Sometime I lost important Firefox bookmark folders, but they never come up in Spotlight, so I cannot find them, what can I do? thanks.

Do you back them up regularly to minimize what you (may) lose?

Looks like Firefox puts its bookmarks here:

~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/????????.default/bookmarks.html

[where "????????" is some random alphanumeric sequence]

And there's a "bookmarkbackups" folder right next to it.

Anywho... Spotlight will not look inside Library folders when run from the menubar. We need to open a window and add the (System files) (are included) criteria to the search. [somehow i think we've been over this ground before.]

Yes, the backup is in app - support.

I just opened that file in Firefox, and mine doesn't have any bookmarks stored in it; "bookmarkbackups", on the other hand, contains what looks to be are apparently my bookmarks, but they'll only open up in TextEdit or the like, and they include an awful lot of info...way more than I'd expect a for bookmark.

Edit: I went one step farther, and since the 5 (they're dated) items in "bookmarkbackups" appeared identical in TextEdit I deleted the 4 earliest ones with no apparent ill effects.

This here is a wild guess, but since I had 5 dated files in "bookmarkbackups" I'm wondering whether, if you've got a similar setup, your earlier dated files contain the bookmarks you've lost.

If you've got multiple files like I've got, try quitting Firefox and moving all but the earliest one to your Desktop, then relaunching Firefox to see if any of your missing bookmarks reappear.

Like I said... A wild guess.

It seems that Firefox's bookmarks are stored within an SQL database at ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/alphanum.default/places.sqlite, as per the Firefox Support Knowledge Base.

Actually, the Firefox Support Knowledge Base is surprisingly helpful regarding Firefox support issues. If kevs cares to investigate, he may find, say, Lost Bookmarks or Backing up and restoring bookmarks to be of some value.

DK,
my problem is that I need to keep the current set. I change things all the time.

but I'd like to surgically bring a few bookmark folders from a backup.

Now with the finder and files that so easy right?

The point is that Firefox doesn't store bookmarks as a collection of individual entries—which would make surgically restoring a few folders from a backup easy—but rather as a single database.

You might try Exporting bookmarks to an HTML file. This gives you a long list of all of your bookmarks, organized by folder, each bearing the name under which it was bookmarked, and each a clickable hyperlink.

That doesn't allow you to move a folder back into your current bookmarks, but you can still easily navigate to each item within a folder. In fact, you could export your current Firefox bookmarks to a file on your Desktop named, say, October_2_2010.html, then double-click on that file to open it in a Firefox window (assuming Firefox is set as your default browser). Next, bookmark that page. Now, as your bookmarks change, you'll always be able to access the ones you've got right now, simply by visiting the bookmarked October_2_2010.html page. (Note that this holds true only as long as that file remains on your Desktop, or wherever you chose to put it when you initially created it using Firefox's Export HTML procedure.)

I took a look at Backing up and restoring bookmarks...

I tried restoring from "bookmarks.html," but it only restored all/some of firefox's default bookmark set...nothing I've added since I first launched Firefox.

kevs's only hope may be in "bookmarkbackups," and, indeed, Firefox's "work star" offers an option to restore from that/those file(s), but care is required, because it sounds like doing so will overwrite his current bookmark set.

Since Firefox's automatic bookmark backups are named bookmarks-yyyy-mm-dd.json and its manual backups are, by default, named in the same fashion, I'm not sure what would lead you to try to restore from bookmarks.html. I sure hope you didn't take from my previous post any notion that I was suggesting such an approach!

I was attempting to direct kevs to a Firefox support document, rather than to suggest taking action on the basis of "a wild guess," but it seemed clear to me from his reply that the problem is that since he "need[s] to keep the current set," as he "change[s] things all the time," he's not looking for a solution which requires overwriting the existing set of bookmarks with a previous set.

I therefore offered a workaround involving exporting, not backing up, to an html file—which Firefox names, by default, bookmarks.html—and bookmarking, not restoring from, that file.

In any case, were he to attempt to overwrite his current set with one of the automatic bookmarks-yyyy-mm-dd.json backups—or with any other file, if he selected Choose File... instead—he'd first be presented with a dialog stating This will replace all of your current bookmarks with the backup. Are you sure?

Not you at all... One of the approaches Firefox offers is restoring from an html file, and since that was the only one around and it was "boookmarky" I tried it, and, as I said, it restored Firefox's default set of bookmarks. (I wonder why Firefox has got those [deleted by me] default bookmarks backed up, anyhow?) I forgot to say that it did not overwrite my current set...merely augmented it.


Thanks for clarifying your approach; I didn't read it as he can add new bookmarks to his html file...or is that what you actually said? My suggestion...really an educated guess rather than a wild one, is for kevs to move his current bookmarks to his Desktop and go through the backups one-at-a-time (assuming, of course that he's got multiples), extract whatever he needs from each, and, finally, get them into the Desktop file in the usual manner.

Edit: I wonder what induces Firefox to generate those backups? If it does so every time it quits after a change has been made, for instance, "bookmarkbackups" could get awful large, maybe even relatively quickly.

I think we need to clarify some terms here. Firefox does not offer restoring from an html file, only importing. This distinction is not trivial, it's crucial, for, as you've seen, importing supplements existing bookmarks, whereas restoring overwrites them!


If you're referring to ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/alphanum.default/bookmarks.html, that's not a backup—it's a template. It's how Firefox generates that default set of bookmarks when first launched.


From Backing up and restoring bookmarks: "Firefox automatically creates backups of your bookmarks and saves the last five backups for safekeeping."

thanks DK, hard to follow a lot of that, but get the gist of you post.

I did find the folder using great software bookdog.

But I'm holding onto your writings in case on day I lose a few folders and want to retrieve it from a backup and re-bookmark.

Pity it cannot act like the finder.

I only assumed Firefox kept its bookmarks in bookmarks.html —and what a wild and crazy assumption that turned out to be.

Anyway, i only keep Firefox around for curious moments like these. Being an iPad+iPod owner, i use Safari so that i can have my bookmarks synced across all such devices. [doesn't look like there will ever be a Firefox for iOS.]

--

The other wild and crazy assumption i made was thinking that a thread entitled "Can spotlight find Web Bookmarks?" was about how to use Spotlight.

Bookdog has a successor, namely BookMacster.

I was on Safari for 5-6 years or more.
So unstable, so many times I had to go to Firefox because of missing buttons etc.
Finally made the big leap. I would never go back to Safari.
Such a pathetic browser.

I'm surprised to hear that. My browser has always been Safari. I keep FireFox handy because I sometimes run across a site that won't interact with Safari but I've certainly never experienced any of the ongoing problems you describe.

ryck

I second ryck's statement. I rarely use any other browser than Safari.

Tons of times, filling out forms, buying things online. Buttons always missing, very unstable browser.

It seems —for a single poster —you must certainly hold the record around here (and MFI iirc) for encountering (and/or perhaps imagining) all sorts of "issues".


Methinks thou doth protest too much.

You are of course a master at webpage design... so you know that the problem lay with Safari, and not some page that strayed afield of proper standards. [perhaps Firefox is more forgiving of poorly coded websites... that doesn't make Safari "unstable".]

Odd how you're suddenly so prolific now.
(usually your posts are as vague as possible).

Thanks for the clarification; it's been duly noted.

Edit: I just took a look in App Support and found that Firefox backs up bookmarks according to some indeterminate (*) rule, but without regard to whether anything has changed...not a particularly good strategy in my opinion.

(*) Using Backing up and restoring bookmarks as a starting point for searching has been fruitless.

Third... Motion carried.

Wholeheartedly second that!

I can't argue with your experience, kevs, but I take great issue with your "unstable" comment; I've found Safari to be rock solid, although, as mentioned by others, it is not necessarily the browser of choice for every website I visit.

Edit: And as for "Such a pathetic browser," you ought to quit tossing around "superlatives" when you're part of what is apparently a "vast" minority.

I'll hazard a guess that as the Apple platform continues to grow, more and more website designers are going to be forced to consider Safari a major player and compensate for its... I dunno what to call them... peculiarities?

Reply to Artie as the nearest, but it applies to all three recent contributors:

It seems as if this may be the right time for a Moderator intervention.....

Please keep this topic "on-topic" and let's not do any more personal asides.

the only time safari gets unstable for me is if I have a LOT of tabs open. (20+ etc) Then its just a matter of time before it comes crashing down in a twisted pile of pinwheel.