Favicons: I Need To Find The File Path

I use Firefox and I have made short cuts to web pages, using the drag and drop method and saved them to my desk top.

I visited the following page in this forum, but it shows the file path to where favicons are stored when Internet Explorer is used.

How to find path to favicon.ico w/ IE7?

What is the file path for the folder where favicons are stored, when Firefox is used to create them?

Thank you

Chosen Solution

There's no "cache" for Favicons. They are saved directly in the places.sqlite file, in your Profile folder, with your bookmarks and browser history.

Source: Bookmarks don't show all favicons

First go to Hidden Files and Folders - Show or Hide; You want to show, follow Option One, Steps one and two.

Then go to

Code:

C:\Users\your user name\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

• Click on your profile, it should look something like this: 6boqw0lk.default-120653523721 it will be the only folder below Profiles, click on it.

• Scroll down until you see places.sqlite, click on it. A box will open asking you what program you would like to open this file with, notepad is acceptable.

• Uncheck the box, click on OK. Wait for the file to open, mine is over 10MB, took a minute.

The majority of what you see will be in programming language, but you can see the links to your saved bookmarks.


There are also bookmarkbackups located at:

Code:

C:\Users\your user name\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\Your Profile\bookmarkbackups

and it will be a sub-folder in your profile.

It is more difficult to open because it is a JSONLZ4 file, but there is a third-party program from FileInfo.com that may work to open them: File Viewer Lite
I tried to scan it with VirusTotal, but the que was taking too long so here are the results from a day ago: https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/5...49bb/analysis/

There is also a website that you may want: https://json-csv.com/ Use a copy of bookmarkbackups. Once converted you can paste the .csv file into Excel or Calc if your copy won't paste upload it into the converter.

I did not use either method to view the bookmarkbackups file(s) because I had no need to, but you might.


Related:
http://Reading "jsonlz4" bookmarkbackup files | forums.mozillazine.org

Help how to open JSONLZ4 files:
You can use export/import (HTML) or backup/restore (JSON) in the Bookmarks Manager to create a backup or restore the bookmarks.

Source: File extension JSONLZ4 - Open .jsonlz4 files

Melita, did you delete your new post?

I received this email note earlier today:

Here is the message that has just been posted:
***************
I entered the exact code with my username; C:\Users\your user name\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles

Somehow the file is not opening. Don't I have to enter some parts of this code this way; %AppData% or %user name%
***************

You shouldn't need the %%.

Can you be clearer on why the file is not opening?

When you click on places.sqlite do you see the Open with box, and follow the steps I laid out?

If you did, Notepad should have opened, did you allow enough time for the file to open, I timed mine this time and it took my 10MB file 10secs to open.

How large is your places.sqlite file?

Hello Anak,

What happened was that Windows Explorer was searching for the file for 2 hours with no result and I thought there was something wrong. So I posted the message that you have quoted. I tried again and after 3 hours of searching, the file opened. I immediately deleted my post but it looks like you have answered it just before that. I am very sorry about this!

Will get back on this later.

Regards

Hi Melita,

Aww...No harm, no foul, sometimes stuff happens, but that is an awful long time for Windows to search. If you have time like overnight while you're sleeping you might want to try rebuilding your Index: Index - Rebuild also check the Related Tutorials at the bottom of this tutorial for more options that are related to indexing like search.

You could have also tried drilling down to the file path that I gave you: C:\Users\your user name\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles - that would be much quicker.

   Note

Make sure you un-hide those folders and files first, and the reason you un-check the 'always use the selected program' box is if you leave it checked the file dependencies are changed and Firefox won't be able to use it because it is looking for a .sqlite file.

No hurry. When you get your thoughts together, I'll be here.

Hello Anak,

The file took long to open because I had selected 'Find partial matches' in 'Folder Options'. Once I de-selected that, it opened in 7 minutes. I saw a large number of favicons but I could not be sure whether any of them are for the web shortcuts I made to the desktop, using the darg and drop method. It is also 10MB like yours. So, it must be OK.

Here is the link to my earlier post in this forum, about the favicon problem I had, and how it was sorted out.

I too have a desktop icon problem

But to save you the trouble of wading through it, I am copying the relevant parts below:

"I used Ccleaner to clean up the computer. When I re-started the computer, desktop icons for Internet web page short cuts (about 20 of them), have all changed to the same icon, the way it is seen in my attachment at the top. Before the clean up, they all had different icons according to the web page, as shown in attachment at the bottom. How can I get back the original web page icons for these short cuts?


I did a cache rebuild and this is what happened:

"After the cache rebuild two things happened to the short cut icons. (1) They all changed to the usual Notepad icon of WIN 7. Please see attachment. (2) This is spooky. When a web page is opened using one of the icons, two tabs open. First tab opens 'Ghostery' home page (I use this add on with Firefox which is my default browser), and the second one opens the correct web page. This happens with all the Internet short cuts! Now I have notepad icon on all these and I am plagued with Ghostery home page."

This was the solution I discovered in the end:

"In three steps it can be put right. Reduce the page size so that I can see the messed up favicon on desk top, delete it and drag and drop page to desktop again. It is saved with the proper icon."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Problem:

A week ago I used a programme "Temporary File Cleaner" (TFC). This time my icons did not disappear. They are still there on the desktop but after (TFC), all new shortcuts I make come with no favicons!

If I click on one of the old favicons that are still on the desktop (1st photo in the attachment below), to open that web page, and drag and drop the exact web page to the desktop, the short cut is made with the correct (same) favicon (2nd one in the attachment). If I make a short cut with any other page of the same web site, there is no favicon but a blank white icon (3rd picture in attachment).



Also, It is the same blank white icon that appears for all short cuts that I now make, for all new web sites, whether I make them on Desktop or in any other folder.

There is only one place a new favicon is made. Bookmarks! It is found in all new bookmarks that I make. Old bookmarks also have not lost their favicons.

BUT, If I drag and drop any bookmark, old or new, it makes the same blank white icon!

Can a solution to this be found?

Kind regards

P.S. Oh, I almost forgot. Only web shortcut Favicons are affected. All other icons for folders, programmes, applications etc. remain as they were.

Thank goodness it only affects your browser icons and not the OS ones, that definitely points to the browser.

Have you done any mucking around in about:config? Check to see if these two settings are set to true, I'm using this tut to show how to get to them, just make sure their set to true and not false like the tut instructs, if they are true just close/x-out the tab: Firefox Favicons - Disable

Has it been awhile since you last cleared your Firefox (FF) cache? if so try: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb...lear-the-cache

If that doesn't help or help much try: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/fir...icon-restorer/
To see if you can rebuild those favicons.

Do you use the FF sync feature? I seen reports that, that can interfere with saving favicons/icons.

This might also be a corrupt profile and you will need to create a new one. There is a way to create an extra one in FF and switch between the old and new for testing: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb...refox-profiles

Firefox - Create and Run Multiple Profiles


Related:
This may also help in rebuilding favicons: AM-DeadLink

Variations on the profile theme:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/...refox_Profiles

Use Multiple Firefox Profiles at the Same Time

How To Use Firefox Profiles & Run Multiple Firefox Profiles At Once

Anak said:

Have you done any mucking around in about:config? Check to see if these two settings are set to true, I'm using this tut to show how to get to them, just make sure their set to true and not false like the tut instructs, if they are true just close/x-out the tab: Firefox Favicons - Disable

No, I didn't do any mucking around in about:config The two settings are set to true and I didn't have to do anything.

Has it been awhile since you last cleared your Firefox (FF) cache? if so try: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb...lear-the-cache

I cleared it after the trouble started but did it again today.

If that doesn't help or help much try: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/fir...icon-restorer/
To see if you can rebuild those favicons.

This add-on was installed.

Do you use the FF sync feature? I seen reports that, that can interfere with saving favicons/icons.

I never used this.

This might also be a corrupt profile and you will need to create a new one. There is a way to create an extra one in FF and switch between the old and new for testing: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb...refox-profiles

Firefox - Create and Run Multiple Profiles

None of the above helped. So I am down to this one. Before doing that; my Firefox is functioning perfectly. Speed is great. Would this be so, if the profile is corrupted?

I wonder whether Firefox can be restored to an earlier time, like we do with the computer?

Regards

I wonder whether Firefox can be restored to an earlier time, like we do with the computer?

I believe you're thinking of this:

Restore the Default Settings in Firefox Without Uninstalling It

Have you found yourself wishing that you could start fresh with Firefox but the thought of uninstalling and then reinstalling it makes you cringe? Well now you can get that fresh clean Firefox goodness back with a simple process using “Safe Mode”.

Source: Restore the Default Settings in Firefox Without Uninstalling It

But then maybe this:

What does the refresh feature do?

All of your Firefox settings and personal information are stored in a profile folder. The refresh feature works by creating a new profile folder for you while saving your important data.
Add-ons normally stored inside the Firefox profile folder, such as extensions and themes, will be removed. Add-ons stored in other locations, such as plugins, will not be removed but any modified preferences (such as plugins you have disabled) will be reset.

Source: https://Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings | support.mozilla.org

A refresh will remove extensions, themes and a few other items.

These items and settings will be removed:

• Extensions and themes, website permissions, modified preferences, added search engines, download history, DOM storage, security settings, download actions, plugin settings, toolbar customizations, user styles and social features will be removed.

Source a little further down on the refresh page.

Here's a handy utility to have in case you run into problems:

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

It allows you to backup and restore bookmarks, mail, contacts, history, extensions, passwords, cache etc. It's an easy way to do Firefox backup, Thunderbird backup ...

Source: http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/

You could use it in case you have to reinstall Firefox which would be the next step if the restore/refresh doesn't work, but you might be copying your problems into the new install.

I am only interested in saving bookmarks.

(1) When 'Reset', 'Refresh' or 'Create a New Profile' feature is used:

The Bookmarks are saved. I have customized my bookmarks and made 28 new folders for easy access. Will they be restored in exactly the same format (including all the separate folders with their exact contents), after the reset, refresh or with the new profile?

(2) In the event that they get deleted accidentally during any of the above operations:

If I, (1) 'Backup' or (2) 'Export Bookmarks to HTML', using the 'Import and Backup' option of Firefox Library; when I import them later, will they be restored in exactly the same format (including all the separate folders with their exact contents).

(3) If the answer to (2) above is 'Yes':

What is your opinion about my un-installing Firefox entirely and downloading it new? This may even prevent any potential glitches that are not yet apparent.

Thank you