1419545 - Export mobile bookmarks when exporting as HTML

Status: NEW

(Toolkit :: Places, defect, P3)

Description

[Lazy Monkey]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/62.0.3202.94 Safari/537.36

Steps to reproduce:

1) configure nightly to sync bookmarks with android.
2) make sure you have bookmarks on mobile section in nightly (synced from android)
3) on nightly export bookmarks



Actual results:

mobile section is not exported in bookmarks.html

Comment 1

[Lina Butler (ex-Mozilla)]

I think we need to teach https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/797c93d81fe446f78babf20894f0729f15f71ee6/toolkit/components/places/BookmarkHTMLUtils.jsm#362,952 about the mobile root. JSON backups should already handle this correctly. ni? myself to look into this tomorrow, unless Mak or Standard8 get to it first.

Comment 2

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

I wonder if there's a specific use-case to export mobile bookmarks to html. I suppose it's ok to do so, since html is the interchange format with third parties, but surely not a priority.

Comment 3

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Just to confirm, mobile bookmarks do already get exported for the json format. So making this clear it is specific to html.

Comment 4

[Ananda]

I believe this is a high priority for these reasons:

1. Chrome / Chromium do not support importing .json bookmark format.
2. Firefox android cannot export bookmarks.

This means there is no way to transfer the mobile bookmarks from Firefox Android to any browser other than Firefox desktop. Since Firefox Android has taken a nosedive in backward compatibility and usability with the recent 68.11 to 79.0.5 upgrade, lots of users are forced to abandon Firefox Android for a reliable and fully functional android browser. The inability of either Firefox browser (windows / android) to export Firefox Android bookmarks into a format that can be easily imported into Chrome desktop browser means that many Firefox Android users bookmarks, and therefore users are being held hostage by the now broken Firefox Android browser.

Comment 5

[Ananda]

Chrome may be able to import from the .json file used by Firefox desktop when you choose "Import from Firefox" option, but this import process does not import the mobile bookmarks folder found in Firefox desktop / Firefox Android.

Also, Microsoft Edge browser only has the ability to import from an HTML file, not a .json file.

The main value of the Export Bookmarks feature in Firefox for many users is going to be to migrate their data from Firefox to another browser.

Comment 6

[Ananda]

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4469351/internet-explorer-move-favorites-to-a-new-pc

Comment 7

[jrp44074]

I have an alternate use-case for this feature. I like to review my bookmarks periodically and discard dead sites. If I can export as HTML, I can run the file through an automated link-checker. It was when I tried this recently that I discovered to my dismay that the resulting file didn't include my mobile bookmarks.

Comment 8

[cdq]

Need to fix. Attempting to work around the problem by dragging "Mobile Bookmarks" into the Bookmarks Menu then exporting only adds the text "Mobile Bookmarks" hyperlinked to <place:parent=mobile______>.

Comment 9

[Ananda]

There is an open, 2 year old, "feature request" in firefox fenix describing the issue where firefox mobile bookmarks can't be exported, backed up, or synced. Firefox mobile is counting on firefox desktop to sync its bookmarks, but firefox desktop can't sync the mobile bookmarks folder. The firefox fenix project sees this issue as a low priority.

https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/417

Think of the use case when your mobile phone dies / gets lost or stolen / has to be replaced because it is old. All bookmars in the mobile bookmarks folder will be lost forever. When you install the new firefox app on your new phone, you will have to start with a blank mobile bookmarks folder. What is the point in saving bookmarks you can't keep? That is an unreliable and untrustworthy app in my book. And by association this mars the reputation of Firefox desktop.

For this reason, this is a high priority bug in both projects, but it hasn't been treated as one.

Comment 10

[locness3]

Please do something about this issue. It means that there's currently no way to export bookmarks from mobile Firefox which is a huge problem.

Comment 11

[Dylan]

thank you for NOT fixing this bug in 5 years.
see https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1792171

Comment 12

[Mozilla.20.TEN]

"Share all tabs" lacks a counterpart for the (usually much higher) number of bookmarks.
Currently on Android these have to be selected manually one by one.
When trying to share them e.g. to Gmail, the first few of their names are entered into the Subject field; only the URLs into the body, and then all bookmarks are immediately deselected (so the user may have to repeat many somewhat embarrassing manual selections all over again).
So an all-at-once export similar to the one for tabs should be provided for bookmarks ASAP,
at least until there's a way to extract the entire browser.db without the need to bring the respective old Android online again (or root it).