recover sync for two computers
I want to merge bookmarks on two machines.
I have FF 23 on the netbook and 22 on the desktop. Both run Kubuntu Linux 13.04. I had a crash in mid July of the netbook. Since then sync using Xmarks has silently failed. I tried a bunch of standard things with Xmarks, but none worked. I disabled Xmarks.
I switched to FF Sync yesterday. Same behavior. Both machines loaded bookmarks (only thing I sync), but they do not update each other. Failure is silent. But the Profile on the netbook has a log file showing errors. So I believe the problem is only on the netbook.
I am thinking of 1) first saving bookmarks to HTML and saving files with addons in a separate place to be doubly safe 2) uninstalling and reinstalling FF on the netbook with the existing profile and trying sync again. 3) if that fails, generate a new profile, and just import the netbook bookmarks.html and get sync going again.
Any advice, suggestions before I begin. I hope to resume work about 3 pm Calif time today.
All Replies (7)
Maybe one of the places file is messed up?
Check for a corrupted places.sqlite (move or delete it)
Thanks for the tip.
What if I use the Linux/Unix mv command to change its name? Is that enough? Any value in adding the SQLite manager add-on to try to take a look at it? This is all new territory.
I ran out of time yesterday and then got some kind of bug. I will come back and pursue what you suggest in a couple hours, but I am trying to figure out how you know you have a "messed up" places file?
What if I use the Linux/Unix mv command to change its name? Is that enough? Any value in adding the SQLite manager add-on to try to take a look at it? This is all new territory
Just move that places.sqlite file somewhere outside of the profile folder, doesnt matter how you do it.
I moved places.sqlite up a directory to the firefox directory. When I restarted Kubuntu I got a new places.sqlite i/4 the size of the prior one. But FF did not come up in a usable form, so I restarted again. I got a working FF then, but it weighed down the netbook so I could not do anything. A third restart and I got a working bookmarks library but with odd placements. (I failed to turn of sync because it then propagated that strange set so its in the desktop computer, but I can edit on that more powerful box more freely).
So thanks to your places.sqlite moving suggestion I got sync restored.
I have had a kernel panic on the last restart and need to continue cleaning up the Library items.
I spoke too soon.
Sync is still not working in the sense of a merged set of bookmarks.
A set of bookmarks from the desktop box has been grafted onto the top part of the netbook's bookmarks main menu. In that top section the new entries lack icons from their sources.
Below that is the prior set from the netbook before syncing so I have now a lot of duplicates but in different sections. (The folders for bookmarks are the same on both machines, but I now have two sets of those folders on the netbook.)
I am still not feeling completely well so I will get some sleep and come back to this.
Also some bookmarks and their folders from the netbook have not been transferred to the desktop.
Again, I am working on what to do. The places.sqlite on the desktop is 20 MB while on the netbook's current file is 30 MB while the original and presumed damaged one was 40 MB.
I am thinking of turning off sync on the netbook and then manually (and laboriously) editing the double set of bookmarked folders using the copy from the desktop machine as the primary source and only adding the differences from the netbook. Then I will try another round of saving a bookmarks.html file and moving the places.sqlite file from the profile. Once I get the new copy in place I will turn on sync again and see if sync happens in both directions and without duplicates.
I have to make a bunch of phone calls beforehand so it may be minutes or more than an hour before I begin on my plan.
You can easily import an HTML backup to merge bookmarks with existing bookmarks.
See also CheckPlaces.