7

I have accessed my crashed Ubuntu version via live USB trial. Where am I supposed to find my former Firefox bookmarks and history files in order to copy and transfer them into a new installation?

Cristiana Nicolae
  • 4,460
  • 9
  • 30
  • 46
Andy
  • 71
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2

4 Answers4

8

The easiest thing to do would be copying the Firefox profile folder over

~/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Linux

The bookmarks are actually stored in bookmarks.html if you just want that.

Terry Wang
  • 9,505
  • 4
  • 37
  • 30
  • ~/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default should I insert this into terminal? – Andy Nov 17 '12 at 19:53
  • 1
    @Andy the xxxxxxxx is a random string generated, you need to take a look at yours and take it from there;-) – Terry Wang Nov 17 '12 at 23:25
  • I found the hidden folder mozilla on the previous version but I cannot access its contents due to the password protection in the previuos version. could you recommend any method of opening such a folder from the trial ubuntu on live USB or from a newly installed system? – Andy Nov 18 '12 at 09:38
  • @Andy Can you explain "password protection"? Do you mean the bookmarks or the profile folder (or filesystem it resides)? If you know the password you set, try to run firefox -p /mount_point/home/user/.mozilla/xxxxxxxx.default and see if you can input the password and export the bookmarks. – Terry Wang Nov 18 '12 at 12:03
  • thank you a lot I managed to restore my broken boot and access the system :) – Andy Nov 18 '12 at 15:19
6

If you have never used the firefox option Bookmarks->Show All Bookmarks-> Import and Backup -> Export Bookmarks to HTML, then you will never see a file, bookmarks.html. In such a case, you can probably copy over the history files stored in ~/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default/bookmarkbackups/ where xxxxxxxx.default is a FF assigned directory. And then, don't forget to export the bookmarks to wherever you want them. It will be stored at /bookmarks.html

jack cardozo
  • 61
  • 1
  • 2
  • 1
    After copying across the most recent backup, I restarted firefox and opened the library. I clicked "import and backup" then on mouse over, the restore option showed the backup file. Select this and the bookmarks are imported into the browser. – dmkonlinux Aug 19 '18 at 06:08
  • @dmkonlinux This should be the answer. – Skippy le Grand Gourou Oct 14 '18 at 11:01
0

You can simply copy the old .mozilla folder into your home folder, after which you can select the appropriate backup through Import and Backup → Restore within FireFox (or IceCat) under Bookmarks → Show All Bookmarks.

魔大农
  • 153
  • 1
  • 8
0

If you haven't exported your bookmarks to a bookmark.html file, you can still replace your current bookmarks with your old ones :)

  • Click on Bookmarks->Manage Bookmarks or simply use Ctrl+Shift+O.
  • Select Import and Backup->Restore->Choose file
  • Navigate to your old .mozilla folder. make sure you right click Show Hidden Files
  • Keep the JSON preselected filter on and in one of the folders of under the firefox directory you should find a bookmarkbackups folder. Simply click on the latest .json file!
Ari
  • 101
  • 1