Bookmarks not syncing
Windows 7, Pro, 64-bit with the latest FF. I was using FF last night and all of my bookmark toolbar items disappeared. All the bookmarks disappeared out of my bookmarks folder also. I tried restoring from a backup with no luck. No errors, just no restored bookmarks.
So I tried resetting the Sync and replacing what was local with my Sync data. That did not work as well. Passwords synced, but not bookmarks.
I then tried uninstalling FF and having it remove my personal settings and did a fresh install. Reconnected to Sync. Again passwords synced, but no bookmarks.
All Replies (12)
Try to disconnect from Sync, quit Firefox, delete places.sqlite, restart Firefox, and re-set up Sync.
- bug 817445 - Bookmarks have disappeared and no new bookmarks can be created
You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database file in the Firefox Profile Folder.
Thank you cor-el. I tried those steps again and it didn't work. Still no bookmarks getting Synced inbound. I can see the bookmarks on my Android devices.
It seems to have synced the problem to my home PC too.
Do at least the bookmarks reappear after deleting places.sqlite with Firefox closed and restarting Firefox?
If that isn't the case then the most recent JSON backup may already been affected and you will have to restore the bookmarks from an older JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.
You can also try to reset all data on the sync server by generating a new sync key while setting up sync.
Just the default ones. It creates a new places.sqlite when I fire up Firefox again. But does not Sync back in the bookmarks.
I tried restoring to several backups that were listed and nothing shows up.
I tried a Sync reset to replace all local data with Sync data. No luck. I'm going to try and setup a new Sync account, then link my tablet to it, and see if it pulls the bookmarks into the new account.
If you inspect the files in the bookmarkbackups folder, are there any of them that have a larger file size indicating that they (may) have your lost bookmarks stored in them?
They are all 319KB except the 27th its 1kb, then the 29th is 321kb.
This is what my FF bookmarks look like.
Sorry for all the posts, but when I open those files in notepad, I can see all the bookmarks...this is weird.
The JSON backup with the large file size should have the bookmarks.
If they do not appear in the bookmarks manager then it is likely that the places.sqlite file is corrupted.
It is probably best to unlink the current sync setup or disable the bookmarks from syncing for now to prevent further interference from sync regarding the bookmarks until you get things working again.
Did you delete the places.sqlite file and try to restore the bookmarks from such a JSON backup?
Ok, so I unlinked the Sync. Exited Firefox. Deleted the places.sqlite. Opened Firefox, it recreated the places.sqlite. I tried to restore from file and I selected on of the JSON files that has some size to it and this is what I have. Even though I can look in the file and see bookmarks.
Did you try an older JSON backup or the oldest that is present in the bookmarkbackups folder?
Make sure to create a backup copy of all the JSON backups in the bookmarkbackups folder to prevent a working backup from getting replaced by newer backups if you haven't done this yet.
See also this MozillaZine forum thread about how to retrieve bookmarks from a JSON backup.