When trying to backup bookmarks the file is never written (neither json nor html) - the last backup file is dated 12 March, after that nothing.
I continually backup my bookmarks since they have been lost far too many times. Mostly FF reverts to an older version - with no clear indication which one that will be. Since 12 March I have bookmarked several times but the system reverted to 12 March every time an update or similar occured. Checking the bookmarksbackup and bookmarks folders I find the newer sets of bookmarks have never been stored. So when I try to backup and check the folder the backup should be in (tried a variety of options just to see what happens) the file has NOT been written. I do not want to lose the current set and will therefore not force a new import by deleting locals.sqlite. So I need a fix to be able to store the bookmarks I have now. HTML does not work either, by the way.
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[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. You can set how many backups are kept by doing this;
Type about:config<enter> in the address bar. If a warning screen comes up, press the I Accept the Risk button. At the top of the screen is a search bar. Type browser.bookmarks.max_backups
The values for this setting are; -1 = unlimited number of backups 0 = Do not create any backups Any other number here will keep that many backups Example: 5 = 5 backups are kept.
The backups are stored in a jsonlz4 file named something like this; bookmarks-2016-06-29_1424_enD1GTHya0JmicnYWg4V4g ==.jsonlz4 In this example; 2016-06-29 = date created, 1424 = number of entries.
number of backups is set to 15; nevertheless, since 12 March no backups have been saved.
Here is the dump after 'verify' of places.sqlite:
> Task: checkIntegrity - Unable to check places.sqlite integrity: Error: Error(s) encountered during statement execution: database disk image is malformed > Task: invalidateCaches - The task queue was cleared by an error in another task. > 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.
That tells me some other program has 'locked' the file.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-to-fix-preferences-wont-save
Note: Some software, like Advanced SystemCare with Surfing Protection, can protect files in the Firefox profile folder against changes. If you have such software then check the settings or uninstall this software.
I have been trying to save to all kinds of different folders - nothing. I had to reboot the laptop due to issues with Word and printers. Of course FireFox lost all bookkmarks since 12 March .... and it still (though done cold reboot) does not want to save bookmarks.
Did you check out my last post?
Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link}
A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Is the problem still there?
yes, I did, but as I said, I saved the bookmark backup to all kinds of folders and nothing was ever written.
We will have to remove the bookmarks file. But first: 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.