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Importing bookmarks without losing new ones

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I had a laptop that died recently, but I was able to save the hard drive. I have been using this hard drive as an external hard drive. What I am wanting to do is import the Firefox bookmarks from the old hard drive to my new computer without losing the current bookmarks that exist on this computer.

Obviously I cannot run Firefox on the external hard drive, so there is no way to export the to html and then import on the new one. Would my only option be to export the new bookmarks, then install an old backup file from the external hard drive?

The whole HTML way of doing things seemed simpler before it was switch to the places.sqlite and .json business. I'm sure there's a reason for it though.

I had a laptop that died recently, but I was able to save the hard drive. I have been using this hard drive as an external hard drive. What I am wanting to do is import the Firefox bookmarks from the old hard drive to my new computer without losing the current bookmarks that exist on this computer. Obviously I cannot run Firefox on the external hard drive, so there is no way to export the to html and then import on the new one. Would my only option be to export the new bookmarks, then install an old backup file from the external hard drive? The whole HTML way of doing things seemed simpler before it was switch to the places.sqlite and .json business. I'm sure there's a reason for it though.

All Replies (2)

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what about proceeding as follows:

  • create a new profile
  • copy the FX profile from the external HD to the new profile
  • export from the created profile to HTML

see for more:

Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles

Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles

Modified by smo

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Another option would be this 3-step dance:

(1) Export your current bookmarks to the HTML format (Export Firefox bookmarks to an HTML file to back up or transfer bookmarks)

(2) Restore the latest .json file in the old bookmarkbackups folder (Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer)

(3) Import the HTML file you created in step 1 (Import Bookmarks from an HTML file)

I suppose I should allow another step...

(4) Reorganize the Imported Bookmarks folder into the rest of your bookmarks using the Library dialog (Bookmarks > Show All Bookmarks, or Ctrl+Shift+b)

Edit: Actually, that was your fallback option in your post. Nothing better came to mind.

Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer