How can I back up my bookmarks with a backup program?
Previous to Firefox 4.0, I could tell my automatic backup program to backup the "bookmarks.html" file in my profile folder. Now that file is the default bookmarks set that comes with a newly installed Firefox, it's not my bookmarks. I also can't just load a bookmarks.html file into my browser like a standard Web page.
How is this an improvement for bookmark management? This is awful. I can't keep my bookmarks automatically backed up. I'm not manually exporting my bookmarks file every time I add a bookmark! That would be ridiculous.
Chosen solution
You can make Firefox 3 create an automatic HTML backup (bookmarks.html) when you exit Firefox if you set the pref browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML to true on the about:config page.
That backup is created by default in the profile folder as bookmarks.html, but you can set the file name and path via the pref browser.bookmarks.file on the about:config page.
This pref doesn't exist by default and you may need to create a new String pref browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML and set the value to the full path of the backup bookmarks file. Note: an HTML backup doesn't preserve tags and annotations, so you lose those if you need to import the HTML backup.
To open the about:config page, type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website.
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access that page.
You can use the Filter bar at to top of the about:config page to locate a pref more easily.
All Replies (3)
Chosen Solution
You can make Firefox 3 create an automatic HTML backup (bookmarks.html) when you exit Firefox if you set the pref browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML to true on the about:config page.
That backup is created by default in the profile folder as bookmarks.html, but you can set the file name and path via the pref browser.bookmarks.file on the about:config page.
This pref doesn't exist by default and you may need to create a new String pref browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML and set the value to the full path of the backup bookmarks file. Note: an HTML backup doesn't preserve tags and annotations, so you lose those if you need to import the HTML backup.
To open the about:config page, type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website.
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access that page.
You can use the Filter bar at to top of the about:config page to locate a pref more easily.
Thanks for the info. I do not see a "browser.bookmarks.file" setting in about:config, but after setting "browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML" to true and quitting Firefox, it backed up an HTML version of my bookmarks to my profile folder, which is what I wanted.
Wish I did not have to quit out of Firefox for this to trigger though. I often leave my browser on for days. I did discover FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension) - which is awesome. Not only backs up bookmarks on a schedule but also add-ons, extensions, preferences, etc.