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Imported bookmarks beign overwritten by old bookmarks

  • 2 replies
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  • Last reply by seppukuu

seppukuu
seppukuu
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[This happens on both PC (Win 8.1) and Mac (Mojave 10.14.6) with the current version of Firefox (95.0.2).]

I backed up my bokmarks on both PC and Mac as .json files due to switching laptops for my holiday (PC is personal, Mac is work). When I imported the personal .json file on the Mac, the bookmarks did get imported but all jumbled up - the folders were still there but empty and all the bookmarks were just dumped in random order in the Bookmarks Menu root folder. So I tried synchronising profiles instead which didn't work either.

Now I'm back home and of course the synch has messed up the bookmarks on my PC as well. I deleted everything, restored the bookmarks from the personal .json again, and it does restore them properly for about 2 seconds and then all of the neatly sorted bookmarks in their folders get overwritten again by the jumbled mess. The same thing happens when I restore from the automatic restore point instead (from a day before my holiday).

I have disconnected the snych, restarted and updated several times, and tried this on both PC and Mac with both the personal and work .json files, with the same result every time. I have about 1200 bookmarks in total so I would love to be able to fix this without going through all of them to put them back into their respective folders manually. Any idea how I can fix this?

[This happens on both PC (Win 8.1) and Mac (Mojave 10.14.6) with the current version of Firefox (95.0.2).] I backed up my bokmarks on both PC and Mac as .json files due to switching laptops for my holiday (PC is personal, Mac is work). When I imported the personal .json file on the Mac, the bookmarks did get imported but all jumbled up - the folders were still there but empty and all the bookmarks were just dumped in random order in the Bookmarks Menu root folder. So I tried synchronising profiles instead which didn't work either. Now I'm back home and of course the synch has messed up the bookmarks on my PC as well. I deleted everything, restored the bookmarks from the personal .json again, and it does restore them properly for about 2 seconds and then all of the neatly sorted bookmarks in their folders get overwritten again by the jumbled mess. The same thing happens when I restore from the automatic restore point instead (from a day before my holiday). I have disconnected the snych, restarted and updated several times, and tried this on both PC and Mac with both the personal and work .json files, with the same result every time. I have about 1200 bookmarks in total so I would love to be able to fix this without going through all of them to put them back into their respective folders manually. Any idea how I can fix this?

Chosen solution

Thanks for the reply! Unfortunately, it didn't work. Tried it a couple times and restarted in between as well just to make sure.

However, I have reinstalled Firefox and that solved the problem. Imported my backup HTML file without issue this time.

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All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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If you use Sync then best is to disconnect Sync temporarily during troubleshooting.

This could be a problem with the places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder.

  • use the "Places Database" -> "Verify Integrity" button on the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page

If errors are reported with "Verify Integrity", close and restart Firefox or reboot and retry.

If "Verify Integrity" cannot repair places.sqlite, rename/remove all places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder with Firefox closed. Firefox will rebuild places.sqlite and restore the bookmarks from the most recent JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

  • keep a backup copy of places.sqlite in case a new places.sqlite database has to be created
  • you lose the history when a new places.sqlite is created

You may have to restore an older bookmarks backup in the bookmarkbackups folder via the Bookmarks Manager (Library).

See also:

You can use the button on the "Help -> More Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page (Root directory).

seppukuu
seppukuu Question owner
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Chosen Solution

Thanks for the reply! Unfortunately, it didn't work. Tried it a couple times and restarted in between as well just to make sure.

However, I have reinstalled Firefox and that solved the problem. Imported my backup HTML file without issue this time.