I lost all of my bookmarks & buttons in Firefox - WTF?
 

Awhile ago, my computer was acting unusually strange, and when I started Firefox, all of my bookmarks, buttons and saved username and passwords were no longer saved. Not to mention that my homepage reset itself back to default.

After it started up, Firefox ran MUCH faster (I guess all of the temporary files got deleted or it's using a different folder for them) and my computer stopped acting weird. (I don't think there's a correlation between my computer's behavior and Firefox though. I was running a lot of different programs at once when it was acting up, and I happened to close some of them right before I started Firefox.)

So, if there's a way to recover everything I lost, that would be great!

Thanks in advance!

Next time, use MozBackUp. As a wise man once said:

The handy thing about FF is that it backs up all your bookmarks in an html file. I don't remember exactly where it is, and I'm to lazy to go searching right now, but it should be somewhere in your Application Data folder.

I had that problem once, too. I wrote a mail to Firefox support and they told me that I had to update my Firefox browser (?)

Firefox may have spontaneously created a new profile recovering from a crash. Try running it with the Profile Manager flag:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager

And see if there's an old profile with all your stuff you can switch too. I've had the problem you describe about 6 times in the last few years, and all but once that's fixed it.

It's not gone(your bookmarks). It's saved on a HTML file..

Have fun looking for it though. I use Netscape 8 and had the same problem.

Search your drive for "bookmarks.html" (duh) or "bookmarks.html.sbsd.bak" and rename it. Import the file back into Firefox.

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\profile\bookmarks.html

Gosh, guys.

Also, backup the C:\Documents and Settings\(username or whatever your account name is)\Application Data\Mozilla folder.

Incase your firefox dies, you format your computer and forget to save the rest of that stuff, that folder holds EVERYTHING.

Your plugins, your bookmarks, your current firefox configuration, etc.

So if you ever have to format, and you backed that folder up, just reinstall firefox, then copy the backed up "Mozilla" folder to that same directory, and bam, you have everything back.

Yo! Sorry I didn't reply for a long time; I had to leave my house for a few days.

Anyway, I managed to get my bookmarks back. I forgot that I had once exported them into an .HTML file when I was trying to figure it out so I could tell my mom how to do it a couple of months ago. So, when I searched for "bookmarks" across my entire hard drive, as Ulysses suggested, I found my file that I exported. I don't remember bookmarking anything since then, so I'm pretty sure I got all of my bookmarks back after I imported that file. :rock:

Grawl, from now on, I'll definitely use that program. Thanks!

Arainach, I tried that, but the command lines that I put into the Run prompt simply opened up Firefox. I didn't get any Profile Manager. :/

^-^, C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\profile\bookmarks.html just had Firefox's starting bookmarks. None of mine were in it. Also, there was no Mozilla folder in the C:\Documents and Settings\(username or whatever your account name is)\Application Data\ directory. :/ Thanks for the info anyway!

I appreciate the help everybody gave me, regardless if it worked on my computer or not! :p The buttons will be easy to put back (I lost my "Latest Headlines" button, but I'm sure I can get that back) and for some reason, my login information was lost on one page (Gamingforce, so I assumed the rest were lost too), but the rest were saved, as were all of my extensions.

So basically, my bookmarks, buttons and one saved password were lost, but everything else was OK. Strange, I would have that either everything or nothing would be lost in a crash, but whatever!

Thanks again for the help, I really appreciate it!

I was assuming you were using firefox 2.0. That version always saves it's bookmarks in that location, along with a "backupbookmarks" folder as well.

I am using Firefox 2.0. 2.0.0.3 actually. I always use the latest version when it comes out. Makes me wonder if my install is all screwed up.

Well, something's wonky, seeing as those directories I posted are the default directories for Mozilla.
"In Windows XP, the profile folder is
\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile ID>.default\"

And if you back out of that folder twice, you'll have your complete Firefox prefrerences, not just including bookmarks, but every setting you've done to firefox.

Sorry for bringing up this old thread. I have tried all of the method, and of course I got my bookmarks back, but the question is that I didn't recieve back my newest bookmarks, and why is that? I got my mostly my oldest bookmarks, but not the newest....

Help would be appreciated!

Because your new bookmarks were saved to a new bookmarks.htm file --- which I assume you overwrote? :(

Not at all... When I clicked on my firefox, and suddenly everything of my booksmarks were just gone, but seriously... this is odd. When I went home with my laptop, and I clicked on my firefox browser, everything of my bookmarks just returned back... the hell is wrong with the browser? is it a bug or something?

It's not a bug, it's a feature!