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Problem restoring Firefox bookmarks from backups

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sn1975
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Last seen: 10 years 9 months ago
Joined: 2011-07-10 10:40
Problem restoring Firefox bookmarks from backups

Hi all,

I have a problem restoring my Firefox bookmarks from the backups. I loaded Firefox 8 and all my bookmarks had disappeared.

I have tried following various instructions on the web, including the official ones from Mozilla and they all point to using the built-in JSON restore feature within Firefox. Unfortunately, everytime I try to restore any of the JSON backups using the built-in restore feature I receive the error message "Warning: unresponsive script. A script on this page may be busy, or it may have stopped responding. You can stop the script now, or you can continue to see if the script will complete."

I have tried backing up and deleting the places.sqlite as advised but Firefox freezes up completely on launch and doesn't load the home page - I think it just says "Connecting.." in the tab title.

I have also tried creating a new, clean profile without any addons and also reinstalling Firefox but the problem is the same. I have also tried upgrading Firefox from 8.0 to 8.0.1. without any effect.

I read somewhere that the F.E.B.E. extension can restore the Firefox JSON backups by renaming them slightly. F.E.B.E. recognises the backup file but again Firefox freezes up when attempting to restore the backup.

I've just tried restoring the bookmarks backup JSON in XP safe mode which resulted in the same error message. Before I tried this I exported the current bookmark set to an HTML file on the desktop - this consists of only a few bookmarks. However, when the JSON restore failed I tried to restore the bookmarks.html i had just created and this too failed with the same error message.

I should also state that this problem is probably not specific to the portable version of Firefox as it is exactly the same with the Firefox installed on the hard drive.

Im running Firefox 8.0/8.01 on Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3 (fully updated) with ESET Smart Security 4.

I think I've tried everything I can think of to resolve this issue and I'm worried that my bookmarks are lost forever, so any help would be gratefully appreciated.

Many thanks.

dboki89
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Last seen: 9 years 3 months ago
Joined: 2009-11-30 20:44
I'm sorry that I can't really

I'm sorry that I can't really help, but I just wanted to mitigate some of your worries.

... and I'm worried that my bookmarks are lost forever, ...

You can always take the JSON file(s) to another computer and try there. As long as you have undamaged JSON files, your bookmarks are not lost! (that's them)

After getting that behind us, have you (1) tried running your copy of FirefoxPortable on another PC? It might be something wrong with your computer... Did you (2) try running Seamonkey(portable)? It uses the same type of files, and you could try importing bookmarks to Seamonkey from the same JSON file. If it fails the first time, try another JSON file, not just the latest one. If it still fails, hope that someone with a more helpful reply stops by Wink

My posts are old and likely no longer relevant.

barky
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Last seen: 5 months 3 weeks ago
Joined: 2008-12-20 09:09
not sure of simple solution ... but

Is there anything in your IE8 favourites which you can import into firefox?
might recover some old links that way?
One thing I like about firefox portable is you can simply make a copy of the whole program folder to avoid this problem happening again ... & save all the settings using FEBE & keep on an old flash card.

OK .... not helping .... 1) wipe all cookies & see if that helps if not 2) If you DO have a file with all the bookmarks in html or json & have passwords file saved too perhaps using FEBE then totally wipe firefox & do clean installs & then imports the bookmarks etc .... will lways work better with a clean install anyway.

unsure if xp restore points might recover things back to how they were with firefox 7 & everything intact for the hard drive installation???

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