jeffer23 said

I wish Mozilla would at least create an "automatic" bookmark backup feature if this is going to happen.

[v57+] Places Maintenance is built into Firefox.

Type about:support<enter> in the address bar.

You will find Places Database near the bottom. Press the Verify Integrity button.

When done, copy and post the results here.

Firefox automatically makes backups of the bookmarks. These are stored in the bookmarkbackups folder.

Open the Bookmarks Manager; Press the Alt or F10 key to bring up the toolbar, and select Bookmarks. Hot key is <Control> (Mac=<Command>) <Shift> B.

Once the window is open, at the top of the page, press the button labeled Import and Backup. Select Restore. From the list, pick the file you want and click it.

The backups are stored in a jsonlz4 file named something like this; bookmarks-2016-06-29_1424_enD1GTH ya0JmicnYWg4V4g==.jsonlz4

In this example; 2016-06-29 = date created, 1424 = number of entries.

> Task: checkIntegrity + The places.sqlite database is sane + The favicons.sqlite database is sane > Task: invalidateCaches + The caches have been invalidated > Task: checkCoherence + The database is coherent > Task: expire + Database cleaned up > Task: originFrecencyStats + Recalculated origin frecency stats > Task: vacuum + Initial database size is 20480KiB + The database has been vacuumed + Final database size is 20480KiB > Task: stats + Places.sqlite size is 20480KiB + Favicons.sqlite size is 17984KiB + pragma_user_version is 52 + pragma_page_size is 32768 + pragma_cache_size is -2048 + pragma_journal_mode is wal + pragma_synchronous is 1 + History can store a maximum of 118618 unique pages + Table moz_places has 21703 records + Table moz_historyvisits has 26303 records + Table moz_inputhistory has 3 records + Table moz_hosts has 0 records + Table moz_bookmarks has 18041 records + Table moz_bookmarks_deleted has 0 records + Table moz_keywords has 0 records + Table sqlite_sequence has 0 records + Table moz_anno_attributes has 6 records + Table moz_annos has 752 records + Table moz_items_annos has 436 records + Table sqlite_stat1 has 18 records + Table moz_meta has 9 records + Table moz_origins has 2457 records + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_inputhistory_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_hosts_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_bookmarks_deleted_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_keywords_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_anno_attributes_1 + Index sqlite_autoindex_moz_origins_1 + Index moz_places_url_hashindex + Index moz_places_hostindex + Index moz_places_visitcount + Index moz_places_frecencyindex + Index moz_places_lastvisitdateindex + Index moz_places_guid_uniqueindex + Index moz_historyvisits_placedateindex + Index moz_historyvisits_fromindex + Index moz_historyvisits_dateindex + Index moz_bookmarks_itemindex + Index moz_bookmarks_parentindex + Index moz_bookmarks_itemlastmodifiedindex + Index moz_bookmarks_dateaddedindex + Index moz_bookmarks_guid_uniqueindex + Index moz_keywords_placepostdata_uniqueindex + Index moz_annos_placeattributeindex + Index moz_items_annos_itemattributeindex + Index moz_places_originidindex > Task: _refreshUI

I have now lost a bunch more of my recent bookmarks. The entire new toolbar folder that contained numerous folders completely disappearred. Some of the folders in this folder were older bookmarks that I moved to it. All of my other older bookmarks appear to be unchanged. I didn't notice when this occurred but it occurred since I created my original post.

Based on this situation I restored some my bookmarks from one of my manual JSON backups. It only contained part of them. But I will now need to go through a different HTML backup to figure out what has been bookmarked since that backup since a restore from JSON destroys all of the newer bookmarks. If Firefox continues to lose my bookmarks I suppose this will be for nothing anyway.

Note in the attached images for this post the pull-down for restore files - the ones with over 18000 items match when I did manual backups. The ones with 6000 or less items won't restore. I get the pop-up shown in the second image for this post.

If you think you have all of your bookmarks (18000 items) follow these instructions to save an HTML backup file of them;

Open the Bookmarks Manager; Press the Alt or F10 key to bring up the toolbar, and select Bookmarks. Hot key is <Control> (Mac=<Command>) <Shift> B.

Once the window is open, at the top of the page, press the button labeled Import and Backup. Select Export Bookmarks To HTML, and follow the prompts and save it to a HTML file. Copy the file to another computer/profile. Repeat the instructions above, BUT select Import Bookmarks From HTML.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-bookmarks-from-backup-or-move-them

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recover-lost-or-missing-bookmarks

I know how to make backups and restore them. I use Virtual machines and have done that numerous times in the past before Firefox allowed bookmarks to be shared across multiple computers/ operating systems.

What I can't fix is the disappearing bookmarks. Where is the magic wand for that issue. I may have to switch back to Chrome if I can't fix this soon.

I have now lost the bookmarks that I restored earlier today.

I am wondering if creation of this problem relates to saving of bookmarks from private browsing. I am still not sure, but it seems like I did the folder modifications to create this new folder and add a few groups of tabs during a private browsing session. I also know that Foxfire just did an update right before this problem started.

Oops.... meant Firefox, not Foxfire :P

Are you using sync? Are you using any bookmark add-ons or programs?

I have sync setup with a cell phone but rarely access my desktop bookmarks from it. I have a laptop as well but haven't powered it up in a month or more.

I don't use any add-ons or programs that access Firefox data.

My bookmarks are a mess now. After trying to port in missing folders from an HTML backup into a json restore has created multiple duplicate folders and bookmarks for me to need to sort out.

We might as well close this support item out. It sounds like there was no solution for it. I no longer trust Firefox with my bookmarks.

jeffer23 said

I have a laptop as well but haven't powered it up

Let's try this; Disconnect that computer from the net. Follow the instructions I posted about saving the bookmarks to an HTML file. Using a thumb drive, copy that file to your main system.

On the main system, change the password for the sync account. Resetting the sync password, or changing its e-mail, will remove all data from the servers.

Now import the HTML file into the Bookmarks Manager.

You can check a compressed .jsonlz4 backup with this utility.

• https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/bookbackreader.html

I think it hasn't lost any more links over the last several days but can't be sure. There have been one or two Firefox updates. I turned off automatic updates to better control the whole situation. But I came home at least once to find all of my links closed (crashed maybe?). Then recovery worked to get the tabs back. I can't be sure if any bookmarks were lost.

Does any company make a good utility for comparing two bookmark files for missing bookmarks or a utility for weeding out duplicates. I now have up to two duplicates of quite a few bookmarks.

FredMcD said

jeffer23 said

I have a laptop as well but haven't powered it up

Let's try this; Disconnect that computer from the net. Follow the instructions I posted about saving the bookmarks to an HTML file. Using a thumb drive, copy that file to your main system.

On the main system, change the password for the sync account. Resetting the sync password, or changing its e-mail, will remove all data from the servers.

Now import the HTML file into the Bookmarks Manager.

I have already done a password change recently.

cor-el said

You can check a compressed .jsonlz4 backup with this utility.

• https://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/bookbackreader.html

Thanks. I'll check this utility out.