Rodney1111 said

"unable to process backup file"

Note: HTML backups must be created manually.

See if this helps you; http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_process_the_backup_file_-_Firefox

jscher2000 has a tool on his website to extract out your bookmarks and save them to an HTML-format bookmark export file. If you want to try it, here is the page:

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

To open the bookmarkbackups folder in Finder, use the "Open in Finder" button in the first table on the Troubleshooting Information page, and double-click into bookmarkbackups where you should see several dated files. From there you can drag and drop onto the conversion tool.

To import the HTML file, see the steps in this article: Import Bookmarks from an HTML file.

[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.

Task: checkIntegrity + The places.sqlite database is sane + The favicons.sqlite database is sane > Task: invalidateCaches - Unable to invalidate caches > Task: checkCoherence - The task queue was cleared by an error in another task. > Task: expire - The task queue was cleared by an error in another task. > Task: originFrecencyStats - The task queue was cleared by an error in another task. > Task: vacuum - The task queue was cleared by an error in another task. > Task: stats - The task queue was cleared by an error in another task. > Task: _refreshUI - The task queue was cleared by an error in another task.

JavaScript

You can check for problems with the places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder.

• use "Verify Integrity" button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page

In case errors are reported with "Verify Integrity" close and restart Firefox and retry.

If "Verify Integrity" cannot repair places.sqlite, rename/remove all places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder. Firefox will rebuild places.sqlite and restore the bookmarks from a recent JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

• keep a backup copy of places.sqlite in case a new places.sqlite database has to be created

See also:

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/fix-bookmarks-and-history-will-not-be-functional

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
  Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

Rodney1111 said

- The task queue was cleared by an error in another task

There is a problem with the file. The places.sqlite file contains your History and Bookmarks.

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

Under the page logo on the left side, you will see Application Basics. Under this find Profile Folder. To its right press the button Show Folder. This will open your file browser to the current Firefox profile. Now Close Firefox.

Locate the above file. Then rename or delete it. Restart Firefox.

The browser should then create a new place.sqlite and recover your bookmarks from the backup files. Note: Your history is not backed up and will be lost.

Thanks, guys (or girls). I was expecting (given my lack of knowledge, and profusion of confusion!) it to take hours, so decided to devote today to the task! But got my bookmarks back in a few minutes by going to about:profiles, opening my old profile in a new browser and, seeing my bookmarks were there, setting it to be the default profile.

So please regard this as 'problem solved'. And thanks again. The help is much appreciated.

Rodney.

I am glad to hear that your problem has been resolved. If you haven't already, please select the answer that solves the problem. This will help other users with similar problems find the solution more easily.

Thank you for contacting Mozilla Support.

Regarding: "I am glad to hear that your problem has been resolved. If you haven't already, please select the answer that solves the problem. This will help other users with similar problems find the solution more easily. "

I do not recall where I read the solution that was successful. It was not among the messages above. I can only say that somewhere in the support documentation I read that (as I had described earlier) going back to the older profile did achieve that. Specifically: entering 'about:profiles' in the address box, opening my older profile in a new browser and, seeing my bookmarks were there, setting the old profile to be the default profile.

Now I am going to back up the most important set of bookmarks to hard copy so that if they do truly get lost I will know what they are.

I hope this helps. But if not, please suggest another way to respond to your request. Thank you.

Rodney.

That was very good work. Well done. Please flag your last post as Solved Problem so others will know.

Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles.{web link} I use an add-on that makes backups of my user profile, Just In Case. Unfortunately, it is not compatible with the current Firefox.

Every now and then, open the profile folder and create a copy of the current profile as is to another location on your hard drive. This way you will have a backup.

If you do this each day, you will not lose much data. This should be done with Firefox Closed.

Note: In case you need to restore from these backups, you may need to overwrite old or corrupted files.

I encountered a similar problem after doing a "refresh" this morning. I have now wasted the rest of my morning trying to fix the problem created by the refresh when my bookmarks disappeared. I found the solution in a response by FredMcD in another thread, by finding and renaming the places: sqlite file and restarting.

There clearly seems to be a problem with the refresh process. Hopefully Mozilla will address that. Firefox is increasingly problematic for me of late and this is just the latest example. I am on the verge of abandoning it after over a decade.