How to recover items from trash? (Re: Opera browser bookmarks)

[macuserhere]

I opened Opera web browser and it opened up to my Yahoo! Page. It didn't look like my normal Yahoo! homepage. There was a message that my browsers were out of date and I should update them. So I clicked on the Opera logo and I downloaded the new Opera web browser. I opened the new web browser and it had all the same bookmarks as the old one. So I thought it was safe to put the old one in the trash. So I dragged the old browser from Applications into trash and deleted the files. However, something happened afterwards, and the new browser crashed while I was using it. When I restarted the computer, I had trouble finding the Opera browser. I found it in Apple Script in Applications. When I clicked it open, the Bookmarks were gone!

How do I get my old Bookmarks back? Is it stored somewhere? Can I retrieve them from Trash or are they truly gone now that I have deleted them. I don't know why this happened. Opera has crashed on me before but the Bookmarks were never gone, and I made sure that the Bookmarks were the same on the new browser before I deleted the old browser.

[acme.mail.order]

The normal process would be to get the bookmarks out of yesterday's backup files. Undeleting them might be possible, but the chances of successful recovery go down every minute you continue to use the computer. If you really need to recover your files (and don't have a backup) turn your machine off NOW and explore HFS file recovery from another computer. Someone else can probably provide direct links.

[EatsWithFingers]

Quote: Originally Posted by macuserhere How do I get my old Bookmarks back? Is it stored somewhere?

On my system, it looks like the bookmarks are stored in "~/Library/Preferences/Opera Prefrences" (where ~ is your home directory). In that directory, I have a file named "Bookmarks" and a file named "bookmarks.adr" - the former is the app's own bookmarks, and the latter contains the user's bookmarks. If you have this file, then Opera has an "Import Opera Bookmarks..." option under "File" -> "Import and Export" which should hopefully restore them as required.

[hayne]

Quote: Originally Posted by macuserhere I opened Opera web browser and it opened up to my Yahoo! Page. It didn't look like my normal Yahoo! homepage.

That sounds like a possible sign of a DNS attack - i.e. where your Mac's DNS-handling has been changed by some malware to point you to a "fake" version of some site (for nefarious purposes).

Quote: There was a message that my browsers were out of date and I should update them. So I clicked on the Opera logo and I downloaded the new Opera web browser.

How out of date was your Opera browser at that time? I.e. did you know that it was a very old version?

[macuserhere]

Sorry for the late reply, everyone. I thought the case was hopeless and I didn't think I would get any replies.

I clicked on the Home symbol in the Panels and that is how I got onto Yahoo! homepage. I have that page marked down as my home page in Opera preferences.

I haven't used that computer often because I bought a new computer a couple of months ago. I just decided to look at something on that computer that day when the problem began.

I will try the Import option but I checked the Bookmarks.adr in Library/Preferences/Opera and when I clicked on it, an Opera page opened up with just a few lines of computer language text.

Thanks so much for your replies.