One thing you can do is to compare them side by side.

Is it possible that there are duplicate entries?

K_Man2112 said

If a thread/article already exists about this please point me over there

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/search?esab=a&w=1&q=import

These instructions are for Firefox. Other browsers should also be able to do this.

These instructions will combine the new bookmarks with the old.

Open the Bookmarks Manager; Press the Alt or F10 key to bring up the toolbar, and select Bookmarks. Hot key is <Control> (Mac=<Command>) <Shift> B.

Once the window is open, at the top of the page, press the button labeled Import and Backup. Select Export Bookmarks To HTML, and follow the prompts and save it to a HTML file. Copy the file to another computer/profile. Repeat the instructions above, BUT select Import Bookmarks From HTML.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-bookmarks-from-backup-or-move-them

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recover-lost-or-missing-bookmarks

If there are duplicates there aren't over 30K and wouldn't they all export/import anyway?

BTW, this has been going on for a couple of years.

Where are you getting those 35,000 and 1,500 counts from?

File size in kB or MB for a bookmarks.html file exported from Firefox would definitely be huge vs. a bookmarks.htm / html file exported from IE. That file exported from Firefox contains all the website images / Favicons as they are called. And those "images" as exported via bookmarks.html aren't actually image files, they are stored in an esoteric alpha/numeric string format known as "data:image/png;base64..."

IE stores their Favicons outside the URL folders in a common image format, and the IE export via html / htm format does no contain those "images".

As "guestimate" those "data:image/png;base64..." "images" can make the bookmarks.html file as much as 25 times the size of the same set of bookmarks which have no "images" in the bookmarks.html file.

Another thing that occurs to me is that if you are doing a count from the Library window perhaps the places.sqlite file is corrupt which could explain a massive number of duplicates.

There is a feature built into Firefox that will Verify the Integrity of the Places Database inside Firefox.

Type about:support in the URL bar and hit Enter. Then scroll almost all the way down to Places Database and use the Verify Integrity button. Wait until the results appear - when that section gets larger to show the results in 15 lines or more.

I've attached images of the FF bookmarks library and the IE folder after importing them.

Thanks for the tip but I'm not sure what to look for after running "Verify integrity"

> Task: checkIntegrity + The places.sqlite database is sane + The favicons.sqlite database is sane > Task: invalidateCaches + The caches have been invalidated > Task: checkCoherence + The database is coherent > Task: expire + Database cleaned up > Task: originFrecencyStats + Recalculated origin frecency stats > Task: vacuum + Initial database size is 30720KiB + The database has been vacuumed + Final database size is 20480KiB > Task: stats + Places.sqlite size is 20480KiB + Favicons.sqlite size is 9312KiB + pragma_user_version is 52 + pragma_page_size is 4096 + pragma_cache_size is -2048 + pragma_journal_mode is wal + pragma_synchronous is 1 + History can store a maximum of 149797 unique pages + Table moz_bookmarks has 35647 records + Table moz_keywords has 0 records + Table sqlite_sequence has 1 records + Table moz_annos has 287 records + Table moz_anno_attributes has 4 records + Table moz_items_annos has 276 records + Table moz_places has 35110 records + Table moz_historyvisits has 342 records + Table moz_inputhistory has 1 records + Table sqlite_stat1 has 18 records + Table moz_hosts has 0 records + Table moz_bookmarks_deleted has 17916 records + Table moz_meta has 5 records + Table moz_origins has 4636 records + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_keywords_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_anno_attributes_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_inputhistory_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_hosts_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_bookmarks_deleted_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_origins_1 + Index moz_bookmarks_itemindex + Index moz_bookmarks_parentindex + Index moz_bookmarks_itemlastmodifiedindex + Index moz_places_hostindex + Index moz_places_visitcount + Index moz_places_frecencyindex + Index moz_places_lastvisitdateindex + Index moz_historyvisits_placedateindex + Index moz_historyvisits_fromindex + Index moz_historyvisits_dateindex + Index moz_places_url_hashindex + Index moz_bookmarks_dateaddedindex + Index moz_annos_placeattributeindex + Index moz_items_annos_itemattributeindex + Index moz_bookmarks_guid_uniqueindex + Index moz_places_guid_uniqueindex + Index moz_keywords_placepostdata_uniqueindex + Index moz_places_originidindex > Task: _refreshUI

Per that Integrity table: + Table moz_bookmarks has 35647 records is close enough to the 35,519 shown in the Library window.

+ Database cleaned up and + Initial database size is 30720KiB + The database has been vacuumed + Final database size is 20480KiB

Looks good, now.

Try doing another Export in bookmarks.html format and see if those bookmarks get Imported into IE now.

I notice this entry: Table moz_bookmarks_deleted has 17916 records Are you using Sync?

You can open the exported HTML file in a Firefox tab to check its content I do not know what root folders IE and Edge imports, but they will probably skip the Other Bookmarks folder.

Thanks for your help.

I think it's pulling from the Recently Bookmarked list. If I delete some from there and then re-export/import the number decreases. It does seem to be ignoring the Bookmarks Menu list.

I've also checked the MS community and Googled this but no real help there. Just funny to think that no one else has noticed this, like I said earlier, it's been a couple of years. Maybe they didn't care or it's just me.

Keep in mind that "Recently Bookmarked" shows the result of a database query that shows a chronological list of recent bookmarks. This is not a real folder and any action you perform on items in a smart folder list are done on the original (i.e. if you remove a bookmark then you remove the original bookmark), so be cautious.

Note that Firefox might be including folders and separators in the count.