Hello Bob.

Although possibly not related to your problem, I have to remind you that the version of Firefox you are using at the moment has been discontinued and is no longer supported. On top of this, it has known unpatched bugs and security problems. I urge you to update to the latest version of Firefox, for maximum security, stability, performance and usability. You can get it for free, as always, at getfirefox.com.

As for your question, this will probably answer it:

http://www.google.com/search?q=json+html+converter

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. Note: an HTML backup doesn't preserve tags and annotations, so you lose those if you need to import the HTML backup.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Export_bookmarks

Actually, neither answers solve the problem. I have multiple PCs and browsers and at times, I need to add "bookmarks" to other bookmark files. With FF Ver. 3 and the use of JSON, it becomes a bear to do this. Yes, I know there are synchronization sites, but that is not a way I want to go for various reasons. If you modify the bookmarks.html in the Firefox profile, Firefox overwrites it the next time it is referenced. It seems the easiest way to keep any changes is to save the html file, convert it to JSON and then store it in the backup folder and import it from there. I know you can import an HTML file, but then you have to use "Organize bookmarks" and edit a bunch of stuff to get what I want. Prior to Firefox Ver. 3, I was able to keep my bookmarks organized in a certain way (including the use of the "Toolbar"). Now it takes a great deal of effort to do this. I also edit some of the bookmarks - some sites have humongous Icon pictures that take up a lot of space. I have deleted the Icon section in the past without problems. Now that has become extra work because of the JSON format and Firefox overlaying any bookmarks.html changes with the previous version.

Please, I know what I do is like "grating chalk on a blackboard" to some of you., but that is the way I find easiest.

BTW, I did have browser.bookmarks... set tot True That does not solve the problem. Nor does browser.bookmarks.file work in Firefox 3.0.19. I do have later versions of Firefox installed, but, regardless of better security, they provide more obstacles than useful help. Certain extensions no longer work (until the author gets time to update), mimetypes seem to get lost, etc. That is a big problem when adding more function to a program. It also adds more complexity making it easier for incompatibilities to creep in, more bugs to occur and so on. Sometimes, more is not better.

What would work fine for Firefox is the ability to do a "blanket" import" of an HTML file. In other words, replacing the existing bookmarks.html rather than having the import appended to the existing HTML file.

Easiest is to use a second profile. If you delete places.sqlite and all JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder than Firefox will import the bookmarks from bookmarks.html in that profile folder. Then you can export the bookmarks to a JSON backup.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Manager

Bob said, What would work fine for Firefox is the ability to do a "blanket" import" of an HTML file. In other words, replacing the existing bookmarks.html rather than having the import appended to the existing HTML file.

When you import a bookmarks.html file it is appended to the existing bookmarks, including any duplicate bookmarks. (As you have probably found out your self.)

The json bookmark backups will replace existing bookmarks, when you restore a backup.

The json files don't save Favicons, but they do save the Tags you may be using (new feature in the 3.0+ versions).

The bookmark.html export files do contain the Favicon data, but the Tags aren't saved - the old Netscape-1 bookmark.html file type was created back in 1995-1996, long before the concept of Tags was thought up. Didn't have Favicon data either, in those days, that was added by Mozilla in Firefox 0.9.3 in 2004. IMO, that was when we started hearing of "lost bookmarks" from many users.

AFIAC (concerned), Mozilla isn't going to do any enhancements or changes to the existing bookmarks.html file setup, we're lucky to have any semblance that old bookmarks system in Firefox now. Many of us long time users of Firefox filed Bugs and made comments in Bug reports when the developers were rolling out the new SQLite database for Bookmarks / History in the pre-release versions of what eventually became Firefox 3; at least we got them to leave a couple of hidden preferences that we can use to have Firefox save bookmarks to bookmarks.html format and for us to be able to specify where that file is saved (although I have never been able to save the bookmarks.html file to a different folder, many users say it works for them.)

Thanks "the-edmeister". I have, indeed imported bookmarks and have gotten duplicates (and even triplicates). I have deleted the JSON backups and Firefox still restores the bookmarks to their prior state (probably from one of their "SQL" files). Actually, I don't use any of the "bells and whistles" in these new releases. I am still an "old Netscape" type of guy. What makes things an even bigger PITA is the storing of "ICONS". It would be nice if their was an option (in about:config maybe?) that would allow you to block them when bookmarking.

What I have ended up doing is creating a file with the "guts of the bookmarks: I want and adding new bookmarks to it manually. I then "organize" the FF bookmarks, strip all the extraneous crapola out and then import my file and do a little tweaking. However, like a lot of people, I may make a number of bookmarks during a session and don't get to do "my updates" right away. After or 4 sessions, the updates accumulate (as do those bookmarks that I "eventually" plan to delete).

Interesting you can't save the bookmarks to a different folder. I use Firefox on both XP and Linux and when I "export" my bookmarks to an HTML file, it brings up a dialog box allowing to specify a directory (folder) and, even, a different file name.

Sorry about hitting submit so quickly. The site needs an "edit" function to allow a poster go back to fix a post. I am "Anonymous" in the last post.

Thanks cor-el. I'll have to give that a try. BTW, any relation to Jor-El and Kal-El?

Has been the solution Change version of the JSON to HTML