Topic: stoopid mozilla dumped my bookmarks

[heffay]

all of a sudden they were just gone.

firefox locked up and gave the usual end task window.

when i started it back up the home page was reset and bookmarks were gone.

i've run a virus and spyware check... nuthin'.

ran a system restore to try to get them back... nuthin'.

i had a lot of stuff in there especially for the 400f build i'm working on 

anyone know how to retrieve that stuff?

[Gordon]

Check on the firefox website.  The same thing happened to me a couple of years ago and I was able to retrieve them by following the directions that I found there. 

[SteveD CB500F]

Because I move around a lot and hotdesk at various PCs, I always carry my bookmarks.htm file around with me on a memory stick.

It's easy to export it to a file and even a big bookmark file is only 50k-ish.

[heffay]

would've been ideal... had i not waited more than 5 days  but here's the info for anyone interested.


If Firefox is closed unexpectedly due to a crash, a loss of power, or other unexpected event, the file where your bookmarks are stored can become corrupted, and your bookmarks may be unavailable in Firefox. If you lost your bookmarks within the last five days, you can restore them from the set of backups that Firefox maintains.
Firefox 3:

   1. From the menu at the top of the Firefox windowbar, click the Bookmarks menu and choose Organize Bookmarks to open the Library window.
   2. Before proceeding, you should make a backup of your current bookmarks.
         1. From the toolbar on the Library window, select Import and Backup and choose Backup...
         2. Firefox will ask you to save the bookmark backup to a folder on your hard drive. Choose a location that you will remember.
         3. Your current bookmarks have been backed up to the file you selected.
   3. From the toolbar on the Library window, select Import and Backup to open the Import and Backup menu, and pick Restore... to see a list of available bookmark backups organized by date.
   4. To restore one of the listed backups, select it from the Restore... menu. Choose the newest bookmark backup that was created before the bookmarks were lost. You will lose all changes to your bookmarks that occurred after the date you select.
          * Note: To restore a backup that you saved manually, select Choose File... from the Restore menu instead of selecting an automatic backup
   5. A confirmation window will appear asking you to confirm replacing your bookmarks with the backup. To replace the bookmarks, press OK. To go back, press Cancel.
      You cannot undo this unless you saved a backup file as instructed above.
   6. Your bookmarks have been restored to the date you selected. If your bookmarks do not show up after completing the restore process, repeat the above steps to restore an earlier backup.

Firefox 3
Firefox 2, Windows:

   1. From the menu at the top of the Firefox window, click the File menu and then select Exit.
   2. Locate your profile folder using one of the following sets of steps. (For more details, see the article on Profiles.)
      On Windows Vista
         1. Click the Windows Start button, and type %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ in the Start Search box near the bottom of the Start menu, without pressing Enter. A list of profiles will appear in the top left of the Start menu.
         2. Click on any of the profiles (e.g. xxxxxxxx.default) to open it with Windows Explorer.

      On Windows 2000 and XP
         1. Click the Windows Start button, and select Run....
         2. Type in %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ then click OK.
   3. In the profile folder, the file bookmarks.html stores your bookmarks and may become corrupted. Right-click this file, and select Rename....
   4. Rename the file to a unique name, such as the following:
      bookmarks_backup.html
   5. Open the folder named bookmarkbackups, also located in your profile folder.
   6. In the bookmarks backup folder, you should see up to five files with names like the following
      bookmarks-xxxx-xx-xx.html
      where
      xxxx-xx-xx corresponds to the date the backup was made.
   7. Copy the backup that you wish to use to an easy-to-find location such as your desktp. Right-click the backup you wish to use. Select Copy. Go to your desktop and right click in some open space. Select Paste.
   8. Restart Firefox. You should only have the default bookmarks.
   9. Open the Bookmarks Manager by selecting Organize Bookmarks... from the Bookmarks menu.
  10. From the File menu inside the Bookmarks manager, select Import....
  11. In the Import Wizard dialog that appears, select From File and click Next.
  12. Browse to the desktop and find the copy of the bookmarks-xxxx-xx-xx.html file you made in Step 7. Click Open.
  13. Your bookmarks should be restored. If not, repeat these steps, choosing a different backup to restore from.

Firefox 2, Linux:

Note: these instructions may be different for your Linux distribution

   1. From the menu at the top of the Firefox window, select File and then select the Quit menu item.
   2. Open your profile folder:
      Each profile is stored on your hard drive in a profile folder. The default location of the Firefox profile is ~/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default/.
          * xxxxxxxx represents a random string of 8 characters.
         1. Click the Places menu on the top right of the screen and select Home Folder. A File Browser window will appear.
         2. Click the View menu and select Show Hidden Files if it isn't already checked.
         3. Double click the folder marked .mozilla.
         4. Double click the folder marked firefox. Your profile folders are within this folder.
         5. Open your profile folder. By default, it is xxxxxxxx.default where xxxxxxxx represents a random string of 8 characters.
   3. In the profile folder, the file bookmarks.html stores your bookmarks and has become corrupted. Right-click this file, and select Rename....
   4. Rename the file to a unique name, such as the following:
      bookmarks_backup.html
   5. Open the folder named bookmarkbackups, also located in your profile folder.
   6. In the bookmarks backup folder, you should see up to five files with names like the following
      bookmarks-xxxx-xx-xx.html
      where
      xxxx-xx-xx corresponds to the date the backup was made.
   7. You must copy one of these backups to the profile folder. Right-click the most recently dated backup. Select Copy.
   8. Go back to the previous folder, which now contains the bookmarks_backup.html file.
   9. Right-click in the white space of the folder. Select Paste.
  10. Right click the file you just pasted (bookmarks-xxxx-xx-xx.html). Select Rename....
  11. Rename the file to bookmarks.html
  12. Restart Firefox. Your bookmarks should now be available through the Bookmarks menu.

Firefox 2, Mac OS:

   1. Quit Firefox. It it is open, select Firefox at the top of the screen and choose Quit.
   2. Open your profile folder:
      Each profile is stored on your hard drive in a profile folder. The default location of the Firefox profile is ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/xxxxxxxx.default/.
          * xxxxxxxx represents a random string of 8 characters.
         1. Open Finder and go to your home folder. Note: your home folder is usually the name of your Mac user account
         2. From your home folder open Library, then Application Support, then Firefox, then Profiles.
         3. Open your profile folder. By default, it is xxxxxxxx.default where xxxxxxxx represents a random string of 8 characters.
   3. In the profile folder, select the file bookmarks.html. Click on the file name again, to rename the file.
   4. Rename the file to a unique name, such as the following:
      bookmarks_backup.html
   5. Open the folder named bookmarkbackups, also located in your profile folder.
   6. In the bookmarks backup folder, you should see up to five files with names like the following
      bookmarks-xxxx-xx-xx.html
      where
      xxxx-xx-xx corresponds to the date the backup was made.
   7. You must choose one of these backups to import into Firefox. Drag the most recently dated backup to your Desktop.
   8. Restart Firefox, select Bookmarks from the menu at the top of the screen, and choose Organize Bookmarks. With the Organize Bookmarks window open, select the File menu and choose Import.
   9. In the Import Wizard dialog that appears, select From File.
  10. Browse to the desktop and find the copy of the bookmarks-xxxx-xx-xx.html file you made earlier. Click Open.
  11. Your bookmarks should be restored. If not, repeat these steps, choosing a different backup to restore from.