Is sync fouling up my bookmarks? How to test.
I started trusting ff sync about half a year ago and it seemed to work well. Now I may have an issue, but it's hard to test.
A folder "health" is no longer where it used to be. I am positive I didn't move it purposely. It might have been moved via some erroneous mouse move but I cannot find it by manually hunting, so far.
Prior to the detonation of most of the useful add ons that were 1/2 of the reason I vastly prefered ff to whatever I would have used those to search for a known link, and then "go to parent folder". Lacking that I asked here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1200201 for any substitute methods and was turned on to the find by bookmark star method.
That method kind of works but the issue here is that while I can search and find bookmarks that I know are in Health folder or one of it's subfolders, it does not tell me where the folder is. And so far I have not found anything that is directly in the Health folder - almost as if it is gone. I can't search for a folder by name, to see where it is located.
All this search stuff is to the end of determining where the links are and if sync was responsible for the issue. How can I explore this issue?
I used to use xmarks for sync but it was ruined by the recent firefox change. Overall, the major update has majorly crippled the utility of this most fine browser.
Modified by sparrowtwo
All Replies (6)
Is the same folder missing on any other device that you have connected to that Sync account / Firefox Account?
As far as Xmarks goes, I hope that you weren't using it at the same time as you were using Sync. That situation where both were being used has caused loss of bookmarks and folders for few users, as reported here.
Regardless, open Help > Troubleshooting Information and scroll down all the way to Places Database and use the Verify Integrity button and use it.
Let it run its course until the results appear in that area. See what it says and then check to see if that folder re-appeared.
Sorry about the loss of extensions with Firefox 57 and the new WebExtensions format. Many of us have been affected likewise; I am still using an older version for part of the day to get work done. I 'lost' 15 extensions that "I can't like without" and sticking with that older version for the time being, while using 58.0.2 with the 20 or so extensions that I found suitable replacements for or learned to live without.
Hi Ed and thanks for the reply. I have retired xmarks and know that the two sync programs don't co-exist. The only other pc that I have linked up to ff sync is also missing the folder.
To ask directly: is there a way to search for a folder? There is still some chance that I accidentally dragged the missing folder into some unexpected location in bookmarks. I have no way to search for it, as I'm not sure what links are directly under it.
About to run the db check but I don't think that is the issue.
The db test came out clean.
Is there an add in for modern ff that allows me to load the sqlite db data and search? All I need to do is to find a folder called "health".
Otherwise you did give me the idea that maybe I can port these bookmarks over to an older ff where the useful plugins live on. Not sure the current ff bookmarks structure is compatible with ff pre 57?
"The only other pc that I have linked up to ff sync is also missing the folder."
If it got deleted accidentally Sync would have removed it on the other device. Same thing if it got moved to a different folder; Sync would have moved it on the other device, too.
Per chance, you don't have a "mobile device: on that Sync account, do you? I have been following a problem with Sync and "mobile devices" for close to 2 years now; since Firefox for iOS went into beta testing and Sync was modified for both the Android & iOS mobile versions of Firefox. All sorts of strange "losses" have been reported and also corruption being reported due to (IMO) those "mobile" versions.
Yes, an older version should work fine. Only Favicon storage was changed recently, with Firefox 55; AFAIK that's the limit of changes to "Places" that might affect using an older version.
But before you do that, see if this extension helps you find that "health" folder.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bookmark-search-plus-2/
Not even a month since that extension was released.
That developer took up with what Alice0775 was doing with a number of "bookmark" related extensions. User reviews mentioned how slow it works, and the developer aaFn says he's working on making it work faster; but also mentions the lack of suitable API's for WebExtensions as being an issue he is faced with.
One reason I am approaching Quantum slowly, and it will be months before I start using for much of anything. I have been "way behind" on updates since the mid-30 versions. IMO, Firefox without extensions isn't worth much to me. IMO, Quantum was "rushed out the door" and that is due to the dearth of suitable API's for WebExtensions.
No I don't have any mobile ff sync devices.
And - bookmark search plus 2 found the folder! It looks like it wasn't a sync blip, but rather that the folder was accidentally moved to live in another folder. That's for that tip, saved me some serious time.
That's also useful info about the bookmarks being portable to older ff.