Backing up and restoring your bookmarks in Firefox is a pretty easy thing to do.  However, did you know that Firefox has a way you can rollback to a previous day’s bookmark backup?  This can save you a lot of heartache if you have accidently deleted a folder of useful bookmarks and you need to get them back in a hurry.

The first thing you will want to do is open up the Bookmark Library, by going to Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks in Firefox’s menu toolbar.  You can also press Ctrl+Shift+B to bring it up too.

Next, click on Import and Backup. Move the mouse down to where it says "Restore" and you will see the collection of bookmark backups the Firefox has stored locally for you.  To roll your bookmarks back to one of these days, simply select the date you want to roll back to.

Now, the next time you are in a pinch with your bookmarks – and you need to quickly restore thing to the way they were, you can do so with this quick bookmark restoring tip.

Oh undo function, what would I do without you? 

Well, I would probably be forced to do it again – but that is beside the point.  I love being able to reopen a closed tab or window in Firefox.  It has saved my rear end many times.  This is just one of those Firefox tips you really should memorize.

Tab Restore Shortcuts

If you accidently close a tab, you can bring it back by pressing the following keyboard combination:

Ctrl + Shift + T

The great thing about it, is the newly restored tab keeps all the surfing history too.  You can can keep doing it to, to browse backwards through all the tabs you have closed in your current browsing session.

You can also bring back closed Firefox tabs or windows by clicking on “History” in the menu bar.  At the very bottom, you should see selectable menus for:

• Recently Closed Tabs
• Recently Closed Windows

There you have it.  This tab and window restore tip will help you get out of a pinch more than a few times, so it is a good one to memorize.  This is one of my favorite keyboard shortcuts and Firefox browsing tips, second only to Ctrl + T to open a new Firefox tab.

How to Backup Your Bookmarks Manually

From the Firefox menu bar go to Bookmarks >  Organize Bookmarks to bring up your bookmarks manager.  Now you want to click the top button that says Import and Backup.

Next, select Backup.  This will bring up a “Save As” box where you can save your bookmarks to any location.  Make sure you leave the bookmark as a .json file too.  Since Firefox 3, this is the type of file Firefox uses for backups.  If you wish to export your bookmarks as an HTML file, go to Import and Backup > Export HTML.  That will give you the more traditional .html backup.

Recover Firefox’s Internal Bookmark Backups

Did you know that Firefox has been backing up your bookmarks all along?  They are in your Firefox profile folder.  First thing you need to do is find your profile folder for Firefox.  Depending on your operating system this may be in a different location.  If you are unsure, be sure to check out this previous post: 

• Where is my Firefox Profile Folder?

Once you make it in there you should see a folder named “bookmarkbackups”.  Double-click that folder, and there you have some of your saved bookmarks that you thought you had lost waiting for you to restore them.  If you want more backups to be saved (default is 5) then check out this previous article on the simple about:config tweak you will need to do.

Backup Your Bookmarks with an Add-on

There are many extensions for Firefox that will help you backup too.  My personal favorite is Foxmarks, which comes with the additional feature of syncing them with another PC (another good backup technique in its own right).  Here are the best:

• FEBE – The perfect add-on for those backing up and don’t wish to rely on other services.
• Foxmarks – The greatest backup and syncing extension out there today.
• Delicious Bookmarks – Yes, syncing with services like Delicious is another great way to backup your bookmarks.

Now the question is how do you and when did you last backup your own Firefox bookmarks?

Users who have tabs open in multiple Firefox windows can drag and drop tabs across separate browser windows. Using this technique you can consolidate all of your tabs into a single window. Keeping all of your tabs will make Firefox (and the rest of your system slower) but also let you make the most of a the “restore session” feature.

Thanks to Lifehacker and Be Lazier for the information.

If you find yourself in the camp with the annoyed folks, this is what you do:

1. type about:config in your browser URL
2. go to the browser.sessionstore.enabled setting
3. change the setting to false

There you go! All fixed now. Thanks to the scott.hodson.blog for the source of this information, and Philip for sending me the link.

There are some new features in Firefox 2.0 that haven’t received much mention yet. One of these is the new session restore feature. In the past, people have used Google Browser Sync or Tab Mix Plus to restore their Firefox tabs. Now, Firefox 2.0 allows you to do this without an extension (which I always find to be a good thing, as to many extensions can slow down your browser). Here is how to do it.

+ Learn More About Firefox 2′s Session Restore Feature!

MozBackup is a simple utility for creating backups of Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Mozilla Suite and Netscape profiles.

It seems like some other backup programs for Firefox miss something, or don’t restore just right. MozBackup does just about everything right, and hasn’t done me wrong yet.

+ Learn More About MozBackup!

Well, all you have to do is open the Bookmarks Manager (Click on Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks). Once you are in there, hit the Ctrl key and Z key to undo your last action. You can also go up and select Edit, then Undo. Now all you have to do is train your fingers not to be so twitchy.