Where Are Firefox Bookmarks Stored

Firefox stores your live bookmarks in a database file named places.sqlite inside your profile folder, and it keeps a series of dated backup snapshots in a bookmarkbackups subfolder next to it. The places.sqlite file is the working copy; the backups are your safety net.

Knowing where these files live helps when you want to back up your bookmarks, move them to a new computer, or recover them after a crash. Here is exactly where to look on each operating system.

The two places Firefox keeps bookmarks

Firefox uses two separate things, and it helps to keep them straight:

• places.sqlite — the active database holding your current bookmarks and your browsing history. This is what Firefox reads and writes as you work.
• bookmarkbackups — a folder of automatic snapshots. Firefox writes a new compressed .jsonlz4 file periodically and keeps roughly the last 15, giving you several restore points.

Both live inside your profile folder, so finding the profile is the first step.

Find your profile folder the easy way

The reliable way to locate your profile, regardless of operating system, is to ask Firefox:

1. Open Firefox and type about:profiles in the address bar, then press Enter.
2. Find the profile marked as in use (it usually ends in .default-release).
3. Next to Root Directory, click Open Folder (or Show in Finder on macOS).

The folder that opens is your profile. Inside it you will see places.sqlite and the bookmarkbackups folder.

Where the profile folder lives on each OS

If you would rather navigate there manually, here are the default locations. Folder names ending in random characters vary per install.

On Windows, paste %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles into the File Explorer address bar to jump straight there. On macOS, the ~/Library folder is hidden by default, so use Finder's Go > Go to Folder and paste the path. On Linux, ~/.mozilla is a hidden folder, so enable hidden files in your file manager or use the terminal.

What is inside the bookmarkbackups folder

The bookmarkbackups folder holds files named by date, such as bookmarks-2026-06-17.jsonlz4. These are compressed with Mozilla's own LZ4 format, so a normal text editor will not read them. They are meant to be restored from within Firefox rather than opened directly.

To restore one, open the Library window with Ctrl+Shift+O (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+O (macOS), click the Import and Backup button (the icon with up and down arrows), choose Restore, and pick a dated snapshot. Firefox replaces your current bookmarks with that snapshot, so restore only when you are sure.

Should you copy these files for a backup?

You can copy places.sqlite or a .jsonlz4 file to another drive as a rough backup, but both are tied to Firefox's internal format. For a portable copy that any browser can read, export to HTML instead: open the Library window, click Import and Backup, and choose Export Bookmarks to HTML. That file works as a backup and as an import source for other browsers.

If you want to keep Firefox's own format, copying the newest .jsonlz4 file out of bookmarkbackups on a regular schedule is a reasonable habit, since the folder only keeps a limited number of snapshots before older ones roll off.

A note for people who also use Chrome

The file layout described here is specific to Firefox. Chrome and other Chromium browsers use a completely different file named Bookmarks in their own profile folders, which is covered in where Chrome bookmarks are stored. If you split your work across both browsers, TrueBookmark is a Chrome extension that backs up your bookmarks on install, on demand in one click, and automatically before any risky change on the Chrome side, so the bookmarks you keep there have a separate, restorable history.