# Disappearing Firefox Bookmarks



## Pilgrim (Dec 27, 2006)

For the second time in about a year, my Firefox bookmarks, including the bookmark toolbar, (a very convenient feature) has "disappeared" (yes, I know they are still "there"). I know this is not uncommon with FF, but I could never recover the bookmarks the last time, even though I was able to import them into Opera at that time. (Actually I would use Opera full time if it worked better with Gmail). 

Anyone have a quick fix for this? I am using version 1.5.0.9.


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## LadyFlynt (Dec 27, 2006)

I had my bookmarks disappear a few months ago and my history has been clearing itself. I don't want my history clearing!


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## rmwilliamsjr (Dec 27, 2006)

1. find out where the bookmarks are stored.
on my machine it is in:
.mozilla/firefox/default user/XXXX/bookmarks.html

2. back it up.
3. use an online bookmark storage site, has the advantage of being accessible from the library or where ever you are online.

it is possible that you are signed in as another user into firefox itself or---
in the past when friends have lost their bookmarks etc. the problem has been that they are running windoze and signed in as a different user at windows login time.


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## R. Scott Clark (Dec 27, 2006)

thanks for the reminder to backup (export) bookmarks.

rsc


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## fredtgreco (Dec 27, 2006)

R. Scott Clark said:


> thanks for the reminder to backup (export) bookmarks.
> 
> rsc




Even better than exporting is to synchronize your bookmarks between multiple PCs and an online storage site. There is a great extension for Firefox that does this on regular intervals, so it is nearly full-proof.

http://www.foxmarks.com/


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## Scott Bushey (Dec 27, 2006)

I use:

http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/


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## fredtgreco (Dec 27, 2006)

Scott Bushey said:


> I use:
> 
> http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/





I use that as well. That program backs up much more than bookmarks - it also backs up the settings for all the extensions, the settings for the program, browsing history, etc. It is very good.

The weakness it has is that all the info is stored on your local PC, and that it is hard to have the same bookmarks on different PCs (I have Firefox on 3 computers).

The sync extension uploads your bookmark file to an online server, so if you add a bookmark to ANY of the computers you use to browse, it will automatically sync the bookmark files on the other PCs when you open FF.

Both together work well!


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## Pilgrim (Dec 27, 2006)

So if I had backed up this wouldn't have happened? I will do that from now on. 

Now, any pointers on how to recover the bookmarks? I haven't looked, but I'm sure the file is still on my system, it's just a matter of getting them "installed" (i.e. showing up) when I pull up Firefox. I seem to remember something last time about creating a profile. I am the only user on the machine so that is not the problem.


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## Pilgrim (Dec 28, 2006)

Sage feeds disappeared too. Not surprising since they are basically bookmarks too.


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## fredtgreco (Dec 28, 2006)

Pilgrim said:


> So if I had backed up this wouldn't have happened? I will do that from now on.
> 
> Now, any pointers on how to recover the bookmarks? I haven't looked, but I'm sure the file is still on my system, it's just a matter of getting them "installed" (i.e. showing up) when I pull up Firefox. I seem to remember something last time about creating a profile. I am the only user on the machine so that is not the problem.





Chris,

Try looking in the folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\YOURUSERNAME\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

There should be at least one folder in that path (maybe more than one). Look in that folder (it is your profile). You should find a bookmarks.html file. You can open it in Notepad to see if it has any text in it (it should). You can import it into Firefox.


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## Pilgrim (Dec 28, 2006)

fredtgreco said:


> Chris,
> 
> Try looking in the folder:
> 
> ...



Thanks Fred.  

Since I'm using an antiquated OS the path you specified doesn't work for me, but I was able to search and find the folder and then successfully import the bookmarks.html file.  It worked like a charm, so simple I can't believe it and am baffled why I couldn't figure it out the last time. Evidently I must have been looking in the wrong folder back then. 

It seems FF makes a backup of the bookmarks, but maybe it's only good for a certain number of days since I saw 5 days worth of backup files in the bookmarkbackups folder. 

After importing, I made an adjustment and got the Sage RSS feeder working again too. Importing the bookmarks apparently restored a search engine I had added too (the last time, ALL of the engines disappeared, including google). The only thing that seems to still be missing is the bookmarks toolbar. Those bookmarks are showing in the bookmarks toolbar folder, but not on the toolbar. Of course I could just drag them to the toolbar again, but I'm thinking since they are in the folder there must be some way to make them reappear without dragging them again. 

If I could only figure out how to import my old bookmarks from Opera back into FF, I'd be set. I've tried before but obviously was trying to import the wrong file.


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## fredtgreco (Dec 28, 2006)

Chris,

If you go to the bookmarks organizer, you should be able to drag all the Bookmarks you want into the Bookmark Toolbar Folder. It is likely that you have a folder that is _named_ Bookmarks Toolbar, but it is not actually the "real deal." (Kind of like if you labeled a folder "My Pictures" but it was in the wrong spot.

As for importing Opera marks, the best way to test is to create a new profile and then import them there - that way if it is a problem, you just delete the profile.

You can run FF in a mode to create a new profile by typing:

firefox -p

into the "Run" box in Microsoft.


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## Pilgrim (Dec 28, 2006)

Thanks, Fred. It shows two "Bookmarks Toolbar Folders". I dragged the icons from one to the other and I'm back in business.


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## Pilgrim (Dec 28, 2006)

LadyFlynt said:


> I had my bookmarks disappear a few months ago and my history has been clearing itself. I don't want my history clearing!



You can go to Tools>Options>Privacy>History to adjust how long urls are kept in your history. I don't know if it can keep history indefinitely, but you can change it to keep history for x number of days. Its possible the settings could have been changed if you upgraded to a new version or something, even though that is not supposed to happen. 

Most of my frequently visited sites are in the bookmark toolbar, so history isn't a big deal to me. However if you have others using the computer and you want to monitor what they're doing, it can be quite helpful.


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