Certainly the small file should restore quickly; the large one, hmm, no idea, that's huge.

Could you check for error message in the "Browser Console" that could be related to this problem? You can open the separate Browser Console window using either:

• "3-bar" menu button > Web Developer > Browser Console
• (menu bar) Tools > Web Developer > Browser Console
• (Linux) Ctrl+Shift+j

Click the trash can icon at the upper left to clear the window, then switch back over to the Library window and try the Restore again.

Then switch back over to the console window. Did Firefox log any errors related to the restore?

More info on the Browser Console: https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Tools/Browser_Console

In a new profile, usually there isn't any problem with the Places database, but... could you let us know what you get when you run the "Verify Integrity" function. That's here:

Open Firefox's Troubleshooting Information page using any of these methods:

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" Help > Troubleshooting Information
• (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
• type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

Near the bottom, there is a section titled Places Database -- that's the file which stores history and bookmarks. Click the button labeled Verify Integrity. There may be a 10-15 second delay before results appear.

If all is well, the report that appears below the button should start with:

> Task: checkIntegrity
+ The places.sqlite database is sane
+ The favicons.sqlite database is sane

Does yours say that, or something else? You can select and copy the report, and then paste it into a reply for review and comment.

Hi jscher2000,

Thanks for the response! Once I try to "restore bookmark" and select the JSON file, it just hangs, and I can't access the menu system. So if I click on buttons or try Ctrl+Shift+j, nothing happens.

I tried opening the Browser console, deleting with the trash button, re-trying to load, and same hanging problem.

When I went to about:support and clicked on the "Verify Integrity", nothing happened, even after minutes.

I attached an image of what the Browser console looks like now.

Any thoughts?

Thanks, James

Seems a lot of stuff is happening related to extensions. Could you try the restore in Firefox's Safe Mode? In its Safe Mode, Firefox temporarily deactivates extensions, hardware acceleration, any userChrome.css/userContent.css files, and some other advanced features to help you assess whether these are causing the problem.

You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" Help button > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
• (menu bar) Help menu > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

and OK the restart.

A small dialog should appear. Click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Refresh).

That should hopefully reduce the chatter so we can really focus in on activity related to the restore.

By the way, for the large file, I would just let it run and check every so often for one of those popup dialogs saying that a script is making Firefox run slowly and allowing it to continue.

Hmm, it still hangs, same issue and behavior.

I then had to restart, so went back to Safe Mode and attaching image from the browser error console...

By the way, for the large file, I would just let it run and check every so often for one of those popup dialogs saying that a script is making Firefox run slowly and allowing it to continue.

Yeah, I could let it run, say, overnight, to see if the bookmarks would eventually populate. The weird thing is the other machine hangs on 154 bookmarks.

I found another user experiencing this days ago at Reddit, thinking it's the large file (but it seems file size is not completely the issue -- 154 bookmarks should not leave Firefox hanging, and neither myself nor the other person complaining has ever had this problem after years of using FF):

https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/kqst5w/restoring_a_38mb_bookmarksjson_file_crashes/

Hmm, it still hangs, same issue and behavior. I then had to restart, so went back to Safe Mode and attaching image from the browser error console...

That was before or after trying the Restore? It doesn't seem to be an error specific to the Restore.

The other post is hidden temporarily because it had a link to a non-Mozilla site (Reddit). It should become visible eventually after passing spam moderation.

I don't think my converter tool can handle an 83MB file, but it might handle the smaller file:

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

james_1 said

Hmm, it still hangs, same issue and behavior. I then had to restart, so went back to Safe Mode and attaching image from the browser error console...

That was before or after trying the Restore? It doesn't seem to be an error specific to the Restore.

The other post is hidden temporarily because it had a link to a non-Mozilla site (Reddit). It should become visible eventually after passing spam moderation.

I don't think my converter tool can handle an 83MB file, but it might handle the smaller file:

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

It was after restore. The other post at Reddit the person says the same kind of thing.

The JSON file is about 37MB, I guess I can check that out.

The other machine finally worked with loading the 154 bookmarks, and the weird thing was, it worked right away with no load time. This one is still slow. One option is to let it sit overnight and see if it loads after, say, 10 hours. The machine with the bigger file has fast processor and RAM...

(Moderation again, sorry.)

I think there are three scenarios you might notice:

(1) Firefox chugging through the file and will take a long time (2) Firefox is spinning its wheels, using CPU, and will never finish due to (unknown reasons at this point) (3) Firefox has hung, which could lead to very low CPU activity

(I don't know the Linux equivalent of the Windows Task Manager.)

(Moderation again, sorry.) I think there are three scenarios you might notice: (1) Firefox chugging through the file and will take a long time (2) Firefox is spinning its wheels, using CPU, and will never finish due to (unknown reasons at this point) (3) Firefox has hung, which could lead to very low CPU activity (I don't know the Linux equivalent of the Windows Task Manager.)

Yeah, it has to be one of those three. It doesn't seem to weigh down the entire computer (scenario #3), and it doesn't give an error, but while it hangs, you can't really use the browser, as it's mostly unresponsive.

Maybe if it sits overnight it will eventually load. Clearly something changed with Firefox 84, which seems especially like given that when I open Firefox, it has message where the bookmarks toolbar is:

"For quick access, place your bookmarks here on the boomarks toolbar. Manage bookmarks..."

Where "Manage bookmarks..." is a link to the Bookmarks toolbar.

That wasn't there before v84.

(Also, in Linux the Task Manager is called Task Manager.)

(Not sure why that reply is in moderation)

There were some UI changes in Firefox 84 related to the Bookmarks Toolbar, as you noted.

For example, you can choose whether to only show it on new tabs, and you can turn it on and off using Ctrl+Shift+B (Mac: Command+Shift+B). Now Windows and Mac users need to learn the Linux shortcut Ctrl+Shift+O/Command+Shift+O to open the Library window. But that's many other threads...

The "empty toolbar placeholder" that you mentioned -- "For quick access, place your bookmarks here on the boomarks toolbar. Manage bookmarks..." -- can appear if either:

(1) You removed all bookmarks from the Bookmarks Toolbar (2) You removed the "Bookmarks Toolbar Items" control from the Bookmarks Toolbar in Customize (Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars)

I'm not aware of any changes for backup and restore related to the UI changes. ??

(Not sure why that reply is in moderation) There were some UI changes in Firefox 84 related to the Bookmarks Toolbar, as you noted. For example, you can choose whether to only show it on new tabs, and you can turn it on and off using Ctrl+Shift+B (Mac: Command+Shift+B). Now Windows and Mac users need to learn the Linux shortcut Ctrl+Shift+O/Command+Shift+O to open the Library window. But that's many other threads... The "empty toolbar placeholder" that you mentioned -- "For quick access, place your bookmarks here on the boomarks toolbar. Manage bookmarks..." -- can appear if either: (1) You removed all bookmarks from the Bookmarks Toolbar (2) You removed the "Bookmarks Toolbar Items" control from the Bookmarks Toolbar in Customize (Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars) I'm not aware of any changes for backup and restore related to the UI changes. ??

It doesn't seem to be just UI changes, as not only are there these weird hanging problems with "restore", but it opens with some very old bookmarks, and if I try to delete them, it hangs also. There's something weird that Mozilla changed in v84.

(Not sure why that reply is in moderation) There were some UI changes in Firefox 84 related to the Bookmarks Toolbar, as you noted. For example, you can choose whether to only show it on new tabs, and you can turn it on and off using Ctrl+Shift+B (Mac: Command+Shift+B). Now Windows and Mac users need to learn the Linux shortcut Ctrl+Shift+O/Command+Shift+O to open the Library window. But that's many other threads... The "empty toolbar placeholder" that you mentioned -- "For quick access, place your bookmarks here on the boomarks toolbar. Manage bookmarks..." -- can appear if either: (1) You removed all bookmarks from the Bookmarks Toolbar (2) You removed the "Bookmarks Toolbar Items" control from the Bookmarks Toolbar in Customize (Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars) I'm not aware of any changes for backup and restore related to the UI changes. ??

With a little more experimentation, I can conclude the following:

1) If I remove all of the bookmarks, and then add a few, I can get them to "restore". So the size here must matter.

2) Sometimes trying to load the large file will crash my entire system to the point where I can move the cursor but nothing I click on works, and I have to reboot.

Mozilla must have done something to v84 beyond the UI.

One option I have here is to try to roll back to Firefox 83, but it's a pain in Linux to do, and it seems like a bad solution, especially from a security standpoint.

The problem is I need to get access to those bookmarks, as I do research for my job and I have deadlines this week...

Is your browsing/download history in the new Firefox 84 profile important? If not, you could try:

Install Firefox 78 ESR side-by-side with the stable release. It should launch in its own dedicated profile. Restore your .json file there. Success? Transplant the resulting bookmarks.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files from the Firefox ESR profile folder into your Firefox 84 profile folder (while Firefox is closed, of course).

https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/#product-desktop-esr

That hash should change the first selector to "Firefox Extended Support Release" but YMMV.

Is your browsing/download history in the new Firefox 84 profile important? If not, you could try: Install Firefox 78 ESR side-by-side with the stable release. It should launch in its own dedicated profile. Restore your .json file there. Success? Transplant the resulting bookmarks.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files from the Firefox ESR profile folder into your Firefox 84 profile folder (while Firefox is closed, of course). https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/#product-desktop-esr That hash should change the first selector to "Firefox Extended Support Release" but YMMV.

It's not that important, but I have probably hundreds or thousands of items for my research now gone, which is killer. I have a JSON from today (which may or may not be good) and one from mid-month last month.

I loaded it into your tool (thanks for that, fantastic) and converted it to .html, but it won't load properly in the v78 ESR or in 84.

I was able to verify that the links in the HTML file that your tool generated are in there -- so in some form, I still have an archive of all the things I bookmarked. However, I'm not sure as to why they are not loading into Firefox 78 or 84...

The converter was able to read the 37MB file without dying or giving you an error? I'm surprised, but glad to hear that.

But neither Firefox 78 nor 84 can import the HTML file? Bummer.

Can Chrome import it? If so, you could test whether Firefox's "Import from Another Browser" tool can pull them. (Import bookmarks and other data from Google Chrome)

The converter was able to read the 37MB file without dying or giving you an error? I'm surprised, but glad to hear that. But neither Firefox 78 nor 84 can import the HTML file? Bummer. Can Chrome import it? If so, you could test whether Firefox's "Import from Another Browser" tool can pull them. (Import bookmarks and other data from Google Chrome)

I seem to have been able to get it to import. It may crash Firefox, but when you restart it, it's there. Thanks so much for making that tool, it's a major help.

The one issue that seems to be remaining is that the bookmark folders have date added attached. For example, it might show up as:

Biology research [Added: 2013-04-06 2:21:35 PM]

Instead of

Biology research

Any ideas of why? I tried unchecking the boxes in the tool, but the HTML file seems to still tack on the "[Added ... ]" on the end.

Sorry, that checkbox was being ignored by the code. Fixed now, please try again.