbackups folder to your Desktop to save it, and then uninstall Firefox. If you need instructions on how to do that, please let me know.

 

Once you have uninstalled it, restart the computer and then install it again.

 

Ensure that once you have a fresh install it allows you to create bookmarks, and then try the restore function.

[Mozeta]

Best Answer

I think I may have fixed it without uninstalling.  I actually uninstalled it many months ago and reinstalled trying to fix the problem and that didn't work.  Though I must admit, I'm not sure I did it correctly.  Anyway, I did some digging and found out how to create a new firefox profile.   I typed Firefox.exe -p in the Run dialog and was able to create a new Profile.   Once I did that, I made the new profile my default and then used your steps above to restore one of my old saved bookmark backups from about 5 months ago.  Now I have all my bookmarks back and they work.  I still have no idea why or how it happened, but it seems to be working. 

 

Thanks,

 

Scott

[UnloosedCake]

I'm glad you were able to find a solution! 

 

Let us know if there's anything else we can be of assistance with!!

 

-Cake