warrefresh said

I backed up my entire pc

How and where did you backup to? The data may be where you did not see it.

Use this link to find your old profile; http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Navigating_to_the_profile_folder

Note that it will be on the backup, not your hard drive.

warrefresh said

I bookmark something and it goes to the recent bookmark list but when I click show all bookmarks I get three no title folders. There is nothing in the folder.

The recent bookmark folder is not a real folder. It is useful to some.

Open the Bookmarks Manager; Press the Alt or F10 key to bring up the toolbar, and select Bookmarks. Hot key is <Control> (Mac=<Command>) <Shift> B.

At the top of the screen is a search bar.

If you use Sync then best is to disconnect Sync temporarily during troubleshooting.

You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database (bookmarks and history) in the Firefox profile folder.

• use "Verify Integrity" on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page

See also:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Locked_or_damaged_places.sqlite
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file

If "Verify Integrity" on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page cannot repair places.sqlite then remove all places.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder. Firefox will rebuild places.sqlite and restore the bookmarks from a recent JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

• keep a backup copy of places.sqlite in case a new places.sqlite database has to be created
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_process_the_backup_file_-_Firefox

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
  Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

this is what the verify looks like. i also checked to see if my downloads were saved in firefox and they are. I looked at that link which shows what all the files store and bookmarks and previous downloads are stored in the same places.sqlite file i think. i dont get why bookmarks are not working right. what do i do now?cor-el said

If you use Sync then best is to disconnect Sync temporarily during troubleshooting. You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database (bookmarks and history) in the Firefox profile folder.

• use "Verify Integrity" on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page

See also:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Locked_or_damaged_places.sqlite
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file

If "Verify Integrity" on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page cannot repair places.sqlite then remove all places.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder. Firefox will rebuild places.sqlite and restore the bookmarks from a recent JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

• keep a backup copy of places.sqlite in case a new places.sqlite database has to be created
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_process_the_backup_file_-_Firefox

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
  Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

FredMcD said

warrefresh said

I backed up my entire pc

How and where did you backup to? The data may be where you did not see it.

Use this link to find your old profile; http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Navigating_to_the_profile_folder

Note that it will be on the backup, not your hard drive.

I backed up to an external hard drive. And thought all firefox data would be saved but it wasn't.

When you backed up, did you bulk copy your user profile? In other words:

C:\Users\your-user-name

Firefox stores its data under that path, in the hidden AppData folder. You could set Windows to show hidden files and folders to check whether that folder is in your backup.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14201/windows-show-hidden-files

E:\Users\your-user-name\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

("E" is for illustration and your USB drive may use a different letter)

jscher2000 said

When you backed up, did you bulk copy your user profile? In other words: C:\Users\your-user-name Firefox stores its data under that path, in the hidden AppData folder. You could set Windows to show hidden files and folders to check whether that folder is in your backup. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14201/windows-show-hidden-files E:\Users\your-user-name\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles ("E" is for illustration and your USB drive may use a different letter)

I backed up awhile ago and im not worried about getting the old bookmarks back i had before the back up. I just want to know why any new bookmark i make doesn't save or show in the all bookmarks window. it just has those three no title folders with nothing in them. i can go to some sites i know i bookmarked before and when i click the bookmark star, it doesn't even click it (doesn't turn blue) but if i go to a site i know i haven't bookmarked before it does get bookmarked but only in the recent bookmarks group and is no where to be found in all bookmarks window.

Have you had this problem since December, or did the Library window just break right now? If that aspect is new, could you try exiting Firefox, then doing a normal Windows shut down and restart. This hopefully will allow us to rule out a simple file lock or permissions issue.

I don't know how Firefox is able to save new Bookmarks and at the same time is unable to display them (or even the 3 basic categories: Bookmarks Menu, Bookmarks Toolbar, Other Bookmarks) in the Library window. The fact that the integrity check didn't run is a troubling sign that suggests database corruption -- or perhaps a locked file?

Could you make backups in both formats:

• JSON: Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer
• HTML: Export Firefox bookmarks to an HTML file to back up or transfer bookmarks

Then I think you'll need to dump your existing Places database and let Firefox create a new one. Unfortunately, there's no backup for history, but you should be able to restore one of those backups.

This article has the steps for generating a new database: Fix "The bookmarks and history system will not be functional" error message

jscher2000 said

Have you had this problem since December, or did the Library window just break right now? If that aspect is new, could you try exiting Firefox, then doing a normal Windows shut down and restart. This hopefully will allow us to rule out a simple file lock or permissions issue. I don't know how Firefox is able to save new Bookmarks and at the same time is unable to display them (or even the 3 basic categories: Bookmarks Menu, Bookmarks Toolbar, Other Bookmarks) in the Library window. The fact that the integrity check didn't run is a troubling sign that suggests database corruption -- or perhaps a locked file? Could you make backups in both formats:

• JSON: Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer
• HTML: Export Firefox bookmarks to an HTML file to back up or transfer bookmarks

Then I think you'll need to dump your existing Places database and let Firefox create a new one. Unfortunately, there's no backup for history, but you should be able to restore one of those backups. This article has the steps for generating a new database: Fix "The bookmarks and history system will not be functional" error message

im getting somewhere. I went to back up the bookmarks in json and html and i saved them to my desktop. But i went to look for them on my desktop and they were not there. i tried again but still they were not there i was thinking it was hidden maybe. So i tried saving again but instead i copied the file name from the bookmark save window and searched the entire c drive for it in file explorer. And i found it. It saved to my desktop but it is the backed up version of my desktop. I reinstalled everything in dec 2017 from the external hard drive to my pc, i cant remember if i did it with the windows back up help or copy pasted but its all on here. So it saved it self in the old back up

C:\Users\(myusername)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent

I don't know why it does that. Oh i think the entire firefox folder and current profile is located in the old back up on my system. That is where it's all saving at. Instead of saving on my current pc profile/user account the files from firefox are saving to the old copy of my pc. I think. That would explain why i could not see the downloads on the current desktop.

Now i need to know how to move firefox profile from the back up location on pc to my current pc account. Maybe i just need to change the file path i don't know.

I was about to delete the places and bookmarks in firefx profile but i saw it was saving in the wrong desktop and i remembered when i reset the pc i just downloaded a new firefox brower and used the bookmark back up to restore what bookmarks i could. so firefox shouldn't be bad or corrupted i don't think. Maybe i'm wrong.

And its been like this since the back up and restore. I just didn't feel like trying to figure it out back then and i learned to live with it. Now as i bookmark more and more stuff as time goes on it's really annoying not being able to see bookmarks past the recent 15 i think.

If you type the following in the address bar and press Enter, it should show the full path to your live Firefox profile folder:

about:profiles

Note: If you have multiple profiles, it's the one that says "This is the profile in use and it cannot be deleted."

Normally the path will be in your current Windows user folder. If it's somewhere else, there might be some complications related to permissions/privileges.

sorry been busy power was out. about:profiles

Root Directory C:\Users\(Myusername)\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxx.default-xxxxx

Local Directory C:\Users\(Myusername)\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxx.default-xxxxx

Both are the same profile and it says cant be deleted They are saving to the old back up windows profile. When i reset pc to factory i ended up making a different windows profile maybe that's why i cant change stuff on the back up data. How to get it to save regular on current profile. ccan i change where it saves to? what if i reinstall firefox would that fix this? And will i be able to back up and restore all bookmarks,saved passwords and forms, etc?

Hmm, where is your Profiles.ini file? The normal location would be the folder that Windows opens when you paste this shortcut path:

%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox

Unless something is very odd, that should expand to:

C:\Users\currently-logged-in-user\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox

Does that folder exist and have a Profiles.ini file

(By default, .ini is hidden... see: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/how-to-show-file-extensions-in-windows/ )

Firefox uses the paths in the Profiles.ini file to locate your profile(s), so if you were to create a new one under current-logged-in-user and copy/paste your old data into it, that might work. You might need to reset some privileges on the files.

For suggested migration steps, see (by analogy, your source folder location differs): I did a Reset of Firefox - How do i get add my 'Old firefox data' back?

ok i pasted that %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox and searched entire c drive and nothing was found. I wasn't sure where to paste it at. Ok found profiles.ini in C:\Users\(myusername)\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox i created a new profile and copied all files but it didn't work. I still have the three no title empty folders/file in the new profile. And i still cant see all the bookmarks. It still doesn't show the blue star on known bookmarked sites and doesn't add any new ones to full bookmark list.

Sorry, you paste

%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox

either into the system search box or into the address bar of Windows Explorer.

Does it lead to the same folder you've been working in so far, or a different folder?

Since you have a new profile you can experiment with, try regenerating the Places database as described in this post: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1213810#answer-1101795

I have been mia for awhile. I just fixed the problem today. Ok

• note i was logged in to my firefox profile and i synced all the date before starting, by clicking the sync button in top right menu

1. i backed up fierfox by copying the folders to desktop

• some files said they could not be located like the places file, i just skipped them

2. i backed up bookmarks

• even though there were none and i could not see any, just those 3 no title files

3.i downloaded a new firefox exe

• to have ready for reinstall after uninstall

4. closed firefox 5.uninstalled firefox 6.restarted pc

• pc was being weird for some reason the lock screen pic did not load idk why but what ever

7.reinstalled firefox

• it said firefox was recently installed on the pc want to reinstall i sad yes. and i installed to defualt with no add ons
• it some how already knew i had firefox data and files on pc it reinstalled all passwords, history, etc and my add ons automatically

8.opened firefox

i checked bookmarks and to my surprise all my bookmarks were back even the old ones i thought i lost after the complete pc reset to defaults. I guess the files were saved in the back up somewhere on C drive and fire fox found it. Also all my previous site history was being saved which i thought wasn't, because i couldn't see it or any new bookmarks i had saved. It all was being saved somewhere on C drive. i don't know where but its back. I'm happy. Thanks for the help everyone

• Oh also i went online before this bookmark fix awhile ago and fixed it so i had access to my old pc files and profile. I had to look up how to change the permissions on the old pc profile on my pc so i could access the files. Not sure if this helped but it might have so i'm adding it. Kind of makes sense though once i changed permissions firefox was able to find the pre pc default reset files for new firefox install*

You can only get the bookmarks and history back (especially the history) when Firefox finds a copy of places.sqlite.

You previously wrote that you couldn't find this file, but apparently it was still there because otherwise the history couldn't have been restored.

Note that sometimes you need to reboot the computer more than once to recover from file allocation issues.