Hi irishlakota, bad news: Firefox 62 (currently in Nightly release) is dropping the user interface for the bookmark Description field, and the data is anticipated to be deleted in Firefox 64.

Do you want to switch to Release (Firefox 60) or Developer Edition (Firefox 61) to extend your time with the Description field until someone comes up with a replacement approach? You can download those installers here if desired:

• Release: https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/
• Developer: https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/developer/all/

Before changing versions, I strongly suggest making a backup of your profile folder and in particular the bookmarkbackups subfolder: Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles.

Oh... I guess Developer just rolled over to 62 ahead of Beta. Never mind on that, then. Release is looking like your best bet.

I am not happy about that upcoming change either. I do have some (not very many) bookmarks which I have annotated over the years by using the Description field. I am hoping some enterprising extension developer comes up with a replacement for that feature "down the road". Then again, I may just change to using SeaMonley or Basilisk for web browsing ...

Suggestion - archive all those bookmarks and their Descriptions - Export Bookmarks to HTML format. That HTML format can be read in any web browser as an "internally saved web page". The Description field appears below the related bookmark in plain text and is indented. At least all that data won't be lost and can be accessed -- at least until that field is gone in Firefox 64. At which point you won't be able to "Export in HTML" format and be able to see that old data; is will be gone.

Hi the-edmeister, I'm sure one of the extensions that works with bookmarks could add "side storage" of descriptions or other kinds of notes/annotations. I don't know how people use the description field now, so it's not clear to me how the side storage and the bookmarked page should be coordinated. As a sidebar, maybe? Perhaps someone should start a thread specifically about "next generation" bookmark description ideas on the Add-ons forum, Mozillazine, or Reddit.

There are some issues with data storage by extensions, such as:

• the default storage format is a single JSON file, which can become corrupted
• Firefox doesn't allow extensions to access database storage (IndexedDB) in private windows (unless this changed recently)
• cloud storage makes users (justifiably?) nervous

Extensions can provide the ability to export or back up their data, but will anyone do that frequently enough to avoid concern about data loss? I suppose it depends on how often the bookmark descriptions are updated.

I was more concerned about a "solution" now as how to see the Description field in saved bookmarks.

As I mentioned, I used the Description field a bit back in like 2004-2007 based upon the bookmarks I have saved and added Description data to. I have less than 50 saved bookmarks saved that have the Description field being used; info I got and counted from an Export to HTML format and as read in Firefox. None any newer than from the range of Firefox .8 thru like Firefox 1.5 or Firefox 2.0 as far as content - hell most are dead URL's now.

My guess is that during Nightly development (called Minefield in that day and age) the new Places system for bookmarks storage "queered" my continued use of that field - like it wasn't searchable from the Bookmarks Sidebar any longer.

Yes, I agree that an extension might be a "solution" via "side storage", but the manner in which this particular user uses the Description field would have to coincide with what the developer of an extension decides to create.

And I agree that discussion of this dilemma and a potential extenmsion would be more appropriate at mozillaZine or Reddit; I don't think the Discourse forum for Add-ons gets enough traffic to be helpful at all.

See also:

• bug 1402890 - Stop supporting and remove the description annotation
• bug 1463738 - Remove the Bookmark description UI [62]

(please do not comment in bug reports
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html)

We agree on cloud storage being justifiably nerve-wracking; - so the only Temporary work-around, is: "Release:" https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/  ? - Is there a way to Roll it Back such that i can SEE those description notes again so that i Can archive them? - Do i understand you to mean that data still intact in the bookmarks? - Will SeaMonley or Basilisk let me access that Description / Notes field? - If i make a backup now, will it save it in this new No-Notes / Description-field setting?

Hi, you will have to save it as HTML then can drag & drop to the browser window to open it and find out.

yes the HTML will work in Seamonkey as for the other if it is Firefox based it probably will.

SeaMonkey (based on Firefox 49 52) and Basilisk (based on Firefox ESR 52.9) both have the Description field and will work the same as Firefox has until Firefox 62.

If you Export Bookmarks in HTML format in Firefox 62 the Description data will still be present and be seen in the HTML when opened in any browser, and that should be the case with Fx63. That data is slated to be gone in Firefox 64 per one of the Bugzilla report that cor-el hyperlinked.

SeaMonkey 2.49.3 is based on same Gecko 52 as Firefox 52 ESR and not Firefox per say.

irishlakota said

- Is there a way to Roll it Back such that i can SEE those description notes again so that i Can archive them? - Do i understand you to mean that data still intact in the bookmarks?

Yes. Please follow the suggestion from the-edmeister to export your bookmarks to and HTML page: Export Firefox bookmarks to an HTML file to back up or transfer bookmarks. If you load that page in a browser, you can copy/paste whatever you like from it.