Everyone has accidentally deleted something at one time or the other, and before you know it, the files are gone. The same thing can happen with the bookmarks within your browser. Sometimes the Chrome and Firefox’s bookmarks interface can be really puzzling. It is common for people to delete an entire folder of bookmarks believing they were just deleting an item from bookmarks toolbar.
Happily, it is quite easy to restore bookmarks that have been accidentally deleted, both in Chrome and Firefox. While Firefox has an inbuilt feature for this, you have to do some folder searching in Chrome. If you use any one of these browsers, you do not have to worry, as you have a good chance of recovering the bookmarks you have deleted.
Chrome
If Chrome has not been restarted more than one or two times, after you mistakenly delete some bookmarks in the web browser, you stand a good chance of recovering the bookmarks. Every now and then, Chrome backs your bookmarks up automatically, and the bookmarks you are searching for may be within that backup. Now, you only have to find out how to restore bookmarks from the backup.
In Explorer, follow this path: C:\Users\USERNAMES\AppData\Locals\Google\Chrome\UsersData\Default. You should be aware that you may not be able to see AppData for the reason that it is a hidden directory, you have to set Explorer to show hidden folder to be able to see it. Whatever the case may be, the path can simply be copied and pasted into Explorer. Before you do that, ensure that “USERNAME” is replaced with the user name on your system.
Two important files are contained in this folder: Bookmarks.bak plus Bookmarks. Bookmarks.bak contains the backup your are searching for, and Bookmarks contains your current bookmarks. Look at the date beside Bookmarks.bak to be certain that you did the backup prior to deleting the bookmarks. To restore the deleted bookmarks, rename Bookmarks Bookmarks.old.
After doing that, remove the extension “.bak” from the name Bookmarks.bak, so the name becomes Bookmarks. By doing this, you have turned the backup folder to the main bookmarks file.
After altering the names, you will receive a warning from Windows that the file might be ruined permanently and you will be asked if you are certain about taking this step. You should say “Yes” this time, as there is no danger.
After Chrome has been restarted, you will see your previous bookmarks in their proper location.
What this means is that if you have changed or added bookmarks following the unintentional deletion, those changes will be lost when you restore the backup. So ensure that your newer bookmarks are not lost when you restore bookmarks you deleted accidentally.
Firefox
Restoring lost bookmarks is easier with Firefox. You can do this even if Firefox has been restarted many times. Also, it can still be accomplished even if the accidental deletion occurred several days back.
Just like Chrome, Firefox backs your bookmarks up automatically, but it saves the previous ten backups for you, rather than just one as is done by Chrome. Additionally, there is no need for you to start searching and renaming folders, because this feature is an integral part of Firefox interface.
On the menu bar in Firefox, select Bookmarks, Show All Bookmarks. You can also use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+B. Within Bookmarks library window, select “Import and Backup”, after that choose “Restore”.
Once you are here, you can easily select the backups you wish to restore. You should select the newest one prior to the deletion of your bookmarks. If the restoration is being done immediately after the bookmark was deleted, select the latest one. Choose a backup that is older, if the deletion was done several days back.
At this stage, you will receive a message from Firefox that all the bookmarks you have at the moment will be replaced if you restore old bookmarks. If you recently did some alterations apart from accidental deletion of bookmarks, this is something you need to take into account.
Once you hit the Ok button, the change will be instantaneous. There will be no need to re-launch Firefox. You will simply find your lost bookmarks where they are meant to be.
Wrapping Up
It is always a good idea to back up all the items in your system, and that includes bookmarks. Knowing that you can restore bookmarks that were deleted accidentally will give you peace of mind, but you cannot put too much faith in it, particularly if you make use of the Chrome web browser.
