The Firefox bookmark system works differently from a browser like Internet Explorer. Rather than storing each bookmark as a separate file/folder, Firefox stores all of the bookmarks in a file called places.sqlite. This file is stored within the user's profile and it cannot be moved to a different location.

The user can export their bookmarks to an HTML file and transfer/backup the bookmarks that way. Alternatively, Firefox offers a feature called Sync, which allows users to synchronize certain user data between different devices.

I hope that this helps. Please let us know if you require further information.

I do not work do backup, but i want to change the default the location of places.sqlite to OneDrive where firefox can access it?

thank you

Unfortunately, this is not possible. The places.sqlite file must remain inside of the profile folder in order to function correctly. This is a security measure.

Also, please note that the places.sqlite file stores more information than just your bookmarks. Your browsing history and download history is stored in this file also.

Do you mind sharing your reason for wanting to store a copy of your bookmarks on OneDrive?

You can move the entire profile directory to OneDrive, at least that's what I'm going to try. See the following link.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Archive/Mozilla/Automatic_Mozilla_Configurator/How_Thunderbird_and_Firefox_find_their_configuration_files

If I use a symbolic link to PLACES.SQLITE folder on OneDrive, will this work?

I know that the entire profile works, but it's too large and slows down syncing. Will the PLACES.SQLITE be sufficient to keep the bookmarks in sync, or are there any other folders that should be included?

You can make Firefox create an automatic HTML backup (bookmarks.html) when Firefox is closed by setting browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML to true on the about:config page.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML

This HTML backup is created by default in the profile folder as bookmarks.html every time you close Firefox, but you can set the path and file name via the browser.bookmarks.file pref on the about:config page.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.bookmarks.file

The browser.bookmarks.file pref doesn't exist by default and you need to create a new String pref with the name browser.bookmarks.file and set the value to the full path of the backup bookmarks.html file including the file name.

Note: an HTML backup doesn't preserve tags and annotations, so you lose those if you need to import the HTML backup.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Export_bookmarks

Thanks.

Seems rather cumbersome to me. Syncing the whole profile seems much easier, even though it slows down.

It would be best if the symbolic link to places.sqlite would work -- I think it should but I am not sure.

All database actions like updating history and checking visits would be very slow and you would risk losing the bookmarks when the connection fails for some reason. There are also the SQLite temp files places.sqlite-shm and places.sqlite-wal used when firefox is running.

I understand that, but it seems that from directory to directory on the same drive should not be too serious a problem.

I don't use the two systems simultaneously, so the two files do not need to be synced.

But I checked my system and I cannot find the places.sqlite file anywhere? Where is it supposed to be and what does it mean if it isn't there?

You can use this button to go to the current Firefox profile folder:

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
  Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox

I found the places file.

I tried to create a symbolic link to it and ran into a problem: the link created is a folder link rather than a file link. I suspect that's why Firefox loads blank.

I'm wondering if this is due to the .SQLITE in the name -- Windows interprets it as a folder.

If anybody has any ideas/solution...

Follow up to my 'moving the profile directory to OneDrive' posting.

I moved the directory the local, synced OneDrive folder. It worked well for *one* computer. I didn't notice a performance hit since the data writes locally first.

Syncing the profile between computers caused problems if I left one of the browsers open while running another. It would conflict on the open files and create two copies. Sure, could remember to close the other browser (riiiight) or merge them but the idea isn't to create MORE work.

So I'm using the Mozilla Sync tool, but being restrictive in what gets sync'd. I hope. I don't use FF to store logins, passwords and known (to me) sensitive info. Exposing that to a client with direct internet exposure seems like a Bad Idea. Exposed bookmarks wouldn't be great, but I don't think it'd be disastrous if compromised if other best practices are followed.

In summary, for backup moving the profile directory seemed to work fine. For sync, caused a mess and didn't sync.

I learned pretty quiickly the hard way not to have both system on with OneDrive on. That's not a problem for me.

What I want to understand is why a symbolic link to a FILE becomes a link to a FOLDER and whether this is what defeats Firefox finding and using the file moved to OneDrive.