Background Information:
I use the old client version 3.6 as there's an old utility addon that the author stopped updating and will not work with the newer revisions. Desp… (ulteriori informazioni)
Background Information:
I use the old client version 3.6 as there's an old utility addon that the author stopped updating and will not work with the newer revisions. Despite disabling the update feature both in about:config and in preferences, the browser still eventually updates (Originally I was using 3.4, and would prefer to use that, but no matter how much I try I can no longer roll it back from 3.6 to 3.4 even if I reinstall using a 3.4 installer). As a result I've had a habit of keeping a copy of my firefox directory in case it updates itself again without asking, which it has. This might help you guys out in answering the countless people who have lost their bookmarks due to the upgrades released this year, and will hopefully someone to investigate and release a patch/utility to fix the issue.
Issue:
I have verified that the newest clients from at least version 20 and onwards, are not compatible with the older bookmark JSON files. People who have been upgraded to the latest revision not only lose their bookmarks, but CANNOT restore them either, as Firefox will only return the error message: "Unable to Process the Backup File".
I have confirmed that the files themselves are perfectly intact with no sign of corruption, and are as intended. They restore ok to older browser revisions (In my case specifically 3.6), but will not restore to the newer client revisions. This is not a fault with the bookmark backups, but with the newer clients (I'm guessing they changed the way they store the information in the JSONs at some point. I note in the code for the JSONs that GUID was never used in the older revisions, but it is in the newer revisions. Perhaps this is causing an incompatibility issue? You just need to adjust the client so that it looks for the GUID and if none can be found to ignore it rather than decide the file is corrupt.
Old JSON Code snippet: {"title":"","id":1,"dateAdded":1306666129870000,"lastModified":1306670152435000,"type":"text/x-moz-place-container","root":"placesRoot","children":[{"title":"Bookmarks Menu","id":2,"parent":1,"dateAdded":1306666129870000,"lastModified":1381254048121000,"type":"text/x-moz-place-container","root":"bookmarksMenuFolder","children":[{"title":"Recently Bookmarked","id":6,"parent":2,"annos":[{"name":"Places/SmartBookmark","flags":0,"expires":4,"mimeType":null,"type":3,"value":"RecentlyBookmarked"}],"type":"text/x-moz-place","uri":"place:folder=BOOKMARKS_MENU&folder=UNFILED_BOOKMARKS&folder=TOOLBAR&sort=12&excludeQueries=1&excludeItemIfParentHasAnnotation=livemark%2FfeedURI&maxResults=10&queryType=1"},{"index":1,"title":"Recent Tags","id":7,"parent":2,"annos":[{"name":"Places/SmartBookmark","flags":0,"expires":4,"mimeType":null,"type":3,"value":"RecentTags"}],"type":"text/x-moz-place","uri":"place:sort=14&type=6&maxResults=10&queryType=1"},{"index":2,"title":"","id":8,"parent":2,"dateAdded":1294868015246000,"lastModified":1294868015246000,"type":"text/x-moz-place-separator"}
New JSON Code Snippet: {"title":"","guid":"5rkFafJ6AnRZ","id":1,"index":0,"dateAdded":1396387525168000,"lastModified":1396387525168000,"type":"text/x-moz-place-container","root":"placesRoot","children":[{"title":"Bookmarks Menu","guid":"m7vLM41-lzQi","id":2,"index":0,"parent":1,"dateAdded":1396387525168000,"lastModified":1396387526173000,"type":"text/x-moz-place-container","root":"bookmarksMenuFolder","children":[{"title":"Recently Bookmarked","guid":"BEffyw6xva93","id":13,"index":0,"parent":2,"dateAdded":1396387526172000,"lastModified":1396387526172000,"annos":[{"name":"Places/SmartBookmark","flags":0,"expires":4,"value":"RecentlyBookmarked"}],"type":"text/x-moz-place","uri":"place:folder=BOOKMARKS_MENU&folder=UNFILED_BOOKMARKS&folder=TOOLBAR&queryType=1&sort=12&maxResults=10&excludeQueries=1"},{"title":"Recent Tags","guid":"WmnlbVv38Bjv","id":14,"index":1,"parent":2,"dateAdded":1396387526172000,"lastModified":1396387526172000,"annos":[{"name":"Places/SmartBookmark","flags":0,"expires":4,"value":"RecentTags"}],"type":"text/x-moz-place","uri":"place:type=6&sort=14&maxResults=10"}
Solution?
Well in my case I had a backup copy of the old revision directory. To restore I opened the copy, and exported the bookmarks as an HTML, which I restored in the newer client. If you do not have a copy of the old client, the best thing would be to try and reinstall an older revision of the client and either make a copy of the program folder and use another copy of that so you can use both the new and old clients and not worry about the loss of an older revision since you'll always have 2 copies of the old client (One you're using, one you use to restore if it upgrades). Or you export the bookmarks as an HTML, then upgrade the client to the newest and import the HTML instead of the JSON files.
Please investigate and create an easier solution to a silly incompatibility issue. ^_^
