How to recover lost bookmarks or install from a backup or manually from an HTML file.
Compatibility 
Works with: Firefox 3.6+
Background
In some rare situations, Firefox may loose the bookmark settings. There are many reports from Firefox users who have started up their Firefox to discover all or some of their bookmarks are gone.
The Tweak
A cool feature with Firefox is it keeps a back-up of your bookmarks for the past five days (Firefox 4 up to 10-days). Recovering bookmarks is very easy:
- From the Bookmarks Menu select Organize Bookmarks… (Firefox 4: Show All Bookmarks).
- This opens the Bookmarks Library window. From the File menu and click Import and Backup select Restore.
- You will see a list of automatic backups of your bookmarks. Depending on your Firefox version and how frequently you are using Firefox, this will vary between 5-10 days. Select the date you want to restore from.
- You will be prompted this action will replace existing bookmarks with those in this backup. Click OK to continue.
- Firefox will rebuild your bookmark list and you will see all your bookmarks listed in the Bookmarks Manager Window.
- Close the Bookmarks Library Window.
Manual Backup/Restore
You can also make a manual backup of your bookmarks. Handy if you are using multiple profiles and/or computers.
- From the Bookmarks Menu select Organize Bookmarks… (Firefox 4: Show All Bookmarks).
- This opens the Bookmarks Library window. From the File menu click Import and Backup (Fx 3.0 and newer), select Backup…
- Choose a location to save that will be easy to find later and click Save. A file named bookmarks-[date].json (where [date] is today’s date will be saved at this location
- In the Firefox you wish to restore the bookmarks into, go to Bookmarks Menu then select Organize Bookmarks… (Firefox 4: Show All Bookmarks).
- Select Restore > Choose File…and then select the .json file from step 3 and click Open.Keep in mind, if you have added any bookmarks prior to the restore will be removed.
Updated: November 15, 2025
