See:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Backing_up_and_restoring_bookmarks_-_Firefox

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Export_bookmarks
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Import_bookmarks

cor-el:

What file(s) are backed up and/or exported when these actions are taken. I prefer to manually copy or paste the specific files rather than executing the backup or export actions.

Thanks for your help,

G.F.K.

Firefox hasn't stored bookmarks in the old bookmarks.html format since Firefox 2, later versions use a SQLite database.

Bookmarks and browsing history are stored in the places.sqlite file in your Profile folder.
https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Profiles#w_how-do-i-find-my-profile

When a backup is done, either automatically within Firefox or manually by the user, the resultant file is in JSON format. The user can export and import in the common bookmarks.html format, which is often referred to as < !DOCTYPE NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1 > - which is used by most browsers made since 1997, for import and export of favorites / bookmarks in a format compatible with other web browsers.

The-Edmeister:

Thanks for your info. Another question.

In addition to the file places.sqlite there are also the files places.sqlite-shm and places.sqlite-wal in my profile folder. If I want to manually back-up my bookmarks should I copy all three of these sqlite files or just the places.sqlite file?

Thanks for your help,

G.F.K.

I believe those two files are temporary "transaction" or "buffer" files that are gone when Firefox is closed. I have only seen those files in a Profile that is running, never in a closed Profile; except maybe in a Profile that didn't close cleanly, like after a crash - but that I can't say for sure, I rarely have Firefox crash.

Just checked that in another Profile - not present until Firefox 6.0 is launched, and they disappear within seconds of exiting Firefox.

the-edmeister:

Thanks so much for you help. You not only answered my questions, you provided solutions too. I really appreciate your help.

G.F.K.

You already have the answer(s) to your question above, pick something there for solved that specifically answered your question, but I'd like to point out the following:

• Back up your entire profile, there is a lot of stuff in there and rather than finding out that you did not backup something, it would be better to back it all up and have the ability to restore any part or all of it.
• If you have multiple profiles, back them all up and your profiles.ini file. Wouldn't take up much space on most of today's thumb drives.
• On that thumb drive, you might want to also export your bookmarks so you can access them on another computer anywhere.
• The quickest way to restore a backup of bookmarks is from the ten (old default was five) backups from within bookmarkbackups in your profile, but restore finds them for you and you need only look at the dates.
   
• Of course you want to back up all of your user data on your system on one of those very reasonably priced external hard drives (500GB-3TB) and you probably do.

Profile references:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Firefox
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Backing_up_and_restoring_bookmarks_-_Firefox