How to recover deleted bookmarks in Firefox

Updated 18 October 2026

If Firefox hasn’t closed since the delete, open the Library (Ctrl+Shift+O) and choose Organize > Undo, or press Ctrl+Z. Once Firefox has closed, restore one of the automatic backups it keeps in your profile, from Import and Backup > Restore. Export your current bookmarks first: a restore replaces all of them.

1. Undo it while Firefox is open

1. Open the Library: Ctrl+Shift+O, or Cmd+Shift+O on a Mac.
2. Click in the list of bookmarks, then choose Organize > Undo or press Ctrl+Z. On a Mac, use Edit > Undo in the menu bar, or Cmd+Z.
3. Repeat once for every bookmark change you made after the delete.

Firefox keeps one undo history for bookmark changes made anywhere in the browser, so a bookmark removed from the star’s edit panel, the toolbar or the sidebar comes back the same way. The history lives in memory and is gone when Firefox closes.

2. Restore an automatic backup

A restore swaps your whole collection for the backup. Save what you have first: Library > Import and Backup > Export Bookmarks to HTML….

1. In the Library, click Import and Backup > Restore.
2. Pick a date. Each entry shows the file size and the number of bookmarks it holds. Mozilla’s advice: choose a backup newer than the last time you saw the bookmarks and older than the moment they disappeared.
3. Firefox warns: “This will replace all of your current bookmarks with the backup.” Click OK.
4. Bookmarks you added after that date are in the file you just exported. Import it with Import Bookmarks from HTML… and keep what you need from the Bookmarks Menu folder.

How the automatic backups work

• Firefox writes at most one a day, after you’ve left the keyboard and mouse alone for a few minutes with Firefox open.
• It keeps 15 (the browser.bookmarks.max_backups preference) and deletes the oldest when a new one arrives.
• If nothing changed since the last backup, Firefox renames that file to today’s date and writes no new one, so the 15 copies can reach back well past 15 days.
• They’re .jsonlz4 files in the bookmarkbackups folder of your profile, named like bookmarks-2026-10-17_1532_….jsonlz4, where 1532 is the bookmark count.

3. Get one folder back and keep everything else

1. Type about:support in the address bar, click Open Folder next to Profile Folder (Show in Finder on a Mac, Open Directory on Linux) and open bookmarkbackups.
2. Copy the backup from before the delete to your desktop.
3. Drop the copy into our free Firefox backup converter. It reads .jsonlz4 in your browser and gives you an HTML file.
4. In the Library, choose Import Bookmarks from HTML… and pick that file. The backup arrives inside Bookmarks Menu; drag the lost folder back where it belongs and delete the rest of the import.

Nothing you have now is replaced, and Firefox Sync carries the recovered folder to your other devices like any new bookmark.

4. Gone after an update, reinstall or refresh

If Firefox shows only its default bookmarks, it has probably started with a different profile. Open about:profiles, try Launch profile in new browser on each of the others, and when one has your bookmarks, click Set as default profile. Mozilla asks you not to remove any profile until you know which one holds your data.

Refresh Firefox leaves an Old Firefox Data folder on your desktop with a complete copy of the old profile. After a Windows 10 upgrade, Mozilla points to C:\Windows.old\Users\<name>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles. Both hold a bookmarkbackups folder for step 3.

5. From an old places.sqlite

places.sqlite holds your bookmarks and history. To read one from an old profile or a system backup without touching your main profile:

1. In about:profiles, click Create a New Profile and finish the wizard, without launching the new profile yet. Click Open Folder (Show in Finder on a Mac) next to its Root Directory.
2. Quit Firefox and copy the old places.sqlite (plus favicons.sqlite for the icons) into that folder.
3. Start Firefox, open about:profiles again, launch the new profile, export its bookmarks to HTML and import that file into your main profile.

6. Sync and your other devices

Sync copies deletes too: Mozilla says a bookmark removed on one device is deleted from your synced devices, and that Sync isn’t a backup. If another computer still shows the bookmarks, export them there before you change anything, ideally with its Wi-Fi off so Sync can’t apply the delete first. Mozilla also warns that restoring a backup may overwrite synced data.

When they can’t come back

Mozilla lists the dead ends: every backup is newer than the delete, the bookmarks were deleted before any backup existed, the profile was deleted with no copy, or they never synced anywhere. An HTML export every month or so, kept off the computer, closes most of those gaps.