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Retrieving bookmarks from a Windows Image File of a machine I no longer have

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  • Last reply by noelmacara

noelmacara
noelmacara
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Copying Firefox Bookmarks

I had a Windows 10 machine on which the motherboard died. I had the machine fully backed up in a WindowsImage file.

Then I bought a new machine of a different make that came with the same version of Windows 10 Professional as I had on my old machine. Unfortunately, the restore program will not restore the file to my new machine. So to retrieve my many useful Firefox bookmarks I opened a VHD (mounting the file onto a virtual drive) and attempted to copy the bookmarks across to the proper directory in the new machine.

My understanding is that they are kept in %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

Overwriting everything in the new Profiles directory with everything in the Profile directory from my old machine does not work, and I cannot work out what to copy and where to copy it to as the directory structure and the folders it contains are very different on the two machines.

Does anybody know of a utility out there that will help me? All suggestions gratefully received.

Thank you,

NM

'''Copying Firefox Bookmarks''' I had a Windows 10 machine on which the motherboard died. I had the machine fully backed up in a WindowsImage file. Then I bought a new machine of a different make that came with the same version of Windows 10 Professional as I had on my old machine. Unfortunately, the restore program will not restore the file to my new machine. So to retrieve my many useful Firefox bookmarks I opened a VHD (mounting the file onto a virtual drive) and attempted to copy the bookmarks across to the proper directory in the new machine. My understanding is that they are kept in %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ Overwriting everything in the new Profiles directory with everything in the Profile directory from my old machine does not work, and I cannot work out what to copy and where to copy it to as the directory structure and the folders it contains are very different on the two machines. Does anybody know of a utility out there that will help me? All suggestions gratefully received. Thank you, NM

Chosen solution

HI NM, pause for a moment and look in the subfolders of the restored Profiles folder -- within any of the profile folders, do you find a bookmarkbackups folder containing recently dated files?

(Note: These files are compressed, so in order to view their contents, you first need to decompress them. More details if you can't tell from the file names which one you want to try restoring.)

You can copy promising candidates out to your currently Windows desktop for easier access when restoring:

Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer

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jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
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Chosen Solution

HI NM, pause for a moment and look in the subfolders of the restored Profiles folder -- within any of the profile folders, do you find a bookmarkbackups folder containing recently dated files?

(Note: These files are compressed, so in order to view their contents, you first need to decompress them. More details if you can't tell from the file names which one you want to try restoring.)

You can copy promising candidates out to your currently Windows desktop for easier access when restoring:

Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer

cor-el
cor-el
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You can copy certain files with Firefox closed to the current profile folder to transfer or recover personal data. Note that best is to avoid copying a full profile folder.

The profile folder is a folder with a random name in a hidden location.

  • C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>

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

  • bookmarks and history: places.sqlite
  • favicons: favicons.sqlite
  • bookmark backups: compressed .jsonlz4 JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder
  • cookies.sqlite for the Cookies
  • formhistory.sqlite for saved autocomplete Form Data
  • logins.json (encrypted logins;32+) and key4.db (decryption key;58+) for Passwords saved in the Password Manager
    key3.db support ended in 73+; to use key3.db in 58-72, make sure to remove key4.db
  • cert9.db (58+) for (intermediate) certificates stored in the Certificate Manager
  • persdict.dat for words added to the spell checker dictionary
  • permissions.sqlite for Permissions and possibly content-prefs.sqlite for other website specific data (Site Preferences)
  • sessionstore.jsonlz4 for open tabs and pinned tabs (see also the sessionstore-backups folder)
noelmacara
noelmacara Question owner
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Dear cor-el, 

 Thank you very much for taking the time to reply to my question in detail. Your reply was very helpful but, in the end, the reply I got from jscher2000 proved more useful and slightly more focused on my particular problem.
 Sincerely, NM.

Dear jscher2000 

 Thank you so much. I now have my (hundreds) of bookmarks back - which is a great relief.
 Gratefully, NM.